Update on Special Forces murder case

Posted By Uncle Jimbo

I spoke with the Attorney for MSG Troy Anderson today, Maj. Lance Daniels (background here). I asked him about the charging document which was signed by an E-7 paralegal whose only familiarity with the case was having read a summary and was unaware that two investigations had cleared them. He agreed that it was a point of contention and said he had requested the Convening Authority to have the case dismissed based on a lack of valid charges and made the same request during the Art. 32 hearing. He said we could expect an answer on the charges in a couple of weeks as they would likely wait until they had a full transcript.

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/2819/21910379

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Update on Special Forces murder case:

Comments

[Old Tanker]

So do we know anymore about the General? Is he really a PP or had some other motives? I guess it shouldn't matter too much as long as our SF boys get exonerated, I just wonder about the next guys........

[Teresa]

I'm sorry, I don't care what this General's motive is, he deserves to be heavily penalized for this travesty! He won't be, but he deserves it.

Oh yeah, I'm betting the paralegal is way more careful of what he signs from now on. Unbelievable!

[Deebow]

"Steely-eyed killers cleared of Murder"

"Disgraced General forced to retire."

Can't wait until I see those headlines, in fact, I might be the one to post it here.

Good on ya Jimbo for keeping your ear to the ground on this, as well as keeping the pressure up on SOCOM and this General.

Having been part of some of these kinds of things, as far as investigations go, once we (CID) say you are clear and that we will not be forwarding a case to JAG for prosecution, that is the final say,

CID are the equivalent of the FBI and Secret Service all rolled into one, and they don't do things like change their mind on things like what this general believes to be a murder.

LTG Kearney needs to go...now

[chiropetra]

I hope you're right Uncle Jimbo, but I'm no willing to call this one yet.

Apparently all the details we've gotten so far have come from the defense attorneys. That means it's still possible there's more to this story than we know.

I'll wait for more information and hope that first impressions are accurate.

[SlimGuy]

From this post, I could possibly conclude that the E-7 jumped the shark.

But the issue also is that the headlines have gotten all their expected play on the left of center blogs with all the usual suspects singing their choir tunes.

[OldSoldier54]

"LTG Kearney needs to go...now"
Roger your last, D!!

Well, this is twice now. The MARSOC company, these SF guys ...

Whats that old saw?
Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action!

Is LTG Kearney a REMF? Or married to a Code Pinko like that idiot in Iraq telling lies to the TNR?

[jordan]

Well, whatever the outcome of this case, I hope someone on high is considering that these cases against soldiers are reaching critical mass publically. Each successive one blares to the anti-American world that their suspicions about the evil U.S. military are correct, and teaches the enemy how to use ROE and U.S. public opinion against the war effort.

The military (and Congress and Executive Branch) may believe that such cases show the world we "police our own", that the U.S. behaves by rule of law, and that transgressors will be punished. Unfortunately, this isn't how it's perceived by potential recruits, the world audience, or the enemy.

It tells young Americans you need a good lawyer if you sign up to serve. And knee-jerk, overreactive investigations and accusations reveal a chink in our armor, another weakness for the enemy and it's own recruits, to despise. It shows that what are the normal, unfortunate realities of the fog of war are now being viewed criminally. If actions like these are now considered criminal, is it legal to fight any war?

The U.S. gets no brownie points internationally by pursuing such cases. Of course, clear criminal intent and behavior should be prosecuted, no question. But case after case now of these foggy, unclear criminalizations of war-time actions are piling up, and hurting more than they're helping.

There's got to be a better way.

[Kevin R.C. 'Hognose' O'Brien]

Whoa, whoa, whoa.

Jim and guys -- let's not tee off on LTG Kearney just yet.

What seems to be the case here is that Kearney made the prosecution call based on the same narrative from his SJA that the paralegal used as his justification for signing the charge document.

In other words, Kearney may have been misled by a man he trusted.

Kearney has an extensive Ranger background. As you probably know, the SF/UW side of things has been a career dead-end for the last twenty years, while the Ranger/dark side/doorkicker/DA side of things has been the ticket to high command. Not sayin' that Rangers, doorkickers, and Kearney are bad things in themselves, but SF is a different animal.

So, who's the guy that instigated this? It's Kearney's SJA, LCRD Douglas R. Velvel. Velvel is an interesting character indeed, the sort of JAG that has been a de facto fifth columnist for Osama. He comes from a family of lawyers (quite lefty lawyers) and clearly comes into this with his own agenda.

At the hearing, he refused to testify, claiming "SJA Privilege." The attorneys -- including the former Chief JAG of the Army -- and the law officer said they've never heard of such a privilege, but Velvel refused to testify. In effect, he took the fifth about how these charges came to be. What's he hiding?

To get smart on the case to date, read the Fayetteville papers' coverage (particularly the Observer) and the NYT's Paul von Zielbauer. Von Zielbauer may no longer be covering the case as he is the Times's boy on the "atrocities real or imagined" beat. He and his editors will have no interest in covering the case if the prosecution collapses.

I'd be very cautious about blaming LTG Kearney until we know that he supported these charges with a full understanding of things. If he has been misled, it would be fascinating to see Velvel's next OER (or whatever the Navy calls a fitness report). If Velvel snookered Keaarney, and Kearney's like any of the GOs I ever knew, that will be a relief for cause OER.

[Kevin R.C. 'Hognose' O'Brien]

Uh, I meant "LCDR" of course. Apologies to our web-footed friends.

[The Wolf]

Hognose-

Good points, but one must question Velvel's boss- a LCDR does not usually run a 3-star JAG office; that's usually up to an O-6 at least; possibly several. No way Velvel should have made that call on his own...

-W

[Uncle Jimbo]

I take your points Kevin,

But Kearney had a responsibility to know every bit of that case before he laid murder charges.

I also found out I do know MSG Anderson and I'm going off. This is a travesty.

Cordially,

Uncle J

[Allan]

Hey. How can you do this. On the one hand, you bash others for trashing one general. Your argument is that we should not bash those currently serving. On the other, you yourself bash a general.

The only difference is that the first general supports your general position, the other one does not.

Smells of hypocrisy.

Note 1. LTG Kearney may indeed deserve some bashing.

Note 2. Given the rank, could it be that LCDR Velvel is the Chief of Justice in the command?

Note 3. There is an attorney/client issue at work. But, in this case, his advice to LTG Kearney might not be protected.

Note 4. COL. DAVID HUNT, FOX NEWS MILITARY ANALYST, says: Yes, I've got some actually new news on this just today. I talked to Senior Socom, Special Operations Command officers and found this out.

The reason that General Kearney has gone ahead with his court martial is, in his words, he wanted to get at the truth. He did not believe, unfortunately, the two investigations that were done before this on these very great guys that said they were innocent. He didn't believe them. So he wanted to use a court martial in the Article 32, which investigation into a court martial, to get at what General Kearney thinks is the real truth."

[OldSoldier54]

"Hey. How can you do this. On the one hand, you bash others for trashing one general. Your argument is that we should not bash those currently serving. On the other, you yourself bash a general."

Are you kidding me??!!

1)Moveon.org and the rest of the moonbats have done nothing but accuse LTG Petraeus of being a liar, yes man, GWB stooge for a while now. In effect, concluding that the report on 10SEP07 would have to be completely discounted, because CLEARLY the man is a LIAR!!!

Oh, really? What history of deceit has LTG Petraeus demonstrated to justify this, Allan? To my knowledge, there are exactly zero grounds for this conclusion. It was pure calumny.

2)On the other hand, LTG Kearney is the Spec Ops CG in the Stan, as I understand it, and was responsible for the MARSOC company being summarily redeployed out of theater with five men being relieved, if I recall correctly. Now we have this current incident with UJ's comrade and the Captain being charged with MURDER. These both stink to high heaven of Political Agenda and with the glaring exception of BG Karpinski et al completely skating scott free out of the Abu Graib stupidity, Command Responsibility still holds, the last time I looked.
So even though Hognose may be completely accurate in his comment, LTG Kearney is still somewhat culpable in my eyes. Though if the data on the JAG type is accurate, I hope he (the JAG Officer) spends the rest of his life in Leavenworth. Being fitted for not one, but two pineapples.

So no, Allan. The two cases are not even remotely close, IMO.

[Allan]

OldSoldier,

The criticism on MoveOn is/was because some believe attacking a currently serving general is wrong. They are not because they are critizing war policy.

How General Petreaus is doing compared to LTG Kearney is not the issue. If it was, then everyone would agree that General Petreaus is fair game. If not, the LTG Kearney is not either.

I happen to think they both are.

As an aside, I do not support MoveOn's ad. I don't have an opinion on LTG Kearney.

[defendusa]

Allan, are you serious????? People like you pisss me off!! MoveOn was criticizing the war, NOT the general? And that doesn't make it wrong? Um, is your head so far up your back end you can't think any further than the party line? That ad was all about Petaeus and smearing HIM, not criticizing the war. Are you stuck on stupid?

Collectively, we are using the information as OldSoldier said in regard to Kearney, that he went after people before and he's doing it again, to what end? It's blatant IMO, and yet we already knew the Dems would go after Petraeus without warrant. (YES!!! THE SURGE IS WORKING!!!)Remember, they voted for his leadership.

I don't prescribe to that type of leadership and boldy, I'm betting that nobody else who has served and posts on these boards does,either. I'm guessing since the dems don't have a real leader, that you are just another sheep in the herd of blind followers. Glad you don't have my back.