Punishing the sheepdogs
I’ve received this article about the Navy Seals being punished by the Navy first reported by Fox News from about ten people;
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.
The Navy Times reports that Abed got his bloody lip from a punch in the stomach;
Neal Puckett, a defense attorney who is representing McCabe, said the SEALs are being essentially charged for allegedly giving the detainee “a punch in the gut.”
They are expected to plead not guilty when they appear at their arraignment. “They are all together and they all maintain that they are innocent of these charges,” said Puckett, a retired Marine Corps lieutenant colonel and judge advocate.
The SEALs were on the tail-end of their deployment to Iraq when the alleged incident happened, he said.
Puckett offered no details about the alleged incident, but said that “in a combat environment, the handling of a detainee … these things happen all the time and can easily be justified as maintaining [control of] a detainee.”
That’s a heck of a punch. I’m guessing that Abed got to watch an episode of “Law and Order” while he was locked up and got the idea to charge his captors. Of course, Matthew Alexander will use this as an “I told you so” moment and we’ll hear that the SEALs are currently encouarging more terrorists instead of ending terrorism.
The SEALs are;
[Petty Officer Julio] Huertas, 28, is originally from Blue Island, Ill., and enlisted in 1999. He has served in special warfare units since 2002. He has an Iraq Campaign Medal and was advanced in June 2006, Navy records show.
[Petty Officer Second Class Matthew] McCabe, 24 is originally from Perrysburg, Ohio, and enlisted in 2003. He served on the Amphibious Assault Ship Belleau Wood before training in special warfare. He was advanced in September 2007, Navy records show.
[Petty Officer Jonathon] Keefe, 25, is originally from Yorktown, Va., and enlisted in 2006. He began SEAL training the same year, Navy records show. He was last advanced in June 2008.
Worst. Decision. Ever. The lesson to take away from this is don’t take any prisoners, I guess.
Uncle Jimbo weighs in and then smacks Allah Pundit around for not sticking with the troops.
Thanks to everyone who sent the link.
Category: Military issues, Terror War
Ok, just for argument sake; is it out of the realm of possibility that this little assmunch could have “self inflicted” the bloody lip? Maybe smack his face against the wall in order to then blame it on his captors? I know it’s not out of bounds for these vermin to lie, since they do it regularly.
That the Navy is this pussy whipped by the terrorists to bring charges against SEALS for a bloody lip is unbelievable. If all he got was a bloody lip from 5 SEALS, then they should be charged with not doing their job, since the little bastard would have been killed 10 times before hitting the floor, if the SEALS had wanted to.
I am spittin mad about the whole thing. These guys careers are done. Even if they win forget about advancement, probably be tossed out of spec ops. Makes me want to go jihad on fing JAG lawyers and NCIS prickles wonders.
My other question is ummm where is the Chief or Officer that led this thing? Why is he not tossed in with his men? Some LT feed his men to the wolves?
Seriously so mad I couldn’t sleep last night.
You can add this to Ft. Hood as another example of the Command Atmosphere coming out of the 5-sided building.
More to follow, I am afraid.
I said it months ago. Enemy POW’s will become either MIA’s or KIA’s. Easier that way.
I warned my son before he deployed that, given the current propensity to conduct “lawfare” vice “warfare”, if he ever was faced with the choice of killing an enemy or trying to capture him, then kill him. It simply isn’t worth the risk to take them alive and possibly face legal scrutiny for your actions.
Of course, killing the JAG officers might help… but that’s prolly not gonna happen.. 🙂
My personal recommendation is for the enlisted men of the United States Military (all branches) to file a class action suit against the United States Government to prohibit extending Geneva Convention rules to anyone NOT specifically included under those treaties. IE: if you are a terrorist, you have no protection. You have no state-issued uniform? No state-sponsored training and organization? Not representing a recognized government? Sorry.. no Geneva Convention for you.
This is a bullsh!t situation, and should never have been allowed to get this far. I am embarrassed and shamed by my Navy and hope that the officers responsible for this decision suffer for years to come.
The problem is, Tim, that it goes to the top, as in CinC Bobo, so the Pentagon pantywaists are only doing what Bobo set for policy. That means the military is getting stiffed in favor of the jihadi’s, just as Bobo wants.
Part of this is also on the command of that SEAL team. This could have (should have) never moved past XOI, unless someone above the SpecWar ranks wanted these guys punished. If this is the case, the best thing these guys did was refusing NJP and asking for a court-martial. Make the sumbitch chickenshit who pushed for this come out into the open.
Lesson for the future: No prisoners. Dead men tell no tales.
As I’ve been taught by many, the best way two people can keep a secret is if one of them is dead.
If the higher ups want intel from the enemy, maybe the SpecOps need to have those higher ups sign a non-punishment quit-claim against any actions taken by our soldiers. If not, then, “oh, so sorry, he resisted, we had to kill him.”
Or maybe those swivel-chair quarterbacks need to get off their dead duffs, and go find & bring in the enemy themselves.
Otherwise, see first line above.
What HAS this military been brought to? This is unconscenable (spelling)!
Old Trooper- Sadly, the same stuff went on with GW as CINC. Perhaps it will become more common now, but I don’t think we can lay this at the feet of The One. I agree completly with Grover’s opinion of JAG and NCIS/CID.
Anybody know of some way we can show these guys our support so they know that the entire world has not gone along with our country being turned upside down and backwards?
Deirdre–unless there’s a support group like there was for the Haditha Marines, the best we can do is keep up the pressure in the blogosphere. As for me, I’m gonna poke around and see if anyone will cop to pushing this BS NJP/court-martial.
There’s a group on Facebook — “Support the Navy Seals who captured Ahmed Hashim Abed” http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?topic=11281&post=48856&uid=201355981560#/group.php?gid=201355981560 — This page was launched about 40 hours ago. It’s nearing 14,000 members.
Thanks for the link Marilyn, I joined.
This is just a lot of BS, why in the hell one anyone want to carry out a mission and then be subjected to this. The Wolves will win when the sheep punish the sheepdog!