[Might be of interest to some in light of discussions here.]
Marine who confessed to abuses lied to gain celebrity
By Ron Harris
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
<<http://www.sltrib.com/nationworld/ci_3188630>>
WASHINGTON - For more than a year, former Marine Staff Sgt. Jimmy Massey
has been telling anybody who would listen about the atrocities that he and
other Marines committed in Iraq.
In scores of newspaper, magazine and broadcast stories, at a Canadian
immigration hearing and in numerous speeches across the country, Massey told
how he and other Marines recklessly, sometimes intentionally killed dozens
of innocent Iraqi civilians.
Among his claims:
Marines fired on and killed peaceful Iraqi protesters.
Americans shot a 4-year-old Iraqi girl in the head.
Tractor-trailers were filled with the bodies of civilian men, women and
children killed by American artillery.
Massey's claims have gained him celebrity. Last month, Massey's book,
_Kill, Kill, Kill_, was released in France. His allegations have been reported
in nationwide publications such as _Vanity Fair_ and _USA Today_, as well as
numerous broadcast reports. Earlier this year, he joined the anti-war bus
tour of Cindy Sheehan and he's spoken at Cornell and Syracuse universities,
among others.
News organizations worldwide published or broadcast Massey's claims
without any corroboration and in most cases without investigation. Outside
of the Marines, almost no one has seriously questioned whether Massey, a
12-year veteran who was honorably discharged, was telling the truth.
He wasn't.
Each of his claims is either demonstrably false or exaggerated -
according to his fellow Marines, Massey's own admissions, and the five
journalists who were embedded with Massey's unit, including a reporter and
photographer from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and reporters from the
Associated Press and the Wall Street Journal.
Massey, 34, was discharged in December 2003, shortly after returning from
Iraq due to depression and post-traumatic stress syndrome.
He began turning up in the press and broadcast last spring with stories
about military atrocities. Massey's primary thrust has been that Marines
from his battalion - some of whom, he told a Minneapolis audience were
''psychopathic killers'' - recklessly shot and killed Iraqi civilians,
sometimes, he said, upon orders from their commanders.
--Ronn! :)
"Since I was a small boy, two states have been added to our country
and two words have been added to the pledge of Allegiance... UNDER
GOD. Wouldn't it be a pity if someone said that is a prayer and that
would be eliminated from schools too?"
-- Red Skelton
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