Former decorated Green Beret, after years of investigations, charged in death of suspected Taliban bomb maker
By Greg Norman
A former Green Beret who told Fox News in 2016 that he killed a suspected Taliban bomb maker nearly a decade ago during combat operations in Afghanistan is now being charged in the man’s death — a move his lawyer says is an act of betrayal by the Army.
The murder charge facing Maj. Matthew Golsteyn comes after years of on-and-off investigations by the Army following an incident said to have taken place during his 2010 deployment. A military tribunal that probed the killing years ago initially cleared Golsteyn — but the investigation into him was re-opened after he spoke to Fox News’ Bret Baier.
“I think he’s been betrayed,” his attorney, Phillip Stackhouse, told Fox News on Friday when asked how the Army has treated Golsteyn.
The once-decorated soldier, who had been on voluntary excess leave amid the latest investigation, has been living in a newly bought home with his wife and a 2-month-old baby in Virginia, working for the International Association of Firefighters, Stackhouse said.
Golsteyn was informed of the murder charge earlier this week after being ordered back into active duty.
Someone (I could look but really don’t care) loudly left in high dudgeon when I mentioned NCIS’s track record wasn’t unblemished, when I posted up on SOC “Eddie” Gallagher’s case. My how that Cluster Foxtrot has changed.
This too smacks of over-zealous military prosecutors looking for a scalp, and it seems the only witness is Golsteyn himself. Listen to your lawyer, Matt. I feel pretty safe in saying we’re all pulling for you here.
Now with a link: Fox News
Another tip o’ the old chapeau to AP for the link. Careful laddie, this way leads to madness and drink. *grin*
Category: Army News
What? Killing the enemy is bad now? WTF are we supposed to do? Twist his arm until he says Uncle?
Combat is one thing, it’s another to capture a guy, then drag him back out of the base to execute him and burn his body to cover up the murder. I understand he did it to protect a collaborator, but that still doesn’t give him the right be judge, jury, and executioner, if those allegations are true. From what I’ve read there wasn’t enough evidence to convict him the first time around, but he was found guilty of conduct unbecoming an officer and lost his Silver Star and tab in the process.
source: https://www.military.com/daily-news/2018/12/14/former-decorated-green-beret-charged-death-suspected-taliban-bomb-maker.html
Nothing says a faculty lounge idiot like a statement such as this. Clearly you have served long years in the brutal battles of the freshman seminar and the dean’s dinner.
Do inform us when your draft status changes from 4HC (draft 4 people after Hillary Clinton).
I did serve in Iraq, and was heavily involved with what we’ll call ‘Personality Targeting’ for this discussion.
At the time of this incident the Iraqi government had full sovereignty. US SOF worked primarily with Iraqi SOF and was dependent on their sources for targetable information. We had a process in place to validate and vett targets to ensure they were legit, and when we did capture bad guys there was a process in place to try and convict them under Iraqi law.
Had the bad guy been killed during the raid, it would have been legal and ethical. However, once captured, he became ‘hors de combat- outside the fight. Like it or not, the Captain had the legal and ethical duty under UCMJ to safeguard the prisoner and hand him over to appropriate authority.
Every private learns this in Basic Training- 5 Ss (Secure, Silence, Seperate, Safeguard, Speedy return to the rear). Stuff like this is one of the reasons we were able to negotiate an acceptable SOFA and keep adequate troops in the country. It damages our reputation in the world, and makes it harder to do what we need to do.
Most of all, it is unethical, and the CPT knew better.if these allegations are true, he should be prosecuted.
Except this was in Afghanistan…
Hey you meanie, you better watch out or I’ll tell the dean on you! You almost hurt my pwecious widdle feewings with all that name calling!
Now please reinsert your wife’s cock back into its proper holster so we don’t have to listen to any more of your verbal diarrhea.
Oh, you’re a Combat Veteran with tons of soldiering and war experience???????
Nope, as POG as they come, if you must know. But last time I checked UCMJ, ROE, and the Geneva Conventions applied to grunts as well. 😛
No…let’s just send army brass and congress over to fight..what a joke that would be….!!
I see this: “…he killed a suspected Taliban bomb maker nearly a decade ago during combat operations in Afghanistan…”
I want to be sure I understand this properly.
He’s in a combat zone, he kills an enemy who just happens to be a bombmaker – a Taliban, no less – there’s a war going on, and somehow, killing the bad guy in a war zone during a war is murder.
Tell me, is the genius who decided to charge this soldier with murder of an enemy bombardier even remotely aware that under these conditions or circumstances, you’re supposed to kill the enemy before he kills you?
I really dislike seeing my tax money wasted on this kind of twaddle. But the information included does not say exactly what there is about this incident that would generate a charge of murder.
Because he didn’t kill the bomb maker in combat. He took a prisoner out and executed him, then burned the body to cover his ass.
The thing that separates us from those animals is the fact that we fight following a set of rules and with honor.
There’s nothing honorable about murdering a captive.
Except he did not “take the prisoner out…”. The prisoner was released from their custody, as per the ROE. The Afghani government at the time did not have a system set up to take the prisoner from us. The officer than went back to the village where they knew him to hide out, and killed him (but it wasn’t in his mission statement at the time to prosecute Taliban as enemy combatants), and buried him in a shallow grave. He later unburied him and disposed of the body in the burn pit. If he had used 7.62×39 instead of 5.56 he could have just left him to rot, and we would not be having this conversation.
But he was honest and nobody likes an honest CIA operative.
You might want to tell that to the taliban and ISIS!!!!
This is the second phase of destroy and conquer
Thanks to Obama and years of stacking the DOD
full of left wing nuts… we’ll be seeing a lot more of this
In the coming years
Which is rather ironic, given that he now works for IAFF, who constantly pack my PO box with junk mail telling me how awesome democrats are and how every firefighter has to vote for them. They might do other stuff, but if so, I haven’t noticed. Said junk mail lights a nice fire in the wood stove, at least.
Unless there’s more to the story than we’re seeing here, I’m not seeing a problem with his killing of the child-raping taliban assdouche in question.
Lol, I was thinking the same TOW.. get kinda tired of the IAFF propaganda crap..
The event occurred in 2010. In 2011, Golsteyn sought a CIA position and, as part of the applicant investigation, was polygraphed. The questions elicited information regarding the killing of a known bomb maker. If the bomb maker was released, a local friendly and his family, now known to bomb maker, would be killed. That was Goldsteyn’s stated rationale for dispatching the bomb maker. The CIA served up the info to the Army, an investigation was conducted, and administrative action was taken. No criminal charges and no dishonorable discharge. Five years later, in 2016, Golsteyn recounts the matter in an interview conducted by Brett Baier and the Army reopens its closed investigation. And that brings us to this point. Golsteyn has not wavered in maintaining that he is good to go with what he had to do under the circumstances that existed in 2010.
He made the call that he believed—and still believes—would save lives. That’s good enough for me.
Like I said the other day, he should have kept his yap shut. I think the phrase they use in Texas is “shoot, shovel, and shut-up.”
The thing is, the Army knew about it and preferred no criminal charges. So, I can easily see why he had no fear of mentioning it in the interview. Plus, he truly believes he made the right call so there was nothing to hide. (I will add that I wish he had said nothing, too, now that he is in a jackpot over it.)
I suspect that had he remained silent after the initial effort did not lead to major adverse action, the matter would likely have remained closed.
Going on Fox News and openly stating one had killed someone under odd circumstances, well, that was probably seen as daring someone to respond. Poking the bear, so to speak.
That interview has no positive outcome that I can see. I cannot imagine an attorney saying “sure. Go ahead.” if asked about it beforehand.
Am I missing something? Just seems like an epic mistake.
In retrospect, sure, and I agree he should have stayed silent, not gone on TV but, again, he likely thought that since the matter had been investigated and disposed of, he had nothing to fear from talking about it. I did not see the interview. I made a cursory effort to find it and let it go. I’ll try again. Quotes and transcripts don’t convey inflection or body English.
Still can’t find it, but I did find a Washington Times piece that predates the Fox interview and quotes from the CIA interview, believe it or not. In it, the CIA investigator agrees with Golsteyn that the bomb maker was an active combatant. The Silver Star was stripped from him then-Army Sucretary John “Me?-No-I-Never-Served” McHugh.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jul/19/green-beret-tells-of-shooting-taliban-in-cia-job-i/
the CIA was looking at the issue as part of a background check- it was not a criminal investigation. Aside from that, the CIA does not have any authority to conduct criminal investigations at all, much less a Military member. His command has the authority and responsibility to investigate the crime.
I thought they Gould report crimes to proper authorities.
“Hey, CID colleague. Does this sound like a murder confession? Out of our scope, but thought you might advise. ”
Even if that is verboten, if Secret Squirrel makes an anonymous call to a tip line, same net effect.
“Could” not “Gould”
Sheesh.
Yes, they did report it. My point is that the CIA investigators opinion that it was not a crime does not matter.
Did someone say it did? If so, please ID.
The Army CID also initially said it was not a crime. Not CIA.
Give him a medal and send him back to track down and kill the rest of the family.
And the Goat. Leave the dog alone.
Why this O-3 wanted to go to work for that nest of incompetents and vipers known as the CIA is beyond me. But I guess he wanted an easy federal job with three hots and a cot. Now he is going to get it, just not in the setting he had imagined. His defense attorney is going to have quite a time defending him, in light of his confession to Brett Bair on national TV.
-that- stunt just seems absurd based on the SF folks I have known over the years. They are some of the most closemouthed and discreet people I know. Also some of the most fore-thinking “what happens if..” types.
This is my experience as well. There is nothing to gain and a lot to lose. People that have had to do shit keep quiet, and the yapping dogs done nothing but hear stories from AARs.
The Army still got quite a few Obama officers hell bent in changing Army culture from warfighting to climate change prevention.
Not sure “0bama” really is the culprit.
War corrupts everything. The longer it goes on, the more crap gets done out of expediency, or WTF, or just plain hate. The ethical culture carefully nurtured in peacetime gets corroded pretty quick.
And we are at 17 years and counting.
I know only the little I have read, but I would find it very difficult to find fault with his actions. I figure if he genuinely killed a goat humping scumbag, that is one less scumbag we have to worry about.
In reading further, the alleged bomb-maker had already claimed two Marine lives.
Fox News Link
Seems like time for ALL of us to communicate with our U.S. Senators and Representatives about the absurdity of what is occurring to an American hero.
I’ll communicate with the Arkansas delegation which includes one retired Guard colonel, a former EOD type and Tom Cotton. All Y’all please do the same in your state. Time to put enough pressure on DoD so they knock this crap off.
I will do so as well, but seeing as how we now have a pack of D-rats, I’m sure it’ll go nowhere, and I’ll get the same BS form letter, if any reply at all.
What good would it do to say anything to Leaky Leahy or Crazy Bernie or Peter Puffer Welch? I might as well go have a conversation with my truck. It really sucks to live in a once great conservative state now over run with leftists.
“There is no glory in dying for your Country. The glory comes from making that other son of a bitch die for his Country.”
Paraphrased loosely and semi attributed to LTG George Smith Patton USA
Turn the Major loose, upgrade his medal, re-instate him at the rank he would be entitled to, give him all back pay with allowances, put him in charge of training @ the John Wayne School for Boys, and fire the stupid SOB that brought all of this up.
He didn’t get into trouble for doing what he did – he got into trouble for talking about it, not just once but several times. It appears that the amount of trouble escalated with the size of the audience.
There is a lesson or three in there. Too bad he didn’t learn it the first time.
STFU – profound wisdom.
“Quiet professionals” is about the smartest F-ing label ever.
“Remember Caesar! All Glory is fleeting”
The stupid is strong in that one. Confessing to murder on television.
I am sure he believes his actions were correct. I may even agree with him and commend his actions. But if he wants to hang himself, he’s on his own.
On 9-12-2001 we should have turned Afghanistan and the area to the immediate west into trinitite.
The Major has bigger stones than the vast majority of Congress but somehow those morons get to dictate how he’s punished?
Given the terrain, and the nature of the locals, that might not have dome more than inconvenience them.
Ghengis freakin Khan had difficulty convincing them to stop being annoying.
The Himalayas have been trying to kill them off for five thousand years, without much success.
Pick the least annoying bunch.
Pay them modestly for the heads of the most annoying ones. Throw occasional bling and cash at particular eradication efforts.
Otherwise stay the bleep -away-.
Now why cannot the folks at the top see that workable path?
I regard the execution of the taliban a blessing and the method of execution as a charitable Benediction.
Fine work Major, thank you for your service.
The Pentagon Perfumed princes, politically correct REMF generals and boot lickers rule the roost.
BS !
This cluster-fuck reeks of the MSG John Hatley “Killings at the Canal” debacle. John is STILL in USDB Fort Leavenworth after ten years. His parole application was denied last week by one Francine Blackmon (retired Air Force Human Resources specialist with tons of Soldiering and Brotherhood experience who is Dep Sec of the Army appointed by Obama) for the third time in three years. The UCMJ hasn’t been updated since 1949 and it’s high time to do so. Also, the military “justice” system has no oversight to speak of which makes it very easy prosecutors/judges to do as they please. BTW, the judge who convicted Hatley is the same judge who released Manning.
That would be very difficult. Manning was released due to the previous POTUS commuting his 35 year sentence at Fort Leavenworth 3 days before leaving office (17 Jan 2017).
Seems like this Professional should have just stayed Quiet. 😉
Let this non-practicing lawyer give you some free advice: If you are ever suspected of a crime,
S
T
F
U
Remember that there are a lot more people who talked themselves INTO prison than ever talked their way OUT.