Operation Provide Promise Iraq War Ilario Gregory Pantano (born August 28, 1971) is a former United States Marine Corps second lieutenant.

These events and his other experiences as a combat Marine during the Persian Gulf War and in Iraq in 2004 are the subject of his memoir, Warlord: No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy.

From 1995 to 1998, he was a member of the start-up team that integrated top-tier investment bank culture (GS) with utility business (BG&E) in Constellation Power, an electricity trading joint venture that was acquired for $11 billion by FPL.

[jargon] Shortly thereafter, he became a movie producer with the New York-based firm The Shooting Gallery, and co-founded Filter Media, a company specializing in interactive television.

[citation needed] On April 15, 2004, acting on intelligence extracted from captured insurgents, Lieutenant Pantano led his platoon against a compound near the town of Mahmudiyah.

The compound was deserted, but his men found a cache of arms, including "several mortar aiming stakes, a flare gun, three AK47 rifles, 10 AK magazines with assault vests and IED making material".

[5] When Pantano learned that the compound contained weapons, he ordered Sergeant Daniel Coburn and Corpsman George Gobles to watch for enemies.

"[citation needed] In June 2004, Sergeant Coburn, whom Pantano had previously demoted, registered a complaint about the incident, triggering a Naval Criminal Investigative Service probe.

The autopsy report was released the day after the Article 32 recommendation was made and, according to The Washington Times, confirmed Lt. Pantano's testimony that he had shot the men as they approached him.

[7] Pantano acknowledged leaving a sign on a car above the corpses that said, "No better friend, No worse enemy," but then returned to remove it after one of his colleagues called it 'inappropriate'.

In an interview with the BBC from March 20, 2005, Lieutenant Pantano said, "I'm a New Yorker and 9/11 was a pretty significant event for me, our duty as Marines is, quite frankly, to export violence to the four corners of the globe, to make sure that this doesn't happen again.

"Sergeant M", a counter intelligence specialist whose full name couldn't be released, testified that when he questioned the two Iraqi men, they lied and said there were no weapons in the house they fled from.

Marines found three AK-47 assault rifles with loaded magazines and mortar aiming stakes, in addition to Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein propaganda in the house.

"[11]In his closing arguments, Pantano's lawyer argued the following as justification for the killings: What you have to remember is you can't import civilian standards into a combat situation.

The officer who conducted last month's hearing, Lt. Col. Mark E. Winn, recommended in a report to General Huck that criminal charges were not warranted, but sharply criticized Lieutenant Pantano's decision to have the car stopped and to focus so closely on the two men to begin with.

Lieutenant Edwards said, however, that General Huck would not issue any nonjudicial punishment.Pantano's testimony regarding the shooting incident were corroborated by the forensic evidence discovered in the process of exhuming the bodies and the subsequent autopsies.

On April 14, 2005, the Association for Los Angeles County Deputy Sheriffs sent a letter to then President Bush endorsing House Resolution 167 in support of Ilario Pantano.

[13] On June 12, 2006, Pantano's autobiographical account of his experiences, Warlord: No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy,[14] was released by Threshold Editions, Mary Matalin's Simon & Schuster imprint.

In November 2011, Simon & Schuster released a new edition of Pantano's book, Warlord: Broken by War, Saved by Grace, containing the letter from Mr.

[20] Pantano and a third candidate, Randy Crow, lost the Republican primary to North Carolina legislator David Rouzer, who went on to lose to McIntyre in the general election in November 2012.