I agree with one of the commenters that said we either unfetter the military and let them do their jobs, or bring them home. End of story. Our soldiers fighting terrorists who are immediately released from jail the same day they are brought in, to go out and shoot at our soldiers again that same day? Ridiculous.
Endangering these soldiers this way is just so wrong that I am all for bringing every single soldier we have in the Middle East home tomorrow. Geeze, just sick of all the nonsense. It'd be nice also if leadership would stop abusing the military by forcing them to guard poppy/heroin crops. I'd rather they come home, and let the muslim nations whack at eachother 'til kingdom come, living in the mess Islam creates wherever it goes.
Former U.S. Army Master Sergeant John Hatley is now serving a forty year sentence in Leavenworth prison. He was convicted by a 2009 Court Martial of murdering four Iraqi insurgent arrestees in Baghdad following a 2007 ambush and firefight, and dumping the bodies into a Baghdad canal. Two other Sergeants with the Alpha Company 1-18 1st Infantry were also convicted and sent to prison.
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John Hatley was a highly decorated combat veteran of nineteen years and six months military service. He was deployed in Bosnia, Kosovo, Panama, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Operation Desert Storm and three tours of duty in Iraq. The soldiers of Alpha Company 1-18 1st Army Infantry knew him to be the first into a hot spot and the last to come out. Mrs. Hatley says that her husband was a legend in Alpha Company and treated the soldiers under his command as though they were family.
During daily 2007 patrol operations in the West Rasheed area of Baghdad, Hatley’s soldiers often found themselves under enemy fire. The post-Hussein sectarian “insurgency” was well under way. Hatley’s soldiers killed some of the attackers and captured many others. Over the length of the insurgency, snipers and roadside bombs (IEDs) killed or crippled thousands of Americans.
As the war dragged on, tens of thousands of jihadists who were taken prisoner during or after fire-fights in Baghdad went to the Detention Holding Area Annex (DHAA), which is military terminology for a jail. Astonishingly, the DHAA personnel released nearly all of them shortly after their arrests, for “lack of sufficient evidence to detain.” Most of the prisoners were released. The newly-freed insurgents immediately returned to the streets to resume killing and maiming American soldiers. This insanity became known as the Catch and Release Program.
Adding to the stress of war, Hatley and his soldiers collected the scores of dead bodies that were regularly dumped onto Baghdad streets by terrorists. Most of the dead were non-combatant civilians who had been tortured and mutilated prior to their executions.
Then, on February 27, 2007, an insurgent sniper killed Staff Sergeant Karl Soto-Pinedo, who was like a beloved son to Hatley. Mrs. Hatley told me that her husband was grief-stricken to the point of dysfunction by Soto-Pinedo’s death. On March 17, Spc. Mario Guerrero was killed by a road-side bomb explosion. All the same, the patrols went on ceaselessly, from 4:00 a.m. to 9:00 or 10:00 p.m. – every day. For months on end Hatley and his soldiers fought the war on three or four hours of sleep per night.
On a particular April day in 2007, Hatley’s unit once again came under fire. Four insurgents ran from a house where they hid during the fire-fight and the Americans soon captured them. U.S. troops found small arms, sniper rifles and ammunition within that house. All of the captured insurgents field-tested “positive” for gunshot residue on their hands.
Hatley radioed the DHAA that he was en-route with the four detainees. The DHAA refused to receive them, citing a “lack of sufficient evidence to hold.” Hatley was ordered to release these terrorists who had tried to kill American soldiers. Now, as the alleged story that came out in court goes, he discussed the DHAA release order with two of his subordinates, Sgt. Michael Leahy and Sgt. Joseph Mayo. The Sergeants decided they had just about had their fill of Catch and Release, and that these four insurgents were not going free to return to kill and maim Americans. They subsequently drove the four terrorists to a nearby canal, fired one shot each into the backs of their heads, and dumped the dead bodies into the water. Sgt. Jesse Cunningham, seated inside their parked vehicle, apparently watched all of it in the rear-view mirror. The bodies, however, were never found. No local residents reported anyone missing.
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