Oh sweet, sweet justice, thy name is Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani.
With most of the eight Marines charged in the Haditha, Iraq, incident now exonerated, the highest-ranking officer among the accused is considering a lawsuit against Democratic Rep. John Murtha, who fueled the case by declaring the men cold-blooded killers.
In an interview with nationally syndicated radio talk host Michael Savage, the lead attorney for Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani said he and his client will look into suing Murtha and the Time magazine reporter, Tim McGuirk, who first published the accusations by Iraqi insurgents.
But the attorney, Brian Rooney, said nothing will happen immediately because he wants Chessani, described as a devout Christian and the father of six homeschooled children, completely "out of the woods" legally before any action is taken. The government, through Lt. Col. S.M. Sullivan, today filed a notice that it would appeal the case to the next judicial level.
So, you’re thinking to yourself “wait a minute, a Congressman has all sorts of legal protections, how can he do this”? Well, therein lies the fun part:
Rooney acknowledged to Savage it's difficult to sue a sitting congressman, but he believes it can be done.
"If he leaves his realm of speaking from the congressman's point of view … then he can be sued for libel and defamation," Rooney said.
The Time magazine story, according to Rooney, was planted by an insurgent propaganda agent. Publishing of the story was soon followed by a May 17, 2006, news conference by Murtha. The congressman announced he had been told by the highest levels of the Marine Corps there was no firefight and Marines "killed innocent civilians in cold blood."
Murtha made these comments about good Marines and he had third hand knowledge at BEST about what had happened.
He allowed his feelings towards the war in Iraq to cloud his judgement and smear the names of his fellow Marines without seeing ANY evidence, and publicly called them “cold blooded killers”.
"All the information I get, it comes from the commanders, it comes from people who know what they're talking about," Murtha told reporters at the time.
Murtha's assertions, however, conflicted with results from the military's own investigations. An initial probe by Army Col. G.A. Watt found no indications coalition forces "intentionally targeted, engaged and killed noncombatants." Later, Army Maj. Gen. Aldon Bargewell found no cover-up.
So, he tries to deflect blame for his words on “the commanders”, then the military shows that what Murtha asserted wasn’t true.
Murtha has simply sold out his Marine brothers for a few political points. When charges started to be dropped left and right, a young man went up to Murtha and asked when he would apologize, giving John Murtha an honorable way out of the situation.
Here’s what happened:
Anyone else care to defend Murtha? I didn’t think so.
Travis
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