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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
So, freema, who are all these guys?
The NCIS has been criticised so harshly that I'm amazed reforming it has never gained traction. I'm sure the NCIS performs many useful tasks as the Navy and Marine Corps HR Dept./police force. But these guys do not belong in combat zones.
Regarding your earlier post, no, the NCIS never claimed that Pantano confessed. But apparently, they did claim he changed his story (not true) and was arrogant (where have we heard that lately?)
KIA, 2nd Marine Division, April 2004-January 2006.
Thankyou for the info and may God bless their families.
How many of our war fighters will the NCIS pull off of the front line for no rational reason before the concept of "offering direct aid to the enemy" starts to sink in?
If an organization set about blowing up vehicles, even if no one was wounded, and delayed soldiers or created logistics problems, they'd be enemy...
But, an organization can take our fighting men off the front line at will by manufacturing evidence, lying under oath, falsifying testimony, etc etc all apparently in adherence to enemy propaganda and they are not enemy?
If you go on the NCIS website, you'll see that they go after petty (and not so petty criminals) on bases here in the states. That serves a real use.
But to send these guys into an Iraq warzone, yammering about around the "laws of war", is itself a crime.
They seem to operate in a very nebulous area of accountability, and have done so for a long time.
I'm not even sure who would have a true oversight role of the NCIS to hold them accountable for any abuses of authority or things like forced confessions, etc.
Unlike the JAG Corps,they are not Navy, nor are they military.
Thank you once again for a very interesting article and for keeping the Haditha Marines in the minds and hearts of all. You will never know how much all of this is appreciated. With Article 32 hearings already scheduled we need to keep up to date on all happenings.
BTTT
We're on the job here 24/7, Mom. Keep the faith!
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Subject: Semper Fi
The Commandant of the Marine Corps was General Al Gray, a crusty old "Field Marine." He loved his Marines and often slipped into the mess hall wearing a faded old field jacket without any rank insignia on it. He would go through the chow line just like a private. (In this way, assured of being given the same rations that the lowest enlisted man received. And, woe be it to the mess officer if the food was found to be "unfit in quality or quantity.)
Upon becoming Commandant, General Gray was expected to do a great deal of "formal entertaining," fancy dinner parties in full dress blue uniform. Now, the general would rather have been in the field eating cold "C-rats" around a fighting hole with a bunch of young "hard charging" Marines. But the General knew his duty, and as a Marine he was determined to do it to the best of his ability.
During these formal parties a detachment of highly polished Marines from "Eighth and Eye" (Marine Barracks located at 8th and I Streets in Washington, D.C., home of the Silent Drill Team) were detailed to assume the position of "parade rest" at various intervals around the ballroom where the festivities were being held.
At some point during one of these affairs, a very refined, big-chested, blue-haired lady picked up a tray of pastry and went around the room offering confections to the guests. When she noticed these Marines in dress blues, standing like sculptures all around the room, she was moved with admiration.
She knew that several of these men were fresh from our victory in Desert Storm. She made a beeline for the closest Lance Corporal, drew near him and asked, "Would you like pastry young man?"
The young Marine snapped to "attention" and replied, "I don't eat that sh*t, Ma'am." Just as quickly, he resumed the position of "parade rest." His gaze remained fixed on some distant point throughout the exchange.
The fancy lady was completely taken aback! She blinked, her eyes widened, her mouth dropped open. So startled was she that she immediately began to doubt what she had heard. In a quivering voice she asked, "W-W-What did you say?"
The Marine snapped back to the position of "attention" (like the arm of a mousetrap smacking it's wooden base). Then he said, "I don't eat that sh*t, Ma'am." And just as smartly as before, back to the position of "parade rest" he went.
This time, there was no doubt. The fancy lady immediately became incensed, and felt insulted. After all, here she was an important lady, taking the time to offer something nice to this enlisted man (well below her station in life), and he had the nerve to say THAT to HER! She exclaimed, "Well! I never...!"
The lady remembered that she had met "that military man in charge of all these 'soldiers' earlier. She spotted General Gray from across the room. He had a cigar clenched between his teeth and a camouflaged canteen cup full of bourbon in his left hand. He was talking to a group of 1st and 2nd Lieutenants. So blue haired lady went straight over to the Commandant and interrupted.
"General, I offered some pastry to that young man over there. And, do you know what he told me?"
General Gray cocked his eyebrow, took the cigar out of his mouth and said, "Well, no Ma'am, I don't."
The lady took in a deep breath, confident that she was adequately expressing with her body language her considerable rage and indignation. As she wagged her head in cadence with her words, and she paused between each word for effect, "He said, 'I - don't- eat - that - sh*t - Ma'am!'"
The lieutenants were in a state of near apoplexy A couple of them choked back chuckles, and turned their heads to avoid having their smirks detected.
The next thought that most of them had was, "God, I hope it wasn't one of MY Marines!" and the color left their faces.
General Gray wrinkled his brow, cut his eyes in the direction of the lieutenants, put his free hand to his chin and muttered a subdued, "Hummm. Which one did you say it was Ma'am?," the General asked.
"That tall sturdy one right over there near the window, General," the woman said with smug satisfaction.
One of the lieutenants began to look sick and put a hand on the wall for support.
General Gray, seemed deep in thought, hand still to his chin, wrinkled brow. Suddenly, he looked up and his expression changed to one indicating he had made a decision. He looked the fancy lady right in the eyes and said, "Well, f**k him! Don't give him any."
Classic!!
LOL!! Priceless.
Lots of us are working like mad to try and even the odds for these Marine by helping see that they have the best defense. Faith in the system is not an option.
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