[jazusamo]

Thanks for that link, Smooth. That's a very balanced article from the NYT, amazing. That's what should have been released by the military from the beginning instead of many different statements.

Happy to see that one attorney stated that Panetta should just "shut up" and that unlawful command influence was brought up.

One issue that could loom large in the case is the risk that statements by those higher in the chain of command can have a prejudicial effect on members of the court-martial, a problem known as unlawful command influence.

The last third of the article is especially good.

[Girlene]

Thanks for pointing that out (UCI). Panetta thought it was “likely” there was a confession? I missed that statement from Panetta. Bales’ lawyer sure doesn’t make it sound like he confessed, or if he did, he doesn’t remember it.

[smoothsailing]

Happy to see that one attorney stated that Panetta should just "shut up" and that unlawful command influence was brought up.

The lawyer is right but it's too late. Panetta's been running his mouth alot. We've already got the taint of possible UCI. Add to that Panetta's total disregard for the presumption of innocence inherent in the UCMJ. Another damn Murtha.

“He went out in the morning, early morning, and went to these homes and fired on these families and then at some point after that came back to the forward operations base and basically turned himself in, told individuals what had happened,” Panetta said.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2012/03/afghanistan-leon-panetta-death-penalty.html