Marine sues Murtha for Hadithah comments
By Ramesh Santanam - The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Sep 26, 2008 18:00:52 EDT
PITTSBURGH — A former Marine lance corporal sued Rep. John Murtha for slander Thursday, saying the Pennsylvania Democrat damaged his reputation by saying Marines killed women and children “in cold blood” in Hadithah, Iraq, in November 2005.
The federal lawsuit claims Murtha violated Justin Sharratt’s rights to due process and presumption of innocence with comments on various news shows in May 2006. Sharratt, who was honorably discharged last year, said he received hate e-mails and has been called “baby killer” when he has gone out in Canonsburg, about 15 miles south of Pittsburgh.
“Sharratt, in being labeled repeatedly by Murtha as a ‘cold-blooded murderer,’ and by Murtha outrageously claiming that the Hadithah incident was comparable to the infamous (My Lai) massacre of Vietnam, has suffered permanent, irreversible damage to his reputation,” the lawsuit states. American service members killed as many as 504 Vietnamese villagers in the My Lai massacre.
Military prosecutors have said 24 Iraqis, including women and children, were killed in Hadithah on Nov. 19, 2005, after one Marine was killed and two others wounded by a roadside bomb. Murtha, a former Marine and decorated Vietnam War veteran, blamed the killings on troops under too much pressure in Iraq.
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