Army charged group of Rangers in deaths to keep reprimand quiet for decorated officer, commander allowed his own men to take the fall

Explosive new info in the Iron Triangle Case in the NYT this morning showing that not only did the Army already handle the four Iraqi deaths that the Rangers are charged with, they reprimanded the commander for them and ended his career. The commander, Col. Michael Steele, knowing he had already been punished for the incident, still allowed his men to be charged with murder and imprisoned.

No charges have been filed against Colonel Steele in the Army’s continuing investigation. But two Defense Department officials said last week that Colonel Steele was formally reprimanded in the summer by Lt. Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli, the former commander in Iraq, for not reporting the deaths and other details of the raid. The action was not made public.

The Army had already reprimanded the commander for acting on bad intel about the region being a terrorist training camp. They were well aware that the Rangers had done exactly what they were told: Go into a hostile area and take out the bad guys. The problem was, Steele was wrong, and the area was not a terrorist training camp.

The military’s administrative investigation into Colonel Steele centered on how he communicated the rules of engagement, the instructions that all soldiers must follow to determine whether they may legally use lethal force against an enemy, to his soldiers before the raid.

Steele told his men to “kill all military-age males,” and had the Rangers complied to the letter, there would be a lot more dead than there were.

The colonel improperly led his soldiers to believe that distinguishing combatants from noncombatants — a main tenet of the military’s standing rules of engagement — was not necessary during the May 9 mission, according to a classified report in June by Brig. Gen. Thomas Maffey, a deputy commander tapped by General Chiarelli to investigate Colonel Steele. “A person cannot be targeted on status simply by being present on an objective deemed hostile by an on-scene commander,” General Maffey wrote in his June 16 report. […]

Although the colonel’s “miscommunication” of the rules contributed to the deaths of four unarmed Iraqis, General Maffey wrote, formal charges were not warranted “in light of his honest belief of the correctness of the mission R.O.E.” The general recommended that Colonel Steele be admonished, a lesser punishment than the formal reprimand he eventually received. […]

…the assault occurred without encountering any hostile fire, and the soldiers found only unarmed men, women and children. Only excess caution by Colonel Steele’s troops spared the Iraqi civilians from being shot, General Maffey wrote in his report. […]

After the Army had reprimanded Steele and buried the whole affair, PFC Bradley Mason, desperate to get out of Iraq and go home, came to his command with a story, claiming that “detainees” had been murdered by other Rangers. Even though Mason’s story was easily proven to be a lie (and he himself has told five different versions of the events, all of which vary widely), the Army now had a problem. The incident Mason described happened on May 9th, on the same day–and in the same operation–that Col. Steele had been reprimanded for. In other words, the Army’s secret was about to come out, even though Steele had told his junior officer not to report any findings to the division commander until he returned from leave.

After the raid, several soldiers noticed blindfolds and plastic handcuffs on the bodies of three of the men who were killed. Colonel Steele testified that he ordered a junior officer to begin an investigation into the deaths but to avoid reporting any findings to the division commander until the colonel returned from leave a few weeks later.

The Army, knowing they had already dealt with this episode, suddenly pronounced Mason, a well-documented “problem troop” with severe disciplinary issues, a credible witness and started arresting members of the unit in an effort to keep the “unreleased” disciplinary action against Steele quiet. Steele was reassigned to an admin post at Fort McPherson, GA, where he’ll “work in the unit responsible for Army operations and training, including developing methods of teaching soldiers how to handle enemy detainees, an Army spokesman said.”

With the typical tactics used by military prosecutors and investigators, the accused were denied many basic things in the prison, including blankets, mail, and sometimes food. Meanwhile, Col. Steele was granted immunity and retained Alan Dershowitz as his attorney. Through it all, he has refused to stand up for his men, even though his own culpability is literally on paper and known by the Army.

“Sh– rolls downhill,” as the saying goes, and Steele has effectively pushed his own down the hill to his men, who were facing the death penalty if convicted.

And what of the Army? It cannot be argued that they didn’t already know they had already dealt with the incident, holding Col. Steele responsible. Instead of allowing one of their officers to stand up and take responsibility for his actions, they covered up the reprimand and related documents, then turned around and arrested 4 soldiers, charging them with murder. All to keep the Army from having to admit that one of their commanders screwed up. All to ensure that a member of the officer corps wouldn’t be publicly embarrassed.

This is so far beyond insane and unethical that I really have no words to describe it. One of the men in this incident pled guilty to get out of the death penalty or life without parole, and is currently serving 18 years in a military prison for the incident.

All of these men’s reputations and good names are ruined. They will forever be linked to this incident, in their hometowns and in the media. Not many people equate the name Ilario Pantano with stellar leadership and performance in two wars. They do, however, remember he’s the guy who emptied two clips into two insurgents and was charged with murder.

Steele is a maggot, a pathetic excuse for a man who is so concerned with his own career and his own image that he was pleading the fifth, retaining O.J Simpson attorneys, and negotiating for immunity while his own men, one of whom he had worked very closely with, were facing the death penalty for his screwup. Meanwhile, the Army, knowing the state of affairs, helped him do it.

Now read that paragraph again, and tell me our military justice system is still honorable.

Tune in Wednesday night at 10 pm EST to ask Anita Gorecki, SSG Ray Girouard's civilian attorney, about the case and her plans to defend Girouard against what looks to be his own commander, as well as the Army.  Only on The Front Line!