Marine Corps begins case against Pantano

April 27, 2005

2nd Lt. Ilario Pantano opens the courthouse door for his wife, Jill, at Camp Lejeune, N.C.

The pretrial hearing of 2nd Lt. Ilario Pantano opened yesterday with testimony from two government witnesses and a continued dispute over the investigating officer chosen by the Marine Corps to recommend whether the charges of premediated murder of two Iraqis should proceed to a court-martial.

Pantano, a platoon leader in the volatile Sunni Triangle last spring, insists he acted in self-defense against suspected insurgents after they attempted to drive away from a house where weapons were found. The Marine Corps — which presented two fellow officers at the Camp Lejeune, N.C., hearing — contends Pantano commited numerous violations of the Uniform Military Code and executed the Iraqis to send a message to the enemy.

Pantano’s civilian attorney, Charles Gittins, told WorldNetDaily he evaluated the opening session as “a net-zero day.”

“It didn’t go to prove anything other than [the Sunni Triangle] was a dangerous place,” he said.

Marine Corps spokesman Maj. Matt Morgan did not return WND’s call requesting comment.

The prosecution has said it plans over the next few days to offer more than 10 witnesses to prove Pantano disobeyed standard operating procedures.

Gittins expects the hearing to continue through Friday. After completion, investigating officer Maj. Mark Winn will have seven days to make a recommendation to Maj. Gen. Richard Huck, commander of the 2nd Marine Division.

Huck can decide Pantano’s fate regardless of the recommendation, which could be to dismiss the charges, proceed to a court-martial or handle it in some other way.

The defense has objected to the choice of Winn as investigating officer, arguing he has no legal experience and made disparaging remarks about defense counsel.

In Pantano’s unsuccessful request to bypass the pretrial, or Article 32, hearing and hold a court-martial, his defense team claimed the government was withholding key evidence and witnesses. The team argued only a military judge, with an understanding of the laws of evidence, can compel the prosecution to provide them with the material they need.

A staff judge advocate, Col. David Wunder, is serving as Winn’s legal adviser.

Gittins said Winn has ordered the prosecutor to provide some materials, “but the reasons that we waived the Article 32 hearing are not fully met.”

Nevertheless, he said, “if they are going to hold the game, we are going to play. We are taking it just as seriously as if we did not waive it.”

Gittins said, “I think the evidence is going to show that Lt. Pantano was a heroic and courageous officer who did his duty under difficult conditions and that it’s wrong to second-guess an officer placed in that position.”

One prosecution witness yesterday, First Lt. Samuel Cunningham, was positioned near Pantano’s platoon when the incident took place, April 15, 2004, near Mahmudiyah, Iraq, about 15 miles from Baghdad.

Pantano ordered the two Iraqis to strip their vehicle in case it was booby trapped.

Cunningham said he heard about 40 to 50 shots then monitored his radio in case Pantano’s men needed assistance, the Jacksonville Daily News reported.

Pantano told Cunningham 45 minutes later he killed two Iraqis and left a handwritten sign on the Iraqis’ vehicle saying, “No better friend no worse enemy,” a motto coined by Gen. James Mattis.

“I told him it was inappropriate, and he should go back and pick it up,” Cunningham said. “It’s like letting people know who’s responsible for doing it.”

But another witness — an intelligence- officer-in-training identified as Corporal O who translated the sign’s message into Arabic for Pantano — was asked during cross-examination how often he was asked to deliver a message similar to that one.

Corporal O, a native Nigerian who speaks French and Arabic, said that message was sent during every raid “to scare the people and keep our Marines safe,” the Jacksonville paper reported.

The officer said he talked to the two Iraqi men separately, and both denied they were insurgents.

But a Pantano attorney, Capt. Courtney Trombly, asked how often detained Iraqis denied they were insurgents.

“Every time, ma’am,” Corporal O said.

The officer did not see the shooting but heard the rounds being fired. He later arrived at the scene, finding it “weird” that the two dead men looked like they were on their knees and shot in the back.

Pantano contends the two men, Hamaady Kareem and Tahah Ahmead Hanjil, made a threatening move toward him after he gave them an order in Arabic to stop.

Shortly after arriving at the scene, Corporal O testified, Pantano stopped another vehicle and detained the two occupants, laborers, about 20 feet from the dead Iraqis.

“They were mad and scared,” said Corporal O, who noted it was at that point Pantano asked him to translate the phrase for the sign.

Pantano said, according to the corporal, “If any of them were to join the insurgency, the same thing was going to happen to them as those bodies.”

The prosecution asked Cunningham about the procedure used to search vehicles, the Daily News reported. The officer said he would never have two Iraqis search a vehicle at the same time, as Pantano did.

“It’s a safety issue,” he said. “It puts yourself at risk.”

Art Moore

Art Moore, co-author of the best-selling book "See Something, Say Nothing," entered the media world as a PR assistant for the Seattle Mariners and a correspondent covering pro and college sports for Associated Press Radio. He reported for a Chicago-area daily newspaper and was senior news writer for Christianity Today magazine and an editor for Worldwide Newsroom before joining WND shortly after 9/11. He earned a master's degree in communications from Wheaton College. Read more of Art Moore's articles here.

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