HUNTING DOWN THE TRUTH

New York Times:

WASHINGTON, Aug. 17 — A high-level military investigation into the killings of 24 Iraqis in Haditha last November has uncovered instances in which American marines involved in the episode appear to have destroyed or withheld evidence, according to two Defense Department officials briefed on the case.

The investigation found that an official company logbook of the unit involved had been tampered with and that an incriminating video taken by an aerial drone the day of the killings was not given to investigators until Lt. Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli, the second-ranking commander in Iraq, intervened, the officials said.

Those findings, contained in a long report that was completed last month but not made public, go beyond what has been previously reported about the case. It has been known that marines who carried out the killings made misleading statements to investigators and that senior officers were criticized for not being more aggressive in investigating the case, in which most or all of the Iraqis who were killed were civilians. But this is the first time details about possible concealment or destruction of evidence have been disclosed.

Deep in the black heart of the woods, S_LINK90 stumbles again, dropping a knee into a puddle and tearing his shirt open on brambles. He claws himself upright on a tree and looks back, his eyes wide and white. From the shadows, spoken by no human throat, "Muuuuuuuuuuurtha...Muuurtha...
Murrrrrtha..." He looks at the edges of this clearing, realizing that his fall has left him turned around. He moans quietly, head whipping back and forth, testing each shadowed exit quickly, not knowing where each choice will send him, not even sure what is chasing him or where it is. Finally, his panic chooses the closest path. As Slinky stumbles over roots and gropes through the foliage, the churning branches whisper the last words he will ever hear: "Murtha was riiiiiiiiight..."

JC