Thaer Thabet

Thaer Thabet al-Hadithi, 43, is an Iraqi, a native of Haditha, and founder of the two-man Hammurabi Human Rights Group. The day after a squad of US Marines allegedly killed 24 Iraqi civilians after an improvised explosive device detonated by insurgents killed Lance Corporal Miguel Terrazas, Thabet, who claimed to live around 100 yards away from the original IED blast in Haditha, videotaped the scene. He then shared his tape four months later with Time Magazine, which prompted them to write a story on the incident. This in turn has spurred several US and Iraqi administrative and criminal investigations into what is now known as the Haditha killings.

According to the recently declassified testimony of Capt. Jeffery Dinsmore, the battalion intelligence officer monitoring the days events, al-Hadithi and his associate Ali Omar Abrahem al-Mashhadan, a Reuters News Service reporter, who together constituted the entirety of the "Hammurabi Human Rights Group" had been previously identified by battalion command as known insurgent propagandists. In fact, al-Mashhadan had spent several months in US custody on suspicion of insurgent activity. Marine intelligence officers were aware of their activities because their frequent cellular telephone conversations had been monitored. Hadithi, who was the source behind Tim McGirk's original Time Magazine article which brought the incident to light, falsely presented himself as a "budding journalism student" (appropriately also the title of McGirk's piece.) Hadithi also attempted to claim that his group was affiliated with Human Rights Watch. After Human Rights Watch denied having any connection or ties with Hammurabi Human Rights Group, Time Magazine was forced to write a retraction.

Time's McGirk has refused to testify at the Marines' article 32 hearing.