No `bad guys' amid the 19 bodies
CAMP PENDLETON — The officer who gave the order that led to Marines killing 19 unarmed Iraqis in their Haditha homes testified Monday that none of his troops had positively identified the houses as containing insurgents before he ordered them "cleared."
1st Lt. William Kallop said he still believed his Marines acted properly because they later told him of hearing the distinctive "metal on metal" sound of AK-47s being prepared to fire in the first house and then took fire from the second house. Kallop said that two Marines told him that they began throwing fragmentation grenades after hearing AK-47s.
But Kallop, testifying in a preliminary hearing of the ex-commander of the troops' battalion, said he inspected the houses later and found no AK-47s, no shells or other evidence that insurgents had been inside.
"I looked at Cpl. [Hector] Salinas and said: 'What the crap? Where are the bad guys?' He looked as surprised as I was," Kallop said in videotaped testimony.
Kallop, who has since returned to Iraq, was given immunity to force him to testify in what has become the largest case of alleged abuse of civilians levied against U.S. forces in Iraq. In all, 24 Iraqis, including women and children, were killed in Haditha on Nov. 19, 2005.
Kallop testified that Staff Sgt. Frank D. Wuterich, the squad leader who led the assault, did not tell him that the Marines fired their M-16s and threw grenades while inside the houses. A report by Naval Criminal Investigative Service agents said many of the Iraqis were shot in the head, some at such close range that their bodies had powder marks.
Kallop's testimony came on the fourth day of the hearing for Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani, who was commander of 3rd Battalion, 1st Regiment, on the day of the deaths.
Chessani, 1st Lt. Andrew A. Grayson, Capt. Lucas M. McConnell and Capt. Randy W. Stone are charged with dereliction of duty for not investigating the incident as a possible war crime. Grayson headed a team that examined the houses and took pictures; McConnell was the Kilo Company commander; and Stone was the battalion lawyer.
The Marines who assaulted the houses -- Wuterich, Lance Cpl. Justin L. Sharratt and Lance Cpl. Stephen B. Tatum -- are charged with unpremeditated murder. Similar charges were dropped against Sgt. Sanick P. Dela Cruz in exchange for his testimony against the others.
