PrintJanuary 12, 2010
Navy Seals trial moved to Iraq
The Newport News DailyPress.com reports :
Two of the three Navy elite commando SEALS who are facing military court martial for their arrest of an Islamic terrorist are going to have trials in Iraq so that they can exercise their right to confront their accuser face-to-face.
Special Warfare Operater 2nd Class Jonathan Keefe, Special Warfare Operator 1st Class Julio Huertas and Special Warfare Operator 2nd Class Matthew McCabe are accused of mistreating Ahmed Hashim Abed after arresting him and denying wrongdoing in later statements to commanders.
Abed is the accused Islamo-terrorist mastermind of the ambush, torture, murder, burning and hanging of 4 Blackwater contract personnel who were making a food delivery in Fallujah, Iraq in 2004. The American men, most of them former U.S. military, were dragged behind vehicles, burned and hung from a Euphrates river bridge while town crowds cheered.
U.S. Military commanders, (who apparently suffer from the same "politically-correct" illness as the President of the United States) allege that SWO2 McCabe may have punched Abed after his arrest. The alleged "crime" of the other two SEALS is, apparently, that they didn't rat out their fellow soldier. Abed may have also suffered a cut lip in the incident. Background on this story is here and here.
In the past few weeks, military prosecutors have sought to delay the trials of the SEALS and also tried to simply try the SEALS on the basis of a taped deposition of Abed. Attorneys for the SEALS demanded the right to confront and question their Muslim terrorist accuser in person at trial. The fact that the SEALS have to be flown to Iraq to protect their rights, their careers, their names and the SEALS' reputation is a shameful waste of time, expense and effort. The Christmas Day bombing attempt on an American jetliner shows the U.S. government has much more important business than prosecuting soldiers who were doing exemplary work tracking down a Muslim terrorist murder suspect.
The clock keeps ticking, the Obama administration has had plenty of time and still has more time to drop these charges and make this all go away. American soldiers being treated like terrorists. Terrorists being treated like soldiers. The silence from this White House on this matter is shameful.
(hat tip: Josh Griner Irving)
Jane Jamison is publisher of the conservative news/commentary blog, UNCOVERAGE.net
