Lt. Pantano recklessly endangered the lives of his troops by allowing prisoners unsecured access to their vehicle. The USMC is not in the habit of rewarding officers who show lousy judgement.
Let me guess, if you were the Officer-in-Charge, you would have searched the vehicle yourself? The terroristd favorite method of killing people in Iraq is car bombs(and IED's). I guess this Lieutenant should have risked his own life to insure two terrorists weren't endangered.
How long did you serve in the military?
Think about this for a moment. Would you rather let a suicide bomber search the vehicle so he could denonate a possible bome and kill you and your men? Please, think this through. Suspected bad guys would be the last damn people you'd want to search the vehicle. Pantano's actions were criminally negligent at best.