Washington – A November press release from the U.S. Marine Corps falsely said civilians in the Iraqi city of Hadithah were killed by a roadside bomb.
News reports months later revealed that the civilians were killed by Marines, triggering suspicion of a coverup, but officers knew all along that Marines killed the civilians and made no attempt to hide that fact from their superiors, lawyers involved in the case say.
That includes, they say, the commander of the Marine unit involved in the Hadithah incident, Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani of Rangely.
The incident in Hadithah occurred Nov. 19. The Marine Corps statement that went out the next day – written by a captain at a base about 75 miles from the scene – said: “A U.S. Marine and 15 Iraqi civilians were killed yesterday from the blast of a roadside bomb in Haditha.” Eight insurgents were killed in a subsequent firefight, the release added.
The press release was wrong. While accounts differ sharply, they agree that Marines, not a bomb, killed 24 Iraqi civilians, including 10 women and children and an elderly man in a wheelchair.
Yet the press release has never been corrected. Marine Corps officials say they won’t revise it until two pending investigations into Hadithah are released.
It isn’t known how the inaccurate information got into the release. Those involved wouldn’t discuss it with The Denver Post.
But the release served as the military’s official account to the world of the Hadithah deaths. It stood unchallenged for months, until a Time magazine story on March 19 quoted witnesses and others as saying Marines killed the Hadithah civilians.
Lawyers for troops and officers facing accusations in connection with Hadithah say that the Corps’ inaccurate Nov. 20 statement has fueled suspicion that they tried to cover up the deaths.
“The impact has been to create the idea that there was a coverup,” said Paul Hackett, a defense lawyer who represents Marines with links to Hadithah. “There wasn’t a coverup.”
There remains the question of whether the killings were an excusable consequence of combat, or – as some witnesses have said – an angry rampage. But the lawyers for the Marines insist their clients did not lie to superiors about what happened.
No one disputes that there was a bloody fight in Hadithah that started when an “improvised explosive device,” or IED, killed a 20-year-old Marine, Lance Cpl. Miguel Terrazas of El Paso.
According to various news reports, witnesses described what followed as a massacre of civilians by rampaging Marines.
But some Marines involved, through their lawyers, say the killings were a legitimate response to what they perceived to be an attack. They also say they then reported their actions accurately to commanders.
Neal A. Puckett – attorney for Frank D. Wuterich, the staff sergeant who led the squad of Marines in Hadithah that day – said: “Every bit of information he reported to his lieutenant was accurate. He never said, ‘We had an IED that killed a bunch of civilians.’ ”
Within days, a detailed PowerPoint presentation on the incident was making its way from the level of the 3rd Battalion, which Chessani commanded, up to the division headquarters.
The computer presentation detailed how at least 15 civilians were killed by small- arms fire and grenades, not a roadside bomb, said Kevin B. McDermott, attorney for Capt. Lucas McConnell, a subordinate of Chessani who commanded Kilo Company, members of which were involved in the Hadithah incident.
McConnell later was relieved of command for what Marine officials called “failure to investigate” the Hadithah incident, but McConnell didn’t see a need to investigate because all relevant information was sent up the chain of command, McDermott said.
And Chessani did not withhold any information about the incident from his superiors, McDermott said.
Battalion officials were prepared to talk to Time about the deaths before its March 19 article came out, but they were not interviewed, McDermott said.
The PowerPoint presentation, developed by Chessani’s intelligence officer, was sent up to the division level, where the press release had been issued. Chessani would have had to sign off on the PowerPoint presentation, McDermott said.
“If the battalion S-2 (intelligence officer) put it together, the battalion C.O. (Chessani) would have been in the loop,” McDermott said.
Not everyone thinks the press release was an innocent mistake. Colorado state Treasurer and Iraq war veteran Mike Coffman, who served in Hadithah after the incident, said the wording of the release points to a serious problem at high levels.
“That report was sanitized,” he said. “Someone lied. The whole issue is, how high does that go up? I think that the issue was seen as an embarrassment.”
Lawyer Hackett sees a less sinister explanation for the misinformation: simple confusion at higher levels far from the action.
“I imagine it got jumbled when some young captain wrote it up,” Hackett said. “Who will be responsible for the flub-up – as opposed to a coverup – is the division, not the battalion.”
Gary Myers, a lawyer for another Marine involved in the Hadithah incident but who won’t identify his client, agreed.
“We do not believe there was anything to cover up, so from our perspective, the release was merely erroneous,” Myers said.
Officials relieved Chessani of his 3rd Battalion command five months after the Hadithah deaths, citing a “lack of confidence” in his “leadership abilities.” No mention was made of Hadithah, and the colonel is not believed to have been on the scene of the killings.
Chessani, who has not retained a lawyer, has declined repeated requests for an interview about the Hadithah incident.
There are two military investigations into Hadithah: a criminal probe of the deaths and an administrative inquiry into how officials reported them.
Staff writer Mike Soraghan can be reached at 202-662-8730 or msoraghan@denverpost.com.
