[RedRover]

The 2nd Lt Nathan Phan hearing has been a fascinating offshoot to the Hamdania case. Fascinating because it has revealed grave flaws within the NCIS before the trials of the remaining Hamdania Marines and the Haditha Marines has begun.

Two related threads:

NCIS investigative methods come under fire over prosecution of Marine lieutenant

Accused Marine's hearing resumes Friday

[RedRover]

PING!

By the way, The North County Times (whose coverage of the hearings at Pendleton has been superb), serves an intelligent and informed readership. Check out the reader comments sometime.

Let jazusamo or me know if you want on the Haditha Marine Ping List.

[onyx]

Lord have mercy.

[yoe]

2nd Lt Nathan Phan's 'hearing' doesn't pass the smell test. Higher up hand prints all over this...i.e., United States Senate and John Warner. Eating our own is becoming a way of life for the Politically Correct. Phan and his lawyers need our letters and we need to contact our elected about this. Iraq is not a Sunday School picnic, it is war. Tying the hands of our warriors and giving the enemy the upper hand is de rigueur…a similar situation is that of the Border Guards, the court took the word of an illegal alien drug smuggler rather than the guards.

Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis needs to clean this up by firing Pigott and give Phan a new 'hearing'.

[lilycicero]

I love how you start my day off with a PING.
WOW is all I can muster.

[xzins]

Good info.

I totally agree that the interrogations should be recorded. It was so bad at one of the posts I was stationed at that the Battalion Commander called all the troops together and simply told them that they were idiots ever to talk to CID, and double idiots for waiving their rights.

He said, "Listen to what they're saying, They 'can and WILL' use anything you say...That's not just something they have to read. They're making you a promise."

There's something wrong that some lieutenant, probably in his 20's, is going to face 20+ years in prison because we stuck them in a hot zone, left them on their own, and then came back to 2d guess them. It is an amazing thing to me.

[jazusamo]

If you would like to help with the civilian lawyer’s legal fees for the
Haditha Marines you can do so by going to these sites.

Defend Our Marines

Marine Defense Fund

[RaceBannon]

This is a taste of what I was talking about.....

[AliVeritas]

ping

[freema]

An attorney for a Marine lieutenant charged with assaulting three Iraqis last year is alleging that a hearing officer violated his client's right to a fair hearing.

David Sheldon contends that actions and comments made by Lt. Col. William Pigott during an Article 32 hearing on Camp Pendleton that ended Sunday were unprecedented in his 16 years as a defense attorney handling dozens of military cases.

Pigott presided over a four-day hearing for 2nd Lt. Nathan P. Phan, a 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment platoon commander charged with assaulting Iraqi civilians during efforts to obtain information about insurgent activity in the village of Hamdania.

Pigott, who served as the hearing officer, will write a report to Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis sometime next month as to whether he believes Phan should be court-martialed. Mattis is the convening authority over the case as commander of Marine Corp Forces Central Command and the I Marine Expeditionary Force.

Sheldon, a Washington-based attorney and former U.S. Navy lieutenant, has written a two-page memo to Pigott addressing what he contends were improper actions.

[shield]

bttt