high spirits - I admire your faith in the MoD's due process. Despite its leanings the Guardian has a decent track record of uncovering stories of genuine public interest when the powers that be were adamant there was none, most recently last year with the hacking allegations. At the very least the story once again suggests serial bungling at the MoD, with which we are all familiar.
an assault I had seen in the darkness of the back of a Chinook had contributed to an "unlawful killing" especially when the cause of death is unknown
Riiight, so if you witnessed an assault and saw two 'unresponsive' detainees being offloaded you wouldn't even question as to their wellbeing or the actions of your colleagues? I'd contend most reasonable people would connect the assault to the detainee's cause of death. Also, I think that anyone would be hard-pressed to argue than the assault was lawful, given the detainees were apparently restrained and hooded.