Haditha Report to Fault Oversight, Official Says(But no deliberate coverup!)
Los Angeles Times ^ | June 17, 2006 | Tony Perry and Julian E. Barnes
WASHINGTON — The general charged with investigating whether Marines tried to cover up the killing of 24 civilians in Haditha has completed his report, finding that Marine officers failed to ask the right questions, an official close to the investigation said Friday.
Nothing in the report points to a "knowing cover-up" of the facts by the officers supervising the Marines involved in the November incident, the official said. Rather, he said, officers from the company level through the staff of the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force in Baghdad failed to demand "a thorough explanation" of what happened in Haditha.
In an official announcement about the report by Army Maj. Gen. Eldon Bargewell, a military spokeswoman said that Army Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli would "thoroughly review the voluminous report as quickly as possible," but had no timetable.
"That means don't hold your breath," a defense official said.
Military officials Friday also released new details about the deaths in May of three Iraqi civilians in U.S. custody in Salahuddin province north of Baghdad. Army criminal investigators have been examining the incident for at least two weeks, a defense official said. The soldiers involved appear to have tried to cover it up by saying the civilians were trying to flee, the official said.
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