Gen. Mattis to Justin Sharratt: Case Dismissed!!!

My good friend Darryl Sharratt just posted the good news on Freepers. Here's what Darryl posted:

At 7:00 PST, 9 August 2007 Justin and his attorney met with a Marine Corps representative in an office at Camp Pendleton, CA. At this time, my son LCpl Justin Sharratt, was handed an official Marine Corps Disposition of Charges document declaring the charges stemming from the 19 November 2005 Haditha engagement have been officially dismissed. The last line of the two page Disposition Of Charges document ended with these words from the General, "And as you have always remained cloaked in the presumption of innocence, with this dismissal of charges, you remain in the eyes of the law- and in my eyes- innocent." Lt. Gen James T. Mattis

Jim Robinson—My family would like to offer you a sincere and deep felt thank you. During our darkest days you allowed us to publish our story here on Free Republic. When others went deaf, you listened and you heard. Our belief in God, our belief in the innocence of our son and the support and prayers of the American people helped us through this rough ordeal. Our family has met a group of American patriots here on FR that my words fall short in thanking. You helped us through these trying times with your support, thoughts and financial assistance. My family is truly proud to be an American family. You took us in and made us part of Your Family. For that I can never thank you enough.

With the General’s announcement of the exoneration of my son, LCpl Justin L. Sharratt, part of our journey has ended. Another has just begun. We will put our lives together and continue the fight for the remaining Haditha Marines. By now, you know these men. They are part of my family and I know you have made them part of yours. My son served with these men and he would have given up his life for them. I hope to find justice for these Marines and the battle has just begun. God Bless.

Redrover, Madison Marine, Girlene, Marine Uncle, Eagles6, Semper Fi Mom, Jazusamo, 4 woodenboats, LanceyHoward, brityank, pinkpanther, Chickenhawk Warmonger, RaceBannon, xzins, velveeta, freema and others- names, with no faces. You helped my family through this and we may never be able to express our gratitude. Thank You!!!!!!

I can't wait to talk with Darryl again. I can't imagine the joy that's sweeping through the Sharratt family this instant. This has been an arduous, emotional ordeal for their family, especially since the charges appeared shaky from the beginning.

Knowing Darryl a little bit, I know that he's committed to getting justice for all of the Marines in Kilo Company. Capt. Randy Stone also had his charges dropped:

All charges were dropped against a captain accused of failing to investigate the deaths of 24 civilians in Haditha, the Marine Corps announced Thursday. Also, all charges were dropped against Marine Lance Cpl. Justin L. Sharratt, who had been accused of killing three Iraqi brothers in response to a roadside bomb attack in Haditha in 2005.

Capt. Randy W. Stone, 35, a battalion lawyer from Dunkirk, Md., was one of four officers charged with failing to adequately probe the killings. "It is clear to me that any error of omission or commission by Capt. Stone does not warrant action under the Uniform Code of Military Justice," Lt. Gen. James Mattis wrote.

Talk about good news coming in bunches!!! This is indeed great news. This is also proof that seemingly ordinary men who tirelessly seek the truth will be rewarded. One man that fits that description is Tim Harrington. Tim has worked so hard on digging out evidence of these men's innocence that he's become an 'adopted' member of these Marines' families. Justice-loving people should thank Tim for his role in exposing the holes in the prosecution's cases.

Gen. Mattis did the right thing in dropping the charges against LCpl. Justin Sharratt and Capt. Stone. I wish he'd just done it sooner.

There's more than a few 'down arrows' to go around. One of them goes to Rep. John Murtha. On May 17, 2006, Rep. Murtha declared that these Marines had "killed innocent civilians in cold blood." We now know that that's been proven false beyond all doubt. Furthermore, Rep. Murtha declared that these Marines had covered this up and that "It's much worse than was reported in Time magazine."

Two groups of people deserving of swift boots in the pants are the NCIS investigators and JAG prosecutors. They've wrongly accused these American heroes of horrific crimes. What's worse is that they kept going after hearing Jeffrey Dinsmore's testimony:

As previously reported by NewsMax, the battalion S2 officer made a full and complete report based on his monitoring of the day's events and the intelligence he and others had amassed then and previous days. As we wrote at the time, the PowerPoint after-action report he sent up the command ladder proved to all the higher officers that the incident warranted no further investigation.

Here's what we know from Capt. Dinsmore's testimony:

• Intelligence gathered by Marine S2 officers in advance of the events of Nov. 19th, 2005, revealed that it was known that an insurgent ambush was planned for the day.
• Although exact details of the planned ambush were not known, some important details were revealed, most importantly, that some 20 insurgents would take part, and a white car would play an important role in the ambush.
• The intelligence was made available to the officers and men of Kilo Company, including Sgt. Frank Wuterich who has been charged with, among other things, murdering the occupants of a white car that came on the scene following the IED explosion that killed one Marine and seriously wounded another. The evidence will show that Wuterich acted appropriately when he shot the passengers of the vehicle.
• Although the media continues to report that 24 innocent civilians were killed that day, the S2's testimony shows that eight of the dead, including four of the five occupants in the white car killed by Wuterich, were known insurgents and the dead civilians therefore numbered 16, not 24.
• The insurgents whose communications were intercepted and which revealed the planned ambush were the same two men who were the sources of the fallacious and dishonest Time magazine story, which was the source of the accusations against the Marines.
• As previously reported by NewsMax, the battalion S2 officer made a full and complete report based on his monitoring of the day's events and the intelligence he and others had amassed then and previous days. As we wrote at the time, the PowerPoint after-action report he sent up the command ladder proved to all the higher officers that the incident warranted no further investigation. None!

This begs several questions of the JAG prosecutors:

• Considering they knew about Capt. Dinsmore's testimony, why did they continue onto other Article 32 hearings?
• Considering Capt. Dinsmore's testimony, isn't it impossible to sustain the charges against Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani for dereliction of duty?
• Considering the fact that LCpl. Sharratt and Sgt. Frank Wuterich are accused of the same crimes, shouldn't his charges be dropped, too?

Shouldn't John Murtha (a) apologize to these genuine American heroes, (b) apologize to their families, (c) apologize to the Marine Corps and finally (d) resign from the House of Representatives for having leveled these charges without so much as even been briefed on the results of the investigations?

Technorati: Justin Sharratt, Darryl Sharratt, Randy Stone, Frank Wuterich, Jeffrey Chessani, Jeffrey Dinsmore, Tim Harrington, John Murtha, NCIS, JAG, Corruption, Scandals