Not to sound like the eternal skeptic here; but something about this story sounds very fishy. I mean, I can understand a death — but a terrorist reporting someone punching him in the mouth strikes me as not being true. Something is fishy here. Not to mention Fox News’s god-awful headline on this story; which does, I am afraid show a horrific bias in this story.
Via Fox News:
Navy SEALs have secretly captured one of the most wanted terrorists in Iraq — the alleged mastermind of the murder and mutilation of four Blackwater USA security guards in Fallujah in 2004. And three of the SEALs who captured him are now facing criminal charges, sources told FoxNews.com.
The three, all members of the Navy’s elite commando unit, have refused non-judicial punishment — called an admiral’s mast — and have requested a trial by court-martial.
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.
Matthew McCabe, a Special Operations Petty Officer Second Class (SO-2), is facing three charges: dereliction of performance of duty for willfully failing to safeguard a detainee, making a false official statement, and assault.
Petty Officer Jonathan Keefe, SO-2, is facing charges of dereliction of performance of duty and making a false official statement.
Petty Officer Julio Huertas, SO-1, faces those same charges and an additional charge of impediment of an investigation.
Not to sound overly crass or anything like that, but this idiot terrorist ought to be glad a “Fat Lip” is the only thing he received from these Navy Seals. Please do not misunderstand what I am trying to say here folks—- I know that Military personnel are capable of committing crimes just as well as anyone else. A perfect example would be the oh, so ever convenient CNN special on the Army guys who shot, killed and dumped in a ditched some prisoners in Iraq here a few days ago.
A little comment about that little situation; those people are cooling their heels in an Army Prison —- right where they should be. There is no excuse for what those men did, at all. I am quite sorry, but using the asinine excuse of “They will be just shooting at us again later” is no excuse to kill a prison and try to cover it up. Anyone that thinks that those men are heroes is just plain crazy.
Anyhow, back to the present situation at hand here, this terrorist could have, in fact, punched himself in the face and then just told the Iraqi Authorities that the Americans did it to him. Since when do we take the word of Islamic terrorists that killed contractors in Iraq, over the words of our brave service members? Unless there is more to this story than is being reported in the media, perhaps another service member saw the persons involved in this abusing this guy and they reported it to the higher ups in the Military? We do not know this information, so it is hard to make that sort of a judgment call.
Another thing I will say here is this, I was reading a few other Conservative blogs, and some of the stuff I read, I found to be downright surprising. Let me remind my follow Conservatives that we do believe in the rule of law. In World War II and all subsequent wars, the United States and its Military always heeded the Geneva conventions; now the Japanese and the Vietnamese were another story. They did not always do as such. Nevertheless, American never responded in kind, we always treated our prisoners of war with respect. This is why all of this Presidential and Justice Department mandated so-called “enhanced interrogation” or as normal, sane, rational people call it — torture; is so troublesome to me. I have to believe that even the feistiest of the old school Democrats of old, which are nowadays mostly New or Neo Conservatives would not have approved of such things.
Anyhow, this story should prove to be quite interesting and here is hoping that someone the media or something in the Blogosphere will continue to follow it.
having been in the military for several years (army, infantry) there is alot of stuff that goes on in combat that is never mentioned. lets say they did punch him, so what. a murderer got his lip busted. so what. if those soldiers end up in the stockade they will live worse than a rapist, child molester, or murderer convicted in civilian court. military prisoners live much harder sentences than a criminal convicted in civilian court. im sure when they captured him he put up a fight. i highly doubt he said ” you got me i give up peacefully”. having served in iraq, afganistan, and camp “gitmo”, these terrorists are not the poor me cuddly people CNN likes to make them out to be. in every combat zone ive served the detainees lived better than the the soldiers most of you say you support. no matter how many men, women, children, and americans they have killed. 😡
Quite True. Thanks for the comments. 😀
This is absolutely CRAZY!!! Those men deserve ribbons on their chests, not to be charged criminally…The people that are behind the push to prosecute those good men should be sent over to IRAQ and made to do the job that our military are doing. This just infuriates me to no end that this is the way we treat our military personnel. This is a WAR, did the terrorists consider our feelings when they flew planes into the buildings in NYC. I’m sorry we constructed our buildings in the way of your hijacking terrorists planes……this country is going downhill, and the worst part is the terrorists are playing right into this and they are now using it against us. WAKE UP AMERICA, WAR IS NOT A GAME and WE NEED NOT BE SORRY FOR DEFENDING OUR FREEDOM, and OUR MILITARY SHOULD NOT BE DEFENDING THEMSELVES IN COURT FOR PROTECTING OUR RIGHTS!!!! THIS IS INSANE!
Which is exactly why I do not like bringing topics like this up on my Blog. People on the right do not like to think in terms of “Rule of law” when it comes to terrorists. They believe that the “Rule of law” extends to American citizens. Sorry Mr. Michael, but I happen to disagree with you. So do these Navy Seals. The Navy was going to try and sweep this under the rug; and these Navy Seals said “Oh Hell no!” and retained counsel and demanded that they be given an Military Trial.
We just cannot allow ourselves to act like the terrorists themselves and conduct ourselves in lawlessness. We have to be the one’s who stand up, defend ourselves and exercise rule of law on these terrorists.
But, I know how you feel and I thank you for your impassioned comments.
Patrick, I COMPLETELY disagree with you. This men are heroes not criminals. Our government is making it impossible for our soldiers to do their jobs effectively. These terrorists do not follow any rules of conduct, if we are to win this war and make no mistake it is a war, we have to fight just like them otherwise give up now because we can’t win when ONLY American soldiers are being held accountable for there actions!
If the consequences for these SEALs weren’t so serious it would seem like a joke. These terrorists drag through the streets, behead, set on fire and hang from bridges American citizens but a captured terrorists gets a fat lip and the men defending our country are going on trial. It’s ABSURD! And the people bringing charges against these men should be ashamed of themselves.
Sorry Tracy, But I disagree:
This is the rub, right here. We, as the United States of America must stoop to the level of an islamic terrorist. That, I am afraid, is insane, and I highly disagree with it. We are not a terrorist Nation and we do not fight wars like one either.
Sorry Tracy, But I am afraid that you are sorely mistaken here.
Patrick, are you out of your mind? They should have just shot him. He will end up in our court system getting better representation than we do and going free due to a loophole that our liberal courts are so fond of letting happen. Has this whole country gone upside down?
Normally, I would not even approve a comment like this; seeing that you took the occasion to insult me. But no, AJ, I am not out of my mind. This very attitude right here, is why the Conservatives and/or Republicans will never take back the White House in 2012. Republicans believe or supposedly believe in rule of law. Not mob rule, that is what Democrats believe in.
If these Navy seals did break the law, they should be punished. If not, they should be acquitted. I do not care what the terrorist did; stooping to their level is not they way you fight a war. Period, end of story.
Patrick, I don’t think asking if you are out of your mind is insulting you. I wish just once types like yourself would get dropped off in places like Afghanistan or Iraq or Iran and try printing this type of drivel. You should be on your knees everyday thanking these brave young men and women that give you the freedom to sit in your judgement chair. They volunteer and when we ask them to go do the job we tie their hands. Obviously you will never get it. I am sure you probably won’t ALLOW this comment
Regards Alan
You are entitled to your opinion…..and I did approve your comment. Imagine that. 😛