During some seven hours of sworn testimony, soldiers who were on the patrol suggested that the four soldiers charged with conspiracy to commit premeditated murder — Staff Sgt. Jess Cunningham, Sgt. Charles Quigley, Spc. Stephen Ribordy and Spc. Belmor Ramos — had either minor roles or no role at all in the deaths, but may have been involved in the alleged cover-up.
Evoy said that when Hatley and Mayo told him they were going to shoot the detainees, he didn’t believe they meant it.
But as he watched the three men from his Bradley, he saw Leahy shoot one of the Iraqis with his handgun, and heard other shots, then dropped down into his vehicle in disbelief, he said.
The US’s sharpening ideological polarization is affecting a wider and much more junior cross-section of the...
