Steve writes:

> This is so much bullshit I can't resist.

From the Associated Press, today's "bullshit":

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washingtonpost.com 
U.S. to Probe Shooting of Wounded Iraqi 

By STEVEN R. HURST
The Associated Press
Tuesday, November 16, 2004; 3:25 AM 


NEW YORK - The U.S. military is investigating the videotaped fatal shooting 
of a wounded and apparently unarmed Iraqi prisoner by a U.S. Marine in a mosque 
in the former insurgent stronghold of Fallujah, a Marine spokesman said.

The dramatic footage was taken Saturday by pool correspondent Kevin Sites of 
NBC television, who said three other prisoners wounded a day earlier in the 
mosque had also apparently been shot the next day by the Marines.

The incident played out as the Marines 3rd Battalion, 1st Regiment, returned 
to the unidentified Fallujah mosque Saturday. Sites was embedded with the unit.

Sites reported that a different Marine unit had come under fire from the 
mosque on Friday. Those Marines stormed the building, killing ten men and wounding 
five, Sites said. The Marines said the fighters in the mosque had been armed 
with rocket-propelled grenades and AK-47 rifles.

The Marines had treated the wounded, he reported, left them behind and 
continued on Friday with their drive to retake the city from insurgents who have 
been battling U.S.-led occupation forces in Iraq with increasing ferocity and 
violence in recent months.

The same five men were still in the mosque on Saturday, Sites reported.

On the video, as the camera moved into the mosque during the Saturday 
incident, a Marine can be heard shouting obscenities in the background, yelling that 
one of the men was only pretending to be dead.

The video then showed a Marine raising his rifle toward a prisoner lying on 
the floor of the mosque. The video shown by NBC and provided to the network 
pool was blacked out at that point and did not show the bullet hitting the man. 
But a rifle shot could be heard.

The blacked out portion of the video tape, provided later to Associated Press 
Television News and other members of the network pool, showed the bullet 
striking the man in the upper body, possibly the head. His blood splatters on the 
wall behind him and his body goes limp.

Sites reported a Marine in the same unit had been killed just a day earlier 
when he tended to the booby-trapped dead body of an insurgent.

A spokesman at Marine Corps headquarters in the Pentagon, Maj. Doug Powell, 
said the incident was "being investigated." He had no further details, other 
than to confirm the incident happened on Saturday and that the Marines involved 
were part of the 1st Marine Division.

On Tuesday, the U.S. military said in a statement that the 1st Marine 
Division is investigating an allegation of the unlawful use of force in the death of 
an enemy combatant in Fallujah during combat operations on Saturday.

The Marine has been withdrawn from the battlefield pending the results of the 
investigation, the U.S. military said.

"We follow the law of armed conflict and hold ourselves to a high standard of 
accountability," said Lt. Gen. John F. Sattler, commanding general of the 1st 
Marine Expeditionary Force. "The facts of this case will be thoroughly 
pursued to make an informed decision and to protect the rights of all persons 
involved."

Lt. Col. Bob Miller, who NBC said is heading the investigation, told the 
network that the rules of engagement allow the use of force in self-defense.

"Any wounded - in this case insurgents - who don't pose a threat would not be 
considered hostile," said Miller.

The events on the videotape began as some of the Marines from the unit 
accompanied by Sites approached the mosque on Saturday, a day after it was stormed 
by other Marines.

Gunfire can be heard from inside the mosque, and at its entrance, Marines who 
were already in the building emerge. They are asked by an approaching Marine 
lieutenant if there were insurgents inside and if the Marines had shot any of 
them. A Marine can be heard responding affirmatively. The lieutenant then asks 
if they were armed and fellow Marine shrugs.

Sites' account said the wounded men, who he said were prisoners and who were 
hurt in the previous day's attack, had been shot again by the Marines on the 
Saturday visit.

The videotape showed two of the wounded men propped against the wall and 
Sites said they were bleeding to death. According to his report, a third wounded 
man appeared already dead, while a fourth was severely wounded but breathing. 
The fifth was covered by a blanket but did not appear to have been shot again 
after the Marines returned. It was the fourth man who was shown being shot.

The CNN broadcast of the pictures used pixilation to cover parts of the video 
that could lead to public identification of the Marines involved.

NBC's Robert Padavick told members of the U.S. television pool that the 
Pentagon had ordered NBC and other pool members to make sure the Marine's identity 
was hidden because "they (the military authorities) are anticipating a 
criminal investigation as a result of this incident and do not want to implicate 
anybody ahead of that."

In New York, NBC spokeswoman Allison Gollust said the network did not 
broadcast the prisoner being shot because of the "graphic nature" of the video.


© 2004 The Associated Press 

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Wirt Atmar

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