If true...WOW

Some of you may remember the right-wing assault upon The New Republic's soldier blogger Scott Beauchamp wherein he alleged violent acts of American soldiers in Iraq.

One of the main soldiers cited by right-wingers in defending the conduct of the military was an individual First Sgt. John E. Hatley.

A New York Times article describes some reprehensible behavior (reprehensible hell really, it was murder) of American soldiers:

A In their statements, Sergeants Mayo and Leahy each described killing at least one of the Iraqi detainees on instructions from First Sgt. John E. Hatley, who the soldiers said killed two of the detainees with pistol shots to the back of their heads. Sergeant Hatley’s civilian lawyer in Germany, David Court, did not respond to phone calls and e-mail messages Tuesday.

Last month, four other soldiers from Sergeant Hatley’s unit were charged with murder conspiracy for agreeing to go along with the plan to kill the four prisoners, in violation of military laws that forbid harming enemy combatants once they are disarmed and in custody.

I would never have recalled the relationship of these two separate events, but a Kos diarist, Bernhard, did and believes these 1st Sgt. John E. Hatley's are one and the same.

This deserves some looking into and some pushback.

See more at Bernhard's actual blog Moon of Alabama.