An Honest Investigation Would Have Cleared Lieutenant Pantano in Iraq

Defend Our Marines ^ | March 11, 2007 | David Allender

[bmwcyle]

bttt

[RedRover]

This is a classic case of why I have lost a lot of respect for W and his top echelons. They really don't stand on core CONSTITUTIONAL principles.

Thank you for your post. Much food for thought. I had not looked at it from the angle before, and everything you say rings true.

[freema]

Lesson 1: NCIS investigators search for guilt, not for truth.

WHY?

Lesson 2: NCIS does not give a Marine the benefit of the doubt. Agents will, however, believe anything anyone says against a Marine.

WHY?

Lesson 3: NCIS reports are a one-sided story.

WHY?

Lesson 4: The NCIS is unfit to investigate Marines and evaluate their decisions in combat.

WHY?

Lesson 5: NCIS, and prosecutions based on their investigations, is not helping us win in Iraq.

WHY?

[Marine_Uncle]

Perhaps it will boil down to the early on idea to somehow appease the Iraqis, since Maliki and others demanded something be done. But as we can see, at this point 99% of the Iraqis probably could care less about the outcome. How many even are aware of the pre court martial proceedings.

[freema]

If I have any say so in the matter, there will be a special place in heaven for you.

[RedRover]

...there will be a special place in heaven for you.

Yes, rejoicing with the frees.

[SuzyQue]

It is baffling.

[RedRover]

Given the leaks (including some by "senior Marine officials"), I'd say the lessons have yet to be learned.

The impression I got from Warlord is that everyone in the UCMJ system is out to win--at any cost. Destroying the enemy, even if it's a fellow Marine, is the goal, not something to be avoided.

[StarCMC]

BTTT and pinging a few friends.

[Wallace T.]

The cases of the Pendleton Eight, Lt. Pantano, etc., are the military equivalent of the persecution of the Border Patrol agents in Texas. In both cases, the Administration is sending a message: if you become too effective in doing your job, you will be subject to prosecution. Thank God for the Internet, especially sites such as FR, which have brought both foreign and domestic cases to public attention and made Star Chamber proceedings more difficult to hide.

One has to wonder if this Administration wants victory in Iraq. This "nation building" strategy resembles our failed policy in Vietnam 35 years ago, where we tied the hands of our military and did not defeat the Communist enemy. We appear equally ineffectual against the radical Muslim enemy in 2007.

[freema]

Lesson #4

Corporal Michael Speer
Gunnery Sergeant Ronald Baum
Lance Corporal Andrew Zabrierek
Lance Corporal Brian Kelly
Lance Corporal Nicholas Morrison
Corporal Christopher Belchik
______________________________________________

2nd Lieutenant James J. Cathey
Private First Class Shane M. Cabino
Corporal Nicholas O. Cherava
Lance Corporal Jason L. Frye
Lance Corporal Patrick B. Kenny
Staff Sergeant Richard T. Pummil
Lance Corporal Andrew D. Russoli
Lance Corporal Steven W. Szwydek
Lance Corporal Kenneth J. Butler
Corporal Benny G. Cockerham III
Hospitalman 3rd Chris "Doc" Thompson
Captain Tyler B. Swisher
Sergeant Michael P. Hodshire
Lance Corporal Nicholas D. Schiavoni
Lance Corporal Tyler J. Troyer
Sergeant Sean H. Miles

[RedRover]

Thanks, Star!

[Marine_Uncle]

If your impression turns out to be the reality of the case, then it sure seems like we got some real bozos in those ranks.
In any case. I gotta hit the rack. Had to work till 11PM last night, then had to go in early today. I am beat.
Have a great day what remains of it.

[freema]

Isn't it.

[freema]

It's all surreal. Sleep tight, don't let the jihadis bite.

[freema]

{{{{{{{{Red}}}}}}}}}

[Bahbah]

My suggested answer to this problem is that you don't get to be JAG unless you have been in combat with a unit.

[lilycicero]

Great writing, I wish it was fiction.

[RedRover]

Aw, ma, your post made my screen go all watery!

May God grant those good men His most perfect peace and joy forever and ever.

[Girlene]

Here's what a Navy prosecutor/defender said NIS (NCIS) which relates to your Lesson #3: NCIS Reports are a one-sided story

From USNews.com, link http://www.usnews.com/usnews/culture/articles/921109/archive_018611_5.htm

...."NIS targets from admirals to seamen complain that agents often make up their minds in advance about a person's guilt or innocence, then build a case to support their theories. "What they do," says Dan Hyatt, a decorated Navy enlisted man who rejoined the service in 1981 as a prosecutor and a defender, "is they interview 15 people. And if the potential witnesses have something favorable to say, they won't reduce it to a sworn statement; they will just produce a memo that the person has nothing to offer. So you end up with a pile of evidence on a guy that does not have anything favorable in it, and people are accused where they should never be accused in the first place.""....