Slap On Wrist For Chessani Means Bloody Lip For Murtha — A three-member Board of Inquiry ruledFriday that Marine Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani should not be demoted in rank and will recommend such to the Secretary of the Navy.
Chessani commanded the 3rd Battalion, 1st MarineRegiment which was involved in an incident Nov. 19, 2005 in Haditha, Iraq in which 24 Iraqi men, women and children were killed.
An initial report said that 15 deaths were caused by bomb blasts with 8 persons dying in an ensuing fire fight. Questions by Time Magazine prompted a military investigation which filed a report indicating U.S. Marines may have deliberately shot civilians.
Congressman John Murtha (D-PA12) took that preliminary report as license to publicly claim in November 2005 “It’s much worse than reported in Time magazine. There was no firefight. There was no IED that killed these innocent people. Our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them and they killed innocent civilians in cold blood. And that’s what the report is going to tell.”
Criminal charges were brought against eight Marines including Chessani, who was charged with failing to investigate the killings. By June 2008 all criminal charges had been dropped against six of the eight defendants including Chessani, with First Lt. Andrew Grayson being acquitted after trial.
Chessani, however, still faced an administrative hearing with regard to his actions which could have resulted in his demotion to major. While the panel did find that Chessani’s response to the killings was substandard because he “failed to provide as detailed and accurate a report as possible” it left it at that.
“It’s been a long four years, but it hasn’t been a miserable four years,” Chessani said. “A lot of good has come out of it, and I praise God and am thankful for all the people that have stood by us
The only Marine still facing charges is Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich who is charged with nine counts of involuntary manslaughter. Wuterich sued Murtha in August 2006 for defamation, which a federal appeals court dismissed last April saying Murtha was protected because he was acting in his official role as a lawmaker when he made the statements.
“Murtha was protected because he was acting in his official role as a lawmaker when he made the statements.”
Ja wohl. Herr Murtha vas just following Frau Pelosi’s orders