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Troops 'will carry the can' for Iraq atrocity
By Toby Harnden, The Sunday Telegraph, 4 June 2006

A LAWYER who successfully defended a soldier accused of war crimes in the My Lai massacre in Vietnam on March 16, 1968, has said that United States Marines charged over the alleged Haditha massacre will be made "political scapegoats'' by the Bush administration, writes Toby Harnden. Gary Myers, who also acted for one of the troops convicted of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib, told The Sunday Telegraph: "Given this administration, it's almost a certainty. "This administration will seek to isolate the fewest number possible and call them aberrants. That is what will happen.'' Legal sources said that Mr Myers, a former military lawyer, is likely to represent at least one of the marines from Kilo Company of the 3/1 battalion, who face probable charges over the murder of 24 Iraqis.

The prospect of senior officers being held accountable for a cover-up increased yesterday after it emerged that marine commanders knew within two days that bullets were responsible for the deaths, even though they had said previously that a bomb was the cause. A senior marine general told The New York Times that discrepancies in the accounts of marines involved in the incident should have led to closer examination almost immediately. Instead, an investigation was launched only four months later. "It's impossible to believe they didn't know,'' the marine general said, referring to senior commanders. "You'd have to know this thing stunk.''

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