Update on Navy SEALs case
The story broke this morning while I was on Fox & Friends. Remember the case of the 3 Navy SEALS hauled up for courts martial after an infamous jihadi in Iraq (the same one who masterminded the ambush of Blackwater contractors whose bodies were burned and hung on a bridge in Fallujah) accused them of punching him in the stomach during a raid earlier this fall? One has been acquitted:
A U.S. military jury cleared a Navy SEAL Thursday of failing to prevent the beating of an Iraqi prisoner suspected of masterminding a 2004 attack that killed four American security contractors.
The contractors’ burned bodies were dragged through the streets and two were hanged from a bridge over the Euphrates river in the former insurgent hotbed of Fallujah, in what became a turning point in the Iraq war.
The trial of three SEALs, the Navy’s elite special forces unit, in the abuse case has outraged many Americans who see it as coddling terrorists.
A six-man jury found Petty Officer 1st Class Julio Huertas, 29, of Blue Island, Illinois, not guilty of charges of dereliction of duty and attempting to influence the testimony of another service member. The jury spent two hours deliberating the verdict.
Cassy Fiano has more.
Two more to go. Human Events, which amassed 130,000 signatures on a petition in support of the SEALS, follows up.
See what others have said
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Now, can we go after the traitors who wanted to put this man on trial?
The SEAL’s put themselves on trial, because they are men of honor.
Some PC puke (pardon my French) charged them because this terrorist whined about his treatment. The CYA chain of command told the SEAL’s to take non-judicial punishment to just get things over with.
The SEAL’s, however, as is their right, chose to not accept non-judicial punishment and requested a court martial. This is a perfect example of the best path not being the easiest path, but the right path.
So Misscheryl, we should not go after the people who put these men on trial, because the SEALs themselves did. We should make sure the careers are over for the officers who preferred the inital charges and the commander(s) who presided over the Article 15 hearing(s), found them guilty, and offered them non-judicial punishment.
That would be the President.
These charges reportedly were “revenge” for the SEALs killing the Somali pirate to free the hostages. There were reports that the Obama Regime was outraged that they did this.
Score one for the good guys! Thank God even in the loopy PC military world truth and common sense can prevail.
Still waiting however for the Fort Hood report on the “man caused disaster resulting from emotional distress due to cultural and religious insensitivity”. Or something.
Yo Eric the red; E.S.A.D. There still are rational people out there, especially in the military.
We should make sure the careers are over for the officers who preferred the inital charges and the commander(s) who presided over the Article 15 hearing(s), found them guilty, and offered them non-judicial punishment.
and right after that we should make sure and tround up all the pigs that flew out of our a$$SES!
“round up”
Punched the bad guy in the gut & up on charges? Only in the current, weenified America could that possibly happen. I’m for buying all the SEALS as much beer they can hold for the work they did. As the late Col. David Hackworth said, “do the hard right, and not the easy wrong.” Too bad the officers who preferred the charges didn’t have the testicular fortitude to follow that wisdom.
This positive development could be seen coming from several weeks ago, when the military court allowed five witnesses to testify under immunity on behalf of at least one of the accused — I tried to flag it to Michelle a couple of times, to no avail.
Please. The system has worked so far exactly as it is supposed to. And from what I can tell, the SEAL in this case was the “easy” one — he wasn’t accused of the actual incident. No touchdown dances yet — two remain accused — or taking out “revenge” on those who are doing their jobs in the military justice system.
This is good news, period. Can’t we just accept it for its face value?
I would add those politicians and so-called-journalists who helped create the climate in which the brave men and women who stand in harm’s way on our behalf are viewed as the ‘the bad guys.’ Such politicians must be voted out ASAP, and the so-called-journalists need to find themselves in the un-employment line [if not in jail for giving aid and comfort to the enemy].
That’s how I feel about it.
God bless and keep our men and women in uniform – and the lawyers who defend them [contrary to popular opinion, not all lawyers are bad]
That jihadi terrorist piece of work should have not been taken prisoner. If we would take a “win this thing” attitude we would not have to worry about what happen during a capture. There would be no captures. Gitmo should have nothing in it but guards. God bless those brave SEALs.
It makes me glad to see that the the PC police have not, as of yet, totally corrupted the military!
You have to be kidding me. Given the evidence, actually the lack of evidence, the absolute farthest this should have gotten was at the Article 15 hearing where the commander should have cleared all three.
And yes, I can say that having been a commander three times and having presided over Article 15 sessions.
Two things count; your mission and your people. When you conduct a PC based, shoddy investigation like the one that led to these SEAL’s having to live under a cloud for months and go all the way to a court martial to clear themselves, you sure as h@11 are not taking care of your troops.
There are weather stations on places like Adak Island in need of officers of the caliber who conducted this investigation.
I assume the other two will be cleared as well. If there is any justice, they should be. However, I remember Ramos and Compean. So who knows? Apparently, our “justice” system works differently for the military and other peace officers. If they aren’t cleared, there will be hell to pay.
I agree. Why are we bothering to capture these evil people? They are no use to civilization. Let the virgins have at them. (You know, those virgins who all look like Helen Thomas.)
So far so good but any hope Petty Officer 1st Class Julio Huertas had of a career in the Navy is over. Despite rules, regulations and laws his file will be flagged. Had he taken the Article 15 his career would still be effectively over as far as promotion goes. Political retribution is a whole new game and a damn shame it is.
I really pray the other two Seals are found not guilty also. This whole thing makes me sick our military are having to deal with this in the first place. Too bad that rop type will not get the same treatment he saw to it the Blackwater men got! That would be justice, IMO.
L
How they get men and women to serve in this climate is beyond me. God bless them, they keep stepping up, always when we need them the most.
That’s not true at all. The government put the SEALs on trial after they refused NJP.
It’s absurd to suggest that they “put themselves on trial” simply because they refused a deal which would have avoided trial.
From the Fox story:
Prosecutors refused to comment after the verdict, but in his closing argument Lt. Cmdr. Jason Grover said the SEALs were itching for payback for the killings of the Blackwater guards — two of whom were former SEALs — and that now the elite unit had “circled the wagons.”
Memo to Lt. Cmdr. Grove: Since you know nothing of honor or actual combat, had the SEALs been “itching for payback”, Ahmed Hashim Abed would have been sent back to Fallujah in a cigar box.
Flyman – I’m wondering if the charges against the SEALS was simply CYA. They were likely thinking about the whole Abu Graib mess where a few rogue soldiers damaged the reputation of the entire service. (rightly or not)
From what I know about SEAL training, discipline and mission, if they did punch out this guy it was because he likely deserved a bullet and they were exercising restraint.
What’s wrong with conducting some analysis based on the new information?
If the civilian defense attorney is to be believed here, then this is certainly positive input for an analysis regarding the other two defendants. There’s no reason to believe that such inconsistencies will not be a factor in the other two trials.
Note to all those Armchair Admirals out there; The primary mission of the military is to kill people and break things. Speaking from my 20+ years of naval experience, the SEALS are the best there is at that mission. This Al Qaida POS should consider himself lucky.
He’s just following the terrorist playbook. What is particularly galling is that we have people gullible enough to believe our sworn enemies.
They have a common foe, the USA.
That Jihadi should be brought up on war crimes charges for assaulting the SEAL on the fist with his stomache!
Given how the UCMJ works, what I wrote was accurate. During the Article 15 hearing the SEAL’s were found “guilty.”
At that point you have two choices. You can accept the presiding officer’s ruling or you can decline the punishment and ask for a courtmartial.
The parallel would be if you were stopped by a traffic cop and appeared before a Justice of the Peace. If the Justice found you guilty, you can choose to pay the fine or ask for a jury trial. The downside of a jury trial is that the penalties, if they find you guilty, can be harsher.
I agree with you totally. I also believe finding them guilty in an Article 15 hearing was CYA.
The chain of command wanted the SEAL’s to accept a minor punishment to make the PC crowd happy. As opposed to the chain of command, the SEAL’s were unwilling to compromise their integrity.
Oh good, we get to see Keith Olbermann’s head explode again tonight.
He really gets his panties in a wad whenever a terrorist loses.
Funny, I was going to say the same thing about you.
I’ve participated in Article 15s too, and in a court martial. My education and background are in law. Unlike many who have commented on this case, I have paid careful attention to its underlying facts from the outset: it was not, and is not, some exercise in political correctness. Enough evidence turned up during the preliminary investigation, along with an at least seemingly credible witness (no, not the terrorist himself), to lead the investigators to go forward.
The SEALs in question were given an option: non-judicial punishment if they accepted the findings of the investigation, or court martial if they didn’t. They were not “found guilty” (your words) of an Article 15 offense, which makes me wonder what kind of knowledge you really possess when it comes to military justice. Rather, they chose to challenge the findings of the investigation by the means available: requesting a court martial.
And good on them for doing so. The court martial did exactly what it was supposed to do: let the accused present their witnesses and challenge their accuser, and the right result came out from it. I hope that the other two SEALs will also be similarly acquitted, and soon.
You missed a third thing that counts: upholding the military’s own high standards of discipline, adherence to its own laws, and accountability to the same. And you fail to acknowledge that an unavoidable part of being a SOCOM warrior is that these standards will be applied with even more rigor than they ordinarily are.
As a cav scout NCO and an infantry officer I too have been in positions of command; and while our people and our mission are paramount considerations, our upholding of the system of military discipline and justice as a whole isn’t something that can be treated as discretionary or blithely disregarded in favor of of blind loyalty to individuals we know and care about.
Should law enforcement agents and military guards be able to beat prisoners at will; with total regard to the rules, then lie about it? It seems that’s what is being suggested when this case comes up.
It’s sad that so many want to take the word of a terrorist scumbag over a Navy SEAL. This is one small victory for us.
If they are able to beat up prisoners at will, there is no need to lie about it. The only who has made the suggestion is you.
Ahmed Hashim Abed (channeling Joe Besser): “Stop it! Not so hard!” (issues fey wrist slap)
Only if you watch that pondscum bottom feeder. Maybe the explosion will be repeated on FOX News so I can see it.
Hmm, is that Obama or the people who voted for him…
Take your pick.
It absolutely was NOT accurate.
When a member refuses NJP, the case needs to be referred for court martial by those that wish to pursue the case. A request/demand for court martial is absolutely NOT a requirement for refusing NJP. In fact, often times no court martial is conducted after NJP is refused.
5 seals said it didn’t happen. One later changed his story and says it did. The other 4 still say it didn’t. There was blood on the guy. Did he just fall down or did someone push him down or punch him?
Actually, if he was one of the guys that hung the charred bodies from the bridge and dragged them through the streets, I would like to punch him myself. Where does that line form?
The fact that this trial even took place is a sign that we live in demented times.
The next court martial should be the “Commander in Chief” For treason and dereliction of duty. If he was doing his job this court martial would have never happened. This community organizer is way out of his depth.
It really feels, from my admittedly civilian perspective, that this was an investigation looking for a case. I cannot believe that of all things they could prosecute, this would rise to the top. There is something else at the bottom of this. It just does not feel right. Any bets that the SEALs offended an admiral somewhere along the way? Richard Marcinko?