Officer says did not mention Haditha deaths in homes

[Barrett808]

Source: Reuters

CAMP PENDLETON, California (Reuters) - A military intelligence officer testified on Friday he did not mention that 15 civilians, including women and children, died in two houses in his report on the U.S. killings in Haditha, Iraq, in 2005.

Capt. Jeffrey Dinsmore spoke on the fourth day of testimony in pretrial hearing at Camp Pendleton for Capt. Randy Stone, 34, a legal adviser for the company that killed the 24 Iraqis at Haditha. Stone is one of four men charged with dereliction of duty and obstructing the investigation.

Dinsmore testified that it did not matter whether his report mentioned where or how civilians died on November 19, 2005.

"I said women and children were killed in that particular engagement," he said. "It isn't a requirement of combat reporting" to report exactly where they died.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070511/ts_nm/iraq_haditha_dc

[Eugene]

1. Marine: Haditha officials wanted probe

Source: Associated Press

Marine: Haditha officials wanted probe

By THOMAS WATKINS, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 40 minutes ago

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. - The town council in Haditha, Iraq, complained to
Marine officers about the killings of 24 civilians, but U.S. military officials
rejected a call to investigate, a Marine intelligence captain testified Friday.

Capt. Jeffrey Dinsmore testified that council members met with battalion
commander Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani and company commander Capt. Lucas
McConnell from the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines on Nov. 27, 2005, eight days
after a Marine squad killed 24 Iraqis including women and children in their
homes. The sweep followed the killing of a Marine and wounding of others
in a roadside bombing.

Dinsmore said the council had circulated a flier demanding an investigation
into the deaths and outlining allegations that Marines deliberately targeted
civilians after the bombing, but he dismissed the flier as propaganda.

"My assessment was the city council was being used as a tool of insurgent
propaganda," Dinsmore said. "We would see allegations like that a couple of
times a week."

-snip-

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070512/ap_on_re_us/marines_haditha_14