Navy Seal pardoned of war crimes by Trump described by colleagues as 'freaking evil'

[Zippyjuan]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/dec/27/eddie-gallagher-trump-navy-seal-iraq

A Navy Seal platoon leader controversially cleared of war crimes by Donald Trump was a “toxic” character who was “OK with killing anything that moved”, according to fellow Iraq veterans who reported his conduct to military investigators.

The explosive testimony was published Friday by the New York Times, which obtained previously unseen video interviews and text messages from several former members of an elite commando unit once led by special operations chief Eddie Gallagher.

Gallagher was convicted in July of posing with the dead body of a teenage Islamic State captive he had just killed with a hunting knife. He was granted clemency by the president in November in a decision that angered military chiefs.

In the interviews, conducted by navy investigators looking into Gallagher’s conduct during a tour of duty in Iraq in 2017, fellow platoon members told of a ruthless leader who stabbed the captive to death for no reason then forced his troops to pose for a photograph with the corpse.

At his court martial, Gallagher was acquitted of murder but demoted in rank for the lesser charge of posing with the body – a decision Trump reversed.

In a lengthy criminal investigation report, the navy detectives laid out other allegations against Gallagher, including picking off a schoolgirl and elderly man from a sniper’s roost. Members of Alpha Platoon’s Seal Team 7 alarmed by their leader’s conduct said they were initially shut down by military chiefs when they first spoke up, and told their own careers would suffer if they continued to talk about it.

Eventually, the Navy Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) began an inquiry and the platoon members were called to give evidence.

“The guy is freaking evil,” special operator first class Craig Miller, one of the platoon’s most experienced members, told investigators in sometimes tearful testimony. “I think Eddie was proud of it, and that was, like, part of it for him.”

Miller said Gallagher, who had the nickname Blade, went on to stage a bizarre “re-enlistment ceremony” over the body of the captive. “I was listening to it and I was just thinking, like, this is the most disgraceful thing I have ever seen in my life,” he said.

At his court martial, the panel heard evidence that Gallagher had emailed a photograph to a friend in the US containing a photograph of him holding up the dead captive’s head with the words: “Good story behind this, got him with my hunting knife.”

Another platoon member, medic Corey Scott, said: “You could tell he was perfectly OK with killing anybody that was moving.”

In text messages exchanged by the group around the time of their testimony, which were also obtained by the New York Times, platoon members urged each other to speak truthfully to the investigators.

“Tell the truth, don’t lie or embellish,” one team member, a sniper, wrote. “That way he can’t say that we slandered him in any way.”

Gallagher maintains the allegations against him are a fabrication by platoon members who could not match his own high standards and who were intent on ousting him.

More at link.

 

[Swordsmyth]

Why should we believe him?
The prosecution was cheating because they had no case:
[h=1]Navy illegally spied on accused SEAL and his defense team[/h]

Suborning perjury wouldn't be a surprise in this case.

 

[specsaregood]

The only thing Trump pardoned him for was the crime of posing for a photo with a dead terrorist. A jury found him not guilty of all the serious crimes.

 

[oyarde]

The only thing Trump pardoned him for was the crime of posing for a photo with a dead terrorist. A jury found him not guilty of all the serious crimes.

Trump did that because they demoted him for it which is a big pay cut. I cannot speak for trump but I imagine he thought the punishment severe,

 

[oyarde]

The only thing Trump pardoned him for was the crime of posing for a photo with a dead terrorist. A jury found him not guilty of all the serious crimes.

A jury of peers .

 

[Zippyjuan]

The only thing Trump pardoned him for was the crime of posing for a photo with a dead terrorist. A jury found him not guilty of all the serious crimes.

Because one of his team members tried to get him off the hook by confessing that he committed the crime- believing he had immunity and could thus spare Gallagher.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-48536760

The most startling moment in the trial came when a witness, Corey Scott, said that he - not Gallagher - had killed the boy. Gallagher stabbed him, said Scott. But Scott said he had then asphyxiated the boy so he would not have to go back to IS leaders who might mistreat him.

It was a dramatic moment in the trial, and many of those in the courtroom were sceptical of his story. After Scott described the murder, he looked at Gallagher and said he did not want him to spend his life in prison. Scott believed he had immunity, and for that reason felt he could speak openly about killing the boy.

One person involved in the case told me that the prosecutors and the defence lawyers all knew beforehand that a witness would confess to the killing. Upon hearing Scott's testimony, one of the prosecutors jumped from his chair and accused him of lying.

Several others said it was Gallagher.

The boy shown in the video was the only IS fighter to survive a battle in Mosul in the spring of 2017, and he had a physique so slender that a wristwatch fit around his bicep. He was slightly wounded in the battle, Frank Sheridan, an Irish-born forensic pathologist, told the jurors. Afterwards Iraqis handed the boy over to the Navy Seals for medical care in a military compound.

On that morning Gallagher knelt down next to the boy with a medical bag that contained his hunting knife, a bespoke model with a curved handle.

 

[Swordsmyth]

Because one of his team members tried to get him off the hook by confessing that he committed the crime- believing he had immunity and could thus spare Gallagher.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-48536760



Several others said it was Gallagher.

So the prosecution failed to prove its case and anyone could be lying.

But the prosecution was busted spying on the defense so we have every reason to distrust them.

 

[oyarde]

So the prosecution failed to prove its case and anyone could be lying.

But the prosecution was busted spying on the defense so we have every reason to distrust them.

correct the prosecution is never to be trusted . they must prove .

 

[oyarde]

Chances are they all lie because they do not want to go to prison for what they see as doing the job they are pd for . Which is a good reason to investigate these things and then not take them to trial because the prosecution is not going to get a confession and have no proof unless they want to fabricate it like the FBI.

 

[oyarde]

Want some advice for real success ? Get out of the middle east and stay out .