Posted on 04/23/2010 4:23:11 PM PDT by Red in Blue PA
BAGHDAD (AP) — A U.S. military judge on Friday cleared a Navy SEAL of any wrongdoing in the alleged beating of an Iraqi prisoner suspected of masterminding the grisly 2004 killings of four American contractors.
The Blackwater contractors' burned bodies were dragged through the streets and two were hanged from a bridge over the Euphrates river in the former insurgent hotbed of Fallujah in an attack that shocked Americans and galvanized U.S. support for the war.
After a daylong trial and fewer than two hours considering the evidence, Navy Judge Cmdr. Tierny Carlos found Petty Officer 2nd Class Jonathan Keefe of Yorktown, Virginia, not guilty of dereliction of duty, a spokesman said.
It was the second verdict in as many days to throw out charges against a SEAL accused in the abuse case. Three SEALS, the Navy's elite special forces unit, face charges in a case that has drawn fire from at least 20 members of Congress and other Americans who it see it as coddling terrorists to overcompensate for the notorious Abu Ghraib prison scandal.
The trial against the third and final SEAL to be charged is slated for May 3 in Norfolk, Virginia.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
It is rightly going to get harder and harder to recruit great Americans for these type military groups with this type of bovine scatology occurring. They should have never been charged in the first place. When a country allows its brightest heroes to be put through crap like this, the country is imploding fast.
Well, we did lose a lot of good officers and key NCOs during the Clinton Years, that’s for sure.
I stuck it out. It takes more than a p*ss-poor leader at the tippy-top to make me turn tail and run!
“Thank You Father”
The military prosecution must be about 0 for 20 in these cases.
Gee, that’s mighty big of them. Too bad “the US” can’t give them back all those months of stress and anguish, and time lost fighting a battle against their own superiors that sent them out on a mission, then attempted to prosecute them for doing their job. What a load of crap that is.
He’d be hanging from the very same bridge soaked in gasoline had I been there. Now then-where’s my Zippo?
I agree!
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