Navy SEALs Face Assault Charges for Capturing Most-Wanted Terrorist

Navy SEALs Face Assault Charges for Capturing Most-Wanted Terrorist
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
By Rowan Scarborough

March 31, 2004: Iraqis chant anti-American slogans as the charred and mutilated bodies of U.S. contractors hang from a bridge over the Euphrates River in Fallujah, Iraq.

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 for their trouble, three of the SEALs, members of the Navy's elite commando unit, are now facing criminal charges, sources told FoxNews.com.

The three have refused non-judicial punishment — called an admiral's mast — and 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.

The three SEALs will be arraigned separately on Dec. 7. Another three SEALs — two officers and an enlisted sailor — have been identified by investigators as witnesses but have not been charged.

FoxNews.com obtained the official handwritten statement from one of the three witnesses given on Sept. 3, hours after Abed was captured and still being held at the SEAL base at Camp Baharia. He was later taken to a cell in the U.S.-operated Green Zone in Baghdad.

The SEAL told investigators he had showered after the mission, gone to the kitchen and then decided to look in on the detainee.

"I gave the detainee a glance over and then left," the SEAL wrote. "I did not notice anything wrong with the detainee and he appeared in good health."

Lt. Col. Holly Silkman, spokeswoman for the special operations component of U.S. Central Command, confirmed Tuesday to FoxNews.com that three SEALs have been charged in connection with the capture of a detainee. She said their court martial is scheduled for January.

United States Central Command declined to discuss the detainee, but a legal source told FoxNews.com that the detainee was turned over to Iraqi authorities, to whom he made the abuse complaints. He was then returned to American custody. The SEAL leader reported the charge up the chain of command, and an investigation ensued.

The source said intelligence briefings provided to the SEALs stated that "Objective Amber" planned the 2004 Fallujah ambush, and "they had been tracking this guy for some time."

The Fallujah atrocity came to symbolize the brutality of the enemy in Iraq and the degree to which a homegrown insurgency was extending its grip over Iraq.

The four Blackwater agents were transporting supplies for a catering company when they were ambushed and killed by gunfire and grenades. Insurgents burned the bodies and dragged them through the city. They hanged two of the bodies on a bridge over the Euphrates River for the world press to photograph.

Intelligence sources identified Abed as the ringleader, but he had evaded capture until September.

The military is sensitive to charges of detainee abuse highlighted in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. The Navy charged four SEALs with abuse in 2004 in connection with detainee treatment.

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AF6872 said:

No we are not them and they are not us. They are a people who murder children and innocent civilians and use children as shields and train them from the cradle for hate and murder. They are the people of peace who believe that other than true conversion Dhimmi and Sharia Law is applicable to all as long as they pay the Jizya. They are the people stuck in the seventh century. As a noted Islamic scholar once stated on a radio talk show (without any historical proof by the way) we gave you your mathematics, your alphabet, your astronomy and some of your most beautiful architecture. As the host then asked, if even true that was almost two thousand years ago. What have you done for us lately?

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NavIss58 said:

usna1985, the Lone Survivor, by Marcus Luttrel and Patrick Robinson, published in 2007? I'm going to read it even if I'm not taking SA Ethics. It looks like a terribly exciting read. Then I'll pass it on to my Plebe (even if he doesn't make the cut). Fingers crossed.

There's another book by a similar name published in 2006. Just wanted to be clear on which one you meant. Thanks.

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flieger83 said:

That's the one...Marcus Luttrell.

Steve
USAFA ALO
USAFA '83

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The alleged incident happened in Iraq on or about Sept. 1, Silkman said. None of the SEALs is confined, she added.
The source said the charges stem not from the capture itself — which have a high potential for violence — but from later on, when Abed was under detention.
“If they really wanted to [beat] him that was the time do it,” during the capture, the source said. “That’s why this is so ridiculous.”
The charges were first reported by Fox News, which posted a story on its Web site Tuesday. The source confirmed that Abed was known by the military code “Objective Amber,” but could not say if the capture went down in the city of Fallujah or in the outlying area.
The source said the allegations began when a master-at-arms sailor assigned to guard Abed told a SEAL platoon commander that one of the operators had punched Abed in the stomach.
“This was reported by the SEAL platoon commander to the chain of command,” he said.

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