Another marine defense website

I was listening to Hugh Hewitt last night tuned in during the middle of an interview with a father of a marine being investigated for the alledged events at either Hamdania or Haditha. They have set up a website for the marine to both state briefly some statements regarding his situation and to ask for help in his legal defense. Here are some snippets along with some comments:

On May 25th the Pennington family received a collect call from the Camp Pendleton Brig. It was Rob, our son and brother, calling to say that the Marine Corps had returned him to Camp Pendleton and he was being investigated in a group of 7 Marines and 1 Navy corpsman for charges of murder, kidnapping, and conspiracy to commit murder. He said that he was not guilty of any of the charges, but that he was being held as a potentially dangerous and violent person in the maximum security division of the brig along with the others.

Rob Pennington has declared his innocence. For some time these boys were held in shackles while in the brig until Michael Savage brought national attention to it and there were some rallies outside the facility.

First let us say that whether it is Haditha or Hamdania, there are more to these cases than meets the eye. The press is reporting "leaks" made by anonymous, high level officials on 'facts' of the investigation. Please trust us now that once these supposed facts are brought into the courtroom, they will not stand up to scrutiny. What has happened with all these leaks, is that the presumption of innocence has flown out the window. Do our heroes not deserve better? The men who put their lives at stake for our country have been deserted by the Marine Corps and the rest of the military for that matter. Whether you are a Democrat or Republican, these are young men - mostly 18-22 years-old, many were in the middle of their second and third tour in Iraq, and frankly they deserved better.

Once again we see that according to liberals, there are good leaks and bad leaks. Why would high level officers feel the need to leak anything in this case? While I have not stated it in a long time, I repeat here that we all need to be reminded that the military is still a governmental bureaucracy. It may be one of the more tightly run, but it is still a bureaucracy. In such settings you have power grabs, a full spectrum of ideologies and ideas, and there is never full control over the organization.

Here we see that in spite of the sacrifices these boys have made with multiple volunteer tours in Iraq, they are being presumed guilty by some senior officers. The fact that these officers feel the need to leak information shows me that they are worried they have a weak case and are trying to shape public opinion ahead of time.

You may see or hear Terry on various news programs. He has come forward to try to show how our guys are being mistreated, as well as to let the rest of the world understand that these guys are heroes who were doing their jobs, and should not be dealt with worse than a Prisoner Of War would be treated.

Terry is their legal attorney. On Hewitt's show last night Hugh interviewed Mr. Pennington, Rob's father. He alluded to senior officers attempting to extract false confessions from these men. He stated that if the Gitmo prisoners were being treated like these marines are being treated, there would be an international outcry.

The Logic Lifeline has consistently extended the presumption of innocence to these marines. This is the way it should be. If in the sad case some of these boys are proven guilty, I will still be proud to have presumed them innocent. Upon being proven innocent those who have presumed guilt, however, will have taken a hit on their credibility and support for the troops that cannot be recovered.

Please go to Rob's website and see the details I have not added to this post. Also go to Pfc John Jodka's website (as previously listed). It takes a level head and strong bearings to navigate through the media barrage against our troops these days. Perhaps seeing these websites that represent real people and not vague ideologies will help some get back to basics such as the presumption of innocence.