Hadithah court-martial resumes at Pendleton - Military News | News From Afghanistan, Iraq And Around The World - Military Times

Hadithah court-martial resumes at Pendleton

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. — A major war crimes trial resumed Friday with the prosecution showing outtakes of a 2007 “60 Minutes” interview in which a Marine squad leader charged with killing unarmed Iraqis says he was trained to “positively identify your target before you shoot to kill.”

Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich went on to say that he also understood before going into the town of Hadithah in 2005 that it was a dangerous place. Twenty-three Marines in the battalion before him were killed and 36 were wounded, the most casualties that any company had suffered in the war at that time.

Wuterich, 31, is the last defendant in the biggest criminal case to emerge from the Iraq war. He was charged with nine counts of voluntary manslaughter after his squad killed 24 unarmed Iraqis — including women and children — during a series of raids on homes after a roadside bomb killed a Marine and wounded two others.

Lt. Col. David Jones convened the court after he excused jurors early Wednesday and told lawyers to explore options, fueling speculation a plea deal was in the works.

On Friday, Jones advised the all-Marine jurors at Camp Pendleton not to speculate on the reasons for the delay in the proceedings. Lawyers did not respond to repeated inquiries asking if there was talk of a plea deal.

“There were some negotiations going on and some other legal issues,” Jones told the court before jurors entered. He did not elaborate and told jurors simply there were “some legal issues that needed to be taken care of.”

Jurors have been tasked with trying to decipher whether Wuterich acted appropriately as a squad leader that fateful Nov. 19, 2005, day: Did he protect his Marines after a bomb exploded, or did he go on an angry rampage, disregarding combat rules and leading his men to indiscriminately kill Iraqis? The jury was to spend much of the day watching three hours of Wuterich’s “60 Minutes” interview. It has been a contentious issue in the case. Legal wrangling between the defense and prosecution over the video, including unaired outtakes, delayed the case from going to trial for years. Prosecutors later won their right to use it and told jurors Friday it is a key part of their case.

In the interview, Wuterich talked about joining the Marine Corps at the age of 17 and how he chose to go to Iraq after he re-enlisted because he said he “wouldn’t have felt complete as a Marine” if he didn’t have combat experience.

Before leading his squad into Hadithah, Wuterich said he had been taught the rules of combat and even had instructed young Marines heading to Iraq and Afghanistan. “The biggest thing,” he said, was positive identification.

“We had several briefs on that before we went,” he said.

At the same time, he said he understood when Marines come under attack to do whatever is needed to eliminate the threat and protect his men.

“You don’t want to be an easy target,” he said.

Prosecutors have argued Wuterich lost control of himself after seeing his friend blown apart by the bomb.

Wuterich, of Meriden, Conn., is one of eight Marines initially charged. None has been convicted. Wuterich has said he regretted the loss of civilian lives but believed he was following the rules of engagement. Defense attorneys have said he did the best he could in the fog of war.

Wuterich said in the interview that immediately after the explosion, his mind went into another place and his training kicked in.

“I didn’t have any emotion at that point,” he said. “I was essentially like a machine.”

Wuterich described seeing parts of a Marine Corps Humvee rain down from the sky. He said he fired on five Iraqi men outside a car near the bombsite because the car was the “only thing there,” the men started to run, and he feared it was a car bomb or they had triggered the roadside explosion. After that, he and the squad stormed nearby homes.

One of his squad mates took the stand Friday. Sgt. Humberto Mendoza told jurors that after he helped remove the bodies of women and children who were riddled with bullets in a back bedroom of one of the homes, he felt himself questioning “things” that 2005 night.

Mendoza acknowledged he lied to investigators at first about what happened and wanted to cover it up to protect his squad, but he told jurors he decided it’s time to tell the truth. Defense attorneys have pointed out many squad members had their cases dropped in exchange for testifying for the prosecution.

“Up to this day, I really don’t know what happened in the back bedroom,” Mendoza said.