Posted on 06/03/2013 7:36:17 AM PDT by NECAWA
I am so saddened to report that the Supreme Court has just announced its refusal to hear the petition from 1Lt Behenna's lawyers, in spite of the urging of high ranking former military officers, law enforcement officials and congressmen. Now our prayers will have to be directed toward clemency hearings and perhaps a future presidential pardon. May God save our country.
Meanwhile Major Hassan continues to collect his paycheck.
I have no idea who this guy is. Maybe I just forgot.
He had detained an Iraqi for a search. The Iraqi attacked him so he shot him. He was convicted of “unpremeditated murder”.
Also, the iraqi he shot was known to have connections with Al Queda, had been found with an RPG, and was believed to have information related to an attack on US forces.
The connections couldn’t be proven to a legal level so the man was ordered to be released
“This is what comes of empire building!” From the movie BREAKER MORANT right before MORANT is executed. He should have said, “This is what comes of superiors covering their asses!”
I just read the Wiki version. Unfortunately, I don’t have enough information to form an opinion on which side is telling the truth on this one. I need to leave it to the courts.
Before long a lawyer will be assigned to every patrol. Their task will be to approve every shot before the trigger is pulled.
Agreed, not enough info at WIKI but at least he was heard all the way up to the SCOTUS.
I’d like to remind everyone that the purpose of the Uniform Code of Military Justice is primarily “To maintain good order and discipline in the armed forces.” Justice is secondary to this.
In practice, this can result in wild disparity in both military law and punishment compared to civilian norms. For instance, the gravest crime is *not* homicide, compared to other offenses seen as destructive to morale or discipline, unless the victim has a special status.
In this case, the victim was a POW, likely a terrorist, who had been released by military intelligence despite significant evidence (first mistake); and then given to the capturing unit to return to his home (an extremely grievous error, which should have resulted in the relief of the responsible officer.)
This indicates that the MI unit tasked with this was either incompetent, or wanting to “punish” Behenna’s unit for some unknown reason, in a cruel and insulting manner.
But the fuse was lit. It was indeed the fault of Behenna that he so poorly thought out how to execute the terrorist, and that mutilating the corpse after showed a severe collapse of morale.
Truthfully, I am not surprised that the SCOTUS rejected this, mostly because military law is not really in their domain. It would be more appropriate that his sentence was commuted, and that he be discharged without further delay.
IMO Wiki is just a shade better than Snopes as a reliable source of unbiased information.
Don’t think so...
Nine times out of ten they’d be the first one targeted.
Actually as I understand it they are already there in theatre, they just don’t go out on patrols.
To: yefragetuwrabrumuy
I agree completely on your comments - up to the lighting of the fuse. But I strongly disagree with your presumption that it was Lt. Behenna’s intention from the start to murder Ali Mansur. The Lieutenant vigorously denies that, and his explanation of events would have been corroborated by the prosecution’s own expert witness, whose testimony the jury never heard.
Our military has excelled in past years because junior officers were encouraged to take initiative, make decisions, and be leaders. IMHO this is the kind of warped and disproportionate “justice” that is totally crippling our once proud military. If my understanding is correct, the ultimate irony is that two weeks after the event, the Army ordered that Ali Mansur be taken in dead or alive. Go figure!
Unfortunately, I have to refer to the UCMJ’s purpose in this.
The reality of what happened there matters less than the perception. That is, the trial is really not about Behenna, it is about what other soldiers think and do.
A comparison is Pvt. Slovik in WWII. The US Army in the field was exhausted, morale was low, and there were great concerns about desertion. So an order was issued to pick a deserter, convict and hang him. And the Army was well on the way to doing this, when the Malmedy massacre happened.
This solved the morale problem, because soldiers would believe if they gave up to the Germans they would be murdered. So Slovik was given a choice. Instead of saying you deserted, say that you were separated from your unit and got lost, and you will get time served and returned to your unit.
But Slovik was adamant. He deserted and if returned to his unit he would desert again. Not the smartest apple in the bin. So because he insisted on it, he was hung. Had his wife not been equally arrogant, he would have long been forgotten.
Behenna is in the ugly position of “appearing” to have murdered a POW, and worse, one who had been ordered released. This is extremely bad war karma, and one of the big reason for the Geneva conventions, that being, “If we do it, then the enemy can do it to us.”
While we don’t really give a damn about what the Taliban or al-Qaeda think, this problem is being eyeballed by all the other nations with modern armies. If their personnel think for a moment that Americans kill POWs, the rules of war go right out the window.
Or at least that is the Pentagon perspective. So the bottom line is that Behenna is being made an example of. That he didn’t do what he was accused of doing really doesn’t matter as much.
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