UPDATED 11/30 by Floyd: The Navy SEALS persecution for punching a high value target may be even darker than previously thought if this post is true
Earlier this week, news broke that three Navy SEALs were charged and may be court-martialed for allegedly punching a prisoner. The prisoner, a high-value target (HVT) was turned over to authorities with a bloody lip.
According to a source of mine — a retired SEAL who like myself still serves in other capacities — the feeling going around the Special Operations community at Fort Bragg is that this latest development is a kneejerk reaction to the situation a couple months ago when SEAL operators rescued Captain Phillips – Captain of the Maersk Alabama – off the coast of Somalia.
At the time of the capture, the media played up the angle that President Obama himself gave the order to the SEAL snipers to open fire. Having done extensive time in anti-terrorist units myself, I can tell you from personal experience this is ridiculous, a total fabrication. Nobody except those with “eyes on” the targeted individuals can make the judgment call to open fire.
The truth of the situation was that the SEALs were held off from infiltrating the AO (Area of Operations) for over 36 hours. There was a lot of resistance from the White House in letting them in theater in the first place; once they were in place they were given very restrictive ROE (Rules Of Engagement); so restrictive that they really couldn’t engage their targets. There were two previous opportunities to rescue Captain Phillips, and they were not allowed to engage their targets.
Go to the above link and read the whole thing. If true this so damn disgusting it is beyond words.
Original post on International criminal Court and SEALS below the fold…
A real President would rattle sabers about this… our Puss in Chief will most likely not do a damn thing.
From the Online Journal:
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed “great regret” in August that the U.S. is not a signatory to the International Criminal Court (ICC). This has fueled speculation that the Obama administration may reverse another Bush policy and sign up for what could lead to the trial of Americans for war crimes in The Hague.
The ICC’s chief prosecutor, though, has no intention of waiting for Washington to submit to the court’s authority. Luis Moreno Ocampo says he already has jurisdiction—at least with respect to Afghanistan.
Because Kabul in 2003 ratified the Rome Statute—the ICC’s founding treaty—all soldiers on Afghan territory, even those from nontreaty countries, fall under the ICC’s oversight, Mr. Ocampo told me. And the chief prosecutor says he is already conducting a “preliminary examination” into whether NATO troops, including American soldiers, fighting the Taliban may have to be put in the dock.
“We have to check if crimes against humanity, war crimes or genocide have been committed in Afghanistan,” Mr. Ocampo told me. “There are serious allegations against the Taliban and al Qaeda and serious allegations about warlords, even against some who are connected with members of the government.” Taking up his inquiry of Allied soldiers, he added, “there are different reports about problems with bombings and there are also allegations about torture.”
The International Criminal Court is the wet dream of the international leftist jet-set. Having Americans before its clutches is even sweeter for them.
This story from the Washington Post on Afghan captives complaining that Navy SEALS roughed them up ma be a precursor of things to come.
The two teenagers — Issa Mohammad, 17, and Abdul Rashid, who said he is younger than 16 — said in interviews this week that they were punched and slapped in the face by their captors during their time at Bagram air base, where they were held in individual cells. Rashid said his interrogator forced him to look at pornography alongside a photograph of his mother.
The holding center described by the teenagers appeared to have been a facility run by U.S. Special Operations forces that is separate from the Bagram Theater Internment Facility, the main American-run prison, which holds about 700 detainees. The teenagers’ descriptions of a holding area on a different part of the Bagram base are consistent with the accounts of two other former detainees, who say they endured similar mistreatment, but not beatings, while being held last year at what Afghans call Bagram’s “black” prison.
I go back and forth on America as world police or rather the extent to which we should police — suffice to say if we get entangled in things like this the world will be a much darker place than it already is.
If I was President, I would bring them stateside, and refuse to extradite them.
That’s not the point though…. they would never be able to go on vacation abroad, serve in the military abroad (or diplomatic corps) or work overseas, etc. Any assets they may own overseas might be affected…. And if ever a Prez and Senate decide we should sign and ratify The ROme Statute they would be at risk. In other words it would be like having an indictment hanging over your head for the rest of your days.
Doesn’t Obama need Senate approval?
He does to ratify it, but not to sign it. Though if he signs it in the next two years THIS Senate under Dingy Harry would most likely ratify it.
But doesn’t Dingy need 67 votes? Which includes 7 GOP votes?
Kit… there are ways around it perhaps. Executive-congressional agreements or executive orders a la UNCLOS III.
“Rashid said his interrogator forced him to look at pornography alongside a photograph of his mother.”
This is similar to the “smearing the Koran with menstrual blood” lies these third world dolts say. And the Left always buys it. Who else would say this but these backwards women hating thugs? Does this sound like sophisticated interrogation techniques?
This alone should suffice that the US should stay far far away from the ICC and the vindictive fools running it.
International court authority matters only if the country under suspicion decides to subject themselves to it. I’d love to see Obama’s poll numbers if he began approving the extradition of our own soldiers to Europe to cries of “war crimes” involving pornography and pictures of mothers. I’m not giving him any benefit of the doubt, especially since his justice department is targeting guys for giving a bloody lip to a mass-murderer. And liberals wonder why we ask which side they are on.
John… see my comment above. This matters whether or not we ratify.
If you’re a war vet and you’re in Barcelona on vacation or on business for your consulting firm and get a speeding ticket by Spanish police and they get an Interpol ICC warrant hit — they’ll arrest you and it will not matter much at that time whether or not we have ratified the treaty. How far would Obama go to get that person free? I think we know that answer, but it would be a difficult call for any President to be fair.
‘made him look at pornography’…the beasts,the swine, the oh sod it…who cares?
The storming of the
BastilleWhite House commences when?This doesn’t surprise me. Question: Anyone else wonder after Phillips was rescued why Obama never went to meet him? I don’t think he even made an attempt to contact him after his rescue at all.