General: SEALs on trial for apparent cover-up of incident

The Army general who ordered three local Navy SEALs to trial for their involvement in an alleged case of detainee abuse says he is more upset by the men's apparent attempt to cover up the incident than by the "relatively minor" injuries inflicted on a high-value detainee.

Maj. Gen. Charles T. Cleveland, head of Special Operations Command Central, wrote to lawmakers who had questioned the prosecutions that their perceptions of the case appear to be based upon "incomplete and factually inaccurate press coverage."

Fox News was the first to report in November that the SEALs would be prosecuted for their actions in Iraq in early September, spurring tens of thousands of people to sign online petitions calling for the charges to be dropped.

The military released Cleveland's two-page letter Wednesday evening. It came in response to a Dec. 10 letter from

Indiana Rep. Dan Burton, co-signed by 40 other members of Congress.

"While the assault and resulting injury to the detainee were relatively minor, the more disconcerting allegations are those related to the sailors' attempts to cover up the incident, particularly in what appears to be an effort to influence the testimony of a witness," Cleveland wrote.

Petty Officer 1st Class Julio A. Huertas Jr. and Petty Officers 2nd Class Matthew McCabe and Jonathan Keefe, assigned to SEAL Team Ten at the Little Creek campus of the Joint Expeditionary Base, face multiple misdemeanor charges related to the treatment of Ahmed Hashim Abed. Abed is thought to be linked to the 2004 killings of four Blackwater contractors whose bodies were dragged through the streets of Fallujah and suspended from a bridge.

McCabe is the only person charged with assaulting Abed. Prosecutors have said he punched Abed in the midsection.

Huertas and Keefe are charged with dereliction of duty for not protecting Abed, and all three commandos are accused of making a false official statement when questioned about the incident. Huertas also is accused of impeding the investigation.

"General, surely you agree that we are in a war that we must win," Burton wrote to Cleveland on Dec. 10. "Our troops and your SEALs need to be bold and decisive in combat; not looking over their shoulder fearing legal jeopardy for every action or gesture."

Citing "press reports," Burton questioned whether Abed had actually been in the SEALs' custody when his injuries occurred and said that al-Qaida operatives are trained to "self-inflict injuries for the sole purpose of accusing U.S. forces of abuse."

Cleveland responded to both points, saying that the allegations of mistreatment didn't start with Abed and aren't based solely on his word. Rather, the allegations were "initially raised by other U.S. service members," he wrote.

And Abed's alleged injuries occurred several hours after the operation had ended, while he was in U.S. custody at a detainee holding facility, not during the operation that captured him, Cleveland wrote.

About 100 people gathered to protest the charges when McCabe and Huertas were arraigned Dec. 7 at Norfolk Naval Station.

They are scheduled to be tried later this month in Norfolk. Keefe's trial has been set for April.

All the offenses are misdemeanors punishable by demotion in rank, up to a year in jail and a bad-conduct discharge. Cleveland said he chose to deal with the incident through non judicial punishment - an option that would have kept the case out of the public eye but could have effectively ended the SEALs' careers.

The men refused that option and chose to face courts-martial.

Cleveland explained that several factors led him to refer the cases to courts-martial:

"Discipline and integrity are primary factors that make our U.S. special operators such an effective fighting force. The abuse of a detainee, no matter how minor, creates strategic repercussions that harm our nation's security and ultimately costs the lives of U.S. citizens," he wrote. "When there are reasonable grounds to believe that an offense has been committed, and that a specific individual in my command has committed that offense, it is my duty to take appropriate action to not only ensure justice is done, but also to maintain good order and discipline."

Kate Wiltrout, (757) 446-2629, kate.wiltrout@pilotonline.com