I have purposely kept quiet on the alleged massacre that occurred in Haditha November 19th 2005. Today while checking Brainster as I do most everyday I came across this link. I always give US forces the benefit of the doubt and presume their innocence until proven guilty but I must admit all of the press accounts, and even cautious words of numerous elected officials including President Bush led me to believe that something went badly wrong that day.

Now Clarice Feldman’s piece in the American Thinker has convinced me there is a lot more to this story and again gives me hope that our Marines were set up and did not commit the horrible crimes they are accused of.

The piece begins:

Evidence accumulates of a hoax in Haditha. The weblog Sweetness & Light has done an estimable service gathering together the articles which cast substantial doubt on the charge of a massacre of civilians at Haditha . Because the blog is too busy gathering and fisking the news, I offered and the publisher accepted my offer to put what he has uncovered in a narrative form.

Having done so, I can tell you that the story has a whiff of yet another mediagenic scandal like the TANG memos or the Plame “outing.” While the Marines quite correctly will not comment on the case pending the outcome of their investigation, I am not bound by those rules, and I will sum up the story for you.

and here is the conclusion:

The sum and substance of this thumbnail sketch on the Haditha claims is that it follows so closely the template for the TANG and Plame stories. Take a reporter with an anti-Administration agenda, an interested group (think of the Mashhadanis as the VIPS in the Plame case or Burkett and Lucy Ramirez in the TANG case) and a story too good to be checked and circumstances where the people attacked are limited in what they can quickly respond to and you get a story which smells to me like it will soon be unraveled.

This time, I’m betting the consequences to the press which rushed to judgment will be more disastrous than it was to Dan Rather. I surely hope so.

Due to numerous inconsistencies, at the very least the credibility of these witnesses has to be questioned. Once again the MSM and specifically TIME has done a horrendous job of journalism and no matter the final result of the investigation done irreversible harm to our country. No matter who is lying, many will always believe our Marines murdered these people. In fairness the formal investigation could come to that conclusion. But the press has violated their responsibility to only report well checked facts and not rumors and allegations from partisans with questionable motives. Shame on them for it.

Now go read the whole thing and follow the links to Sweetness & Light, and The Riehl World View. Once again blogs have come up with far more facts and acted far more professionally than the Tim McGirk and his colleagues at TIME.

***Update***
Hot Air reminds my why I had such a bad feeling about these reports in the first place and points out some things that Ms. Feldman overlooked.

The point is this: CBS got hoaxed on Rathergate because it wanted to believe the memos were real. The story, as Feldman says, was too good to check. But it’s not just the media that’s driving this one; it’s also the military, to the tune of two separate investigations. They have every reason not to want to believe there’s something to it — but, judging from outward appearances, they do.

The Strata-Sphere is as angry with the MSM as I am:

What we need is an investigation into the news media for allowing themselves or knowingly participating in this lie and slander against our troops. Anyone who knew there were issues with the people making claims should be called to explain why they hid these issues from us. It is time to demand minimal standards from the media and then challenge them when they cannot meet these standards. And if they cannot meet these standards, then they cannot be treated with any special priveleges by our government that we the people provide to the media.

Blue Crab Boulevard urges caution on all sides:

There is an investigation underway right now. It must be completed. Speculating about what really happened one way or the other is like standing on the edge of a precipice. One wrong step and you’re over the edge of credibility.

Wizbang offers good advice as well and has a link to this Reuters report.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A Presbyterian minister who was an embedded reporter with his son’s U.S. Marine company, which is accused of killing 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha, said soldiers in private moments gave no indication anything horrible happened in the town.

“I would think that if it was as bad as everybody is making it out to be, I’d have heard something about it when I was there,” said the Rev. Ben Mathes, 53, whose son, 1st Lt. Adam Mathes, is Kilo company’s executive officer.

The sickest commentary I have found comes from lefty blogger Tbogg in his post titled The Kerning of Haditha he had this to say:

Wow. These people are desperate.

Of course, they fail to mention that Bush did skip out on his TANG obligation regardless of the memo, an indictment was handed down against Scooter Libby and soon to be others, and the Pentagon does seem to believe Marines went wild at Haditha.

For the Right Wing, every scandal has a grassy knoll conspiracy theory.

Wow is right. These men deserve the benefit of the doubt at least until the investigation has been completed.