Navy Seal War Crimes

[zinfamous]

Aside from the incredible damage Trump has brought upon the military, its honor and ethics, the U.S. is going to seem mighty awkward going after war criminals of other nations after this. Especially those who might kill captured U.S. troops or civilians. Whats Trump going to do, ask other nations to see that justice is done? Doesnt this idiot ever think??

Anyone remember when the admin disallowed the team from the Hague(?) to enter the US over the summer? That was because of this incident, wasn't it, or was it another potential US war crime?

 

[zinfamous]

So if you vote for someone you have to agree with everything they do?

You are explicitly responsible for all of the horrible things they do, yes--especially when you consider that everyone else was able to inform themselves of these very horrible things that this very horrible person would do, prior to the election.

It is always on you to make an informed decision. No one else is to blame for your horrible decisions.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

What kind of buffoon enlists war criminals to campaign for him?

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

I hope it bites him. Dogs can be good judges of character.

THAT wudda' been hilarious!!

 

[Luna1968]

From Wiki:
Gallagher was acquitted on six of seven charges on July 2, 2019; the jury found him guilty of the seventh charge, of "wrongfully pos[ing] for an unofficial picture with a human casualty".[26] That charge carried a maximum prison sentence of four months. Since Gallagher had already served more time in jail than the sentence, he was released.[24]

he served his time, the Navy tried to burn him again and Trump said fuck off. so whats the problem? Posing with a dead guy he did not kill is NOT A WAR CRIME.

 

[Jhhnn]

From Wiki:
Gallagher was acquitted on six of seven charges on July 2, 2019; the jury found him guilty of the seventh charge, of "wrongfully pos[ing] for an unofficial picture with a human casualty".[26] That charge carried a maximum prison sentence of four months. Since Gallagher had already served more time in jail than the sentence, he was released.[24]

he served his time, the Navy tried to burn him again and Trump said fuck off. so whats the problem? Posing with a dead guy he did not kill is NOT A WAR CRIME.

The quote is true enough, but far from the whole story-

On June 20, 2019, during Gallagher's trial, one of the platoon medics from Gallagher's team testifying as a prosecution witness said that although Gallagher did stab the ISIS fighter, he did not actually kill him. The medic, Special Operator First Class Corey Scott who testified under an immunity agreement, testified that he himself had killed the wounded prisoner by covering his breathing tube and asphyxiating him.[22] Scott called it a "mercy killing" and argued that the victim would have been tortured by Iraqi personnel due to his connection to the Islamic State.[23] Prosecutors were taken by surprise, since the medic had never given this version of events to them or Navy investigators. This account was also contrary to the statements of at least seven other SEALs[24] as well as Scott's previous statements. Because of the immunity agreement Scott cannot be prosecuted even for admitting publicly that he killed the man, though he could be prosecuted for perjury if the account is proven false.[25]

The Navy let Gallagher off the hook, plain & simple. And now Trump is elevating him to the status of alt-right fascist hero. It's disgraceful.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

This is all in line with Trump's broader push to bring dishonor to our military.

He started his campaign with made up tales of "dipping bullets in pig's blood" for summary executions of captured Muslim soldiers as a terror tactic; he's delighted in promoting torture and vengeance; he's constantly insulted and attacked gold stars and purple hearts; extorted political favors for military assistance to allies under attack; and now he's personally intervening in the military code of justice to restore murderers and war criminals back into the service for political patronage.

Trump's vision would corrupt our military from a force of noble warriors living by a code of honor and justice into a brutal gang of henchmen, enforcers and barbarians, just like the Russian army.

Any honorable service member or veteran who supports this disgraces their country and their service.

Which . . . is bringing us closer to a civil-war crossroads.

Trump's meddling with the military and the UCMJ just seems too consistent with his actions that degrade DOJ, FBI, CIA, DOD and other institutions. His clutter-brained chucklehead Base seems to think they're "having a revolution" by destroying institutions that took a hundred years to create.

With this sort of consistent malice, how can one ever dismiss the possibility that Trump IS a modern Manchurian Candidate? Besides the rumored pee-pee photos, how can you dismiss the incredible possibility that he's been subject to pharmacological tampering, or that maybe his wife -- daughter of a Slovenian communist official -- or someone else close to him isn't a Putin-driven "handler"?

He's not a "hypno-assassin" per the Richard Condon myth. He's an institution destroyer. It's as though Putin brushed off an old American myth and gave it warp drive.

 

[amenx]

Gallagher's case seems to only focus on the captive he killed and photo'd with. Members of his platoon reported him on other cases where he shot unarmed civilians (incl a young girl and old man) and hoped to see something done about it. It got to the point that whenever they saw civilians in the area, platoon members would fire warning shots to prevent Gallagher from killing them. But Gallaghers CO dragged his feet and did nothing about it. I believe the photo of him with the dead captive was the only evidence that could implicate Gallagher of wrong doing of any kind. Anything else was not further pursued or just ignored. Cant deny a photo, but anything else may be too difficult to prove without solid evidence.

War crimes prosecution against Navy SEALs takes a double hit

The setbacks for the prosecution set the stage for a dramatic Feb. 15 showdown inside a Naval Base San Diego courtroom.

www.navytimes.com

 

[VRAMdemon]

What kind of buffoon enlists war criminals to campaign for him?

Our President buffoon...

Trump Tells Allies He Wants Absolved War Criminals to Campaign for Him

Fallout from the clemency cost the Navy Secretary Richard Spencer his job, but a former Pentagon deputy chief backs the ousted official.

www.thedailybeast.com

The one guy shot a kid and other civilians. His own guys sabotaged his weapon -- and then turned him in. And those are just the things that he did in front of witnesses.

Just like Trump is a poor man's idea of a rich man...Gallagher is a weak man's (ie, Trump's) idea of a warrior

He can parade his pet war criminals around, bragging about how the guy murdered so many people his own unit was scared of him. Ya gotta be a Real American to scare SEALs, right? A brilliant tactical move.

This is the politicization of the military: One of the most dangerous step a sitting president can make. It also naturally plays right into Putin's (and China's) hands. They get to sit back and watch as assets dressed up as members of congress peddle a narrative that stands in complete polar opposition to the reality as pieced together by intelligence officials, which in turns causes political fractures.

 

[VRAMdemon]

Donny's out there on the While House steps at this very moment honoring the dog who helped kill Bagdaddi.
Doesn't honor the military my ass.

Trump thinks Conan the Dog is a boy, and therefore, according to the White House, Conan is a boy, even though the Pentagon says Conan is a girl.

'Cannot make this sh*t up’: Battle erupts over gender of military dog Conan

The gender of the military canine who participated in the raid that resulted in the death of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi has become a controversial topic since it has been labeled as both a male and female. Conan, who is a Belgian Malinois and a veteran of more than 50 missions, was...

www.washingtonexaminer.com

I don't know, it looks like the dog has a weenie.

And that weenie is named Donald Trump.

 

[Jhhnn]

Which . . . is bringing us closer to a civil-war crossroads.

Trump's meddling with the military and the UCMJ just seems too consistent with his actions that degrade DOJ, FBI, CIA, DOD and other institutions. His clutter-brained chucklehead Base seems to think they're "having a revolution" by destroying institutions that took a hundred years to create.

With this sort of consistent malice, how can one ever dismiss the possibility that Trump IS a modern Manchurian Candidate? Besides the rumored pee-pee photos, how can you dismiss the incredible possibility that he's been subject to pharmacological tampering, or that maybe his wife -- daughter of a Slovenian communist official -- or someone else close to him isn't a Putin-driven "handler"?

He's not a "hypno-assassin" per the Richard Condon myth. He's an institution destroyer. It's as though Putin brushed off an old American myth and gave it warp drive.

I figure Putin just knows that Trump is a chaos generator who will, simply by instinct, screw up everything he touches.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

Trump thinks Conan the Dog is a boy, and therefore, according to the White House, Conan is a boy, even though the Pentagon says Conan is a girl.

'Cannot make this sh*t up’: Battle erupts over gender of military dog Conan

The gender of the military canine who participated in the raid that resulted in the death of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi has become a controversial topic since it has been labeled as both a male and female. Conan, who is a Belgian Malinois and a veteran of more than 50 missions, was...

www.washingtonexaminer.com

I don't know, it looks like the dog has a weenie.

And that weenie is named Donald Trump.

There's something expressly ironic about the Republican WH stating that a Female is, in fact, a Male, and blessing that off as truth despite all evidence to the contrary.

 

[sportage]

All of this... ALL OF THIS is only a "test", and a prelude to when Donald Trump begins eliminating HIS POLITICAL ENEMIES once Trump gets his second term.
Trump is testing the waters.

 

[pauldun170]

If only Trump had his own dedicated fighting force where he could avoid all that tradition and honor crap.
A force free from codes of conduct or any of that stuff.

He could call it The Republican Guard.
Maybe have a state sponsored TV station loyal to the party promote it.

 

[feralkid]

If only Trump had his own dedicated fighting force where he could avoid all that tradition and honor crap.
A force free from codes of conduct or any of that stuff.

He could call it The Republican Guard.
Maybe have a state sponsored TV station loyal to the party promote it.

Republican Guard might have Iran/Islamic Republic sounding connotations.

How about Schutzstaffel?

 

[pauldun170]

Opinion peace by Spencer

Richard Spencer: I was fired as Navy secretary. Here’s what I’ve learned because of it.
Richard Spencer is the former secretary of the Navy.

The case of Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher, a Navy SEAL who was charged with multiple war crimes before being convicted of a single lesser charge earlier this year, was troubling enough before things became even more troubling over the past few weeks. The trail of events that led to me being fired as secretary of the Navy is marked with lessons for me and for the nation.

It is highly irregular for a secretary to become deeply involved in most personnel matters. Normally, military justice works best when senior leadership stays far away. A system that prevents command influence is what separates our armed forces from others. Our system of military justice has helped build the world’s most powerful navy; good leaders get promoted, bad ones get moved out, and criminals are punished.
In combat zones, the stakes are even higher. We train our forces to be both disciplined and lethal. We strive to use proportional force, protect civilians and treat detainees fairly. Ethical conduct is what sets our military apart. I have believed that every day since joining the Marine Corps in 1976.
We are effective overseas not because we have the best equipment but because we are professionals. Our troops are held to the highest standards. We expect those who lead our forces to exercise excellent judgment. The soldiers and sailors they lead must be able to count on that.

Earlier this year, Gallagher was formally charged with more than a dozen criminal acts, including premeditated murder, which occurred during his eighth deployment overseas. He was tried in a military court in San Diego and acquitted in July of all charges, except one count of wrongfully posing for photographs with the body of a dead Islamic State fighter. The jury sentenced him to four months, the maximum possible; because he had served that amount of time waiting for trial, he was released.
President Trump involved himself in the case almost from the start. Before the trial began, in March, I received two calls from the president asking me to lift Gallagher’s confinement in a Navy brig; I pushed back twice, because the presiding judge, acting on information about the accused’s conduct, had decided that confinement was important. Eventually, the president ordered me to have him transferred to the equivalent of an enlisted barracks. I came to believe that Trump’s interest in the case stemmed partly from the way the defendant’s lawyers and others had worked to keep it front and center in the media.

After the verdict was delivered, the Navy’s normal process wasn’t finished. Gallagher had voluntarily submitted his request to retire. In his case, there were three questions: Would he be permitted to retire at the rank of chief, which is also known as an E-7? (The jury had said he should be busted to an E-6, a demotion.) The second was: Should he be allowed to leave the service with an “honorable” or “general under honorable” discharge? And a third: Should he be able to keep his Trident pin, the medal all SEALs wear and treasure as members of an elite force?

On Nov. 14, partly because the president had already contacted me twice, I sent him a note asking him not to get involved in these questions. The next day, White House Counsel Pat Cipollone called me and said the president would remain involved. Shortly thereafter, I received a second call from Cipollone, who said the president would order me to restore Gallagher to the rank of chief.
This was a shocking and unprecedented intervention in a low-level review. It was also a reminder that the president has very little understanding of what it means to be in the military, to fight ethically or to be governed by a uniform set of rules and practices.

Given my desire to resolve a festering issue, I tried to find a way that would prevent the president from further involvement while trying all avenues to get Gallagher’s file in front of a peer-review board. Why? The Naval Special Warfare community owns the Trident pin, not the secretary of the Navy, not the defense secretary, not even the president. If the review board concluded that Gallagher deserved to keep it, so be it.

I also began to work without personally consulting Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper on every step. That was, I see in retrospect, a mistake for which I am solely responsible.
On Nov. 19, I briefed Esper’s chief of staff concerning my plan. I briefed acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney that evening.

The next day, the Navy established a review board to decide the status of Gallagher’s Trident pin. According to long-standing procedure, a group of four senior enlisted SEALs would rule on the question. This was critical: It would be Gallagher’s peers managing their own community. The senior enlisted ranks in our services are the foundation of good order and discipline.

But the question was quickly made moot: On Nov. 21, the president tweeted that Gallagher would be allowed to keep his pin — Trump’s third intervention in the case. I recognized that the tweet revealed the president’s intent. But I did not believe it to be an official order, chiefly because every action taken by the president in the case so far had either been a verbal or written command.
The rest is history. We must now move on and learn from what has transpired. The public should know that we have extensive screening procedures in place to assess the health and well-being of our forces. But we must keep fine-tuning those procedures to prevent a case such as this one from happening again.

More importantly, Americans need to know that 99.9 percent of our uniformed members always have, always are and always will make the right decision. Our allies need to know that we remain a force for good, and to please bear with us as we move through this moment in time.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

Maybe have a state sponsored TV station loyal to the party promote it.

It's called FAUX Nooze.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

How about Schutzstaffel?

How about von Stauffenberg?

 

[amenx]

Opinion peace by Spencer

Powerful piece. Any Trumptard who reads this should come to his senses and bang his head on a wall.
What we have is a 'surface president'. Who can only be bothered by what lays on the surface of events or issues. Anything deeper involving long term consequences or multiple other considerations are too much for his tiny brain to get a handle on. This as well as the troop withdrawals from Syria only confirms it. And as been noted by the book author (Art of the Deal) Tony Schwartz, that Trump cannot focus his mind on anything substantial for more than a few minutes.

 

[Jhhnn]

If only Trump had his own dedicated fighting force where he could avoid all that tradition and honor crap.
A force free from codes of conduct or any of that stuff.

He could call it The Republican Guard.
Maybe have a state sponsored TV station loyal to the party promote it.

Freedom Corps. Patriot Brigade. Unity Force. Lots of way to say Fascist Thugs.

 

[KMFJD]

Top Navy SEAL commander to resign after apparent disagreements with Trump

Trump's decision to support Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher appeared to be the last straw for Rear Adm. Collin Green.

www.businessinsider.com

Trump brings out the best in people

 

[hal2kilo]

Top Navy SEAL commander to resign after apparent disagreements with Trump

Trump's decision to support Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher appeared to be the last straw for Rear Adm. Collin Green.

www.businessinsider.com

Trump brings out the best in people

If you are not with Trump, you are not with the state.