General briefed Murtha after murder comment, Corp says

By Kristin Roberts

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The head of the U.S. Marine Corps
briefed Rep. John Murtha on the Haditha case after the vocal
war critic publicly said Marines had killed innocent civilians
in that Iraqi city, the Corps said on Thursday.

A group of Marines, while suspected in the killing of 24
Iraqi civilians, has not been charged, and official results
from the military’s investigation remain outstanding. A U.S.
defense official said on Wednesday, however that evidence
indicates Marines deliberately shot to death unarmed civilians.

Murtha, a Pennsylvania Democrat, is being sued by one of
the accused Marines for libel. He had told The Philadelphia
Inquirer that Gen. Michael Hagee had given him the information
on which he based his charge that Marines killed innocent
civilians.

But a spokesman for the Marine Corps said Hagee briefed
Murtha on May 24 about Haditha. Murtha had made comments on the
case as early as May 17.

On May 17, for example, he said at a news conference, “Our
troops overreacted because of the pressure on them and they
killed innocent civilians in cold blood.”

A spokeswoman for Murtha was not immediately available.

The Haditha case from November 2005 is just one of many
cases in which U.S. troops are suspected of killing civilians.

One accused in the Haditha case, Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich,
sued Murtha on Wednesday for libel, saying the congressman had
made false, misleading and defamatory statements.

Lawyers for Wuterich, 26, said they hoped the lawsuit would
give them a chance to question Murtha about the source of his
information at the Pentagon.

Lawyers for other Marines suspected in the case say they
have been unable to cull any information from the Defense
Department.

The military initiated two investigations into the Haditha
case — a murder inquiry and a probe into the Marines’
procedures following the killings.

On Tuesday, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services
Committee said the results of the investigations should be
delivered to Congress in September.

Under the murder inquiry, military criminal investigators
have reviewed evidence indicating Marines deliberately shot to
death the Iraqi civilians, a defense official said.

The investigation into the military’s response found Marine
officers failed to respond properly to the conflicting reports
of the killings, an official has said.