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| Iraq |
| Judge Grants SEAL's Witnesses Immunity |
| 2010-03-18 |
| The case against a Navy SEAL accused of not protecting an alleged Iraqi terrorist took a major turn Friday when a military judge ordered that five key defense witnesses be granted immunity to testify on his behalf. Petty Officer 1st Class Julio Huertas is one of three SEALs accused in the controversial case, which has led to protests and calls from members of Congress for the charges to be dropped. Huertas faces court martial for dereliction of duty, impeding an investigation and making a false official statement. A member of SEAL Team 10 at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek, he was one of the commandos who captured Ahmed Hashim Abed in Fallujah in early September. A sailor guarding the detainee claimed to see one SEAL punch Abed while Huertas and a third SEAL watched. Four other SEALs and a Navy corpsman who were present on the day of the alleged incident, including the detachment commander, dispute the guard's claims. Because they'd been told they also faced prosecution, they requested immunity before testifying in the case. Army Maj. Gen. C.T. Cleveland, the head of Special Operations Command Central, denied their requests in February. The military judge hearing the case against Huertas, Cmdr. Tierney Carlos, said Friday that the witnesses would offer testimony shedding doubt on the guard's allegations. Not granting them immunity, he ruled, is either an attempt to gain tactical advantage over the defense or showed the government was overreaching. Carlos gave Cleveland until March 24 to provide immunity to the witnesses or he will abate the proceeding -- a legal term for postponing it indefinitely. |
| Posted by:Sherry |
| #11 SO the MG gets his nards twisted no matter how he goes? Good. The dumb bastard deserves it for pushing this JAG(Off) backed PC witch hunt. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2010-03-18 22:12 |
| #10 The Major General is now in a bad fix : if he ignores the military court ruling, he can be cited for Command Interference in a Judicial Proceeding; and if he gives immunity, he pisses off Nobama. He should NOT have intervened to start with. Besides which, this military judge's ruling will follow the General for the rest of his career - making another star will be difficult at best, since the military REALLY hates commanders interfering with court martials. |
| Posted by: Shieldwolf 2010-03-18 17:59 |
| #9 The message should be - for the guard that is doing the tattle-telling, watch your back buddy! Yeah, because everyone knows, there are training accidents...and then there are training accidents! So, at what point can we openly declare Obama an enemy of The Constitution, and begin impeachment proceedings? Dear God, I hope we make it to November. |
| Posted by: Secret Asian Man 2010-03-18 15:40 |
| #8 The message should be - for the guard that is doing the tattle-telling, watch your back buddy! Blanket party bingo, using rocks instead of soap bars. what a POS. |
| Posted by: Rob06 2010-03-18 15:33 |
| #7 The message seems to be "don't take prisoners". Bringing a prisoner back means you face prosecution for assault or rudeness or bad etiquette or something. |
| Posted by: whatadeal 2010-03-18 12:53 |
| #6 I agree with NMBS. Maybe the Rear Echelon Mother Figure (Sp?) should be Upper...etc. |
| Posted by: Willy 2010-03-18 12:52 |
| #5 Anonymouse, since this comes from the WH and Obambi's politico/press flacks, your comment is an insult to the honor of REMFs everywhere. Even REMFs have more integrity than this. |
| Posted by: NoMoreBS 2010-03-18 10:33 |
| #4 This is not being done through the SEAL chain of command, and I think it is likely being done, as was suggested a while back, to punish the SEALs as an organization. It goes back to the ship piracy action, in which the captain of the ship was taken by pirates, and the SEAL team on the US warship rescued him, captured some pirates, and offed some others, *before* they had been ordered to do so. This deprived the not-SEAL chain of command lots of juicy micromanagement, all the way up to the White House. And they are pissed, and want to punish the SEALs over it. However, there are a LOT of very honorable men in the Navy, with a very low tolerance for b.s., and they won't cotton to having SEALs used as pawns in some REMFs game of ass-kiss chess. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2010-03-18 09:53 |
| #3 The real sh!t is that this farse is proceeding at all. War is a b!tch and the fact that it is against an undeclared opponent makes this a bigger travesty. |
| Posted by: USN, Ret. 2010-03-18 00:52 |
| #2 He didn't even KILL the dumb bastard and he's on trial? |
| Posted by: Maggie Unusing1832 2010-03-18 00:49 |
| #1 Looks like $hit does roll uphill sometimes. |
| Posted by: gorb 2010-03-18 00:08 |