Thanks for posting that.

I’m a former Army JAG. The seals are not being court-martialed in the sense the public is being made to think. They were offered non-judicial punishment (NJP), also called Article 15′s or Captain’s Mast…misdemeanors….for not only hitting Mr A H Abed in the gut and lip, but lying on their after-action report.

THEY turned down the OFFER of Art 15 and DEMANDED A COURT-MARTIAL in order to clear their name. They aren’t being court-martialed. They demanded one. Get it?

A Court-martial must include other Navy enlisted personnel. Any fresh-out-of-JAG school lieutenant could win this case defending them. The Navy must produce this murdering terrorist to testify and he must be believed, and corroborated in order to gain a conviction.

What do you think the chances are that will happen?

But if they lied, and that can be proved (which most likely it can’t since the Navy first has to prove the truth), well…

Too bad this has been turned in a cause. We don’t look good when we demagogue an issue.

Sorry

According to all the testimony that I have been able to find about the incident, there is no dispute that the ‘fat lip” was given after the prisoner had been extracted from the “combat zone” and was not causing any trouble. The available, and so far undisputed evidence, suggests an unprovoked attack on a prisoner in custody. This is not the behavior expected of a NCO. Asan NCO, I taught the Geneva Convention as well as our rules regarding the handling of prisoners. I taught that, once the prisoner had been captured, the captors were required, under our military law, to do the following:

Search – make sure that the prisoner is unarmed, remove any military documents or other papers that might be of use to Intelligence.
Secure – depending on the circumstances of capture this might entail binding and blindfolding the prisoner -if the prisoner resists, reasonable force may be used. In a hot combat situation – any force is reasonable.
Silence – if there is more than one prisonerr, make sure that they cannot talk to each other. If necessary, the prisoners can be gagged.
Speed – the prisoners must be removed from combat as soon and as fast as practicable.
Safeguard – the prisoners must be safeguarded from all harm – whether from enemy or friendly fire, enemy troops, friendly troops or citizens. The requirement to safeguard the prisoners means no prisoner abuse.

As a former NCO and, after service, an attorney, I cannot sign this petition.

of the 32d Infantry Regiment, but I cannot think of any company grade officer that I served with during my nine years of active duty or of any of the field grade officers that formed the Discharge Review Boards of the Armed Services that I appeared before during my fourteen years as a Veterans Counselor who, if the facts are as I have stated, would excuse their behavior. They were offered a way out of the mess that they had caused and refused the life preserver. Not only can’t they control themselves but they don’t seem to be able to analyze their situation. They have deliberately jumped out of the frying pan into the fire. Poor impulse control and judgement. I would hate to have them with me on a behind- the-lines mission.

thumping some guy would get you a tuneup and that’s about it so long as it wasn’t egregious and the guy had it coming. Lying about it or, especially, filing a false report about it was a mortal sin that would get you fired.

I’ve done lots of use of force discipline cases through union grievances and arbitration. Even “hanging judge” labor arbitrators are very reticent to try to substitute their judgement for the officer’s on the force issue unless he tries to be coy about it or lies. In that case, they’ll throw the book at the officer and I’ve even seen them chide management if they thought the discipline wasn’t strong enough.

I dion’t know how anyone could rise to NCO level, especially in an elite unit such as the SEALs, without learning that a NJP, if offfered, is the best way out of a potentially bad situation. I don’t think that anyone wil lget a BCD in this matter but, as a practical matter, their SEALs career is over.

I represented a young man at his review of discharge hearing before the Army Review Board. His military record fully supported the following story.
After joining his first regular unit, he was granted a Christmas leave. He lost track of time and overstayed his leave. He panicked and could not bring himself to report back to his unit.
After a few days, he told his grandmother about his problem. She immediately went and hired a “well-known” attorney. She gave the attorney a $ 3,000.00 retainer to help her grandson.The attorney assured her that he would help her grandson.
He started out well. He drove the young man back to his unit and explained the situation to the company commander. The commander was sympathetic and the young man’s supervisor stated that he was a “good troop” and wanted him back.
Things were looking good for the young man. The company commandr offered NJP.
Then things went completely wrong. Instead of advising the young man to accept NJP, the attorney told him to request a Court-Martial.
As his grandmother had told him to follow the attorney’s advice (he was a well known attorney after all and had been paid that $ 3,000.00 retainer), the young man requested court-martial.
When the company commander understood that the attorney was serious, he had no choice but to restrict the young man to barracks and put the court-martial process in motion.
The attorney returned to New York after telling the young man and the company commander to keep him advised.
After a few days, the young man was had a meeting with the JAG officer assigned to his case. The JAG officer told him that a date had been fixed for his court-martial and read the charges. Then, as was customary, the JAG officer told him that he was being offered the option of taking a Chapter Ten discharge in lieu of the court-martial.
The young man asked for time to call his attorney and his request was granted. He called the attorney and, after explaining the situation, the attorney told him to take the Chapter Ten. The young man followed the attorney’s advice and was discharged with an Undesirable Discharge.
At his hearing, the young man testified that, as he was young and unsure, he followed the attorney’s advice as his grandmother had requested. He said that he did not want to get out of the Army as he liked his job and the people in his unit.
He stated that the attorney never explained the consequences of first demanding a court-martial and then taking a Chapter Ten discharge. He stated that, except for the attorney’s advice, he would have taken the NJP as he trusted his company commander and his supervisor.
All five officers on the board voted for his discharge to be changed to Honorable and asked me what could be done about the attorney.
I advised them to send a transcript of the hearing with a cover letter to the local bar association. I further stated that I would take it as a personal favor if I could sign the cover letter.
Unfortunately, higher authority decided that reporting the attorney to the bar association would not be proper.