Some startling documents from military intelligence gathered for the prosecution of the Marines charged in the Haditha massacre reveal that we had gotten wind of an al-Qaeda operation in the weeks previous to the incident that threatened a massacre of civilians in order to turn the local population against the Marines as well as damage the repution of the military:Buried in the mountain of exhibits attached to the once secret Haditha, Iraq murder inquiry prepared by US Army Maj. Gen. Eldon A. Bargewell is an obscure Marine Corps intelligence summary (see pdf) that says the deadly encounter was an intentional propaganda ploy planned and paid for by Al Qaeda foreign fighters. Veteran military defense attorney Gary Meyers said he never understood why the Naval Criminal Investigative Service special agents leading the Haditha criminal investigation didn’t “examine the linkage” between Al Qaeda, the local insurgency and the events at Haditha. Meyers was an attorney on the...(Read Full Post)