An Atrocity of War Goes Unpunished
Reveal
The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX
4.7 • 8K Ratings
🗓️ 8 March 2025
⏱️ 52 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In November 2005, a group of US Marines killed 24 civilians in Haditha, Iraq. The case against them became one of the most high-profile war crimes prosecutions in US history—but then it fell apart. Only one Marine went to trial for the killings, and all he received was a slap on the wrist. Even his own defense attorney found the outcome shocking.
“It's meaningless," said attorney Haytham Faraj. “The government decided not to hold anybody accountable. I mean, I don't know, I don't know how else to put it.”
The Haditha massacre, as it came to be known, is the subject of the current season of The New Yorker’s In the Dark podcast and this week’s episode of Reveal. Reporter Madeleine Baran and her team spent four years looking into what happened at Haditha and why no one was held accountable. They also uncovered a previously unreported killing that happened that same day, a 25th victim whose story had never before been told.
Photos from this story, as well as a searchable database of military war crimes, can be found at newyorker.com/season-3.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, my name is Lou, and I have donated to Reveal for the last 10 years because they deeply research important stories that no one else covers, |
| 0:09.4 | and they report them with clarity, style, personality, and musical backup. |
| 0:14.3 | To support the next 10 years of Reveal, please donate today. |
| 0:18.4 | Just visit RevealNews.org slash anniversary. That's RevealNews.org |
| 0:24.3 | slash anniversary. Thank you. From the Center for Investigative Reporting in PRX, this is Reveal. |
| 0:32.2 | I'm Al Lettsin. Three years ago, investigative reporter Madeline Barrett traveled to Iraq to talk to a man |
| 0:40.3 | who'd survived a terrible tragedy during the Iraq War. |
| 0:44.3 | Hello. |
| 0:45.3 | Good morning. |
| 0:46.3 | No, no, no, no. |
| 0:49.3 | Khalid Salman Receif lives in the town of Hadifa. |
| 0:55.0 | On a November morning in 2005, a convoy of U.S. Marines was driving through his neighborhood |
| 1:01.0 | when an IED exploded under one of their Humvees. |
| 1:05.0 | One Marine, Lance Corporal Miguel Tarazas, was killed. |
| 1:10.0 | Two other Marines were seriously injured. |
| 1:13.2 | What happened next was a troubling chapter in the Iraq War, |
| 1:17.2 | and a warning, this story describes acts of violence |
| 1:20.6 | that may disturb some listeners. |
| 1:25.6 | After the bombing, several U.S. Marines opened fire on Iraqi civilians. |
| 1:30.3 | They entered houses and killed Khalid's sister, his aunt, his uncle, his four-year-old nephew, and more people too. |
| 1:38.3 | Their deaths were part of what became known as the Haditha Massacre, the killing of 24 civilians. |
| 1:47.0 | In a war filled with horrors, this was one of the most shocking, |
... |
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