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| 2 of 3 accused SEALs to appear in court |
| 2009-12-07 |
| RICHMOND, Va.—Two Navy SEALs are scheduled to be arraigned Monday in military court on charges that they mistreated an Iraqi suspect in the gory slayings of four U.S. contractors in Fallujah. One of the SEALs is accused of punching the detainee after his September arrest, while the other is accused of lying to investigators. A third SEAL also accused of lying to investigators about the episode will be arraigned later. All three men have men have received an outpouring of support from people who view them as heroes. A Facebook page created to support the SEALs had more than 45,000 members as of Friday, and a California congressman is spearheading a campaign to persuade Defense Secretary Robert Gates to intervene. Petty Officers 2nd Class Matthew McCabe of Perrysburg, Ohio, and Jonathan Keefe of Yorktown, Va., and Petty Officer 1st Class Julio Huertas of Blue Island, Ill., face courts-martial at a date to be determined. Keefe's arraignment has been continued. The men refused an administrative process known as "nonjudicial punishment" because they feared unfair treatment by military brass, said Neal Puckett, an attorney for McCabe. "They felt they had already been determined to be guilty," said Puckett. By refusing to accept the reprimand, the men could face a more serious penalty at court martial, which will be determined by a six-person military jury. If the men are convicted, they could face up to a year in a military jail, a bad conduct discharge or loss of pay, said Puckett, a retired Marine Corps officer and judge advocate. McCabe, 24, is charged with assault. All three men also are charged with dereliction of duty, accused of failing to safeguard the detainee, and with lying to investigators, according to charge sheets. Huertas also is charged with impeding an investigation for allegedly trying to influence the testimony of a witness. Puckett said the charges stem from an alleged "punch in the gut" after the SEALs captured the Iraqi in early September. Puckett said the men are not guilty, and that he also has been bombarded with calls and e-mails from people who say that even if the detainee was punched, it's "a minor affront" compared to what he is suspected of doing. Army Lt. Col. Holly Silkman, a spokeswoman for the military's Special Operations Command Center, urged the public to withhold judgment until the evidence is heard. "This is much more involved than the defense would lead you to believe," Silkman said. Ahmed Hashim Abed is believed to be connected to the 2004 killings of four Blackwater security guards who were protecting a convoy when they were attacked by Iraqi insurgents. Their burned corpses were dragged through the city, and two of them were hung from a bridge over the Euphrates River. A military official confirmed that Abed is the detainee who claimed he was assaulted. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the detainee publicly. The detainee's name was blacked out on charging documents released by the military. U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., wrote a letter to Gates last week expressing "grave concerns" about the prosecution of the SEALs. More than two dozen of Hunter's colleagues signed the letter, saying military officials overreacted. "As we understand it, there was no allegation of torture or abuse," Hunter wrote. The SEALs, based at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek in Norfolk, are not in custody. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #16 Couple this with the obambi's work against the CIA and you can connect the dots as has been earlier stated, he is tearing down the USA. |
| Posted by: USN, Ret. 2009-12-07 22:45 |
| #15 This is the product of pissant O-6/O-7s who are more concerned about promotion than their people. That's why the declined NJP and asked for a Court Martial. NJP would have been hidden. This will push the scumsucking O-6/O-7s who allowed this to happen, hiding behind ROE's, out in the open and twisting in the wind. |
| Posted by: anymouse 2009-12-07 19:47 |
| #14 You right - to OBumble and his friends - destroying the morale of the military is a feature - not a bug. |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2009-12-07 18:22 |
| #13 I think you've nailed it John QC, the Obama ideal is to detroy America, and weakening the Military is a crucial step to do just that. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2009-12-07 18:20 |
| #12 A witch hunt by the administration. For what purpose I can't imagine. Screw with our military too much and you won't have one. Enlistments and re-enlistments will disappear. But maybe that is the purpose of the administration. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2009-12-07 17:39 |
| #11 no prisoners, no accusations! |
| Posted by: Xenophon 2009-12-07 15:26 |
| #10 Time for a line from Dirty Harry: "Hell, anybody can tell I didn't do that to him!" "Yeah? How?" "He looks too damn good!" |
| Posted by: mojo 2009-12-07 13:01 |
| #9 The same military that takes a general who screws up Iraq and makes him Chief of Staff. |
| Posted by: Solomon Cholurt6546 2009-12-07 12:45 |
| #8 What's the point of this court martial? On one side you have three men who deserve nothing less than than to be treated as heroes, who undertook a dangerous mission and successfully accomplished it. (If it wasn't dangerous, why use SEALS?) On the other side you have a barbarian POS whose playbook tells them to make accusation of ill treatment as a matter of course. If these guys are found guilty, might as well pack up and go home. No one is going to put themselves in a position where they will undertake to put their lives in danger only to be thanked with a court martial. The guy had a fat lip!! I've seen guys with worse than that after a football game and no one was charged. What were they supposed to do, put themselves in the same situation that the contractors were in and hope for the best that they wouldn't be strung up like in linker's post above. Andd how the hell can you be charged with "dereliction of duty" when they accomplished their mission. What a joke. |
| Posted by: tipper 2009-12-07 11:13 |
| #7 A quiet phone call should have gone down the chain of command. The fact the call never went out indicates that legal action is endorsed at the highest levels of the civilian controlled military. In the Vanity Fair piece on Blackwater (Xe), Eric Prince said as much. He's retiring to teach history. |
| Posted by: Lumpy Elmoluck5091 2009-12-07 10:54 |
| #6 if you do somthing like this (warning graphic) http://www.blackwatervictims.com/pics/Bridge.jpg I think a punch in the gut is getting off easy. |
| Posted by: linker 2009-12-07 08:50 |
| #5 After what the man they caught did I would think a punch in the mouth was short of what most ppl would have done. |
| Posted by: chris 2009-12-07 08:02 |
| #4 "This is much more involved than the defense would lead you to believe," Silkman said. There must be more than somebody would lead me to believe. If something doesn't make sense you don't know the whole story, and on the surface this doesn't make sense. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2009-12-07 07:50 |
| #3 It's like this administration is crippling their recruiting on purpose. |
| Posted by: gorb 2009-12-07 06:45 |
| #2 This sad and disgusting business should have never gotten out of the blocks. A quiet phone call should have gone down the chain of command. The fact the call never went out indicates that legal action is endorsed at the highest levels of the civilian controlled military. Very sad. Very sad indeed. My fear is this action may devekio into some type of military torture prosecution. If the administratin was upset that a few cadets slept through Barry's presentation at West Point, they'll really be shocked over the attitudes that are brewing within the Special Operations Community toward this US Navy Seal affair. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2009-12-07 05:01 |
| #1 Nothing better happen to these men. |
| Posted by: newc 2009-12-07 00:56 |