Camp Pendleton, Calif. – Seven Marines accused in the deaths of 24 Iraqi civilians cannot be guaranteed a fair trial because the prosecution is politically motivated, a Marine officer said in testimony played in court Wednesday.
Capt. Jeffrey Dinsmore, intelligence officer for the battalion accused in the 2005 killings in Hadithah, was called as a witness at the preliminary hearing for Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani, an officer charged with dereliction of duty for failing to investigate the deaths.
“You told me that politically, the Marine Corps had made a decision to hang Lt. Col. Chessani out to dry,” prosecutor Lt. Col. Sean Sullivan asked Dinsmore, who replied, “Yes.”
Dinsmore, whose testimony was videotaped in March, said he doubted prosecutors could be objective, given the politics surrounding the case. He said Chessani, who grew up in the Colorado town of Rangely, was “above reproach.”
Three enlisted Marines are charged with murder in the Hadithah case, and four officers are accused of dereliction.
Anti-war observers seized on the deaths as evidence that the troops killed indiscriminately. The Marines who fired the fatal shots say they reacted to a perceived threat the way they were trained.
ANN ARBOR, Mich.
After crash, patient awaits new organ
A plane crash Monday that killed six members of an organ- transplant team has put the would-be lung recipient back on the waiting list for another organ.
Divers resumed their search Wednesday, mapping the wreckage and bringing up debris for National Transportation Safety Board investigators. The donor organ, which was packed in ice in a cooler, has not been found.
The crash killed two of the University of Michigan Health System’s three full-time transplant-donation specialists, but university officials said the Ann Arbor hospital’s transplant work will not be suspended.
“If there was an organ that became available and matched one of our patients, we would have absolutely moved forward with that surgery,” spokeswoman Krista Hopson said Wednesday.
Hospital officials declined to identify the patient who had been awaiting the lost organ, citing medical privacy rules.
WASHINGTON
U.S. dismantling nukes at brisk pace
Technicians have been dismantling nuclear warheads much faster than had been expected, taking apart 50 percent more warheads during the past eight months than in all of the previous year, the Energy Department says.
“It’s good news from a global nuclear-safety standpoint. There will be fewer nuclear weapons in the world,” said Thom as D’Agostino, head of the department’s nuclear-weapons program.
D’Agostino said the number of warheads is classified, but he said he had set a goal of increasing the number of dismantlements this fiscal year by 50 percent.
“We achieved that goal about four months early,” he said in an interview Wednesday.
IOWA HILL, Calif.
Tree traps man; he removes own leg
Alone in the woods with his left leg pinned beneath a fallen tree for 11 hours, a 66-year-old man used pocketknives to cut off his limb below the knee to free himself, authorities said.
Al Hill had been cutting trees Friday when one fell on him. After freeing himself, he cried out for help, and a neighbor passing through this sparsely populated area heard him.
Eric Bookey then hiked nearly 2 miles to get a cellular signal and placed an emergency call, Fire Chief Luana Dowling said.
A hospital spokeswoman said Hill had undergone amputation surgery and was in serious condition Wednesday.
MUSCAT, Oman
Cyclone weakening after hitting coast
Cyclone Gonu battered Oman’s coast Wednesday with fierce winds and torrential rains, forcing thousands from their homes and shutting down oil installations before heading toward the world’s most important crude-oil tanker route.
The storm – a rarity in the Middle East – weakened slightly and dropped below hurricane strength late Wednesday, according to the U.S. military’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center.
It was expected to make landfall on the southeastern Iranian coast late today, but it was likely to spare Iran’s offshore oil installations that lie more than 120 miles to the west, the center and oil officials said.
Shipping in the gulf was greatly curtailed, delaying oil deliveries, but analysts suggested that prices would not be greatly affected because the supplies would eventually reach their destination.
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica
Taiwan loses ties, replaced by China
President Oscar Arias announced Wednesday that Costa Rica has broken diplomatic ties with Taiwan and established relations with China, delivering a blow to Taiwan’s fragile international standing.
Taiwanese Foreign Minister quickly offered to resign to take responsibility for Costa Rica’s switch, which left the island with relations with just 24 countries.
Arias said Costa Rica needed to strengthen ties with China to attract foreign investment.
Since splitting amid civil war in 1949, Taiwan and China have fought to win the diplomatic allegiance of countries around the world.
