Abbie Boudreau and Scott Zamost
CNN Special Investigations Unit

Abbie Boudreau and Scott Zamost
CNN Special Investigations Unit

A former Army sergeant who revealed the murders of four Iraqis at a canal in 2007 says he has no regrets about breaking his silence.

"I did the right thing," Jess Cunningham told CNN's "AC360°." "I'm not going to hide behind false brotherhood."

Nine months after the March 2007 murders, Cunningham told his Army lawyer what had happened at the canal. Eventually, three sergeants would be convicted of premeditated murder and conspiracy to commit premeditated murder.

"These men are not heroes. They're not saviors," Cunningham said.

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Abbie Boudreau and Scott Zamost
CNN Special Investigations Unit

The military released 77,000 of about 87,000 detainees locked up during the Iraq war because there was not enough evidence to hold them, CNN has learned.

"In most cases, if we don't have anything, eventually they'll be released," said Brig. Gen. David Quantock, who oversees detainee operations in Iraq.

Quantock said "many cases are driven purely on intelligence."

"Intelligence does not win a fight in a courtroom. It doesn't win the fight in a courtroom in the United States. It doesn't win in Iraq."

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Johana Mayo said her husband has been punished enough.

Abbie Boudreau and Scott Zamost
CNN Special Investigations Unit

The wives of three Army sergeants in prison for premeditated murder say their husbands are war heroes who should not be in prison.

"I can sympathize with them that they felt like there was nothing else they could do," said Jamie Leahy, wife of Sgt. Michael Leahy, a 28-year-old medic.

She said her husband and the other two sergeants were heroes for protecting other soldiers. Leahy, 1st Sgt. John Hatley and Sgt. 1st Class Joseph Mayo killed four Iraqi men whom they had taken into custody at a canal in Baghdad, Iraq.

During the investigation of the killings, Leahy told Army investigators that the same men they had captured would be shooting at them again if they had released them.

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Abbie Boudreau
Special Investigations Unit Correspondent

A group of 13 soldiers left Iraq holding on to a secret – the murders of four detainees at a Baghdad canal. They were told not to say a word, and for nine months, they kept quiet. Then, one of the 13 soldiers reported the crime and the secret was out.

But what if that soldier hadn't come forward and reported the murders? What if years had gone by, and these young soldiers were still holding on to this battlefield secret?

Especially for the twenty-somethings who are fighting this war – how do they keep a secret in a day and age where people from their generation are encouraged to live such public lives?

They are taught from a very young age to "talk it out," and why it's unhealthy to "keep it all inside." And now, with easy access to social networking sites, it's almost expected for people to splash their private lives, and personal photos all over the pages of Facebook and MySpace.

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Abbie Boudreau
CNN Special Investigations Unit Correspondent

CNN's Abbie Boudreau reports on the shoddy electrical work performed by the Halliburton subsidiary, KBR, in Afghanistan. The faulty wiring has lead or contributed to the deaths of as many as 18 US military personnel. The Pentagon has ruled one death as a possible negligent homicide, but still KBR remains on the job, and now is wiring bases in Afghanistan with faulty electrical systems.