Rep. John Murtha Sued

September 27, 2008 | By TonyfromOz |

While all eyes look at the First Debate, this report from the Johnstown PA Tribune Democrat came out this morning.

Democrat Rep John Murtha is being sued by a former US Marine, now honourably discharged. Justin Sharratt was one of the Marines charged with unpremeditated murder over the now well reported incident at Haditha. Sharratt is suing Murtha for slander over comments made by Murtha at the outset of the story breaking. The suit was filed in a Pittsburgh Federal Court on Thursday.

Here’s what Rep Murtha said in an extract from the Tribune story.

American soldiers, he contended, had killed innocent civilians “in cold blood.”

The report goes on to say:

It includes Murtha’s statements from nationally televised interviews in 2006, including an exchange during a CNN interview with anchor Wolf Blitzer.

“There was an (improvised explosive device) attack, it killed one Marine, and then they overreacted and killed a number of civilians without anybody firing at them,” Murtha told Blitzer.

Of the eight people charged over the incident, seven have come to trial so far and all have been exonerated, Sharratt among them.

The ex Marine says that one explosive statement from Murtha violated his presumption of innocence and the due process of law.

Rep Murtha could get away with what he said because he claims that all he brought the matter up for was to draw attention to the incident, and that he didn’t mention this Marine specifically by name, an obvious technicality. When the incident was investigated, this Marine, and the others names did come up, and the inference then was that this Marine was one of those men he was referring to.

It would seem to me that Rep Murtha, with no idea of what actually happened on the ground, saw this as a plan to score cheap political points against a decision made by a Republican President.

From the safety of his Office, he found the story of this incident, and then played it for all it was worth.

He needs to be called to answer for these explosive comments.

As a rich and well backed politician, he also has access to keep the matter tied up in the Courts for a long time, or until the guy he pointed the finger at runs out of money.

He can also claim that this is a political thing, the matter being raised to draw attention in the runup to the forthcoming election.

Sharratt has been exonerated, but quite obviously, rumour sticks, and people will always talk behind his back. Rep. Murtha can make that decision to say what he said, carefully thought out before he said it, and then claim context at a later date. It’s all well and good for the big guy to say something in a loud voice on the big stage, and get front page news. The little guy then struggles to fight against that machine, with no backing, and no voice, and no platform. When he does get exonerated, it’s shuffled away in the back pages.

This is another of those chances for Rep. Murtha to simply apologise, something that will never happen.

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Tagged with Haditha Marines, Justin Sharratt, Rep John Murtha |

Filed Under: Around Pennsylvania

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Comments

1 Comment so far

Tom on September 28, 2008 5:24
I can only hope that Sharrat succeeds. It’s about time that politicians like Murtha are held accountable for their words.

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