The Marine Corps should drop murder charges against a lieutenant who fatally shot two Iraqi detainees during a search for a terrorist hideout, an investigating officer recommended in an opinion made public Friday.
Second Lieutenant Ilario Pantano, a former Wall Street trader who rejoined the Marines after the Sept. 11 attacks, did make "serious errors in tactical judgment," Lieutenant Colonel Mark Winn wrote in an opinion dated Thursday.
But he said key witnesses and evidence failed to back up the accusation that Pantano shot the detainees last year while they were kneeling with their backs to him.
Pantano is stationed at the Marine base, where his Article 32 hearing concluded April 30.
Winn recommended withdrawing most charges against Pantano, and said one charge -- that he desecrated the bodies by reloading his weapon and repeatedly shooting them -- should be referred for nonjudicial punishment.
Prosecutors alleged Pantano intended to make an example of the two detainees by shooting them 60 times and hanging a sign over their bodies -- "No better friend, no worse enemy," a Marine slogan.
"We must never allow ourselves to vacate the moral high ground under the guise of `sending a message to these Iraqis and others' in order to intimidate," Winn wrote. "As officers in the United States Military, it is our sacred obligation to teach our junior men what is moral and just in war, and what is not."
Military authorities may choose to accept Winn's recommendation, give some form of administrative punishment or go ahead with a court-martial.
Pantano's attorney, Charles Gittins, said the report showed no criminal charges should have been brought against his client.
"If it had been competently investigated by the criminal investigators, we wouldn't be where we are today," Gittins said, noting that Winn concluded one of the victims was not shot in the back by Pantano, as prosecutors alleged.
Pantano's mother, Merry Pantano of New York, said Friday the hearing officer "must have realized that the prosecution had no case. Their case just fell apart."
Referring to the recommendation that Pantano face nonjudicial punishment for repeatedly shooting the Iraqis, his mother said it appeared her son was being "reprimanded for so zealously killing the enemy."
Prosecutors allege that Pantano, 33, killed the suspected insurgents in April 2004 because he believed they were launching mortars at his troops.
Pantano never denied shooting the men, but said he acted in self-defense after the men disobeyed his instructions and made a menacing move toward him.
PHISHING: The con might appear convincing, as the scam e-mails can coincide with genuine messages from Apple saying you have run out of storage For a while you have been getting messages from Apple saying “your iCloud storage is full.” They say you have exceeded your storage plan, so documents are no longer being backed up, and photos you take are not being uploaded. You have been resisting Apple’s efforts to get you to pay a minimum of ￡0.99 (US$1.33) a month for more storage, but it seems that you cannot keep putting off the inevitable: You have received an e-mail which says your iCloud account has been blocked, and your photos and videos would be deleted very soon. To keep them you need
The Israeli military has demolished entire villages as part of its invasion of south Lebanon, rigging homes with explosives and razing them to the ground in massive remote detonations. The Guardian reviewed three videos posted by the Israeli military and on social media, which showed Israel carrying out mass detonations in the villages of Taybeh, Naqoura and Deir Seryan along the Israel-Lebanon border. Lebanese media has reported more mass detonations in other border villages, but satellite imagery was not readily available to verify these claims. The demolitions came after Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz called for the destruction of
A US YouTuber who caused outrage for filming himself kissing a statue commemorating Korean wartime sex slaves has been sentenced to six months in prison, a court in Seoul said yesterday. Johnny Somali, 25, gained notoriety several years ago for recording himself doing a series of provocative stunts in South Korea and Japan, and streaming them on platforms such as YouTube and Twitch. South Korean authorities indicted Somali — whose real name is Ramsey Khalid Ismael — in 2024 on public order violations and obstruction of business, and banned him from leaving the country. “The court has sentenced him to six months in
The death toll from a shooting in western Afghanistan rose to 11 on Saturday, after gunmen targeted civilians at a picnic spot in Herat, the provincial authority said. Bullet marks were visible on a wall of the Sayed Mohammad Agha Shia shrine, while bloodstains marked a blanket abandoned at the scene. “Eleven people have been recorded dead and eight others wounded from Friday’s incident, with the condition of two of the wounded reported as critical,” Herat’s information office said in a statement. The update raises a toll of seven killed provided on Friday by the Afghan Ministry of Interior Affairs
RSS