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The NPR story claimed one of its reporters had obtained the names of the suspects from an anonymous Department of Defense source.

That DOD source must have had an awful lot of time on their hands to visit multiple media sources in a desperate attempt to destroy these Marine's lives. We now know that this source was disseminating false information, to boot.

It is way past time an investigation into the DOD to find this mole commenced, and time to put SECNAV Winter in front of a senate panel under oath to see how much dirt - or bilge goo as it were - he has under his fingernails.

It'd be nice to see the media update their stories to reflect the truths so eloquently portrayed by Nat Helms, but I'm not holding my breath waiting, especially after that sickening rant by the NCT against LCpl Delano Holmes - the ONLY media source that used to be somewhat on the level. I wonder how Mark Walker feels about his colleagues right about now. This is encouraging news, though. It appears that Lt. Gen. Helland may be more interested in discovering what really happened than many of his peers.

I would think that Sgt. Salinas's testimony concerning the taxi full of "students" could have cleared up many misconceptions over a year ago, and affected the previous Article 32s, as it was one of the initial and pivotal events in this case, one that the media & NCIS used to paint the whole squad as blood thirsty and trigger happy.

I'm heading north till next week to work on the house, thanks for the ping.

On November 21, 2006 a National Public Radio "Morning Edition" broadcast named Salinas as one of five enlisted Marines that would be charged with war crimes for his actions at Haditha. The NPR story claimed one of its reporters had obtained the names of the suspects from an anonymous Department of Defense source.

Excellent post, 4WB.

Additionally, this should be a piece of any attempt to prove unlawful command influence by someone in the chain of command.

Unlawful command influence can be an issue even if one can prove only an "appearance" of unlawful influence.

One need not get NPR's "sources," if they choose to play hardball and hide behind "freedom of the press." One only needs to get them on the stand to affirm that they were told this things by actual, DoD sources.

This would be convincing testimony that give the "appearance" of malfeasance.

To refute it, the DoD would then have to pony up the names of their people who were doing the leaking. Even then, one could look at the ties between that person and the Haditha troops' chain of command.

As Marines, the direct Chain of Command would go through the Marine Corps Commandant, the SecNav, the SecDef, and the Pres.