Friday, April 25, 2008

What? Now? The Hadnott Case Resurfaces

After a month and a half, charges.

This is beyond bizarre.
U.S. Marine Charged With Rape of 14-Year-Old in Japan
Fox News

TOKYO — The U.S. military in Japan says it has charged a Marine with raping a 14-year-old girl in Okinawa.

The military said Friday it charged Staff Sgt. Tyrone L. Hadnott earlier in the week in the alleged Feb. 10 attack.

No date has been set for the court-martial.

Japanese police initially apprehended Hadnott in the attack, but released him after the girl dropped charges. U.S. authorities then investigated the case under the strict military justice code...
Wow...does not even cover this.

Later - OK, the host nation support bill ("the sympathy budget" - omoiyari yosan) bill did fail in the House of Councillors this morning--meaning that two-thirds of the House of Representatives needs vote for the bill later--but I am not going to go all conspiracy theorist over this news flash--if it turns out to be factually correct.

My first question is procedural--how was it possible for the U.S. military to charge Hadnott with rape "earlier in the week" and not reveal the action until Friday? Or was the announcement held off until after the failure of the host nation support bill made it pointless to delay the announcement further?

Timing, timing, timing...is everything.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The military is a sham outfit.
Lie after lie, and rape after rape.
Our military lies to parents (Pat Tillman), and lies to soldiers.
They ask their leaders to lie and cover up.
Bush is an idiot, and the war is NOT being won.
Heroes?
More like morons.
Just watch some of the soldier's videos on Youtube.
Ask people who have been in Iraq.
What a mess everything is in, and your tax dollars support it all.
Stupid!
No wonder why so many people around the globe laugh at us.

George Vreeland Hill

Anonymous said...

The war is being won, it's just not being won by the American or Iraqi publics.

Oh well, what's left of the American Empire is going to be a mess when it collapses. It may make the fall of the Soviet Union look mild by comparison.

One thing about the Hadnott case, though: it just seems strange how it comes out in this way. Almost as though this was known way earlier and a deal was cut.