DENVER, Colo. -- When I was reporting my piece about Scott Thomas Beauchamp, it came to my attention that an investigation was ongoing into the killings of detained Iraqis by members of his unit. I got the Army to confirm that there was an investigation -- well, it put out a release in January about it, so it wasn't exactly a big scoop -- and that the unit in question belonged to the same parent brigade (I think it was the same brigade; they might have said the same division; my notes are back in D.C.), but the Army wouldn't confirm that it was Scott's unit specifically. Nor would the Army say, for understandable reasons, who the investigation centered around. Having no more than rumors identifying someone potentially involved in an atrocity, I opted not to publish information that I couldn't confirm.

The New York Times today reports that statements made to Army investigators indicate that Beauchamp's first sergeant, John Hatley, ordered soldiers to shoot four Iraqis in their custody; cut their flexcuffs off; and dump the corpses in a Baghdad canal. If true, this is murder. Hatley, like everyone, is innocent until proven guilty in a fair trial.

Furthermore, if true, this case doesn't vindicate Scott, since it had nothing to do with the stories he published in TNR. And the merits of those stories already vindicate Scott. But if true, it certainly syncs with his portraits of the desensitization that a bloody, protracted and confusing war can engender. That's not to excuse this alleged abuse by any stretch of the imagination, just to contextualize it.

Indeed, it's a testimony to 99.99999infinity of our troops that even under these conditions, they conduct themselves with professionalism, courage and honor.