The report is in on the highly publicized shooting of an unarmed wounded Iraqi during the battle for Fallujah last November.
Military investigators have decided there is not enough evidence to bring formal charges against Marine who killed an unarmed Iraqi while his unit searched a Fallujah mosque, CBS reported on Wednesday.
The Marines entered the mosque last fall during an offensive aimed at clearing insurgents from Fallujah. They were seeking the source of insurgent gunfire and found several men wrapped in blankets on the mosque floor.
After what he reported as movement, a Marine fired at one of the men on the floor, killing him.
“The insurgents, it turned out, were unarmed,” CBS reported. “But investigators say the Iraqi the Marine thought he saw moving could have been going for a weapon.”
“At the very least, Navy legal experts believe the situation is ambiguous enough that no prosecutor could get a conviction,” the network reported.
Any decision on punishment within the Uniform Code of Military Justice was to be made by Marine commanders, CBS said.
Good news.
hat tip – Wizbang
Hmmm…I’m sure that this will get a lot of play in the mainstream media outlets. I’ll be over in the corner holding my breath and turning blue.
Common Sense Rules the Day for Marine who shot Te
Not too often that common sense prevails
Now take the first 4 levels of command above this Marine and make sure they never command fighting men again. This matter should have been handled in the field, and, based on the information presented, the man should have been found not guilty and returned to duty protected by his commanders. Gutless bastards!
Had that journalist not been there, I’m sure it would have been handled at a very low level (if it was considered to be anything to be handled at all).
When CNN and their ilk are broadcasting the tape to the whole world and accusing the soldier of murder tho, there isn’t much that LTs, CPTs, etc can do about it.
I can’t belive this was ever a issue.He was a soldier in the middle of a battle.He was trained not to hesitate when taking down the enemy,and he did his job. I never knew it was illegal to kill the enemy in war.And finally I like to see how this punkass reporter that made this an issue would have acted in that situation.