Initially, the US marines issued a statement saying that a roadside bomb had killed 15 civilians, while eight insurgents had been killed in a later gunbattle.

US military officials have since confirmed the 15 civilians were actually shot dead.

So, do you think Iman Walid might be asked to testify before U.S. Congress, like Nayirah, the 15-year-old Kuwaiti girl who told Congress that 312 premature babies had died after Iraqi soldiers threw them from their incubators, testimony which led directly to the first Gulf War? No, I shouldn't think so.

But forget about Congress. Here's the thing about the testimony of these two young girls. The Haditha massacre did receive fairly extensive coverage in the U.S. press -- for one day. And that coverage, although some of it, like the major TIME article, was pretty damning, all has a certain "he-said, she-said" nature to it. After all, the "military is investigating" (yes, that would be the same military that we know for sure lied about the incident initially). But when Nayirah gave her testimony to Congress, it was repeated over and over again, day after day. None of the coverage hinted at the slightest doubt about the testimony, even in the face of certain non-credible aspects (such as the improbably precise claim about 312 bodies). Much later, it was learned that Nayirah was the daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador to the U.S., a complete fraud, and the simplest investigation (asking real nurses in the maternity ward in question) revealed that the incident had never happened. But none of the American media chose to do such simple followup at the time. And even after those facts were known, HBO ran a docudrama in 2002 (!!) which presented the story as true.