On Tuesday night Frontline’s story was on the Marines in Haditha and the supposed “massacre” of Iraqi civilians. It was more balanced than I expected, however I noted some missing facts especially regarding the Iraqi reporter from the Human Rights group.

Newsmax has the story on the facts missing from the Frontline/PBS “Rules of Engagement” story.

‘Frontline’ Haditha Story Short on Facts

***�Frontline� accepted without question the legitimacy of the so-called Hammurabi Human Rights Association and allowed its alleged head man Abdul-Rahman al-Mashhadani to tell the story of the aftermath of Nov. 19, even though the organization consists solely of himself and one Thaer Thabit al-Hadithi — the original source of the video excerpts “Frontline� showed.

Both men are known insurgent propagandists whose communications were closely monitored by Marine intelligence officers. It was from those intercepts that the Marines were able to predict the Nov. 19 insurgent ambush in Haditha.

Moreover, “Frontline� neglected to inform viewers that the same Abdul-Rahman al-Mashhadani had just been released from almost six months captivity for insurgent activities. And al-Hadithi was considered a useful intelligence tool by Marines listening to him talk on his cell phone, as “My Men Are Heroes� author Nat Helms has also reported on the Defend Our Marines Web site.

***“Frontline� portrayed Haditha as peaceful and free of insurgents prior to the arrival of the Marines, while Newsmax and other media had reported the city to be firmly under insurgent control.

snip….A little tidbit of info: Did you know that when we went into the city, the insurgents had freshly paved over dirt roads leading into the town under the auspices of civic work projects and public improvement? They were beautiful asphalt-surfaced roads, with painted lines and everything.

“The only problem was that they had laid more than 100 mega-IEDs under that asphalt, and in order to avoid having to change batteries in the initiating devices, they wired them into city power via the power lines adjacent to the road. This is also the road where the engagement in question took place.�

***“Frontline� repeatedly showed the erroneous report issued by the Marine public information officer alleging that the 15 civilian dead were killed by the IED blast set off by the insurgents, which killed one Marine and injured two others.

On June 12, 2006, Dinsmore — then still a captain — stated what really happened.

These Marines have been done a serious disservice by their leadership, politicians (Rep. John Murtha) and country. They did their job and should be treated as Heroes not criminals. Unfortunately, Rep. John Murtha had them tried and convicted before the the investigation was even completed. He believed insurgents rather than the Marines. That should be Murtha’s shame to carry with him for the rest of his pathetic money grabbing life.  He used the careers and reputations of these Marines to promote his own political agenda.

Curt at Flopping Aces has followed this story religiously and has 41 posts on the Haditha Marines.

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