Can the disgraced Murtha be sued?

An Anon commenter asks that question. Based on what I've read at other blogs, the answer appears to be yes, but it will be tough to succeed.

The following is from World Net Daily yesterday with my comments below the star line.

WND begins - - -

With most of the eight Marines charged in the Haditha, Iraq, incident now exonerated, the highest-ranking officer among the accused is considering a lawsuit against Democratic Rep. John Murtha, who fueled the case by declaring the men cold-blooded killers.

In an interview with nationally syndicated radio talk host Michael Savage, the lead attorney for Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani said he and his client will look into suing Murtha and the Time magazine reporter, Tim McGuirk, who first published the accusations by Iraqi insurgents.

But the attorney, Brian Rooney, said nothing will happen immediately because he wants Chessani, described as a devout Christian and the father of six homeschooled children, completely "out of the woods" legally before any action is taken.

The government, through Lt. Col. S.M. Sullivan, today filed a notice that it would appeal the case to the next judicial level.

As WND reported, a military judge at Camp Pendleton in California yesterday dismissed charges that Chessani failed to properly investigate the Nov. 19, 2005 incident in which 24 Iraqi men, women and children were killed.

Rooney, an attorney for the Thomas More Law Center who served a tour of duty in Iraq himself, is urging citizens to tell their representatives in Congress and military officials that they want the case to come to an end.

"At some point you have to have somebody in the chain of command, whether it's civilian or military, saying enough is enough," said Rooney, who served with Chessani in the second battle of Fallujah.

Rooney told Savage the Haditha case is the largest investigation in the history of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, with 65 agents assigned by the government.

The filing of charges against Chessani was approved by Gen. James Mattis, then commander of the Marine Corps Forces Central Command and commander of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Pendleton. Mattis has been promoted to commander of NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Transformation and commander of U.S. Joint Forces.

"This is the most important case since Vietnam, if not before," Rooney said. "There's no doubt about it."

He noted the New York Times featured the case on the front page when it was being compared by war critics to the infamous My Lai massacre in Vietnam. But now, with evidence the Haditha accusations were a smear, the story has been relegated to the back pages. . . .

Four Marines were charged with murder and another four with not properly investigating the incident.

Defense lawyers contend insurgents deliberately attacked the Marines from hiding places where they surrounded themselves with civilians to use as shields. The defense insisted Chessani promptly reported the events to his superiors and that nobody in the chain of command believed there was any wrongdoing on the part of the Marines. . . .

The entire WND report's here.

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Comments:

WND has been all over this terrible smear of American marines launched by TIME and Democrat Rep. Jack Murtha. See, for exampe. this WND report: "Case against Marine blamed on Murtha politics" (Mar. 6, 2007)

Be sure to check out Murtha Must Go. It's done outstanding work on every aspect of this story of shameless media bias and political partisanship which have smeared and further endangered American and allied military personel.

In this post, Murtha Must Go founder Leo Puseteri says [excerpts]:

I hold John Murtha personally responsible for laying a dubious cover of deceit under which the Democrat party was able to engage its anti-war, anti-troop, and anti-American pogrom, under which our enemies in Iraq and elsewhere became emboldened to carry on the fight much longer than they otherwise would have; in the process, killing more and more of our American and allied women and men than would have otherwise been the case.

Yes, it is my opinion that John Murtha has blood on his hands, and needs to answer for his misdeeds.

As the founding editor of this blog, I call on Congress to investigate John Murtha on exactly what he "knew" and when he "knew it" before coming out with his Haditha accusations and declarations of and implications of guilt.

I call on Congress to investigate John Murtha of ethics violations and criminal charges in denying the Haditha Marines their Constitutionally-guaranteed right to the presumption of innocence, and to censure and strip Murtha of any committee assignments, and in turn demand his resignation from Congress. ...

A decent House of Representatives that really supported the troops would long ago have censured Murtha and stripped him of favored committee assignments.

Hat tips go to WND, Puseteri, Michael Savage, Michelle Malkin among others who've taken the lead in speaking out and uncovering the Haditha lies and smears.

JinC Regulars know Mike Williams has been on top of the story in his electronic letters published here. Thanks, Mike.