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pcteaser
05-05-2005, 07:26 PM
No Charges In Fallujah Shooting
SAN DIEGO, May 4, 2005


A Marine corporal who was videotaped shooting an apparently injured and unarmed Iraqi in a Fallujah mosque last year will not face court-martial, the Marine Corps announced Wednesday.

Maj. Gen. Richard F. Natonski, commanding general of the I Marine Expeditionary Force, said that a review of the evidence showed the Marine's actions in the shooting were "consistent with the established rules of engagement and the law of armed conflict."

The corporal was not identified in a two-page statement issued by Camp Pendleton, the headquarters of the expeditionary force north of San Diego.

The Nov. 13 incident was videotaped by Kevin Sites, a freelance journalist on assignment for NBC.

The shooting occurred when a Marine unit entered the mosque and found five men wounded in fighting at the site the day before, when another Marine unit clashed with gunmen apparently using the mosque to fire from, according to Sites' broadcast.

In the video, as the cameraman moved into the mosque, a Marine in the background can be heard shouting obscenities and yelling that one of the men was only pretending to be dead. The Marine then raises his rifle toward an Iraqi lying on the floor of the mosque and shoots the man.

Before the opening of the Nov. 8 assault on rebel-held Fallujah, Marine commanders told infantrymen that the rules of engagement allowed for use of deadly force against men of military age deemed holding hostile intent, even if the enemy didn't fire on the Marines first.

pcteaser
05-05-2005, 07:27 PM
The video can be found here:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6496898/&e=7634

princesskittypoo
05-05-2005, 08:08 PM
I always had the view that holy places (no matter what religion) was suppose to be a sanctuary for anyone hurt or in need even if they did commit a crime. I just think people should be left alone until they come out of the actual sanctuary. I realize holy ground is only holy if the person actually beleive it's holy... it's all inside but i just figured leave the sanctuaries alone....

danceyogamom
05-05-2005, 10:15 PM
I always had the view that holy places (no matter what religion) was suppose to be a sanctuary for anyone hurt or in need even if they did commit a crime. I just think people should be left alone until they come out of the actual sanctuary. I realize holy ground is only holy if the person actually beleive it's holy... it's all inside but i just figured leave the sanctuaries alone....

the concept of claiming sanctuary is pretty old, and many places of worship were at one time equipped to house/protect anyone who made that claim. But that is the crux of it - the churches actively protected those who claimed sancturary. Some even had their own armies.

(Victor Hugo's Huntchback of Notre Dame is a very prominent example of that scenerio)

however, I'm not sure that most religious groups have the manpower or funding to offer that any longer.