Nah, No Criminal Intent At All

Ubber upper-right-quadrant WingNut Michelle Malkin is hyping a story in the NCTimes about a Marine Corps official calling for murder charges to be dropped against a soldier involved in the Haditha massacre because there was no “criminal intent to kill”.

Lets review what happened in Haditha

7:15 a.m.: A convoy from the 1st Marine Division is hit by a roadside bomb — a Humvee is destroyed, and 20-year-old Lance Cpl. Miguel Terrazas is killed.

7:25 a.m.: Witnesses say Marines search the area for the bomber. They storm a house directly across from the attack, shooting as they approach.

A video shot by a local journalism student purports to show the bloody aftermath of what happened. Inside are 76-year-old Abdul Hamid — blind and in a wheelchair — his 66-year-old wife and nine of their sons, daughters-in-law and grandchildren.

Local coroners’ reports obtained by NBC News say Abdul Hamid was shot in the stomach and head. The reports say his wife and five other relatives were also killed by multiple gunshot wounds.

Four inside the house survived, including 10-year-old Iman.

“The Americans came into the room where my father was praying and shot him. They went to my grandmother and killed her, too,” Iman says.

During the raid, Abdul Hamid’s house caught fire. Witnesses say Marines then moved next door to the house of Younis Hamid. Nine people were inside, and eight were killed — five of them children.

Twelve-year-old Safa says she survived by hiding under the bed.

“They came in and shot all of us,” she says. “I pretended I was dead.”

Witnesses say Marines then moves to a third location — a taxi parked by the side of the road. In it, residents say, were four university students and a driver. A witness watching from a nearby rooftop says Marines took the five men out of the car and executed them.

One witness says the driver screamed in English, “Please, please!” but they shot him in the body.

Sounds a hell of a lot more like a good example of pure, unadultrated, revenge killing, than “negligent homicide” doesn’t it?

Then again, maybe in the minds of some they were negligent…. a 12 year old girl survived, and there were witnesses.