Navy SEALs Face Assault Charges for Capturing Most-Wanted Terrorist

What knucklehead came up with this plan to admonish troops after they captured a known terrorist that was probably on a "most wanted list". We usually punish errant soldiers when they do something heinous and inhumane--not for something as miniscule as a bloody lip. By doing this type of idiotic prosecution, our troops will not know for whom they fight. Certainly, not their leaders up the food chain.... lakotahope

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

Something mighty peculiar going on with this report. Department of Justice seems to be seeking to expand on their role in controlling information from U.S. companies and it's citizens. They must think they are operating in Communist China. Like the following article mentions--how many more of these subpoenas seeking private ip addresses of site followers are floating around with non disclosure stipends attached.... lakotahope

Web Site Says Justice Department Demanded It Secretly Turn Over Readers' Information

by Diane Macedo

FOXNews.com

Indymedia.us says the Department of Justice ordered it to release information on its readers -- then directed the news Web site to keep quiet about the demand.

An independent news Web site says the Department of Justice ordered it to release detailed information on its readers -- then directed the site to keep quiet about the demand.

Kristina Clair, systems administrator for Indymedia.us, said she was shocked when she received a subpoena from U.S. Attorney Tim Morrison in Indianapolis in January demanding the IP address of every person who visited the site on June 25, 2008. She said she was also instructed "not to disclose the existence of this request unless authorized by the Assistant U.S. Attorney."

Clair said she was astonished by the demand. "It's a purely aggregate site, it only pulls data from other Indymedia feeds," she told FoxNews.com. "There's no information fed to the site directly."

When she contacted the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a legal advocacy group for digital freedom, she was told the subpoena was riddled with problems.

"Not only was this request a plain violation of federal privacy law -- which would require the government to at least get a court order based on a factual showing to get that kind of data; not only did it violate Department of Justice regulations that require subpoenas to media organizations to be vetted by the attorney general; not only did it threaten the First Amendment right to read anonymously of all of Indymedia's users, it also violated Ms. Clair's First Amendment rights by ordering her not to disclose the subpoena's existence," EFF Senior Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston told FoxNews.com.

EFF said it sent a letter to Assistant U.S. Attorney Doris L. Pryor on Feb. 13 relaying its concerns with the subpoena and explaining that Indymedia didn't store IP addresses and didn't have the data the government was looking for.

"On February 24, I received a voicemail from Ms. Pryor in response to my letter," Bankston said. "In that message, Ms. Pryor said that I was correct that the subpoena did not compel Ms. Clair's silence, but that she would be seeking a court order, as she would confirm in a letter later that day."

Instead, Bankston said, he received a fax from Pryor the next day stating that the subpoena had been withdrawn.

When he called the U.S. Attorney's office later that day to discuss the newly dismissed subpoena, Bankston said Steven DeBrota, the assistant U.S. attorney working on the case, told him the office had reconsidered seeking a court order for Clair's silence but still insisted that disclosure of the subpoena would harm the investigation.

Still, Bankston said, DeBrota would not confirm that Clair would face no legal consequences if she disclosed the subpoena, so EFF sent another e-mail asking for confirmation that there was no legal bar to disclosing the subpoena. Three months later, there was still no response, he said.

"So we wrote them again saying, 'If you actually think this is going to hurt your investigation, go to court and we'll fight it out there, otherwise we're going assume it's not going to hurt your investigation and we're going to speak out about it,'" Bankston said.

With no response to the May letter, EFF and Clair said they decided to go public with the subpoena and EFF's report critiquing it out of fear that this may not be an isolated incident.

"We don't know how many people have received these subpoenas -- that would violate the privacy of anyone that ever read their Web site -- but didn't say anything about it and didn't contact a lawyer because there was a gag order attached to it," EFF spokeswoman Rebecca Jeschke told FoxNews.com.

When asked about the EFF report, U.S. Attorney Morrison told FoxNews.com "we can't comment about that."

Morrison then directed FoxNews.com to Justice Department spokeswoman Melissa Schwartz, who said, "The U.S. Attorney's Office of Indiana South issued the subpoena and it's a grand jury investigation. They're [Morrison's office] the one's giving comment. ... Unfortunately, we [the Justice Department] can't comment on grand jury deliberations."

A source with knowledge of the situation said the subpoena in question required the signature of the attorney general -- or, in his absence, of acting Attorney General Mark Filip -- but that Filip's office never saw it, and the subpoena was never kicked up for approval.

The source would not say whether an internal investigation into the matter, specifically Morrison's actions, had been opened.

The Threat from Iran Seen by Russia

Secretary of State Clinton has returned from her European tour and she states that Russia is very much aware of the dangers posed by Iran. However, Putin isn't about to let any political camaraderie get in the way of the money it is making off of Iran at this time. Russia needs money and Iran needs defensive and offensive materials, since Iran has been effectively quarantined because of its zeal to promote its theocratic government. That and we haven't forgiven them the 1979 assault on our embassy.

So, Putin, I mean Russia, will not go along with the U.S. demand for sanctions against Iran at this time, but it is keeping an eye on them.

Great! I wonder what the world will do once it is confirmed that Iran possesses a nuclear weapon? The president of Iran has made it known of his dislike for Israel and his wanting to destroy this Jewish state. What will Israel do? What kind of balls does the government of the U.S. of A. have to deal with a nuclear capable Iran? How far will we go to prevent the exploitation of this weapon by fundamentalist people intent on destroying anything, anyone that is not a member of Islam?

Saudi Arabia is doing its part in trying to broker a deal to buy missile systems from Russia in exchange for the ex-soviet union member not to sell any missile system package to Iran. This is to delay Israels intent on destroying the nuclear facilities in Iran before they finishing making a nuclear bomb. After all, what else can Israel do to stop the Iranians from producing and delivering a nuclear weapon first?

Countries do not want a major conflict in this region, but I fear there will be a meltdown within a couple of years when everyone has the weapons in hand to do what they have been planning for years. Maybe the year 2012 is important?
lakotahope
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BBC News

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has told the BBC that Russia now recognises the threat posed by Iran.

Wrapping up a European tour in Moscow, Mrs Clinton said Russian leaders had in private said they were ready to act if Tehran did not meet its obligations.

But Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, on a visit to China, said it was too early to talk about sanctions on Iran.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday that threats of sanctions were counter-productive.

Iran denies allegations by the US, EU and Israel that it is trying to build the bomb under cover of a civilian nuclear energy programme.

Mrs Clinton told the BBC on Wednesday that Russia in the past six months had "moved tremendously" to acknowledge the threat of Iran's programme.

There is no need to scare the Iranians - there is a need to reach agreements Vladimir Putin Russian prime minister A Russian policy shift on Iran? Iran on defensive over secret site

She said Russian officials, in private talks, had recognised the need to act if diplomacy failed.

"We are in total agreement on all of that," Mrs Clinton told the BBC.

"And we are also in agreement that if our diplomatic engagement is not successful then we have to look at other measures to take, including sanctions to try to pressure the Iranians."

As a permanent UN Security Council member, Russia would need to back any fresh sanctions against Iran.

At the start of this month, Iran agreed at a meeting in Geneva to allow UN inspectors into a previously undisclosed nuclear site near its holy city of Qom, and to send low-enriched uranium abroad for enrichment to a higher level.

'Buying time'

Mrs Clinton acknowledged to the BBC that Tehran had bought itself more time with this move.

But she said Iran had also made commitments which the Russians and the Chinese now expected them to fulfil.

However, wrapping up a visit to Beijing, Vladimir Putin said talk of sanctions was premature.

"I believe it's too early to speak of them," Russia's prime minister told media, reports AFP news agency.

"There is no need to scare the Iranians. There is a need to reach agreements."

After Moscow, Mrs Clinton headed for Kazan, capital of the religiously and ethnically diverse region of Tatarstan, east of Moscow.

The US has been trying to "reset" relations with Russia

Her five-day European trip included stops in Zurich, London and Belfast.

US President Barack Obama, who met Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in July, has pledged to reset relations with Moscow.

Mr Obama, for his part, has met a key Russian demand to scrap plans to deploy interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar station in the Czech Republic as part of a US missile defence system in Europe.

The US administration insisted it did not expect concessions in return.

But Washington has called on Moscow to support, or at least not oppose, the idea of tougher sanctions on Iran if it fails to live up to its international obligations.

The council wants Iran to end uranium enrichment and has approved three rounds of sanctions - including bans on Iran's arms exports and all trade in nuclear material.