Lawyer warns against politicizing Haditha
Marine Corps Times
By Gidget Fuentes - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Feb 20, 2007 20:47:38 EST
SAN DIEGO, Calif. A defense attorney for the Marine squad leader charged with deliberately killing Iraqi civilians in Haditha warned against the politicizing of the case and professed the sergeant's innocence. Washington attorney Mark S. Zaid went on the offensive Tuesday in his defense of Sgt. Frank D. Wuterich by issuing a statement that also announced the establishment of a _website_ (http://frankwuterich.com/) , which includes information about the Marine and solicits donations to defray his legal expenses.
Wuterich and three other members of his infantry squad with Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines from Camp Pendleton, Calif., are charged with murder in the Nov. 19, 2005, deaths of two-dozen Iraqis in the town of Hadithah in the hours after a roadside bomb detonated, killing one Marine. Four other battalion members, including the commander, face dereliction of duty charges for an alleged cover-up of the squad's actions that day.
"This is not a typical military case," Zaid wrote in a Feb. 20 email he widely distributed. "It has become highly politicized and, in our opinion, these young Marines are being sacrificed for foreign policy reasons." "There is, in fact, far more at stake here than just eight Marines who have been charged with crimes arising from actions taken that day," Zaid added. " Indeed, the system, and some may even say the war, is on trial." Zaid, who is defending Wuterich along with Washington attorney Neal A. Puckett and Marine Lt. Col. Colby C. Vokey, is also handling a defamation lawsuit filed against Rep. John Murtha, a Pennsylvania Democrat who last year called the squad's actions "cold blooded" and claimed they were covered up by the command. Defense attorneys contend that his comments tainted public perception of what they contend was legal and justified actions and responses by the squad.
Murtha's statements "have already been proven by the government's alleged charges to be false," Zaid wrote. "These statements created a further climate that contributed to the public pressures to file charges against our client."
"I have reviewed thousands of pages of evidence that few have seen. The deaths of these Iraqi civilians was a terrible tragedy, but it was not a massacre as some in the media have portrayed," Zaid wrote. "And I personally do not believe, based on what I know, that SSgt. Wuterich committed a crime that day. " "We are set to prove this and defend the law," he added. The government's case against Wuterich includes an Article 32 preliminary hearing slated to begin June 4, Zaid said. "There will be a great deal of press, no doubt good and bad, that will appear in the coming months," he wrote. He sought to distinguish the Haditha case with another ongoing series of court cases stemming from the shooting death of an Iraqi man by Marines belonging to a different unit. In that case, six of the eight originally charged have pleaded guilty to various charges, and the general courts-martial for the remaining two Marines are pending.
"The confusion between the two cases, and other clear examples of criminal conduct in Iraq, has also contributed to the negative – inaccurate – public image of our client and his fellow Marines," he wrote.
Marine Corps Times
By Gidget Fuentes - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Feb 20, 2007 20:47:38 EST
SAN DIEGO, Calif. A defense attorney for the Marine squad leader charged with deliberately killing Iraqi civilians in Haditha warned against the politicizing of the case and professed the sergeant's innocence. Washington attorney Mark S. Zaid went on the offensive Tuesday in his defense of Sgt. Frank D. Wuterich by issuing a statement that also announced the establishment of a _website_ (http://frankwuterich.com/) , which includes information about the Marine and solicits donations to defray his legal expenses.
Wuterich and three other members of his infantry squad with Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines from Camp Pendleton, Calif., are charged with murder in the Nov. 19, 2005, deaths of two-dozen Iraqis in the town of Hadithah in the hours after a roadside bomb detonated, killing one Marine. Four other battalion members, including the commander, face dereliction of duty charges for an alleged cover-up of the squad's actions that day.
"This is not a typical military case," Zaid wrote in a Feb. 20 email he widely distributed. "It has become highly politicized and, in our opinion, these young Marines are being sacrificed for foreign policy reasons." "There is, in fact, far more at stake here than just eight Marines who have been charged with crimes arising from actions taken that day," Zaid added. " Indeed, the system, and some may even say the war, is on trial." Zaid, who is defending Wuterich along with Washington attorney Neal A. Puckett and Marine Lt. Col. Colby C. Vokey, is also handling a defamation lawsuit filed against Rep. John Murtha, a Pennsylvania Democrat who last year called the squad's actions "cold blooded" and claimed they were covered up by the command. Defense attorneys contend that his comments tainted public perception of what they contend was legal and justified actions and responses by the squad.
Murtha's statements "have already been proven by the government's alleged charges to be false," Zaid wrote. "These statements created a further climate that contributed to the public pressures to file charges against our client."
"I have reviewed thousands of pages of evidence that few have seen. The deaths of these Iraqi civilians was a terrible tragedy, but it was not a massacre as some in the media have portrayed," Zaid wrote. "And I personally do not believe, based on what I know, that SSgt. Wuterich committed a crime that day. " "We are set to prove this and defend the law," he added. The government's case against Wuterich includes an Article 32 preliminary hearing slated to begin June 4, Zaid said. "There will be a great deal of press, no doubt good and bad, that will appear in the coming months," he wrote. He sought to distinguish the Haditha case with another ongoing series of court cases stemming from the shooting death of an Iraqi man by Marines belonging to a different unit. In that case, six of the eight originally charged have pleaded guilty to various charges, and the general courts-martial for the remaining two Marines are pending.
"The confusion between the two cases, and other clear examples of criminal conduct in Iraq, has also contributed to the negative – inaccurate – public image of our client and his fellow Marines," he wrote.