Haditha !

Well, the JerseyNut prefers to withhold judgement until all the facts are out - unlike John al-Murtha:

"Who covered it up, why did they cover it up, why did they wait so long?" Murtha said on "This Week" on ABC. "We don't know how far it goes. It goes right up the chain of command."

John says we don't know how far it goes, than claims it goes right up the chain of command...how long until Murtha accuses Bush of pulling the trigger? Anyway, while the good people of NCIS are trying to sort out the facts, Sweetness and Light has a few facts of her own, about some of the people making the accusations against the Marines:

Given the breathless coverage (actually only repetition of the same paltry facts) from our one party media about the civilian deaths in Haditha, I am surprised that we have heard nothing about the curious background of one of the first journalists to report the story, Ali Omar Abrahem al-Mashhadani, from the "restive town" of Ramadi.
It turns out Mr. al-Mashhadani might not have felt the kindliest intentions towards the US, having been imprisoned for five months mere weeks before his Haditha scoop.

Indeed, al-Mashhadani has since been detained by the US again, for two weeks. In fact he was only released today.
From his employer, Reuters:

Though again no specific allegation or charge was leveled against him, U.S. officials said last week he was held as a security threat. Marines interrogated him intensively about his work as a journalist in the restive Sunni province of Anbar.

Mashhadani, who reports and provides video and pictures, is one of a small number of journalists providing news from Anbar province, where U.S. Marines and Sunni Arab insurgents, including al Qaeda militants, are locked in a fierce conflict...

Among Mashhadani’s recent stories was reporting from the town of Haditha in March. Following Time magazine’s revelation of accusations that U.S. Marines shot dead 24 civilians there in November, he filmed fresh interviews with local officials and residents that were widely used by international media

So we have an al-Reuters employee with obvious terrorist ties and a deep grudge against the United States as the world's primary provider of information about the alleged massacre of civilians in Haditha. Again, I will use the word alleged, until more facts are out and charges are brought to bear. But it reminds me of the "massacre" of Palestinian citizens in Jenin; a big lie put out by terrorist news services and eagerly lapped up by a foreign media eager to believe any allegation of atrocities by the Israelis, no matter how thinly sourced.

And how about the doctor, one Dr. Walid Al-Obeidi, who filled out the death certificates claiming the civilians of Haditha were executed at point-blank range? Why, he has some interesting allegations of his own:

Dr.Walid said "they [the Americans] arrested me in my house in front of my family, covered my eyes, and tied my hands to the back on Oct 5 2005 morning, during the last attack on Haditha (360 kilometers west of Baghdad). They occupied the hospital for 8 days and made it their office. The first day they beat me on my eyes, nose, back, hands, legs… My face was covered with blood . When they removed the tie I could not see. They investigated me until the afternoon. I realized later that I was arrested in the hospital store. Then they tied my hands to the front, and left me for two days...

Sounds like another impartial observer! Sweet Jeebus, the guy runs a hospital in a town wholly owned and operated by Sunni insurgents and outside terrorist groups - what do you expect him to do, sing "America the Beautiful"?
While his hostility towards the U.S. is most likely genuine, his story is most likely false, but that won't stop the media from making him their number one quote machine, behind the terrorist-sympathizer Mashhadani and his videotape full of "testimonials"...

Herr Goebbels must be smiling at his proteges....

UPDATE 6/2: The Mudville Gazette tears the reporting on Haditha apart - it is Jenin, all over again...