I think most of you are aware of the travesty currently underway where three SEALs are facing courts martial for supposedly punching a scumbag terrorist in the belly. I have been on the fence about attempts to pressure the command to drop the charges, and several influential folks have convinced me it would be better to allow them their day in court and to beat the charges fair and square. If the charges were dropped now there would always be a question of a cover up and these men deserve better. I hope that any Navy personnel who serve on a jury of their peers look at this case in disgust and do the right thing by acquitting them. The Wash Times has an editorial discussing this today. You can donate to their legal defense fund and get more info here at Free the SEALs. Public support for the three SEALs has grown steadily since the case came to light. Petitions circulated by Mr. Burton and the newspaper Human Events have collected more than 150,000 signatures. Combined Facebook pages supporting the SEALs have over 350,000 fans. Betty Kilbride, one of the organizers of the Facebook support groups, announced with Father's Press Publishing that they would donate $4 per copy from the sale of her book, "Soul of American Warriors," to the Navy SEALs Defense Fund. Little evidence has been produced to substantiate Abed's abuse claim, and a planned deposition of the detained terrorist was cancelled. Whether anything he says can be believed is highly doubtful anyway. Al Qaeda terrorists are trained to charge prisoner abuse whenever possible to create exactly this kind of situation. For Abed, a U.S. military court simply would be another front in his personal jihad. Some in the SEAL community believe that dropping charges is the wrong approach because it would deny the defendants an opportunity to clear their names. The SEALs originally had been given the option of accepting administrative punishment but demanded a court martial for this reason. Jack Lynch, former president of the UDT-SEAL Association, who passed away in February, wrote that since a court martial has commenced, "it must be followed through." He believed that if the charges were dropped, "there would always be doubt in some folks' minds that we are hiding something. This could be a media fiasco no one needs. There is no choice but to go forward." They go on to lament the possibility that political correctness may infect the trial and cause a guilty verdict. I am going to trust in the warrior mentality and bet on them being vindicated.
Read the complete post at http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Blackfive/~3/miMk-qcYLqc/free-the-seals.html
Posted
Mar 05 2010, 12:45 AM
by
BLACKFIVE