An American Marine accused of killing two suspected Iraqi insurgents without case will not be prosecuted for the killings. On Thursday, the Marines announced it was dropping all charges against 2nd Lieutenant Ilario Pantano. The decision to drop the charges was made by Major General Richard Huck, commander of the 2nd Marine Division based at Camp Lejeune.

Pantano's defense lawyer was pleased with the decision. 'Down at the unit level, there was never a question about Ilario's conduct and whether or not he did the right thing,' Charles Gittins told the Associated Press. 'It was up in the higher echelons. The people removed from combat situations needed to put more trust in their officers rather than assuming they're guilty.'

The incident that led to the charges being filed occurred in April 2004, in the Iraqi town of Mahmudiyah. Pantano said he shot the two men in self defense after they refused to obey his instructions and made what he considered a menacing move towards him.

The problem, prosecutors maintained, is that Pantano shot the bodies of the two men over 60 times and hung a sign over their bullet riddled corpses that read, 'No better friend, no worse enemy,' a slogan used by the Marines. Prosecutors say he was trying to make an example of the two men. Pantano did not deny that he hung the sign of shot the two Iraqis multiple times.

Pantano is a former Wall Street trader who signed up with the Marines shortly after the September 11 attacks. His mother, Mary Pantano was relieved by the decision not to prosecute. 'That's exciting, isn't it,' Mrs. Pantano said from her home in New York. 'Needless to say, we are quite ecstatic.'

While the charges were pending, Pantano was sent to camp Lejeune in North Carolina to help train Marines. He hopes now that the case has been dropped, that he can return to combat.