Brass suspected of Iraq cover-up

WASHINGTON — Two influential legislators who have been briefed on the U.S. military’s investigation into the deaths of 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians said Sunday they suspect that senior officers were involved in covering up evidence of war crimes by the Marine unit involved.

Neither lawmaker — Sen. John Warner, R-Va., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., a former Marine and a leading authority on military issues — said he had direct evidence of top officers trying to suppress information.

But both said the delay in launching a formal investigation into the incident in the western town of Haditha led them to suspect officers up the chain of command had a role in attempting to keep the incident under wraps. They added that they expected congressional hearings on the killings would focus on the military’s reaction to evidence of an atrocity.

The killing of unarmed civilians, including women and children, occurred Nov. 19, but a formal investigation was not launched until reporters from Time magazine handed over video taken by an Iraqi journalist to military authorities in late January. “It goes right up the chain of command,” said Murtha. “Who said, ‘We’re not going to publicize this thing; we’re not even going to investigate it’? Until March, there was no serious investigation. There was an investigation right afterward, but then it was stifled.”

Saturday, the Los Angeles Times reported that a special unit of Marine intelligence specialists took photographs of the scene shortly after the incident, evidence that was turned over to the military chain of command.

But Time magazine reported Sunday that there is another set of photos taken by the Marines allegedly involved in the incident. The magazine quoted John Sifton, an investigator with Human Rights Watch, as saying one photo taken by a Marine with his cellphone shows Iraqis kneeling before being shot. Sifton did not return a call seeking comment Sunday.

Meanwhile, Sunday in Iraq a tribal chief who challenged Iraq’s most feared terrorist and sent fighters to help U.S. troops battle al-Qaida in western Iraq died in a hail of bullets, The Associated Press reported. Shootings and bombings killed nine people and wounded 35 across the country Sunday, and the bodies of 10 more people were found in Baghdad.

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