US inhuman brutal massacres of Iraqi unarmed civilians disclosed: US secret documents reveal it all

Washington, DC. 19 December (Asiantribune.com): Some of the American Marines in Iraq feeling they were under attack constantly, decided to use force first and and ask questions later. Drivers who approached US Marine-manned checkpoints without stopping were ssumed to be suicide bombers. Iraqi civilians were killed all the time.

Maj. Gen. Steve Johnson, the commander of American forces in Anbar Province, in his own testimony, described it as "a cost of doing business." The American merines came to view the 20 dead civilians in Haditha as not "remarable", but as routine.

The above data was extracted from secret/classified war documents of the United States.

The 400-pages of interrogations, once closely guarded as secrets of war, were supposed tohave been destroyed as the last American troops prepared toleave Iraq. Instead, they were discovered along with reams of other classified documents, including military maps showing helicopter routes and radar capabilities, by a reporter of The New York Times, at a junkyard outside Baghdad. An attendant was burning them as fuel to cook a dinner of smoked carp.

The documents - many marked secret - form part of the military's internal investigation, and confirm much of what happened at Haditha (massacre) where US Marines killed 24 Iraqis, including a 76-year-old man in a wheelchair, women and children, some just todlers, says the December 15 The New York Times prominantly displayed front pager report.

The secret US Army investigative documents were solely based on the 2005 massacre by Marines of Iraq civilians in the town of Haditha.

The US Military internal investigation revealed that the troops, traumatized by the rising violence and feeling constantly uner seige, grew increasingly twitchy, killing more and more civilians in accidental encounters. Others became so desensitized and inured to the killing that they fired on Iraqi civilians deliberately while their fellow soldiers snapped pictures, and were court-martialed. The bodies piled up at a time when the war had gone horribly wrong.

It has been now revealed that charges were dropped against six of the acused Marines in the Haditha massacre, one was acquitted and the last remaining is scheduled to go to trial next year.

These classified documents The New York Times got hold of appear to be from an inquiry by Maj. Gen. Eldon Bargewell into the events in Haditha. The documents ultimately led to a report that concluded that the Marine Corps's chain of command engaged in "willful negligence" in failing to investigate the episode and that Marine commanders were far too willing to tolerate civilian casualties.

The New York Times December 15 report says that the volatile situation in 2005 in the Anbar Province, the threat to the lives of the Marines, increased insurgent activities set the stage for what happened in the town of Haditha in the Anbar Province on 19 November 2005.

That morning, a military convoy of four vehicles was heading to an outpost in Haditha when one of the vehicles was hit by a roadside bomb.

Several Marines got out to attend to the wounded, including one who eventually died, while others looked for insurgents who might have set off the bomb. Within few houra 24 Iraqis - including a 76-year-old man and children between 3 and 15 - were killed, many inside of their homes.

When the initial report arrived saying more than 20 civilians have been killed in Haditha, the Marines received them said they were not surprised by the high civilian death toll.

Chief Warrant Officer K.R. Norwood, who received reports from the field on the day of the killings and briefed commanders on them, testified that 20 dead civilians were not unusual.

- Asian Tribune -