Return to “Navy SEALs Face Assault Charges for Capturing Most-Wanted Te”
Why... Yes, you did.AndyC wrote:Pity just shooting the little troll wasn't an option
Oh, oops - did I say that out loud?
I'm no lawyer, so I can't say if this is a good or bad thing for the SEALS concerned. Their defense attorney seems to think it is a good thing, and that may be true, but does it establish a bad precedent or bad policy? Other's more knowledgeable can expound.NORFOLK — Two of the three Navy SEALs accused of mistreating a suspected terrorist will have the chance to confront their accuser in open court — in Iraq.
A military judge ruled Monday that the two trials should be moved to Camp Victory in Baghdad where Ahmed Hashim Abed is being held in U.S. custody.
Abed is the alleged planner of the March 2004 ambush that killed four Blackwater employees.
The three SEALs are credited with capturing Abed, and accused of mistreating him afterward. One of the three allegedly punched him in the stomach and all three face charges relating to an alleged cover-up.
The ruling is a victory for defense attorneys who wanted to question Abed face to face. Prosecutors sought to go forward with a videotaped deposition instead.
"If he is available for deposition, he is available for trial," said Cmdr. Tierney Carlos during a procedural hearing at Naval Station Norfolk.
Moving the trial to Iraq, with all of its logistical challenges, was apparently preferable to whisking a high-profile terror suspect halfway across the globe and onto the world's largest naval installation in a case that has already attracted national attention.
The trials moved to Iraq are for Special Warfare Operator 2nd Class Jonathan Keefe of Yorktown and Special Warfare Operator 1st Class Julio Huertas.
Keefe faces an April 6 trial. Huertas' case will be heard later that month.
Both are charged with dereliction of duty and making false statements during the subsequent investigation.
Huertas faces an additional charge of impeding the investigation by trying to influence the testimony of a witness — a 3rd class petty officer.
Special Warfare Operator 2nd Class Matthew McCabe is accused of the actual assault. He faces a hearing Wednesday before Capt. Moira Modzelewski on whether his trial, set for next week, should be continued.
As of now, McCabe's trial has not been moved. That could change given Monday's ruling, as the court might want to keep all three cases tied together.
Monica Lombardi, the attorney for Huertas, said she was pleased at the turn of events.
"This is the complaining witness," she said. "He's the alleged victim. Is he telling the truth? Is he lying? I want members of the jury to see this person. They can judge for themselves whether to believe his allegations or not."
However, the judge rejected her request to compel prosecutors to further explain two of the charges against her client.
Huertas allegedly tried to influence the testimony of the third class petty officer who said he witnessed the punch. But Lombardi said she has received no detail on what Huertas is accused of doing.
The third class petty officer was guarding the makeshift detention facility where Abed was being held, Lombardi said.
Agreed, but my problem here is that the accused are going to have to jump through some long and expensive hoops to prove their innocence, all because some pin-headed martinet of a rear-eschalon blankety blank had to power to do so, and then went ahead and did it. I keep harkening back to the Haditha Marines story, and how grossly unfair and damaging the charges were to each of them; and in the end, they were all acquitted. And I read just 2 or 3 days ago that their Captain, who had also been charged with some kind of coverup or something, was just acquitted also.marksiwel wrote:No, that makes perfect sense, thats what I figured happened, I have friends who are cops and have done much worse than that getting a suspect into some cuffs and all within reason.The Annoyed Man wrote:marksiwel wrote: Does that make some kind of sense to you?
Just because charges were brought up doesn't mean anything really, its kind of a good thing that charges CAN be brought up even if they are a waste of time. Think of it as checks and balances.
It puts the Justice into Military Justice.
I'm not trying to legitimize giving a restrained/unconscious prisoner a savage beating. But ask any cop whether or not in the scuffle to arrest someone, a perp got a bruise, or a fat lip, or a bloody nose from them. It happens. That's not a beating, that's a "legitimate" injury sustained while resisting arrest.marksiwel wrote:SoOoOoOoOo, if the Navy Seals went a step farther, and broke both his arms, broke his legs, and beat him while he was unconscious, should they have still been brought up on charges.
So we have a bloody lip here, is that chargeable? Where do YOU draw the line?
) that the prisoner in question here resisted arrest. I would be further willing to bet that there was a scuffle and that his fat lip is a result of that scuffle. Barring other (reliable) witnesses who are willing to step forward with a story of having seen the SEALs in question administer a beating to a helpless prisoner, that seems like the most likely probability. These guys are also desiring of a court martial because it will require certain rules of evidence and they will have a chance to testify, and the ridiculousness of the charges will become evident.Yep, there's nothing like a good "wintersoldiering."In recent years, I’ve published too many posts about members of the Armed Forces facing undeserved charges:
As my first investigative reporting effort related to the SEALs’ case, I offer six important facts about the case you’re likely not to read about in the mainstream media supplied to me by a source whom I cannot name inside the Pentagon:
- First, it was the so-called “Haditha Marines” who faced trumped-up charges, thanks largely to idiots like Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) declaring them guilty before a mainstream media eager to paint them in a bad light.
- Next, it wasArmy Ranger 1st Lt. Michael Behenna who was wrongly convicted of executing an Iraqi detainee, Ali Mansur, on May 16, 2008, and is now serving a 25-year sentence at Fort Leavenworth, Kan.
- Now, I’m following the case of three Navy SEALs facing assault charges related to their capture of Ahmed Hashim Abed. Who is Abed? He’s the alleged planner of the March 2004 ambush, killing and mutilation of four Blackwater contractors in Fallujah, Iraq. The SEALS gave this enemy combatant piece of dirt a fat lip while apprehending him.
- The charges or accusations against the three Navy SEALs were not made from within the SEAL community. Sources tell me they came from someone within the Navy’s Master-at-Arm community.
- The SEALs were presented with the option of going to Captain’s Mast for these charges but declined this form of non-judicial punishment and opted for court-martial instead. Why? Because they did not want to be judged by those outside of the SEAL community and believed the court-martial route would assure them the representation necessary to prove their innocence.
- At no time did anyone within the Naval Special Warfare community have any control over these accusations or events other than providing advice or guidance to the accused SEALs.
- The integrity of the chain of custody of the prisoner is at question.
- There are extenuating circumstances that indicate there is questionable evidence in some of the accusations made.
- Evidence will come out in a court-martial that might not have come out in a Captain’s Mast in favor of the accused SEALs.
Nor a "wintersoldiering."Zee wrote:No one likes a swiftboating.
And I don't care. That the Navy Times reports it doesn't make the charges valid. They are just reporting that the charges exist.Zee wrote:McCabe is charged with one count each of assault of the detainee, dereliction of duty and making a false official statement, Silkman said.
Keefe is charged with one count each of dereliction of duty and false official statement; Huertas is accused of dereliction of duty, making a false official statement and impeding an investigation, she said.
http://www.navytimes.com/news/2009/11/n ... h_112509w/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
The assault charge is only part of the story.
He's lucky to be alive, after what he did. I'm not sure I could have shown the same restraint these SEALs did. They are true professionals. Hell, they don't even apply that standard to street cops on the beat. If a civilian prisoner gets a little roughed up because he put up resistance to arrest, that's just too bad for him. And now they want to apply an even more stringent standard to military personnel operating on the battlefield? That is INSANE!!! What kind of administration would pursue such a policy?Tha_Veteran wrote:It is an insult of the worst kind, but I dont think they will be convicted. That guy is luck that that was all he had was busted lip.
By forcing this to go to trial, these SEALs can give the policy makers who decide the ROE under which they have to operate a real black eye. Mirandizing captured terrorists on the field of battle? Charging four good men with a crime because a murderous scumbag got a split lip during his arrest?Navy SEALs have secretly captured one of the most wanted terrorists in Iraq — the alleged mastermind of the murder and mutilation of four Blackwater USA security guards in Fallujah in 2004. And three of the SEALs who captured him are now facing criminal charges, sources told FoxNews.com.
The three, all members of the Navy's elite commando unit, have refused non-judicial punishment — called an admiral's mast — and have requested a trial by court-martial.
Ahmed Hashim Abed, whom the military code-named "Objective Amber," told investigators he was punched by his captors — and he had the bloody lip to prove it.
Now, instead of being lauded for bringing to justice a high-value target, three of the SEAL commandos, all enlisted, face assault charges and have retained lawyers.
Matthew McCabe, a Special Operations Petty Officer Second Class (SO-2), is facing three charges: dereliction of performance of duty for willfully failing to safeguard a detainee, making a false official statement, and assault.
Petty Officer Jonathan Keefe, SO-2, is facing charges of dereliction of performance of duty and making a false official statement.
Petty Officer Julio Huertas, SO-1, faces those same charges and an additional charge of impediment of an investigation.
The three SEALs will be arraigned separately on Dec. 7. Another three SEALs — two officers and an enlisted sailor — have been identified by investigators as witnesses but have not been charged.
FoxNews.com obtained the official handwritten statement from one of the three witnesses given on Sept. 3, hours after Abed was captured and still being held at the SEAL base at Camp Baharia. He was later taken to a cell in the U.S.-operated Green Zone in Baghdad.
The SEAL told investigators he had showered after the mission, gone to the kitchen and then decided to look in on the detainee.
"I gave the detainee a glance over and then left," the SEAL wrote. "I did not notice anything wrong with the detainee and he appeared in good health."
Lt. Col. Holly Silkman, spokeswoman for the special operations component of U.S. Central Command, confirmed Tuesday to FoxNews.com that three SEALs have been charged in connection with the capture of a detainee. She said their court martial is scheduled for January.
United States Central Command declined to discuss the detainee, but a legal source told FoxNews.com that the detainee was turned over to Iraqi authorities, to whom he made the abuse complaints. He was then returned to American custody. The SEAL leader reported the charge up the chain of command, and an investigation ensued.
The source said intelligence briefings provided to the SEALs stated that "Objective Amber" planned the 2004 Fallujah ambush, and "they had been tracking this guy for some time."
The Fallujah atrocity came to symbolize the brutality of the enemy in Iraq and the degree to which a homegrown insurgency was extending its grip over Iraq.
The four Blackwater agents were transporting supplies for a catering company when they were ambushed and killed by gunfire and grenades. Insurgents burned the bodies and dragged them through the city. They hanged two of the bodies on a bridge over the Euphrates River for the world press to photograph.
Intelligence sources identified Abed as the ringleader, but he had evaded capture until September.
The military is sensitive to charges of detainee abuse highlighted in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. The Navy charged four SEALs with abuse in 2004 in connection with detainee treatment.
