Three Navy SEALs, including a Yorktown man who was a champion high school swimmer, have been charged in the alleged assault of a most-wanted detainee they captured in Iraq.
The case is already stirring controversy over the prospect of the SEALs facing courts-martial for their treatment of a man thought to have masterminded the killing, mutilation and public display of U.S. contractors in 2004.
By Hugh Lessig
The SEALs will be arraigned in a military court in Norfolk on Dec. 7, said Lt. Col. Holly Silkman, a spokeswoman with U.S. Special Operations Command Central.
Charged, Silkman said, are Special Warfare Operators 2nd Class Matthew McCabe and Jonathan Keefe, and Special Warfare Operator 1st Class Julio Huertas.
Keefe, of Yorktown, is charged with one count each of dereliction of duty and making a false official statement. He is a 2002 graduate of Tabb High School, where he starred that year on that school’s top-flight swim team, winning top honors in individual and team races. He enlisted in 2006 and began SEAL training that year, according to the Navy Times.
Keefe has retained an attorney and his parents, reached in Yorktown, declined to comment, citing legal advice.
McCabe is charged with the actual assault, and also with dereliction of duty and making a false official statement. Huertas, of Illinois, is accused of dereliction of duty, making a false official statement and impeding an investigation.
The military did not identify the detainee, but Fox News and the Navy Times reported that he is Ahmed Hashim Abed, the alleged mastermind of the killing of four Blackwater USA security guards in Fallujah in 2004.
Abed told investigators he was punched “and he had the bloody lip to prove it,” the network reported.
Silkman said she could not identify the victim out of concern that it would affect the case. She could not specify his condition or location.
The three SEALS are not being detained, she said. The alleged assault happened around Sept. 1. It is unclear if it happened during the capture or later, when the detainee was in custody.
The first trial should take place in mid-January, but she did not know which case would be tried first.
Neal Puckett, an attorney representing McCabe, told Fox News that the SEALS are being charged for allegedly giving the detainee a “punch in the gut.”
Copyright © 2009, Newport News, Va., Daily Press
SO1 Huertas is a good person and very kind hearted. He and I were in Boot Camp together. He and his brothers do not need this hanging over thier heads. These honored SEALS should be back in the fight where they belong instead of worrying about thier future as freedom fighters. If we want to win the war on terrorism we need to play thier media game against them instead of for them. Let those brave individual go free.
Thanks for the comment. It’s always nice to have another take on things. I must say though, Shaker Aamer is also a very nice person. His son is growing up without him, they’ve never met.
There is also one man – who’s name I won’t mention at the moment – who was working as a translator in Iraq. He’s a very nice man, too, yet he was accused of crimes he did not commit – yet there was no outcry.
Tony Lagouranis has a book out called “Fear Up Harsh” which details how detainees were (and are) being treated in Iraq. I have a good friend who’s brother is still missing from Fallujah 2004, and he was also a very good man.
A lot of people have no problem calling American soldiers “freedom fighters”, yet we invaded Iraq – for no reason – based on lies from the Bush administration. When Iraqis fight for their own freedom they are not called freedom fighters, they are called “insurgents”.
Not only did we illegally invade Iraq, we arrested and detained, and abused – those we were supposedly going to “save from saddam”. I’m honestly baffled as to how anyone can fail to see that obvious fact.
Sorry about your friend, he’s only one of many – however – there is no denying that these men – not just the ones listed here – abused Iraqi detainees. That is widely known. These men got caught. As far as I’m concerned the truly guilty ones were high up in government – and they got away scott-free. Perhaps instead of trying to gloss over the fact that these men abused detainees – their supporters should go after those who ordered them to do so – the Bush administration. There are groups out there trying to get them prosecuted on war crimes.
The last time I checked the “Bush administration” is no longer in office and I wish everyone would stop using that crutch to blame everything on. My question to you would be what would be what would the humane thing to do to the the kind men that cut the heads off of our soldiers and put it on international T.V. for thier families to see? Would you still feel the same way if one of them were your brother or your father? Do you have this much conviction for your fellow americans that are imprisoned that were wrongly accused? Good luck on your fight for the detainees. I wish you well. But please understand that just because the media plays something doesn’t mean that it happened. Sometimes children lie to thier parents to get the other sibling in trouble.