Murder charges will be filed against the six Marines and one Navy corpsman being held in the Camp Pendleton brig. A formal announcement will be made later today.
The charges include murder, kidnapping, conspiracy, making false official statements and larceny, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the charges have not yet been announced.
The incident took place in the town of Hamdania and is a separate case from the November 19 killing of 24 civilians in Haditha in which other Marines are suspected.
Military criminal investigators examined whether the servicemen fatally shot a 52-year-old disabled Iraqi man in the face, then planted a rifle and a shovel next to his body to make it appear he was an insurgent placing a roadside bomb.
The eight troops have been held in pretrial confinement at the Camp Pendleton prison in California since May 24. The Marines plan to hold a news conference at Camp Pendleton at 4 p.m. (1 p.m. PDT) to announce the charges.
Please remember that they are still presumed innocent.
UPDATE: The charges have been formally announced by the Marine Corps.
UPDATE: New York Times story here.
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Gaius, given the seriousness of the topic, my comments may not be an appropriate way to express dismay at the double standards used to condemn these Marines in the public eye before they were even charged. Their treatment at the hands of Marine brass and in the MSM is an affront to the rights and liberties Americans have always fought to defend. If any American ever deserved the right to the presumption of innocence, it is one who risks his very life to defend our lives, liberties, and our right to a fair trial, including the presumption of innocence.
So, please, you make the call. I'm too angry right now to make a rational decision. Either way, I'm OK with it.
The presumption of innocence doesn't apply to US Marines, or Lacrosse players from North Carolina, and especially not to Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, Scooter Libby, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, or any other really bad subhuman who has ever even contemplated voting against a tax increase, or pointed out any of John Kerry's flip-flops. That's dirty pool, and really really mean spirited. Such so-called "persons" have no place in the coming Workers Paradise, just you wait and see.
Now, pay close attention, the presumption of innocence is reserved exclusively for terrorists, their enablers, detainees at Gitmo, PLO rocket launchers, homicide bombers, North Korean madmen, Lefty dictators and totalitarians around the globe, Dan Rather, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Scott Peterson, OJ Simpson, Ted Kennedy (D-MA), Osama bin Ladin, Cynthia McKinney (D-GA), William Jefferson (D-LA), Patrick Kennedy (D-RI), and every other Democrat except Zell Miller and Joe Lieberman. All others need not apply. (This list should not be considered exhaustive, and is subject to revisions and additions as approved by either the NY Times, Howard Dean, George Soros, and Kofi Annan.)
(One minor edit for language)
Well, it doesn’t take a really strong imagination to add in what Gaius took out.
I agree w/ Black Jack.