gallagher edward seal
medic said suffocate mercy kill after stabbing?
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Trump gave this Navy SEAL clemency for a war crime — now he’s trying to cash in on his infamy
Eoin Higgins / Common Dreams
Navy SEAL Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher, who was granted clemency this fall from President Donald Trump for posing with the body of a dead Iraqi child, is hawking t-shirts and…
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why Trump’s embrace of Eddie Gallagher is so dangerous
an 1219
no lnx
Why Trump’s embrace of Eddie Gallagher is so dangerous
Written by Heather Digby Parton / SalonDecember 30, 2019
Judging by his Twitter feed and a few appearances before the cameras, President Trump doesn’t seem to be enjoying his holiday break down at Mar-a-Lago. In fact, his tweeting is so obsessive and downright strange it even has some of his staunchest allies telling him he should put the phone down for a while. It’s obvious that the standoff between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is driving him to distraction. If that was part of Pelosi’s plan, it’s working.
Nonetheless, as I noted last week, this hasn’t stopped the merriment at Trump’s commercial resort property. Despite his assertion during the annual Christmas Day phone call to the troops that he works constantly when he’s at “the winter White House,” he’s been playing golf, hosting parties and hobnobbing with pals and paying guests.Among those honored guests was Eddie Gallagher, the former Navy SEAL who was accused of war crimes. The Daily Mail reported on the festivities in detail, including pictures of Gallagher and his wife with the president and first lady as well as Donald Trump Jr. Mrs. Gallagher reportedly gushed, “God bless the Trump family and all they are doing for this country!”
As you probably know, Gallagher was acquitted of murdering an injured ISIS fighter in a controversial military trial. After hearing about the case from Fox News commentator Pete Hegseth and former New York police commissioner Bernard Kerik — a convicted felon and buddy of Rudy Giuliani — Trump took the nearly unprecedented step of interfering in the military justice system and ordering Gallagher released from pre-trial confinement. Despite Gallagher’s conviction on a lesser charge, Trump countermanded Navy commanders and restored him to his previous rank, allowing him to keep his SEAL pin, which resulted in the dismissal of Navy Secretary Richard Spencer.
Trump has also pardoned two other members of the military accused or convicted of war crimes, even bringing them up on stage with him at a recent fundraiser. He has reportedly told allies he wants those men to campaign with him next year. We will almost certainly see them at the Republican convention. They are MAGA heroes.
Although Trump campaigned in 2016 by endorsing torture, atrocities and mass executions, even going so far as to proclaim that it was important to “take out the families,” it’s still shocking that he’s openly embracing accused war criminals, calling Gallagher “one of the ultimate fighters” and a “very tough guy.”
After the New York Times’ explosive story on Gallagher last Friday, in which we saw the original testimony of his fellow SEALs and footage of the moments before the killing of the sedated ISIS fighter, it’s almost impossible to wrap your mind around the idea that this man was feted at the “winter White House” just last week.
As the Times reported, this was “the first opportunity outside the courtroom to hear directly from the men of Alpha platoon, SEAL Team 7,”
whose blistering testimony about their platoon chief was dismissed by President Trump when he upended the military code of justice to protect Chief Gallagher from the punishment. “The guy is freaking evil,” Special Operator Miller told investigators. “The guy was toxic,” Special Operator First Class Joshua Vriens, a sniper, said in a separate interview. “You could tell he was perfectly O.K. with killing anybody that was moving,” Special Operator First Class Corey Scott, a medic in the platoon, told the investigators.
The culture of the special forces requires a deep sense of loyalty and code of silence. It’s clear that the decision to come forward was very difficult, but what they had witnessed had obviously caused them great anguish. Gallagher says these SEALs accused him of all these crimes because they are cowards who were failing in their duties, and he has instructed his lawyer to sue the New York Times reporter who wrote the story. (You can see why he and Trump have formed such a bond.)
These anecdotes are overwhelming and disturbing. Seeing the text messages and the video of the witnesses makes it even more disturbing that Gallagher is still walking the streets, particularly since there is no dispute that he stabbed the sedated teenager:
Gallagher initially tended to the boy. Then according to seven members of the platoon, he stabbed him. One of them, Craig Miller, said he saw blood gush from the boy’s jugular, a stream of liquid like the kind that one sees when a baby is “throwing up.” Gallagher later texted his friends a photo of the dead boy: “Good story behind this,” he wrote. “Got him with my hunting knife.”
He was acquitted when one of the accusers, a medic who had been given immunity, explained that he was the one who had actually killed the stabbed teenager by cutting off his air-supply to end his suffering.
Nobody knows exactly what happened, but what with all the high-profile presidential interference and an apparently mishandled prosecution, Gallagher got off the hook. Perhaps that was the correct outcome. The state — in this case, the military — has to prove the case it brings and apparently failed to bring the right one.
But it’s impossible to see those videos and read those texts and come away believing that justice was done. Perhaps even more importantly, you can’t read that story and believe society is safe with Eddie Gallagher walking free, much less being treated as a hero by the most powerful man on earth.
The military itself has suffered a great wound as well. It would have been bad enough for Gallagher to be acquitted due to poor lawyering. But that’s how the system works, and sometimes guilty people get away with murder. But Trump’s interference has disrupted a delicate constitutional balance, in which the nonpartisan military is commanded by the civilian president and regulated by the U.S. Congress. As law professor Deborah Pearlstein wrote in the Atlantic:
Watching the president of the United States reward the violation of the most fundamental laws of war, inflaming America’s enemies and alienating America’s allies, was bad enough. But the president’s action appeared to be an intervention in otherwise semi-independent legal and disciplinary processes inside the military — an intervention for the purpose of currying favor with his political base. The pardons — driven by Fox News and reinforced by political rallies — added to the appearance, and reality, that the president regards the military as a tool of partisan politics, not as an institution whose unique constitutional position he has a duty to protect.
The military was the last government institution his ignorance and solipsism hadn’t managed to compromise. But he has finally gotten to that as well.
Heather Digby Parton, also known as “Digby,” is a contributing writer to Salon. She was the winner of the 2014 Hillman Prize for Opinion and Analysis Journalism.
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will new VIDEO make a difference? leaked?
https://www.alternet.org/2019/12/the-guy-is-freaking-evil-navy-seals-provide-chilling-details-about-comrade-pardoned-by-trump
‘The guy is freaking evil’: Navy SEALs provide chilling details about comrade pardoned by Trump
Written by Travis Gettys / Raw Story December 27, 2019
Navy SEALs described their colleague Edward Gallagher, whose war crimes were pardoned by President Donald Trump, as “freaking evil.”
The New York Times obtained video interviews and private group text messages that show their concern over Gallagher’s bloodlust.
“The guy is freaking evil,” Special Operator First Class Craig Miller told investigators.
At one point Miller, like some of the other battle-hardened SEALs who broke the code of silence to report Gallagher, began weeping.
“Sorry about this,” Miller said. “It’s the first time — I’m really broken up about this.”
“The guy was toxic,” Special Operator First Class Joshua Vriens, a sniper, said in a separate interview.
“You could tell he was perfectly okay with killing anybody that was moving,” Special Operator First Class Corey Scott, a medic in the platoon, told investigators.
Gallagher was accused of war crimes, including murder, but acquitted by a military jury in July on all but a single relatively minor charge, and was then cleared of all punishment last month by the president, who then invited him over the Christmas break to his Mar-A-Lago resort.
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https://www.alternet.org/2019/12/trump-brings-pardoned-us-war-criminals-onstage-at-florida-republican-fundraiser/
aha-let hedges said poor wht go for trump b/c he is strong enough to defeat big force(s) they face; thus we need strong guys rogue cop who does not play by the rules
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https://www.alternet.org/2019/08/trump-orders-military-prosecutors-stripped-of-medals-for-murder-prosecution-of-navy-seal-edward-gallagher/
no lnx
Trump orders military prosecutors stripped of medals for murder prosecution of NAVY Seal Edward Gallagher
Written by Alex Henderson August 1, 2019
President Donald Trump has been an outspoken defender of Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher, the Navy SEAL who was prosecuted for murder for allegedly killing a captured prisoner of war and ISIS fighter in Iraq. Gallagher was acquitted in July, and officials for the U.S. Navy announced on Wednesday that military prosecutors in the case would be losing the achievement medals they had received.
Trump, earlier on Wednesday, had tweeted that he directed the secretary of the U.S. Navy and the naval operations chief to “immediately withdraw and rescind” the Navy Achievement Medal from those prosecutors. Cdr. Jereal Dorsey, a U.S. Navy spokesman, said that Navy Secretary Richard Spencer had rescinded the awards and that he had the authority to do so.
But David Lapan, a retired U.S. Marines colonel and former Pentagon spokesman, was highly critical of the action — describing it as “ludicrous” and an example of the “further politicization of our military.”
The Prosecutors who lost the case against SEAL Eddie Gallagher (who I released from solitary confinement so he could fight his case properly), were ridiculously given a Navy Achievement Medal. Not only did they lose the case, they had difficulty with respect….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 31, 2019
The prosecutors received their Navy Achievement Medal awards in July.
Trump has insisted that Gallagher never should have been prosecuted, but that view is hardly universal. Gallagher’s critics alleged that he killed the prisoner and member of the terrorist group ISIS (Islamic State, Iraq and Syria) as an act of vigilante justice. Gallagher, they alleged, did not act in self-defense, but rather, became a vigilante and appointed himself judge, jury and executioner.
During Gallagher’s trial, several Navy SEALs testified that they saw him stab the prisoner. Two alleged that they saw him stab the prisoner in the neck.
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omfg look at contrast [pix]
https://www.foxnews.com/us/navy-seal-eddie-gallagher-sentenced-to-reduced-rank-partial-pay-after-being-cleared-of-murder-charges
Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher sentenced to reduced rank, partial pay, after being cleared of murder charges
By Vandana Rambaran, Greg Norman | Fox News
[Eddie Gallagher receives maximum sentence for posing for picture with corpseVideo]
Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher will be reduced from an E7 to an E6 and will receive a cut to his pay and benefits for posing for a picture with a corpse.
Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher will have his rank reduced and is sentenced to four months of confinement, which he has already served, for posing with the body of a dead Islamic State fighter, the San Diego jury decided Wednesday.
Gallagher's attorney confirmed to Fox News that he will retire from the U.S. Navy when he becomes eligible in about three weeks as he hits his 20 years of service.
The SEAL was found not guilty Tuesday on six of the most serious counts he was facing, including premeditated murder, willfully discharging a firearm to endanger human life, retaliation against members of his platoon for reporting his alleged actions, obstruction of justice and the attempted murders of two noncombatants.
"I feel fine. It’s all right, you know? The jury came with a verdict. I trust them," Gallagher told Fox News after his sentencing Wednesday, which stipulates his rank will be reduced to an E6 paygrade, affecting both his pay and his benefits. A jury also sentenced the SEAL to pay $2,697 per month for four months.
Gallagher responds to jury sentencing on charge of posing with corpseVideo]
Prior to sentencing, Gallagher’s defense succeeded in getting the judge to reduce the potential forfeiture to 50 percent, arguing that some of Gallagher’s pre-trial confinement was tantamount to punishment based on the fact that he was denied access to a computer and some medical treatment. Even though the jury came back with a 4-month partial forfeiture of pay, it will be cut in half, resulting in 2 months partial forfeiture.
Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher cleared of murder chargesVideo]
NAVY SEAL EDWARD GALLAGHER FOUND NOT GUILTY ON MURDER AND ATTEMPTED MURDER CHARGES
He was accused of stabbing to death the 15-year-old combatant in 2017 and posing with the corpse for photos. He endured a dramatic trial where defense attorneys argued that Gallagher's platoon "concocted" the accusations against him, pointing to his history as a decorated SEAL with 19 years of service with multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and earned the Bronze Star with V for Valor twice, a Meritorious Unit Commendation and a trio of Navy and Marine Corps Achievement medals, among other recognitions and decorations.
Nearly a dozen members of Gallagher's platoon testified during the trial against him, revealing that nearly all the platoon members posed for photos with the dead prisoner and witnessed Gallagher read his reenlistment oath near the body, actions prosecutors said proved that Gallagher was "proud" of his actions.
Prior to the sentencing, Lt. Brian John, a Navy prosecutor, warned jurors that “a message needs to be sent” for photos such as the one Gallagher posed for, as they “have [the] potential to fuel propaganda.”
“The chief, rather than taking those photos, should have been the one stopping them,” he added.
“What is fair?” came the response fromMaj. Nelson Candelario, a Marine defense lawyer representing Gallagher during the defense presentation, calling for “no additional punishment."
Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher feeling 'grateful' and'blessed' after not guilty verdictVideo]
Gallagher had previously served nine months in prison awaiting trial but was released ahead of trial proceedings at the end of May as the judge attempted to rectify alleged prosecutorial misconduct which included the unauthorized tracking of the defense's emails.[return receipt?}:
“That’s what’s fair in this case,” he said. “That’s what’s just.”
“It was a regretful decision to pose in the photos," his attorney Tim Parlatore said Wednesday after sentencing. "It obviously was something, if he could take that back he would."
"Chief Gallagher wants that to be a lesson to everybody else, all of the other members of the SEAL community, the Navy, the army the marine corp and all the other services, of your actions have consequences and even though he did not commit a murder, even though he did not do these shootings or anything else, yes he made a mistake with these photos and that’s something that every leader, every warrior should think about when they’re out there because it can have significant consequences," Parlatore added.
Gallagher, in an interview earlier Wednesday on ‘Fox & Friends' alongside his wife, Andrea, and Parlatore, said media reports tried to frame him “as a criminal from the get-go.
“But we knew the truth the whole time,” he said. “We knew I was innocent of these charges. I overcame it by having my strong wife with me the whole time and my legal team fighting for me."
The months leading up to his trial were marked with controversy. Defense lawyers and military prosecutors had disputed the conditions of Gallagher’s pre-trial treatment, and at one point, evenPresident Trump got involved, tweeting out that Gallagher would be moved to “less restrictive confinement while he awaits his day in court.”
Marc Mukasey, one of Gallagher's lawyers who is also President Trump's attorneythanked the president for bringing "this case out of the shadows and into the light."
"America saw what was being done to Eddie Gallagher and thanks to the president for bringing it into the light so that we could expose the injustice that was being done," Mukasey said Wednesday.
Perhaps the biggest bombshell in the case occurred on June 20, when Gallagher's colleague, Special Operator 1st Class Corey Scott, admitted to asphyxiating the ISIS fighter back in 2017, contrary to the testimony of at least seven other SEALs who said Gallagher stabbed the ISIS fighter.
Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher acquitted of murderVideo]
Parlatore said he suspected Scott may have asphyxiated the ISIS fighter after interviewing him before the trial, but Scott, testifying under an immunity deal from the prosecution, did not fully admit it until he took the stand.
"At that moment, I punched Eddie in the leg and said 'we got him,'" [?]Parlatore recalled.
CLICK HERE FOR THE FOX NEWS APP
Gallagher has long held throughout the trial he believes his platoon behaved in a manner not representative of the SEAL community as a whole.
"This has put a black eye on this community. I want the nation to know this is not what our community is about. This community is full of elite warriors that I have been honored and blessed to work with for the past 20 years," Gallagher said.
Fox News’ Daniel Gallo in San Diego and David Montanaro contributed to this report.
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https://www.alternet.org/2019/07/the-curious-case-of-eddie-gallagher-did-donald-trump-help-a-navy-seal-get-away-with-murder/
...War is a terrible thing. There are always moral grey areas. But Gallagher never denied that he stabbed an unarmed, wounded child soldier who was receiving medical treatment and then posed for photos with the body after he died.
Gallagher was also charged with attempted murder in another case. He was court-martialed on 12 counts in all.
Describing his behavior as reckless and bloodthirsty, several men from Gallagher’s platoon said he gunned down a 15-year-old girl walking along a riverbank in Afghanistan and an old man carrying a water jug. They testified that Gallagher regularly fired into civilian crowds.
According to the military investigation, after Gallagher’s fellow SEALs tried multiple times to report him for his behavior and were turned away by superiors, from those above, they resorted to messing with his rifle and firing warning shots to scare away civilians so he would miss his shots.
... [report up the chain ignore]
They said they spent more time protecting civilians than they did fighting ISIS,” Special Agent Joe Warpinski of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service told the military court.
One of the seven Navy SEAL commandos from Team 7’s Alpha Platoon told investigators that senior leaders, who were allies of Gallagher, told commandos to “stop talking about it.” The New York Times reported what the Navy’s criminal investigation report, which included interviews with more than a dozen members of Alpha Platoon, found:
[S]even members of the platoon called a private meeting with their troop commander in March 2018 at Naval Base Coronado near San Diego. According to a confidential Navy criminal investigation report obtained by The New York Times, they gave him the bloody details and asked for a formal investigation.
But instead of launching an investigation that day, the troop commander and his senior enlisted aide — both longtime comrades of the accused platoon leader, Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher — warned the seven platoon members that speaking out could cost them and others their careers, according to the report. …
As Chief Gallagher’s men were sounding an alarm about killings in Iraq, his superiors were lavishing praise on him. An evaluation quoted in the investigation report called Chief Gallagher the best chief of the 12 in the team, and said, “This is the man I want leading SEALs in combat.”
A few days after the March 2018 meeting, the chief was awarded a Bronze Star for valor under fire in Iraq.
Investigators found that several of Gallager’s fellow SEALsalleged that he threatened to kill them if they reported his actions. At trial, Gallagher’s defense portrayed his own unit as petulant and lazy millennials.
He was found not guilty on the charges of shooting civilians, despite testimony from seven other SEALs, because the trial happened too late to preserve useful forensic evidence.
...
Asked in an interview on Wednesday on Fox News what his message might be to future Navy SEALs, Gallagher said he would tell them that “loyalty is a trait that seems to be lost … You’re there to watch your brother’s back, and he’s there to watch your back.”
One of Gallagher’s lawyers is also on President Trump’s legal team, and thanked the president for bringing “this case out of the shadows and into the light” in an appearance on Fox News following the verdict. Gallagher thanked Trump on Fox News “for intervening when he did.”
The president congratulated Gallagher following his appearance on Fox News on Wednesday, tweeting: “Glad I could help!”
Trump is either taking credit for the outcome of a criminal trial or admitting he interfering with it. Either possibility is deeply concerning
https://www.alternet.org/2019/07/us-navy-seal-acquitted-of-war-crimes-despite-eyewitness-testimony-and-photographic-evidence/
Navy SEAL acquitted of war crimes despite eyewitness testimony and photographic evidence
Julia Conley / Common DreamsJuly 3, 2019
“The military justice system is rigged in favor of these bad actors just as it is with police domestically.”
no lnx pix
Navy SEAL acquitted of war crimes despite eyewitness testimony and photographic evidence
U.S. Navy SEAL Edward Gallagher images via Instagram
written by Julia Conley / Common Dreams July 3, 2019
Critics were outraged late Tuesday when the jury in the war crime trial of U.S. Navy SEAL Edward Gallagher found the decorated platoon leader not guilty of murdering a 15-year-old captive in Iraq in 2017.
The anti-war group About Face expressed deep frustration with the military justice system for favoring armed service members, regardless of the evidence against them.
Typical. The military justice system is rigged in favor of these bad actors just as it is with police domestically. #DropTheMIC #demilitaRISE https://t.co/Fl70mqzNre
— About Face: Veterans Against the War (@VetsAboutFace) July 2, 2019
Gallagher’s acquittal followed the testimony of a medic, Corey Scott, who claimed to have killed the captive ISIS fighter himself, stunning prosecutors who had been told by multiple Navy SEALs that Gallagher had stabbed the boy.
Navy prosecutors are considering perjury charges against Scott, whose previous statements to the prosecution differed significantly from the story he told during the trial. Scott acknowledged that he wanted to help Gallagher go free when he testified that while he had seen the platoon leader stab the teenage captive in the neck, Scott had then killed him by covering his breathing tube.
Scott gave the testimony after being granted immunity by prosecutors.
During the two-week trial, prosecutors presented multiple eyewitnesses who testified that Gallagher had stabbed the captive after he was brought to Gallagher for medical treatment.
The jury also saw a photo of the platoon leader posing with the teenager’s body and a text message he had sent to his friends in the armed services reading, “Good story behind this, got him with my hunting knife.”
Both the prosecution and the defense described the picture Gallagher sent as a “trophy photo.”
Despite the evidence of Gallagher’s crimes, President Donald Trump intervened in the case, arranging in March for the Navy SEAL to be released from pre-trial confinement.
The photo resulted in Gallagher’s only conviction; the longest sentence he may be given is four months in prison, but because he has already served nine months in pre-trial confinement, he walked free on Tuesday.
Gallagher was also found not guilty of attempting to murder and wounding two civilians when he shot them from a sniper post.
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https://www.democracynow.org/2019/6/3/iraq_combat_veteran_pardon_of_war
Trump is considering pardoning American military members convicted of war crimes. One of the requests for a pardon is reportedly for Navy SEALs Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher, who is facing charges of shooting unarmed civilians and killing a wounded captive teenage fighter by stabbing him with a knife and then staging a re-enlistment ceremony over the dead teen’s body. On Thursday, a military judge in San Diego ordered Gallagher free from custody, citing prosecutorial misconduct in his murder trial for war crimes. The court has yet to rule on whether to remove prosecutors or to throw out the case entirely. One of the attorneys for Gallagher also represents the Trump Organization. Republican Congressmember Duncan Hunter, one of Gallagher’s most vocal supporters, recently admitted in a podcast to killing hundreds of civilians while serving in the U.S. military during his deployment to Fallujah, Iraq, in 2004. This comes as Trump may also consider a pardon request for Blackwater contractor Nicholas Slatten, who was twice found guilty of first-degree murder in the deadly 2007 Nisoor Square massacre in Baghdad, which killed 14 unarmed Iraqi civilians. We speak with Waitman Wade Beorn, a combat veteran of Iraq and a Holocaust and genocide studies historian. In a May 9, 2019, opinion column in The Washington Post, headlined “”I led a platoon in Iraq. Trump is wrong to pardon war criminals.”
Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter, currently under indictment over his misappropriation…