Marine lawyer says Haditha killings were lawful

From Yahoo News:

The lawyer for a Marine being investigated in the deaths of two dozen civilians in Haditha, Iraq, described the event as "tragic," but denied innocent people were killed intentionally and said troops followed military rules of engagement.

No one has been charged in the Haditha case, which centers on allegations that a small number of Marines from Camp Pendleton's 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment killed 24 Iraqi civilians, including unarmed women and children, on Nov. 19 after a roadside bomb killed a fellow Marine.

Lawyer Neal A. Puckett said Sunday that Staff Sgt. Frank D. Wuterich, 26, told him several civilians were killed after the bombing when his squad pursued insurgents firing at them from inside a house.

Puckett quoted the sergeant as describing a house-to-house search that went wrong and resulted in unintended civilian deaths. Wuterich denied allegations of an intentional massacre, Puckett said.

"(It was) certainly a tragic result and (Wuterich) understands that it's tragic and he feels extremely badly about the fact that innocent civilians were killed," Puckett told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from Alexandria, Va. "But he was following what he understood to be the rules of engagement and standard protocol."

An investigation has been examining whether Marines tried to cover up the shootings and whether commanders were negligent in failing to investigate the deaths when they were reported.

Wuterich's version of events differs from some accounts of Haditha residents. They have said that innocent civilians were executed, including some who pleaded for their lives.

The Marines cleared the rooms in the way they had been trained, Puckett said.

"Everything happened very fast," Puckett said. "There's no preparation, there's no deliberation involved, it's just a quick reaction time, shooting and neutralizing any threat that might be in there. And in these cases it turns out after the fact that there weren't threats in that room."

The Washington Post, the first to speak with Puckett about Wuterich, reported that lawyers for two other Marines involved in the incident said Wuterich's account was consistent with what their clients have told them.

Puckett said it was possible none of the Marines would be charged with murder and instead some commanders could be charged with dereliction of duty for failing to properly investigate the incident at the time.

He added Wuterich remained at Camp Pendleton and had been promoted to staff sergeant since the incident.

I can't believe that it is justified to go into civilian homes and just start shooting women and children. You also have to take into consideration that these are well trained marines. They are trained to make instant judgements as to who is a threat. This lawyer wants people to believe that the marines just went in shooting indiscriminently. That is not how they are trained. I'm fairly certain that forensics as well as the video evidence will determine what actually happened at Haditha. For example, they'd be able to determine if the women and children were shot at close range. The US military needs to get to the bottom of this and if innocent civilians were purposely killed, those responsible need to be severely punished.