I'm not sure what's more shocking:
that the U.S. Military has paid $2500 to each family of Haditha victim and we haven't heard a word aboiut this up until now or the fact that our government paid these people so little:
A lawyer who had several relatives among 24 Iraqis allegedly slain by U.S. Marines last fall and is representing kin of other victims complained in a videotape Saturday that American compensation paid to the families was inadequate.
Khaled Salem Rsayef also said U.S. officers accused him and other relatives of lying when they recounted the shootings in their first meeting with the military after the Nov. 19 deaths in the western town of Haditha. He did not say when they met.
How much did the families victims of the WTC terrorist attack get after their tragedy? Millions, hundreds of thousands of which came from our government. And there were 3,000 of them. I am not faulting the families of 9/11. But how in the world could the U.S. government put such a small price tag on these lives?
But perhaps worse: the government knows they're responsible. Otherwise they would never pay out even one cent.
Meanwhile this article also reports some of the other efforts to cover up this incident:
Rsayef, the lawyer, said that during the first meeting between families of the Haditha victims and U.S. military officers, the Americans told the families that the 24 deaths were caused by the roadside bomb and by "terrorists."
"We had a heated argument," he said.
He said the U.S. officers also said during the meeting that they had no objection to TV news teams visiting the Euphrates River town to report on the deaths.
"In reality, they did not make good on their promises and sealed off the town for a month after the shootings," said Rsayef, who had a brother and sister-in-law, an uncle, an aunt and several cousins among the 24 killed.
Despite blaming insurgents for the killings, the U.S. military gave the families $2,500 for each person killed in the incident about a month later, except for four brothers, all of fighting age, he said.
"When I received the compensation money, I found out that it was $2,500 for each victim," Rsayef said. "I told them that it's a small sum that does not match the magnitude of the disaster."
He noted that Libya's government paid millions of dollars in compensation to the families of the Lockerbie airline bombing victims. "Is American blood worth more than Iraqi blood?" he asked
Man, that $2500 is going to become a big problem, both in terms of P.R. and in terms of the fact that it shows that the U.S. knows it is culpable.