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An Honest Investigation Would Have Cleared Lieutenant Pantano in Iraq
Defend Our Marines ^ | March 11, 2007 | David Allender

Posted on 03/11/2007 3:38:43 PM PDT by RedRover

An Honest Investigation Would Have Cleared Lieutenant Pantano in Iraq (and Other Lessons for the Haditha Hearings)

Second Lieutenant Ilario Pantano was an outstanding Marine officer who did his job, including the hard business of killing the enemy, very well.

And then the government told him that he was a murderer.

On February 1, 2005, he was charged with premeditated murder and a host of other charges including dereliction of duty and damaging a terrorist’s car.

Not a single charge should have been made.

The lieutenant had shot and killed two detainees after they made a hostile move toward him. Lieutenant Pantano had warned them to stop in Arabic and English. An honest and fair investigation would have cleared Pantano and sent him back to his platoon.

Instead, a man (whose fitness report said was the best officer of his rank in the battalion) was disgraced, humiliated, and destroyed as a Marine. The emotional pain was greater than anything he’d experienced in combat. “This mental assault,” Lieutenant Pantano writes in his book, Warlord, “came from the NCIS.”

In April 2005, in an Article 32 hearing, Lieutenant Pantano’s lawyers proved that the government’s entire case was built on lies and distortions. The testimony against Lieutenant Pantano was purely vindictive, absolutely ludicrous, and easily demolished in the hearing by his defense attorneys.

The next month, Major General Richard Huck, dismissed all charges against him. With a straight face, the Public Affairs press release concluded, “The best interests of 2nd Lt. Pantano and the government have been served by this process.”

Oh, really?

Only our enemy was served when the government pulled an outstanding officer out of combat. Only our enemy was served when Lieutenant Pantano's men were intimidated and grilled—made to turn over their computers and journals—shaken down and second-guessed in the midst of ambushes, IEDs and mortar attacks.

The Pantano case should have been a devastating embarrassment for the NCIS, perhaps even causing them to reevaluate their methods and mission. Instead, the NCIS "motherf---ers" (as Lieutenant Pantano calls them) have continued their questionable practices in Haditha and other investigations.

Outrageously, the NCIS has even claimed that they helped clear Lieutenant Pantano.

After the final summations in the hearing, a belated autopsy report partially disproved a single prosecution contention.

The government had argued that the two terrorist detainees had been shot in the back. The report, made possible by the field work of a NCIS agent, showed that one detainee--not both--had been shot in the back.

NCIS' claim of helping to clear Pantano has served to cover the agency’s failings. In reality, the autopsy report wasn’t of tremendous significance.

It was the entire case, prepared by the NCIS, that fell apart under scrutiny.

Today, we are only ten days away from the first Article 32 in the Haditha Marines case. The first to get a hearing will be Lieutenant Colonel Jeffery Chessani, a Marine who served in the invasion of Panama in 1989 and the first Gulf War in 1991.

No matter the outcome of his Article 32, like Lieutenant Pantano, Lieutenant Colonel Chessani has been destroyed as a Marine.

This seems like a good time to review some lessons learned from the Pantano case.

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

During the Lieutenant Pantano investigation, a corpsman, “Doc” Gobles, was interviewed about the incident. Gobles was one of two witnesses so his testimony was especially valuable.

Gobles told the agent he glimpsed movement before the shooting began. He thought the detainees were trying to flee.

The agent told Gobles he was wrong.

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

The principal witness in the Pantano case was Sergeant Daniel Coburn. His fitreps showed him to be an unstable and unfit Marine whose 13-year career was about to be terminated.

Lieutenant Pantano had relieved Coburn as a squad leader. Others in his platoon heard Coburn say that he hated Pantano and wanted him out of the way. None of this gave the NCIS agents a moment’s pause in taking Coburn’s word that Pantano was a cold-blooded killer.

Coburn’s testimony was easily demolished in court. He was revealed as a fool and a liar under cross-examination. Investigators who were actually seeking the truth would have discovered this for themselves.

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

During the investigation in Iraq, NCIS agents were offered negative testimony about Sergeant Coburn and positive testimony about Lieutenant Pantano. Neither was accepted or included in the NCIS report.

This is an excerpt from Lieutenant Pantano’s Article 32 hearing:

[DEFENSE ATTORNEY CHARLIE] GITTINS: So you actually saw the two Iraqi individuals that were in the car; correct?

[SERGEANT JUDD] WORD: Yes.

GITTINS: And you saw them leaning against the wall initially?

WORD: Yes.

GITTINS: And then you saw them run to the vehicle?

WORD: Yes.

GITTINS: You personally saw that with your own two eyes?

WORD: Yes.

GITTINS: And then they got in the vehicle and they drove away?

WORD: Yes.

GITTINS: And what was your conclusion about what they were trying to do at that time?

WORD: They were trying to get out of there.

GITTINS: Would you want to go to combat with Lieutenant Pantano again?

WORD: I would go to combat with him any day.

GITTINS: Were you interviewed by NCIS before you gave your testimony at some other point?

WORD: Yes, I was, several times.

GITTINS: For how long did NCIS interview you?

WORD: One time, it was just a quick briefing. They just wanted to know about Lieutenant Pantano s character. And the second time they interviewed me, they wanted to go through the details of what happened that day.

GITTINS: When they interviewed you about Lieutenant Pantano’s character, did you tell them the things that you told me today?

WORD: Yes, I did.

GITTINS: Did they ask you to create a sworn statement at that time?

WORD: They asked me to. The NCIS guy said he was going to type it up and bring it back for me to sign, but he never did.

GITTINS: So he never brought you anything to sign?

WORD: No.

GITTINS: Did they ask any questions about Sergeant Coburn’s character?

WORD: No, they did not.

GITTINS: So all they wanted to know was about Lieutenant Pantano’s character?

WORD: Yes.

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

Away from his platoon (who would later suffer KIA, to the lieutenant’s helpless horror), Pantano describes what he felt:

I was sick in spirit, almost nauseous. I just couldn’t believe that after wasting those two f----s on the canal road this could possibly be happening. Was I supposed to let them kill me?

Now there were NCIS agents here to question my character? It hurt. It really hurt—worse than any physical pain I’d ever suffered. I had to turn in my M-16. They were taking it with them. And I wasn’t sure why. Something about tests. I felt stripped, weak, and naked without that weapon. It had saved my life in Latafiyah, all along the Zulu perimeter, and in Fallujah.

Now they’d seized it from me. What if there was a big QRF? What if my former platoon stepped deep into the ambush s--- and we had to send every spare Marine who could shoot a rifle to save them? What would I shoot?

The priceless irony of course was that the dirty, beat-up 9 mm Beretta pistol I was issued to replace my M-16 had come hot off the thigh of Lance Corporal Simental. The soft-faced boy, always quick to help, had kept Easy Company’s communications running until he had been blown up by an IED. He had lost his leg, so he wouldn’t be needing a pistol anymore.

It got worse. Back in the states, in the battalion XO’s office, Lieutenant Pantano read the charges against him. As he writes in Warlord:

The charges went on and on for two pages of articles 109, 118, and 133. Words like “... with premeditation, murder ... by means of shooting him with an M16A4 service rifle . . .”

I looked up, my eyes running with tears. I had to shake my head to clear the disbelief and went back to reading.

“... on or about 15 April 2004, willfully and wrongfully damage an automobile by slashing four (4) tires, smashing headlights and taillights, and smashing the rear window, of an aggregate value of less than $500.00.”

“Sir, they are charging me—” I had to take another breath. “They are charging me for disabling a bomber's car? Sir, they ... five hundred dollars ... Sir ... Do they. . . ?”

Another breath and an internal scramble to regain my composure.

“Sir, do they know how many Marines these things kill every day? What's happening here? Has anyone told them there is a war going on out there?”

My voice was now more outrage than disbelief.

“Ilario. I'm sorry.” [Major Dixon said]

Then he added, “Get a lawyer.”

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

The NCIS’ investigation of Lieutenant Pantano cost him his career and dragged a hero of the Iraq war through the mud. He and his family can never totally recover from it.

As Charlie Gittins said in his summation at the hearing, “The worst thing that could have happened to Lieutenant Pantano is that he was removed from his platoon. That was a punishment beyond words, because he was in combat with a platoon that loved him, that he loved, that he promised the families that he was going to bring their boys back.”

In the final analysis, the investigation and prosecution cost America an outstanding officer and Marine who was helping us win the war in Iraq.

The prosecution of the Haditha Marines multiplies that cost by eight.


David Allender

Defend Our Marines


TOPICS: Government; Military/Veterans
KEYWORDS: defendourmarines; haditha; ncis; pantano
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To: RedRover

bttt


21 posted on 03/11/2007 5:58:51 PM PDT by bmwcyle (It is time to stop the left at the wall.)
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To: Paul Ross
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.

22 posted on 03/11/2007 6:15:59 PM PDT by RedRover (Defend Our Marines!)
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To: RedRover; 1stbn27; 2111USMC; 2nd Bn, 11th Mar; 68 grunt; A.A. Cunningham; ASOC; AirForceBrat23; ...
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?

23 posted on 03/11/2007 6:18:57 PM PDT by freema (Marine FRiend, 1stCuz2xRemoved, Mom, Aunt, Sister, Friend, Wife, Daughter, Niece)
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To: freema

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.


24 posted on 03/11/2007 6:23:53 PM PDT by Marine_Uncle
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To: RedRover

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


25 posted on 03/11/2007 6:24:22 PM PDT by freema (Marine FRiend, 1stCuz2xRemoved, Mom, Aunt, Sister, Friend, Wife, Daughter, Niece)
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To: freema
...there will be a special place in heaven for you.

Yes, rejoicing with the frees.

26 posted on 03/11/2007 6:26:11 PM PDT by RedRover (Defend Our Marines!)
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To: freema

It is baffling.


27 posted on 03/11/2007 6:27:10 PM PDT by SuzyQue (Remember to think.)
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To: Marine_Uncle
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.

28 posted on 03/11/2007 6:30:28 PM PDT by RedRover (Defend Our Marines!)
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To: RedRover; acad1228; AliVeritas; aomagrat; beachn4fun; BIGLOOK; blackie; bluesagewoman; ...

BTTT and pinging a few friends.


29 posted on 03/11/2007 6:30:48 PM PDT by StarCMC (FR is a success, in spite of all...cats they've sacrificed ...demon gods they've prayed to. - Bryan)
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To: Paul Ross
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.

30 posted on 03/11/2007 6:33:22 PM PDT by Wallace T.
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To: RedRover

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


31 posted on 03/11/2007 6:34:14 PM PDT by freema (Marine FRiend, 1stCuz2xRemoved, Mom, Aunt, Sister, Friend, Wife, Daughter, Niece)
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To: StarCMC
Thanks, Star!


32 posted on 03/11/2007 6:35:14 PM PDT by RedRover (Defend Our Marines!)
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To: RedRover
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.
33 posted on 03/11/2007 6:40:29 PM PDT by Marine_Uncle
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To: SuzyQue

Isn't it.


34 posted on 03/11/2007 6:48:53 PM PDT by freema (Marine FRiend, 1stCuz2xRemoved, Mom, Aunt, Sister, Friend, Wife, Daughter, Niece)
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To: Marine_Uncle

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


35 posted on 03/11/2007 6:50:44 PM PDT by freema (Marine FRiend, 1stCuz2xRemoved, Mom, Aunt, Sister, Friend, Wife, Daughter, Niece)
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To: RedRover

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


36 posted on 03/11/2007 6:52:09 PM PDT by freema (Marine FRiend, 1stCuz2xRemoved, Mom, Aunt, Sister, Friend, Wife, Daughter, Niece)
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To: StarCMC

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


37 posted on 03/11/2007 6:54:43 PM PDT by Bahbah (.Regev, Goldwasser & Shalit, we are praying for you.)
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To: RedRover

Great writing, I wish it was fiction.


38 posted on 03/11/2007 6:56:57 PM PDT by lilycicero (Killing the Enemy Is Not Murder...........(visit my homepage))
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To: freema
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.

39 posted on 03/11/2007 7:00:03 PM PDT by RedRover (Defend Our Marines!)
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To: RedRover

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.""....


40 posted on 03/11/2007 7:10:22 PM PDT by Girlene
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