This from The News Tribune: Spc. Justin Stoner testified today that the beating he took at the hands of seven of his platoon mates in May sealed his decision to talk with Army investigators about drug use and other possible illegal activity in their unit.

He believes his platoon mates were trying to silence him after he asked for a transfer to another unit because he didn't want to be held accountable for their misconduct during their deployment to southern Afghanistan.

"That was their way, but obviously it didn't work too well," he said while testifying in a Joint Base Lewis-McChord court at a pretrial hearing for one of his alleged attackers, Sgt. Darren Jones.

Stoner's complaints triggered an investigation that resulted in misconduct charges against 12 of his platoon mates in the 5^th Brigade, 2^nd Infantry Division. Five are accused of murdering Afghan civilians.

He said that Jones kicked and punched him at least six times on May 5 when word got out that he had spoken with a sergeant in his company about his concerns that solders were smoking hashish in his room.

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