Navy SEALs Face Assault Charges for Capturing Most-Wanted Terrorist

[reconeil]

BELEIVE IT! Such typically has been so since Korean War to date.
Many Officers would rather please their Civilian Warlord PC Crowd Masters,...than adhere to
standard wartime enemy defeating tactics, logic & common sensibly not treating Terrorist
Enemies MUCH MORE FAVORABLY & CONCERNED ABOUT, than Our Very Own U.S. Military.

Know such enemy coddling encouragements & U.S. Military stifflings & hinderings by politicians
are, were & will always be sick, asinine & nationally-suicidal, to say the least.

But,...that's just the way it is, Keith. Good Luck to us One & All (U.S. Military inclusive).

Neil

[Whale]

It'll be ironic if they are cleared of abuse but convicted of the more serious charge of falsifying official documents.

The firswt general order of Roger's Rangers was to never lie to a superior.

[reconeil]

From everything I heard about this PC Lordly Brass Travesty being suffered by the 3 Bravest
of Warriors,...they never even got a chance to: "Lie to a superior".

Seems to me that all 3 were automatically accused & convicted, before even being tried?

Besides, taking the word of an Unconscionable Mass-Murdering Terrorist over the words of
ANY: "Duty, Honor, Country" types is quite stupidly asinine,...even by; "An Officer & a Gentleman".

Neil

[darrels joy]

About the Victory Institute

The Victory Institute is an Action Institution dedicated to preserving the liberty and security of the American family.

Hot Documents

New! "SEAL 3" Fact Sheet
Navy SEAL Charge Sheets

http://www.victoryinstitute.net/

[darrels joy]

Court-martial of Navy SEAL opens in Iraq

By LARA JAKES, Associated Press Writer Lara Jakes, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD – A U.S. sailor testified Wednesday he saw a Navy SEAL punch an Iraqi prisoner suspected of masterminding the killings in 2004 of four U.S. private security contractors, as the court-martial of another member of the elite unit allegedly involved in the incident opened at a military base outside Baghdad.

Petty Officer 1st Class Julio Huertas, wearing his blue Navy uniform, appeared in a military courtroom at the Victory Base Camp on Baghdad's western outskirts to answer charges of dereliction of duty and impeding an official investigation. He has pleaded not guilty.

Huertas, 28, of Blue Island, Illinois, is the first of three Navy SEALs to go on trial in connection with the alleged assault of the Iraqi prisoner, Ahmed Hashim Abed. He is accused of failing to safeguard the prisoner and attempting to influence the testimony of another service member.

The SEALs' case has gained widespread sympathy in the United States as well as support from at least 20 lawmakers in Congress who have urged U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates to drop the charges.

Abed was arrested last September on charges of orchestrating the grisly killings of four Blackwater security contractors whose burned corpses were dragged through the Iraqi city of Fallujah west of Baghdad. Two of the guards' bodies were hung from a bridge over the Euphrates River in the insurgent attack.

Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Kevin Demartino, who is not a SEAL and was assigned to process and transport Abed after his capture, testified he saw Petty Officer 2nd Class Matthew McCabe punch the prisoner, and blood come from the prisoner's mouth.

He told the court Huertas and fellow SEAL Petty Officer 2nd Class Jonathan Keefe were also in the room and that he was the closest person to McCabe at the time of the alleged assault.

Huertas' civilian attorney Monica Lombardi suggested that if he couldn't stop the assault, nobody could have. "You could have stopped it, but it was too fast," she said.

"You were the closest person to Petty Officer McCabe but you didn't know that was coming."

A few hours after the incident, Demartino testified that Huertas told him: "Get in there and get the story straight."

He admitted initially lying when questioned about why the prisoner was injured, telling the court: "I wasn't prepared to rat those guys out" but then said he changed his mind when it became clear there would be an investigation.

Coming forward was "the hardest thing I've done in my life," he testified.

"It's a SEAL team, it's a life changing event. It's something I'll have to live with for the rest of my life."

All three of the SEALs involved could have received nothing more than a disciplinary reprimand in the case, but insisted on a military trial to clear their names and save their careers.

If convicted by the six-person military jury, Huertas could face up to a year in prison.

In a rare ruling in January, a military judge ordered that trials for Huertas and Keefe, of Yorktown, Virginia, to be held in Iraq so that they could face Abed in court. Abed is still being held in Iraq, and the Iraqi government refused to allow him to be taken to the United States to testify.

Keefe is also accused of failing to safeguard the prisoner.

McCabe of Perrysburg, Ohio, is charged with assaulting Abed at Camp Schwedler, a U.S. base near Fallujah. McCabe is scheduled to be court-martialed May 3 in Norfolk, Virginia, where the three sailors are based.


Huertas has served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Neither he nor the other two SEALs have been held in custody.
Keefe's trial also was to begin last week at the court-martial room at the Victory Base Camp, but his legal team was delayed by the volcano eruption in Iceland that grounded tens of thousands of flights across the world.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100421/...3VydC1tYXJ0aWE-

[darrels joy]

Judge Clears Second Navy SEAL in Iraqi Abuse Case


Associated Press

BAGHDAD
Judge clears second Navy SEAL in Iraqi abuse case linked to 2004 Blackwater killings.

BAGHDAD -- A U.S. military judge has cleared a Navy SEAL of wrongdoing in the alleged beating of a prisoner suspected of masterminding the grisly 2004 killings of four American contractors in Iraq.

The military says the judge found insufficient evidence to convict Petty Officer 2nd Class Jonathan Keefe on charges of dereliction of duty.
Keefe -- one of three SEALS charged in the case -- was not accused of assaulting Ahmed Hashim Abed but of failing to prevent the abuse.

The case has drawn fire from at least 20 members of Congress and other Americans who see it as coddling terrorists to overcompensate for the notorious Abu Ghraib prison scandal.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/04...r-killings-ml/

[Seascamp]

Thus far two of the three SEAL's have been aquited and I expect the third will also be aquited. Perhaps a tempest in a teapot or possibly more. What started as a NJP repramand escalated into a Court Martial and I hardly blame the SEALs for driving the escallation.

Apparently, serving up wet hides to the self-appointed godling's whim and will is a way to fast track to the next 'O' level, but will not stand the light of day.
At most, the SEAL's should have possibly got a scolding by their CPO and that should have been the end of the episode. I have no particular problem with paying back terrorist- butchers in their own coin and a boo-boo lip hardly qualifies as a payback, not even close.

[darrels joy]

SEAL defense can prove Abed’s injuries were self-inflicted; prosecution witness caught lying

posted at 9:02 am on May 6, 2010 by Cassy Fiano


The court martial against Navy SEAL Matthew McCabe is winding down.

Earlier this week, defense attorney Neal Puckett said that doctors could prove Abed’s injuries were self inflicted.

During opening statements Tuesday in Petty Officer Matthew McCabe’s court martial, defense attorney Neal Puckett stated that an oral surgeon would testify that injuries to Ahmed Hashim Abed, suspected mastermind behind the brutal murders of four civilian security guards in Fallujah in 2004, could have been self inflicted.

Puckett also made reference to the “Manchester Manuel” also known as the al Qaeda training manual, in which as HUMAN EVENTS has previously reported directs captured terrorists to complain of torture and self-inflict injuries on themselves.

Puckett asked the members of the jury to remind themselves of specific questions after they see the evidence and deliberate. “How was the detainee treated when he was captured?” asked Puckett. “What does the medical screening completed after show? When were photos taken?”

… The defense has said that the accuracy of the translations will be taken up later in the trial. Defense attorney Haytham Faraj, who speaks fluent Arabic, believes the translator did not repeat Abed’s exact answer in many questions.

Abed’s testimony remained the same as what has been reported in the cases of Petty Officers Huertas and Keefe, that he was taken from his home, blindfolded, handcuffed and placed in a helicopter.

Abed says when they landed an American took him into a room. “They started hitting me on my shoulders and my back… I don’t know who did it but it was on my shoulders and my back,” said Abed. “Then he hit me on my stomach with his foot, hard, and I fell to the floor.”

All of this, with absolutely no photographic evidence of any bruising or injuries besides a fat lip.

The prosecution’s star witness, Petty Officer Kevin DeMartino, was also caught lying. He testified he saw blood dribbling down Abed’s chin — which the medic flatly denies. His own superiors also said that DeMartino was untrustworthy and often lied.

The prosecution’s key witness, Petty Officer 3rd Class Kevin DeMartino, testified Wednesday that he saw McCabe deliver a right cross to Abed’s midsection.

“It was a right-cross. He punched him in the stomach,” DeMartino said at the trial. The detainee “let out a gasp of air” and fell to the floor, he said.

DeMartino, who was responsible for guarding Abed, acknowledged that he failed to do his job properly. He also admitted that he initially denied any knowledge of what happened, but said his conscience finally overcame his desire to protect his friends.

“I had to either be in the good graces of the Navy SEALs or in the good graces of God,” he said.

He also said he saw several SEALs other than McCabe enter the small building where Abed was being held. He said he believed others participated in the assault.

“Man to man, I’ll tell you they went in there and did it,” DeMartino said, but he added that McCabe’s punch was the only one he saw.

DeMartino and the SEAL commander who led the operation to capture Abed both said there was no reason for SEALs to be in the holding area with the detainee. But a SEAL who testified for the defense said that it’s not prohibited and that he stopped by just to get a look at a high-profile detainee.

The defense attacked DeMartino’s credibility in questioning several witnesses, including some SEALs and intelligence officers who cannot be publicly identified, who contradicted portions of DeMartino’s testimony.

Most of those conflicts centered on conversations DeMartino claimed he had with the witnesses, who disputed his accounts. A medic also denied DeMartino’s claim that he wiped blood off Abed’s chin. The medic, who conducted the medical screening of Abed shortly after his capture, testified that he saw no blood and no other signs of trauma.

Navy Reserve member Paul Franco of New York, who supervised DeMartino, said he had “reservations about his truthfulness.” He said DeMartino would often say he had completed a task when he had not.

Some of the witnesses were given testimonial immunity, but one of them noted that he could still be prosecuted for lying under oath — something he said he would never do, even to protect a fellow SEAL.

These charges look more and more like a joke every day. The Department of Defense charged these SEALs based on nothing more than the word of a terrorist and a sailor who’s apparently had a history of lying. And this sailor, Kevin DeMartino (who should be ashamed of himself if he is in fact lying), is considered the prosecution’s star witness. Not the medics who examined Abed, but a sailor who has given seven conflicting statements and whose supervisor said often lied in the past. Not only did he give conflicting statements, but on the witness stand he testified he saw blood on Abed’s chin and that a medic wiped it away — and the medic then denied it!

I’m curious if the Department of Defense actually investigated the terrorist’s claims before charging these three men, or if they just automatically believed him and charged the SEALs. It sounds to me like they did nothing to verify that what Abed was saying was true. If they had, there’s no way these men would have been charged because this case is so flimsy.

The prosecution rested their case yesterday, and the defense will lay out their case for McCabe today. A verdict is expected to be reached tomorrow.

http://hotair.com/greenroom/archives...-caught-lying/

[darrels joy]

BREAKING: Navy SEAL McCabe Found Not Guilty
by Michelle Oddis

05/06/2010


NORFOLK, Va. – Navy SEAL Officer 2nd Class Matthew McCabe was found not guilty Thursday evening on charges of assaulting detained terrorist Ahmed Hashim Abed, dereliction of duty, and impeding an investigation based on a false statement.

A seven member military jury deliberated for an hour and forty minutes before reaching a verdict. For McCabe to be found not guilty, two-thirds of the jury had to agree on each charge.

Upon hearing the verdict, McCabe's mother gasped in jubilation, covering her mouth with her hands, while his father and sister smiled. McCabe and his counsel shared a few hugs and pats on the back.

Last month in courts martial in Baghdad, Petty Officers Julio Huertas and Jonathan Keefe, also Navy SEALs, were acquitted of charges that they failed to safeguard Abed. McCabe was the only SEAL charged with actual assault.

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=36880

[darrels joy]

US Navy Seal Matthew McCabe On His Acquittal





US Navy Seal Matthew McCabe reacts his acquittal of all charges in a court-martial for supposedly abusing a terrorist detainee. He is the third and final person involved in the matter to be acquitted.

To his supporters: "Thank them for all their support. It's been great."

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/vid...acquittal.html