It was live on CNN, I saw it. Fresh from meeting President Bush at the White House, the new Iraqi ambassador went on CNN today and accused US troops of intentionally killing his cousin in Iraq without cause.
Let me try to explain how big a deal this is. This is the new Iraqi ambassador. Our stooge. He just met with Bush (our other stooge, but more in a Three Stooges kind of way). You just don't SAY things like this on CNN when you're the ambassador of a friendly country (especially a puppet country) and especially after you've just met the US president.
This is, as we say on AMERICAblog, rather huge. I think the Iraqi ambassador just Sister Souljah'd the US president to buttress the Iraqi government at home.
Here's the transcript from CNN.
BLITZER: But even months before the incident in November, you lost a cousin at Haditha in a separate battle involving United States Marines.(Hat tip to The Dan Report.)
SUMAIDAIE: Well, that was not a battle at all. Marines were doing house-to-house searches, and they went into the house of my cousin. He opened the door for them.
His mother, his siblings were there. He led them into the bedroom of his father. And there he was shot.
BLITZER: Who shot him?
SUMAIDAIE: A member of the Marines.
BLITZER: Why did they shoot him?
SUMAIDAIE: Well, they said that they shot him in self-defense. I find that hard to believe because, A, he is not at all a violent -- I mean, I know the boy. He was [in] a second-year engineering course in the university. Nothing to do with violence. All his life has been studies and intellectual work.
Totally unbelievable. And, in fact, they had no weapon in the house. They had one weapon which belonged to the school where his father was a headmaster. And it had no ammunition in it. And he led them into the room to show it to them.
BLITZER: So what you're suggesting, your cousin was killed in cold blood, is that what you're saying, by United States Marines?
SUMAIDAIE: I believe he was killed intentionally. I believe that he was killed unnecessarily. And unfortunately, the investigations that took place after that sort of took a different course and concluded that there was no unlawful killing.
I would like further investigation. I have, in fact, asked for the report of the last investigation, which was a criminal investigation, by the way.
[Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq] is aware of all the details, because he's kept on top of it. And it was he who rejected the conclusions of the first investigation. I have since asked formally for the report, but it's been nearly two months, and I have not received it.
