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SEALs charged in alleged assault of detainee

By Gidget Fuentes – Staff writer

Posted : Tuesday Nov 24, 2009 17:41:46 EST
SAN DIEGO — Three Navy SEALs are facing court-martial for allegedly assaulting and mishandling a detainee they captured in Iraq in September, military officials said.

The three SEALs — Special Warfare Operators 2nd Class Matthew McCabe and Jonathan Keefe, and SO1 Julio Huertas — will be arraigned Dec. 7 in a military court in Norfolk, Va., said Army Lt. Col. Holly Silkman, a spokeswoman with U.S. Special Operations Command Central.

McCabe is charged with one count each of assault of the detainee, dereliction of duty and making a false official statement, Silkman said. Officials accuse McCabe of “willfully failing to safeguard a detainee,” Silkman said.

Keefe is charge with one count each of dereliction of duty and false official statement; Huertas is accused of dereliction of duty, false official statement and impeding an investigation, she said.

Army Maj. Gen. Charles Cleveland, SOCCent commander, preferred the charges against the SEALs and will serve as the convening authority as the cases proceed to court-martial, tentatively scheduled for mid-January, Silkman said.

None of the SEALs is confined, she added.

The alleged incident happened in Iraq on or about Sept. 1, Silkman said. “The one thing I can’t talk about is this alleged victim,” she said.

No other details about the alleged incident were immediately available.

The SEALs have been assigned military attorneys to defend them in the cases, which will be tried separately as special courts-martial.

One defense attorney said they had refused to accept nonjudicial punishment, administrative actions that some in the military may consider as a admission of guilt.

Neal Puckett, a defense attorney who is representing McCabe, said the SEALs are being essentially charged for allegedly giving the detainee “a punch in the gut.”

They are expected to plead not guilty when they appear at their arraignment. “They are all together and they all maintain that they are innocent of these charges,” said Puckett, a retired Marine Corps lieutenant colonel and judge advocate.

The SEALs were on the tail-end of their deployment to Iraq when the alleged incident happened, he said.

Puckett offered no details about the alleged incident, but said that “in a combat environment, the handling of a detainee … these things happen all the time and can easily be justified as maintaining [control of] a detainee.”

McCabe’s special court-martial is slated to begin Jan. 19, he said.

Huertas, 28, is originally from Blue Island, Ill., and enlisted in 1999. He has served in special warfare units since 2002. He has an Iraq Campaign Medal and was advanced in June 2006, Navy records show.

McCabe, 24 is originally from Perrysburg, Ohio, and enlisted in 2003. He served on the Amphibious Assault Ship Belleau Wood before training in special warfare. He was advanced in September 2007, Navy records show.

Keefe, 25, is originally from Yorktown, Va., and enlisted in 2006. He began SEAL training the same year, Navy records show. He was last advanced in June 2008.

Cmdr. Greg Geisen, a Naval Special Warfare Command spokesman in Coronado, Calif., referred all questions about the charges to SOCCent.

The charges were first reported by Fox News, which posted a story on its Web site Tuesday, saying the charges surround the SEALs’ handling of Ahmed Hashim Abed, who is believed to be connected to the 2004 slaying of four U.S. security contractors in Fallujah.—————–
Michael Waddington is a court martial lawyer – court martial attorney that defends military personnel worldwide as well as deployed civilian contractors subject to the UCMJ. He defends Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine, Coast Guard, and civilian contractor court martial cases. He has successfully defended military personnel as a court martial lawyer Army Navy Marine & Air Force court martials in Germany, England, San Diego, Norfolk, Jacksonville, Fort Bragg, Fort Jackson, Fort Stewart, Fort Gordon, Italy, Iraq, Kuwait, Korea, Okinawa, Japan, Yokota, and throughout the United States.

Fort Hood suspect ordered held until court-martial

By ANGELA K. BROWN (AP) – November 22, 2009

FORT WORTH, Texas — The Army psychiatrist charged with killing 13 people at Fort Hood will be confined until his military trial, initially staying in a hospital where he is recovering from gunshot wounds, his attorney said Saturday.

During a hearing at Maj. Nidal Hasan’s hospital room in San Antonio on Saturday, a magistrate ruled that there was probable cause that Hasan committed the Nov. 5 shooting spree at Fort Hood, said his civilian attorney, John Galligan. Hasan has been at Brooke Army Medical Center since the shooting, and his attorney said Hasan has been told he has permanent paralysis.
Galligan told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that the judge also ordered Hasan to pretrial confinement, which usually means jail, until his court-martial. The military justice system does not have bail for defendants.

The magistrate ruled that Hasan will initially remain in the hospital, where he is in intensive care, Galligan said.

Saturday’s hearing was closed to the media. Officials at Fort Hood, about 150 miles southwest of Fort Worth, declined to comment.

Galligan said Hasan has no feeling from the chest down and has limited movement in his arms.
Hasan was shot by civilian members of Fort Hood’s police force after the shooting spree in a crowded building where soldiers must go before they are deployed to finalize wills, update vaccinations and get vision and dental screenings.

Hasan has been under guard at the hospital, Galligan said, and military officials have not told him how the pretrial confinement status will change anything.

“I don’t know what rights and privileges he had that will now be changed, such as visitors of if they’ll open his mail,” Galligan said. “There are still many issues that haven’t been addressed. I feel like I just wasted a day.”

Hasan has been charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder. Authorities have not said whether they will seek the death penalty, his attorney said.

Galligan said he is concerned about where Hasan will be moved once he’s released from the hospital, but he does not know when that will happen.

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Michael Waddington is a court martial lawyer – court martial attorney that defends military personnel worldwide as well as deployed civilian contractors subject to the UCMJ. He defends Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine, Coast Guard, and civilian contractor court martial cases. He has successfully defended military personnel as a court martial lawyer Army Navy Marine & Air Force court martials in Germany, England, San Diego, Norfolk, Jacksonville, Fort Bragg, Fort Jackson, Fort Stewart, Fort Gordon, Italy, Iraq, Kuwait, Korea, Okinawa, Japan, Yokota, and throughout the United States.

Killings at the Canal: Convicted of murder

Former First Sgt. John Hatley.

By Scott Zamost – CNN Senior Investigative Producer

For months, we wanted to hear from John Hatley.

He’s the former first sergeant who had the idea to take four Iraqi detainees to a Baghdad canal and, along with two other sergeants, kill them.

Special Investigations Unit Correspondent Abbie Boudreau and I traveled to Germany over the summer where we interviewed Hatley’s wife, Kim, and his attorney David Court. We told them it was important to hear from Hatley since he never testified during his court martial. Our only request: He should tell us what he wants the public to know.

Hatley is now serving a 40-year prison sentence at Fort Leavenworth after being convicted of premeditated murder and conspiracy to commit premeditated murder.

After numerous requests, one day in September, a two-page single-spaced typed letter arrived in the mail at CNN.

Hatley began, “I’ve been contacted numerous times through third party sources that you have requested a statement from me. Obviously, I’m sure you understand my apprehensiveness in making a statement to the media, but there are some issues I would like to take this opportunity to address.”

He wrote of the “frustration” with the Army detainee policy that allowed the enemy to be released two or three days later because there was not enough evidence to hold them.

“An additional insult is that the units that capture these individuals are the same ones responsible to pick them up and release them. We’ve repeatedly found ourselves fighting the same enemy again and again.”

He writes that the detainee rules have “extensive flaws” that the enemy “consistently exploits these to facilitate their release.”

While he does not specifically address what happened, he does state: “I assure you the military spared no expense in the prosecution of my soldiers and me. If they would have spent half the time, effort and money in prosecuting the enemy as they had in prosecuting us, I assure you we would have never found ourselves in our current situation.”

Finally, he says he love and prays for soldiers oversees and wishes them a safe return. He writes: “Also, don’t worry about us, we’ll be fine. As they’ll understand, this is probably the safest place we’ve been in the last 10 years.”—————–
Michael Waddington is a court martial lawyer – court martial attorney that defends military personnel worldwide as well as deployed civilian contractors subject to the UCMJ. He defends Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine, Coast Guard, and civilian contractor court martial cases. He has successfully defended military personnel as a court martial lawyer Army Navy Marine & Air Force court martials in Germany, England, San Diego, Norfolk, Jacksonville, Fort Bragg, Fort Jackson, Fort Stewart, Fort Gordon, Italy, Iraq, Kuwait, Korea, Okinawa, Japan, Yokota, and throughout the United States.

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Michael Waddington is a court martial lawyer – court martial attorney that defends military personnel worldwide as well as deployed civilian contractors subject to the UCMJ. He defends Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine, Coast Guard, and civilian contractor court martial cases. He has successfully defended military personnel as a court martial lawyer Army Navy Marine & Air Force court martials in Germany, England, San Diego, Norfolk, Jacksonville, Fort Bragg, Fort Jackson, Fort Stewart, Fort Gordon, Italy, Iraq, Kuwait, Korea, Okinawa, Japan, Yokota, and throughout the United States.

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Michael Waddington is a court martial lawyer – court martial attorney that defends military personnel worldwide as well as deployed civilian contractors subject to the UCMJ. He defends Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine, Coast Guard, and civilian contractor court martial cases. He has successfully defended military personnel as a court martial lawyer Army Navy Marine & Air Force court martials in Germany, England, San Diego, Norfolk, Jacksonville, Fort Bragg, Fort Jackson, Fort Stewart, Fort Gordon, Italy, Iraq, Kuwait, Korea, Okinawa, Japan, Yokota, and throughout the United States.

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Michael Waddington is a court martial lawyer – court martial attorney that defends military personnel worldwide as well as deployed civilian contractors subject to the UCMJ. He defends Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine, Coast Guard, and civilian contractor court martial cases. He has successfully defended military personnel as a court martial lawyer Army Navy Marine & Air Force court martials in Germany, England, San Diego, Norfolk, Jacksonville, Fort Bragg, Fort Jackson, Fort Stewart, Fort Gordon, Italy, Iraq, Kuwait, Korea, Okinawa, Japan, Yokota, and throughout the United States.

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Michael Waddington is a court martial lawyer – court martial attorney that defends military personnel worldwide as well as deployed civilian contractors subject to the UCMJ. He defends Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine, Coast Guard, and civilian contractor court martial cases. He has successfully defended military personnel as a court martial lawyer Army Navy Marine & Air Force court martials in Germany, England, San Diego, Norfolk, Jacksonville, Fort Bragg, Fort Jackson, Fort Stewart, Fort Gordon, Italy, Iraq, Kuwait, Korea, Okinawa, Japan, Yokota, and throughout the United States.

Killings at the Canal: CNN Investigative Reports

November 16-20, 2009 on Anderson Cooper 360

1 hour Documentary on CNN Airs November 21 and 22, 2009 at 8 PM and 11PM EST.

A special four-part investigative report and a one hour documentary about U.S. soldiers who were convicted of murder on the battlefield. CNN obtained more than 24 hours of interrogation footage. But was it murder or battlefield justice? See what we uncovered and decide for yourself. On Anderson Cooper 360 and CNN Investigative reports.

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Michael Waddington is a court martial lawyer – court martial attorney that defends military personnel worldwide as well as deployed civilian contractors subject to the UCMJ. He defends Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine, Coast Guard, and civilian contractor court martial cases. He has successfully defended military personnel as a court martial lawyer Army Navy Marine & Air Force court martials in Germany, England, San Diego, Norfolk, Jacksonville, Fort Bragg, Fort Jackson, Fort Stewart, Fort Gordon, Italy, Iraq, Kuwait, Korea, Okinawa, Japan, Yokota, and throughout the United States.

Legally, ‘we’re in for a long haul’

Case against soldier accused in mass shooting faces many hurdles
By LYNSI BURTON and STEWART M. POWELL

WASHINGTON BUREAU
Posted at http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hotstories/6710592.html
Nov. 9, 2009, 9:57AM

UPDATE (10:52 a.m. Monday): An Army hospital spokesman says the Fort Hood shooting suspect is conscious and able to talk.
• • •
WASHINGTON — As Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan lay under heavy guard at Fort Sam Houston on Sunday, military prosecutors and the accused Fort Hood gunman’s family were preparing for what could be a long and complicated legal proceeding.
Military justice experts told the Houston Chronicle that Hasan, if he recovers, could face the death penalty in a military court-martial — unless civilian prosecutors conclude that he was part of a terrorist plot that would justify moving his case into federal criminal courts under U.S. anti-terrorism laws.
But veterans of the military justice system say that any case against Hasan could take many months and could be delayed by medical assessments of the Army officer’s physical and mental health. And even if a death sentence is handed down, the military justice system’s lengthy appeals process has effectively thwarted all executions since 1961.
“We’re in for a long haul,” said Scott L. Silliman, a retired career JAG officer in the Air Force who now directs Duke University Law School’s Center on Ethics and National Security.
The Army “will not try to move the case too quickly because that might build in a problem down the road,” he added. “They’re doing all their spade work. There’s not a rush.”
As the probe proceeds, the case against Hasan will be complicated by questions of whether he was sane at the time of the shootings or if he can get a fair trial at Fort Hood.
Indeed, prominent figures – from his base commander, Lt. Gen. Robert Cone, to his commander-in-chief, President Barack Obama – have publicly identified him as the alleged assailant. On Sunday, Army Chief of Staff George Casey said on ABC’s This Week program that Army investigators currently believe that Maj. Hasan was the lone gunman.
“That is where they are now,” Casey said, before adding, “We need to let the investigation take its course.”
Hasan has not yet been charged with any crime in either the civilian or military justice systems. Richard Durbin, chief of the criminal section for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Antonio, declined comment on any potential charges Sunday, declaring, “I’m not going to go there.”
How it might play out
But military justice experts say they have no doubt that charges are coming amid massive eyewitness evidence that Hasan was the man who opened fire inside Fort Hood last Thursday afternoon.
“That he was the perpetrator doesn’t seem to be much in doubt,” said Gene Fidell, president of the National Institute of Military Justice and a military law professor at Yale Law School. “The question seems to be the scope of the offense and what defense might be available.”
Because the case is so highly publicized, experts say the military is likely to offer his defense wide latitude.
“Whatever happens, the process will be transparent, the process will be fair, and this guy will get as good defense representation as anyone could hope for,” said Geoff Corn, military law professor at South Texas College of Law.
What’s likely to occur is a court-martial under Article 2 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, to punish offenses allegedly committed by a man wearing a U.S. military uniform against other military personnel on a military base. The Army’s Criminal Investigation Division is responsible for recommending charges, prompting the military equivalent of a grand jury, known as an Article 32 hearing, where both prosecutors and defense can present evidence.
Those results would be reviewed by base commander Cone, who would decide whether to convene a court-martial. The 12-person jury would be composed of officers higher in rank than Hasan – lieutenant colonels and above.
Under the rules of military justice, Hasan is permitted to have a lawyer present during interrogation, but former military lawyers say that the Army psychiatrist cannot be questioned by Army Criminal Investigation Division agents until doctors formally deem him medically and mentally able.
“A doctor would have to certify that the suspect is competent to decide whether to remain silent, speak to investigators or ask for a lawyer,” Silliman said. “He would have to be able to make an intelligent and informed decision before waiving any of his rights.”
Family’s request
Hasan’s family is demanding that he be allowed to consult with a lawyer before speaking to investigators or mental health professionals. In a statement released to the news media on Saturday, Hasan’s brother Eyad declared that his family has “faith in our legal system and that my brother will be treated fairly.”
“We hope that the relevant authorities will provide us with information on my brother’s condition and that he be afforded his right to an attorney the moment he regains consciousness,” Eyad Hasan wrote.
The family declined to elaborate on Sunday.
Lawyers who have been involved in past court-martial cases say it is likely that any trial of Hasan would be moved from the site of the shootings because the large number of victims and the pretrial climate at the base make a fair trial problematic.
“If I were a betting person, I would expect the venue would be changed,” Fidell said. “That’s not to say it would make much difference (where the case is tried). It’s going to be a challenge wherever this trial takes place.”
One military justice expert also predicted that an insanity defense is unlikely. Silliman said the standard for an insanity defense under the Uniform Code of Military Justice is that the suspect “cannot comprehend the wrongfulness of his actions.”
Post-traumatic stress disorder alone “does not equate to insanity,” Silliman said. “It is a matter to be considered for lessening punishment, but it is not a defense.”
While the death penalty remains an option for military prosecutors, it is carried out much less frequently in the Armed Forces than in civilian settings.
Just 15 of 47 service members charged with capital crimes in recent decades have received a death sentence, and none has been executed since 1961.
Also contributing to this report were Richard S. Dunham in Washington and Vianna Davila in San Antonio.
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Michael Waddington is a court martial lawyer – court martial attorney that defends military personnel worldwide as well as deployed civilian contractors subject to the UCMJ. He defends Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine, Coast Guard, and civilian contractor court martial cases. He has successfully defended military personnel as a court martial lawyer Army Navy Marine & Air Force court martials in Germany, England, San Diego, Norfolk, Jacksonville, Fort Bragg, Fort Jackson, Fort Stewart, Fort Gordon, Italy, Iraq, Kuwait, Korea, Okinawa, Japan, Yokota, and throughout the United States.

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Michael Waddington is a court martial lawyer – court martial attorney that defends military personnel worldwide as well as deployed civilian contractors subject to the UCMJ. He defends Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine, Coast Guard, and civilian contractor court martial cases. He has successfully defended military personnel as a court martial lawyer Army Navy Marine & Air Force court martials in Germany, England, San Diego, Norfolk, Jacksonville, Fort Bragg, Fort Jackson, Fort Stewart, Fort Gordon, Italy, Iraq, Kuwait, Korea, Okinawa, Japan, Yokota, and throughout the United States.