General Mattis has not made a decision to send the LtCol Chessani case to a court martial. The investigating officer has not yet written a recommendation.
During LtCol Chessani's Article 32, the IO (if you're hip to all this lingo) made statements that clearly signaled his intention to recommend a court martial.
Then the prosecutors asked that additional charges be added against Chessani.
This led to legal wrangling and to a new mini-Article 32 for the lieutenant colonel that is going on as I type. The last day, supposedly, is today.
As you say, it does seem that Gen Mattis is signaling a skepticism about the entire Haditha case. If the IO recommends that Chessani be tried at a court martial, Mattis may ignore the recommendation. Mattis ignored a recommendation in the Lt Phan case just recently.
Hope all that isn't too long-winded. It's hard to be succinct about all this, but I also don't want to put people to sleep trying to read more than they ever wanted to know!
Ok, I see. I know the military justice system works differently. If this case were in a civilian court, with the charges dropped against one defendant for lack of evidence the charges would be dropped against all the defendants. It’s just tough to think that the rest of these guys are going to have to go through Article 26 hearings when it’s already been decided so conclusively that the incident never happened. Thanks for explaining. With two sons in the Marine Corps I am following this case with anxiety.