In January Congress confirmed retired general James Mattis as the new US Secretary of Defense.
The week before, Reveal, from the Center for Investigative Reporting, published an extensive investigation into Mattis, particularly focusing on the time he was Commanding General of Marines in the 2004 siege of Fallujah, in Iraq.
The battle is considered one of the bloodiest in the Iraq war, after which General Mattis was given the nickname ‘Mad Dog’. That’s according to Aaron Glantz, who was also in Fallujah at the time, as an unembedded journalist. Glantz sat down with KALW's Hana Baba to talk about his story, and what happened in Fallujah.
GLANTZ: Marines shot at ambulances, they shot at aid workers, and at the top of all that the commanding General of that whole operation was General Mattis.
Aaron Glantz is an investigative reporter at Reveal, from the Center for Investigative Reporting. His story is called “‘Did defense secretary nominee James Mattis commit war crimes in Iraq?"