Word: civiliane
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...Camp Pendleton, California - four Marines charged with murder in the killing of 24 Iraqis, and another four officers charged with dereliction of duty for not relaying accurate information about the killings up the chain of command. The charges send a sharp message of zero tolerance for abuses of civilians to U.S. uniformed personnel in Iraq, but also to Iraqis, whose Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, had branded the incident as emblematic of a contempt for Iraqi civilian life on the part of U.S. forces. Altering that perception will certainly be critical to any prospect of success in the U.S. military...
...told TIME they expect to charge others in the case, but who or where depends on the federal judge who is handling the case and the country's powerful military. The judge is now reviewing evidence and must decide whether military personnel, if they are involved, should face a civilian or armed forces tribunal. The military, which runs Brazil's air traffic control system, is not happy about its personnel being implicated. Military officers refused to hand over black box transcripts to police, delaying the inquiry and exacerbating the rivalry between the two bodies...
...reality is that there is no quick fix. Turning the air traffic control system over to a more accountable civilian body would be a start, and investing money in modernizing the system and training new and more people to run it is also crucial. For now, passengers taking off for a Christmas break can only heed the advice of Defense Minister Waldir Pires. As he put it, "Have faith and pray...
...source tells TIME the highest-level officer to be charged (most likely with dereliction of duty) will be Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani, the battalion commander in Haditha, who also was not on the ground that day. Attempts to reach Chessani for comment were not successful. But according to one civilian defense lawyer, the Marines will not be held in pre-trial confinement, which he takes an indication that the charges may not be as severe as some have expected. "They have put other Marines in other cases in the brig before trial, but they are not apparently doing that...
...Many, if not all, of the Marines involved in Haditha will likely challenge the charges in court; all of them will get at least one military defense lawyer, and some of the Marines have already hired civilian defense lawyers - or plan to - as well. The trials will not begin until after the first of the year...