The news:
Haditha Report to fault oversight, officials say
The general charged with investigating whether Marines tried to cover up the killing of 24 civilians in Haditha has completed his report, finding that Marine officers failed to ask the right questions, an official close to the investigation said Friday.Nothing in the report points to a "knowing cover-up" of the facts by the officers supervising the Marines involved in the November incident, the official said. Rather, he said, officers from the company level through the staff of the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force in Baghdad failed to demand "a thorough explanation" of what happened in Haditha.
US Braced for Haditha Effect Marines in Iraq undergo refresher in 'warrior values' Massacre at Haditha General completes report on Haditha civilians' death (This newspaper helpfully runs the L.A. Times wire story without the paragraph about there being no cover-up, and tops the story with a picture of an Abu Ghraib protest. Oops!)
See what I mean about the backtracking and corrections on Haditha getting lost in the mix?
Do you imagine this story will get nearly as much attention as Murtha's original statement did? Hot Air is helping by calling out Murtha with a good old-fashioned Photoshopping contest.
