Bargewell Report On Haditha Delivered To Casey

The report by Major General Eldon A. Bargewell on the killings of civilians by marines at Haditha has been delivered (with additions by Lt. Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli) to Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the top commander in Iraq.

A U.S. military report passed to the commander in Iraq on Friday found Marine officers failed to respond properly to conflicting reports of the killings of up to 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha last year, an official said...

A separate murder inquiry is looking at the conduct of the Marines present on the ground during the events of November 19.

The report submitted to General George Casey found failings in the "command environment" of the 2nd Marine Division after evidence appeared that 15 of those killed did not die in a bomb attack as the unit said in a statement a day after the events...

The report is ... principally an administrative review of the procedures following the killings -- notably how far they were deliberately covered up -- and is unlikely to lead to criminal proceedings. A separate criminal investigation is under way that officials say is likely to lead to murder charges...

The military official said it was Chiarelli's goal to make public the report's findings as soon as possible, possibly over the next week, with the goal of "full and total disclosure."

With criminal inquiries continuing, elements of the report would be censored for publication, but the essence of its findings would be made available.

(Note: The Washington Post says Sunday that only a redacted version of Chiarelli's "Findings and Recommendations" will be released to the public, not a censored version of the Bargewell report.)

The probe is one of a series into alleged misconduct by U.S. troops in Iraq. The Haditha case in particular has drawn comparisons with the 1968 My Lai massacre in Vietnam.

The Marine Corps has instructed commanders to retain documents related to the killing of Iraqi civilians both in Haditha and Hamdania, both in western Anbar province, because Congress will likely hold hearings and request the information, according to a memo obtained by Reuters.

The July 6 memo instructs all commanders to retain and preserve documents and e-mail messages related to those incidents, "their planning, execution and subsequent reporting and any documents referring to any aspect of them."

"The alleged events at Haditha and Hamdania have generated intense interest both in the media and Congress," the memo stated. "We can reasonably anticipate that Congress will hold hearings regarding those events and will request the production of records that pertain to them."