I'm troubled by the allegations about what happened in Haditha last November. Because the military is still investigating and has not started a court case, I don't have access to enough information to say what I believe happened, although the military has released some information ("Among the pieces of evidence that conflicted with the marines' story were death certificates that showed all the Iraqi victims had gunshot wounds, mostly to the head and chest").

However, we do have enough information regarding the death of a Palestinian in 2000 (in Gaza, no this is not related to Iraq in any way).

A French television network (France-2) broke the story and ran the footage. It shows a man and a boy in Gaza, taking shelter behind a "concrete barrel or culvert." ...

The father shields the boy; ... and when the dust clears, the boy is stretched out at his father's feet. ...

That was the initial narration. Later, ... [w]e learn that, under oath, the cameraman ... "alleged that Israeli soldiers had intentionally, in cold blood, murdered the boy and wounded the father." ...

Yet there were problems with the story from the start. [I]nvestigators went to the fort, checked out where the film showed that Jamal and Muhammad were when the boy was killed, and concluded that the shots that killed him could not have come from the Israelis, because there was no direct line of sight -- or bullets -- from the Israeli position that could have reached them. ...

Five years later, the hidden details did come out in America. ... Because, you see, there is other footage taken that day by other camera crews -- including France-2 itself. ... Footage that reveals that the entire event was faked from beginning to end. There was a real demonstration that day, near the Israeli position. But back around the corner, where the Israelis could not see -- or shoot -- there was a staging area for fakery. The cameras could pan from the faked scene to the real Israeli outpost, but what the viewer could not see was that the Israelis could not have seen what was going on. ...

The footage of the real events indicates that Palestinians threw rocks and Molotov cocktails and even dropped burning tires down on the Israeli position (to no effect, because the position was well protected). And through all of this provocation, the Israelis did not react militarily at all. They did not fire. They did not use tear gas. They just watched.

But around the corner, behind an abandoned factory, Palestinians who worked for major networks as their stringers and cameramen were filming fake battle scenes. It was like a Hollywood set. UN and Red Crescent ambulances load up fake casualties and take them away. ...

Not only that, but [the] satellite feed [transmitted to France] includes a shot of the "dead" boy "shifting position, propping himself up on his elbow, shading his eyes with his hand, rolling over on his stomach, covering his eyes."

I'm not suggesting that the Iraqis staged Haditha. I am suggesting that I won't call them guilty until I have more information to go on.