2 July 2019|The Interregnum|Mohamed Elmaazi
A US Navy Seal commander who was accused of murder, attempted murder, and witness intimidation by his subordinates was found not guilty by a military court martial on 2 July 2019.
Featured image via CBS/YouTube
Edward Gallagher, a Special Operations Chief in the US Navy, was found not guilty of first degree murder and attempted murder of multiple Iraqi civilians, according to The New York Times. Ghallager, who headed SEAL TEAM 7, was set free on Tuesday 2 July 2019 with ‘time served’ for the one offence he was convicted of – posing with a corpse.
The alleged war crimes
On 23 April 2019 The New York Times revealed that a US Navy criminal investigation contained allegations of a series of egregious war crimes in Iraq. The main allegations were that Gallagher had stabbed a young unarmed captive to death, shot at civilians indiscriminately, and shot and killed a young girl and an old man. The witnesses to these alleged events were the commander’s own Navy Seals who served under him.
“Let it go”
Award winning investigative journalist David Phillips reported on this story for The New York Times. According to Phillips the Navy Seals repeatedly pushed their war crimes allegations through the military justice system but higher ups repeatedly told them to “stop talking about it” and “let it go”. Phillips explained what his investigation revealed in detail to Amy Goodman and Nermeen Shaikh on Democracy Now! in April.
Not guilty
But according to Phillips the court martial has resulted in a not guilty verdict for all of the most serious offences – including threats to kill witnesses (obstruction of justice) if they spoke out against him.
Among those who vociferously spoke out in Ghallager’s defence was former US marine and current Republican Congressman Duncan Hunter. Hunter accused the prosecution of misconduct and, like many supporters of Ghallager, considered the charges to be baseless. US President Donald Trump was believed to be considering pardoning Ghallager after his case became somewhat of a cause célèbre.