Free Republic

Author and Marine veteran Philip Klay on Thursday expressed concern about the role that Trump Defense Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth played in lobbying him to pardon war criminals during his first term in office. Writing in the New York Times, Klay highlights Hegseth's efforts on behalf of 1st Lt. Clint Lorance, a convicted war criminal whom Trump pardoned in 2019.

We first wrote about the case of U.S. Army 1LT Clint Lorance of Texas last year. His was what I termed a seriously gross miscarriage of justice. Those of us who have been stationed in Afghanistan know the tactics and actions of the enemy. Any time two or more individuals are on a motorcycle approaching your convoy or position you can bet — if unarmed — they are scouts. And if they are scouts for a main attack, they are just as dangerous a threat. Herein lies the problem of our methods of prosecuting combat operations — not overseas contingency...

Anna Lorance, proud Mother of Lt. Clint Lorance, wrote me, "My son is being wrongfully accused while in war in Afghanistan. He has always been the kind of man to give 100% of himself to everything thing that he sets out to do. He has given 10 years of his life to US Army with 2 tours in the combat zone. Please read his story and sign his petition and share his web page with everyone. He needs his story heard by all Americans. Thank you in advance for taking the time to Stand for One who was willing to...

First Lieutenant Clint Lorance, 1st Platoon, C Troop, 4-73 Cavalry, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division U.S. intelligence and defense officials have recently estimated that 20 to 30 former Guantanamo Bay detainees have returned to the battlefields to fight alongside ISIS in Syria. While these monsters are free to terrorize minorities, rape and sexually enslave young girls, behead Western journalists, and plot to commit terror attacks on U.S. soil, an American soldier is serving 20 years at Fort Leavenworth for trying to protect his men while fighting in Afghanistan. With the holiday season upon us, it looks as though...

On the morning of July 2, 2012, in the most dangerous warzone in the world, Lieutenant Clint Lorance took command of his small band of American paratroopers at the spearhead of the American War in Afghanistan. Intelligence reports that morning warned of a Taliban ambush against Lorance's platoon. Fifteen minutes into their patrol, three military-age Afghan males crowded on a motorcycle and sped aggressively down a Taliban-controlled dirt road toward Lorance's men. Three weeks earlier, outside the massive American Kandahar Airfield, Taliban terrorists struck by motorcycle, riding into a crowded area, detonating body-bombs and killing twenty-two people. Sixty-three days before...