A Seal of Approval - SEAL Acquited in assault on Terrorist Charge

As I wrote before, as an example of lawfare the enemies of our country engage in, some SEALS were charged with assault involving the capture of a terrorist, who claimed they punched him when they captured him.

The SEALS are being tried via courts martial and the first SEAL was quite properly acquitted.

Fox News: US Navy SEAL cleared in Iraq abuse case

A U.S. Navy SEAL was cleared Thursday of charges he covered up the alleged beating of an Iraqi prisoner suspected of masterminding the grisly 2004 killings of four American security contractors.

A six-man Navy jury found Petty Officer 1st Class Julio Huertas not guilty of dereliction of duty and attempting to influence the testimony of another service member. The jury heard too many differences between the testimony of a sailor who claimed he witnessed the Sept. 1 assault at a U.S. base outside Fallujah, Iraq, and statements from a half-dozen others who denied his account.

Smiling and composed as he left the courthouse at the U.S. military's Camp Victory on Baghdad's western outskirts, Huertas said he felt vindicated.

"It's a big weight off my shoulders," said Huertas, 29, of Blue Island, Illinois. "Compared to all the physical activity we go through, this has been mentally more challenging."

Huertas said he would rejoin the SEALs, the Navy's elite special forces, as soon as possible. His was the first trial of three SEALs accused in the assault of Ahmed Hashim Abed and its alleged cover up.

Good, he deserves to be fully reinstated with all honors and put back on the proper promotion path as well.

Of course the natives of Fallujah - that hotbed of the Sunni violence being a pro-Saddam, anti-American hot spot weren't happy:

Thursday's verdict was met by anger and sad shrugs from Iraqis who said they no longer expect to see U.S. troops held accountable for atrocities or other abuses.

"They would release him even if he had killed an Iraqi and not just beaten him," said Ahmed Abdul Aziz Khudaeir, teacher in Fallujah.

Abed, who is a suspected terrorist, claimed in his testimony that he had nothing to do with the 2004 attack on four Blackwater Worldwide security guards whose bodies were burned and dragged through the streets of Fallujah in what became a turning point of the Iraq war. Two of the bodies were hanged from a bridge over the Euphrates River, and Abed was the focus of an Iraq-wide manhunt by U.S. forces in the following years.

Too bad, so sad but you're not getting a SEAL to have as a trophy, your terrorist buddy lost and the good guy won.

I do wonder what Khudaeir was doing during the 2004 battle of Fallujah between the Marines and the insurgents.

In any case, this was a proper result and ending to a case that shouldn't have been brought in the first place.

It's a good thing the military jury understands the nature of this war -

"There was no abuse," Monica Lombardi, Huertas' civilian attorney, told the jury. She said Abed could have bit his lip on purpose to cast blame on U.S. troops, calling it "classic terrorist training."

The jury was smart enough to know the truth and justice prevailed. 3 more of these ridiculous trials to go, hopefully with the same proper result.