Top Marine: Respect 'Human Life'

The top Marine general flew to Iraq on Thursday to caution troops on the danger of becoming "indifferent to the loss of a human life," following allegations that Marines in Iraq murdered civilians.

"We do not employ force just for the sake of employing force. We use lethal force only when justified, proportional and, most importantly, lawful," Gen. Michael W. Hagee, the Marine Corps commandant, wrote in a statement issued by his office. Aides said it was the basis of remarks he intended to make to Marines in Iraq this week.

Hagee headed for Iraq just hours after the disclosure of a criminal investigation into allegations that an unspecified number of Marines killed an Iraqi civilian west of Baghdad on April 26.

It is the second allegation of Marines killing civilians in recent months.

"Many of our Marines have been involved in life-or-death combat or have witnessed the loss of their fellow Marines, and the effects of these events can be numbing," Hagee said in his statement. "There is the risk of becoming indifferent to the loss of a human life, as well as bringing dishonor upon ourselves."

Col. David Lapan, a spokesman for Hagee, said the general had scheduled the trip long ago but in light of the latest allegations he decided to use the visit as an opportunity to reinforce Marine Corps values and standards.

"To a Marine, honor is more than just honesty; it means having uncompromising personal integrity and being accountable for all actions," Hagee said. He urged all Marines to have the moral courage to "do the 'right thing' in the face of danger or pressure from other Marines."

He referred to "recent serious allegations about actions of Marines in combat," but he did not specifically cite the two cases — one from last November and the other in April — of alleged killings of civilians.

In Wednesday's announcement of the latest criminal investigation, Marine officials said a preliminary probe had found enough information to recommend a full investigation by the Naval Criminal Investigation Service.

The investigations are not done yet, but a lawyer for one of the Marines tells CBS News correspondent David Martin that there is a strong possibility some of them will be charged with murder.

The Marine Corps provided no details about the alleged killing, including either the gender or age of the victim. It said "several service members" from the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, based in the Fallujah area about 40 miles west of Baghdad, were suspected of involvement. They were "removed from operations" and sent back to the U.S. pending the results of the criminal investigation, it said.

A second criminal investigation is probing allegations that Marines from another battalion killed at least 15 civilians, including women and children, last November in Haditha, 140 miles northwest of Baghdad.

The military initially described the Haditha encounter as an ambush during a joint U.S.-Iraqi patrol that involved a roadside bombing in which a Marine died, followed by a firefight. However, residents of the neighborhood maintained that only U.S. forces were shooting after the explosion.

John Sifton, a counterterrorism researcher with the Human Rights Watch, said his group's review of available information on the Haditha attack leads him to conclude there is no room for doubt that it was a case of murder.
"This was an intentional killing of unarmed civilians," Sifton said.

Both the House and Senate armed services committees plan to hold hearings on the matter. Hagee met with top lawmakers from those panels this week and discussed the November and April incidents.

"I can say that there are established facts that incidents of a very serious nature did take place," Sen. John Warner, chairman of the Senate panel, said Thursday. He would not provide details or confirm reports that about 24 civilians were killed. He told reporters he had "no basis to believe" the military engaged in a cover-up.

In the Haditha case, videotape aired by an Arab television station showed images purportedly taken in the aftermath of the encounter: a bloody bedroom floor, bullet holes in walls and bodies of women and children. An Iraqi human rights group called for an investigation of what it described as another deadly mistake that had harmed civilians.

In addition to the criminal probe on Haditha, the military is doing an administrative investigation to see whether the Marines involved had lied about what happened.

On May 17, Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., a decorated former Marine, said the toll in the Haditha attack was far worse than originally reported and that U.S. troops killed innocent women and children "in cold blood." He said that nearly twice as many people were killed as the 15 first reported by the Marines, and he asserted that it showed U.S. forces are "overstretched and overstressed" by the war in Iraq.