Top Marine Gen. to remind troops of rules of war after alleged massacre.

Commandant visits Iraq after 'murders

By Otto Kreisher
COPLEY NEWS SERVICE

3:11 p.m. May 25, 2006

WASHINGTON – With two criminal probes into allegations that Marines killed innocent Iraqi civilians, the Marine Corps commandant left to visit his deployed forces Thursday to remind them of “the ideals, values and standards for which Marines have been known for more than 200 years,” Marine headquarters said.
Gen. Michael Hagee's unexpected trip to Iraq is a reaction to the allegations that a Camp Pendleton-based unit of Marines killed about 20 Iraqi civilians in November, and a more recent report that Marines killed one noncombatant a month ago.

In his talks in Iraq, and later at Marine bases in the United States, Hagee will focus on the value and meaning of the naval services' code of “honor, courage, and commitment, and how these core values are epitomized by most Marines in their day-to-day actions – both in and out of combat,” his office said.

In a statement, Hagee said: “Recent serious allegations concerning actions of Marines in combat have caused me concern. They should cause you to be concerned as well.”

The commandant's decision to make the trip apparently was triggered by Wednesday's announcement that Maj. Gen. Richard Zilmer, commander of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force in western Iraq, requested a criminal investigation of allegations that Marines killed an Iraqi civilian April 26 in Hamandiyah, a town in Anbar province.

The incident was reported to Marine leaders by Iraqis and a preliminary inquiry found sufficient evidence to prompt a formal probe by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, the 1st MEF headquarters announced.

The Marines involved in the alleged improper killing are from the Camp Pendleton-based 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines.

That criminal probe joins two investigations into a Nov. 19 incident in which a unit from the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines, also from Camp Pendleton, killed at least 20 unarmed Iraqis in Haditha, Iraq.

A criminal investigation into the Haditha incident was started after Iraqi civilians appeared to confirm the initial report by an American journalist that the Marines killed women, children and unarmed men.

A separate investigation was ordered by the Army commander of coalition forces in Iraq into indications that the Marines tried to cover up the alleged murder of the civilians.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner, R-Va., said the Haditha incident is possibly the worst “atrocity” involving U.S. troops in the three-year conflict in Iraq.

Talking to reporters after a closed briefing by a senior Marine officer, Warner, a Marine veteran of Korea and a former Navy secretary, said Hagee “is taking this matter very seriously and felt it was his duty to ... personally talk to those Marines in country and assure them that the highest standards of the Corps are to be maintained by every Marine, from private to general. He expects no less, nor do the people of this country.”

In his statement, Hagee said: “To a Marine, honor is more than just honesty; it means having uncompromising personal integrity and being accountable for all actions.

“To most Marines, the most difficult part of courage is not the raw physical courage that we have seen so often on today's battlefield. It is rather the moral courage to do the 'right thing' in the face of danger or pressure from other Marines.”

A Vietnam combat veteran, Hagee reminded his Marines that they all had been instructed in the law of armed conflict, which requires that “we use lethal force only when justified, proportional and, most importantly, lawful.”

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