I have looked into it, and I can't find anything that seems to say they are guilty.
They got one guy to flip by offering him a light punishment. After they had shackled these guys in tehir cells, that seems like an attractive offer. So he tells them what they want to hear.
We need to forget about punishing our troops for doing their jobs and kill the enemy. Get some of our artillery out of there, but send in more Special Forces. Kill al-Sadr and stamp out his army. Drive the terrorists back to their stronghold in the Triangle of Death and then bomb it back to the Stone Age (not a very long trip.)
After we've subdued the enemy and won, then we can worry about punishing our troops for any inappropriate actions if such punishment is merited and then we can make it policy that "when teh Iraqis stand up, we will stand down." But not until then. Until then, we have a war to win. Let's get the job done.
I aggree that we need to win this war decisively for our survival as a country. But that doesn't preclude making sure the rules of warfare are followed. I don't think that has ever changed in all the wars that we have fought. That's one of the big things that separates us from the wacko enemy.