Posted on 07/07/2012 4:03:21 PM PDT by Ooh-Ah
By a 3-2 majority, the highest military appeals court has upheld Army Ranger 1st Lt. Michael Behenna's conviction for the unpremediated murder of a detainee and al-Qaeda-operative in Iraq named Ali Mansur. While Michael still could receive clemency, his legal appeals are now officially exhausted. Barring clemency, Michael will remain at Leavenworth military prison until 2024.
What a blow. What a disgrace.
I just finished reading the majority opinion. It is a chilling document. It contains analysis of whether Michael had "the right to act in self-defense" when the detainee he was questioning about IED attacks that had recently killed two men in his platoon, suddenly lunged for Michael's gun, and Michael shot and killed him.
This was one of several issues before the court. As the "initial aggressor" for engaging in an unauthorized interrogation of a naked detainee, Michael, the court upheld, had lost his right to self-defense. Under consideration was whether at any point in the split seconds during which the detainee hurled a piece of concrete at Michael and rushed for his gun, and Michael fired in return at the detainee, Michael ever regained it. Three judges in the calm of their chambers in Washington, D.C., determined that he did not.
Or, as they wrote: "Even assuming for a moment that Mansur could have escalated the level of force, we conclude that a naked and unarmed individual in the desert does not escalate the level of force when he throws a piece of concrete at the initial aggressor in full battle attire, armed with a loaded pistol, and lunges for his pistol."
Oh yeah? Maybe it's simplistic of me, but I'd like to see them step into Michael's combat boots and see how it felt out there in the night, after a hard day's "catch-and-release," after military intelligence shockingly set Mansur free and ordered Michael to drive him home -- the very man Michael suspected of knowing all about the attacks that had recently killed two of his men. Michael thought he could get the necessary evidence in one more interrogation, just him and Mansur. But it didn't work out as Michael hoped.
The majority:
Ultimately, even if we assume that Mansur lunged for Appellant's pistol and Appellant feared that Mansur would use the pistol if he was able to seize it, because Appellant was the initial aggressor, and because there was no evidence to support a finding of escalation or withdrawal, a rational member [juror] could have come to no other conclusion than that Appellant lost the right to act in self-defense and did not regain it.
I'm afraid that this court's idea of a "rational member" also could have come to no other conclusion than that Michael, "initial aggressor," bereft of the "right" to self-defense, should have permitted Mansur to snatch his gun from him and then shoot him dead.
Maybe then the three judges would have sighed with a satisfied kind of regret over the poor lieutenant who had given his all for their, frankly, demonic reading of the law. Instead, for having defended himself, for not having sacrificed himself to a charging terrorist, Michael and his family pay the price of Michael's freedom.
America: Is that justice?
Constitutional Emergency
Check out the discussion ‘OKLAHOMA: Massive expansion of Edmond mosque causing controversy’
Discussion posted by Twana Blevins:
Bare Naked Islam The small mosque, in Edmond, OK, sits across from the University of Central Oklahoma. Mosque officials have requested p...
Discussion link:
OKLAHOMA: Massive expansion of Edmond mosque causing controversy
http://patriotsforamerica.ning.com/group/patriotsforamericaoklahoma/forum/topic/show?id=2734278%3ATopic%3A389052&xgs=1&xg_source=msg_share_topic
BTTT
This is insane. With PC ideas like this about the rules of warfare...we would all be Sieg Heiling or Banzai’ing right now, or, under the watchful PC eye of the KGB.
This soldier was doing what he had to do with someone he knew was the enemy, but whom our PC rules were releasing, to protect his men and defeat that enemy.
Half of the US Marines fighting in the Pacific in WW II would have been taken off the battlefield and sentenced had these idiots been in place during World War II...but then again, the people of that day would not have stood for it, these “Judges” would have been drummed out of the service, and likely tarred and feathered.
AMERICA AT THE CROSSROADS OF HISTORY
http://www.jeffhead.com/crossroads.htm
Our honorable and brave troops have become these bastards sacrificial lambs.
Mitt had an opportunity for military service as did each of his sons. Guess what? None has served a day in the military.
Don’t waste your effort on Mitt.
Absolutely! It seems pretty clear, to me at least, that the high ranking brass in our military are falling all over themselves trying to cater to their hopefully temporary CinC and his cronies. Personally, I wouldn't join any branch of our service at this time even if I were in that age bracket again. Of course that's not an issue for me since I'm only 6 days away from the 3/4 century landmark. But I do have a grandson and a gran-daughter approaching that age, and I will try to talk them out of "jinin up" if they become inclined in that direction while, God forbid, Ocommy is still disgracing the American people's White House when they reach that age.
I never thought I would advise a young man, or lady for that matter, to avoid serving in our military/naval services, but then I never thought that we the American people would tolerate a blatant traitor to our nation, our security, our honorable heritage, and our traditional Christian values in that high office. But we are, and we are dangerously close to allowing that outrage to continue, in which case it may well become a permanent situation given his lust for unlimited power and our military brass cowtowing to his treacherous demands as they have in regards to the Ft. Hood massacre outrage, no doubt along with many other outrages as well that the press won't make public.
Sorry to be so negative, that's not my natural inclination, but in today's America it's very difficult for old timers like myself to be optimistic given the aparrent political leaning of our coming-of-age generation who have been subjected to decades of collectivist indoctrination in public schools and universities. I can't blame that on the present middle age and younger generations, my generation and the one before allowed and enabled tax supported Marxist indoctrination of our youth to exist and flourish beginning in the early 20th century and continuing until today with scarcely a protest from my generation and even earlier.
Not just injustice for one officer who was more concerned with the safety of his men than in catering to the political correctness of his superiors, it's a blatant slap in the face to every American who is aware of the deadly threat that 100,000,000+ muslim fanatics pose to our nation's very existence. As someone posted earlier, if our WWII marines, soldiers, sailors, and airmen had been forced to fight the fanatical Japanese and Nazi armed forces with one hand tied with a PC rope we might very well be barely existing today under the tyrannical rule of our enemies of that era. May God help us and our rapidly deteriorating nation, it appears very clear to me and many in my soon to disappear generation that our elected "leaders' won't.
http://www.americanthinker.com/video/2012/08/obama_releases_guilty_terrorist_leader.html
Col West chooses his words so well:
Merriam Webster dictionary defines unconscionable as: not guided or controlled by conscience : unscrupulous
Obama and his administration continue to release terrorists and members of the Democrat Party advocate reading Miranda Rights to brutal terrorists who delight in the killing of Americans. They are unconscionable, they are unscrupulous, and they need to go!!! Remember in November!!!
http://www.mittromney.com/issues/national-defense
Beverly Perlson The Band of Mothers http://www.thebandofmothers.com
http://wwwdefendmichael.com
http://www.savethissoldier.com
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/08/02/20120802-hashtag-war
In honor of our Fallen, I had every intention to go silent today, and then I received a tweet to the link above. My heart is uplifted and my fighting spirit rejuvenated!
As you all know, Andrew wrote the BEST Post Card to our Troops I ever collected. In honor of the Warrior Andrew Breitbart and all our Fallen Heroes I again share with you his words of wisdom that came from his beautiful Warrior heart:
“Dear Soldier,
I apologize from the bottom of my heart for the putrid behavior of the American media. You have exhibited heroism and they took the lowest road. I have committed all of my resources to undo that wrong. And the mainstream media and Hollywood will have been exposed as the traitors they are.”
Andrew Breitbart
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVgY0wSk42M
Thank you Andrew Marcus, Jon Kahn, Jim Hoft, Dana Loesh, Evan Maloney, Katie O’Malley, and all of you Bretibart Warriors! You honor back!
With A Mother's Heart,
Beverly Perlson
The Band of Mothers
http://www.thebandofmothers.com
Pitiful. Needs taking care of on 21 Jan 13.
Pitiful. Needs taking care of on 21 Jan 13.
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