Trial starts in Norfolk for SEAL in abuse case

NORFOLK

Jury selection is set to begin this morning in the controversial case of the last U.S. Navy SEAL to face court-martial over the alleged abuse of an Iraqi terrorism suspect.

Petty Officer 2nd Class Matthew McCabe is charged with punching Ahmed Hashim Abed last September, hours after a local SEAL team captured him in a late-night raid. Prosecutors say McCabe lied to Navy investigators about what happened. Abed has been described as the mastermind behind the killings of four Blackwater contractors in Fallujah in 2004.

Meeting with supporters during a break in the trial Monday, McCabe expressed confidence that he'll be cleared, as two other accused SEALs have been.

His parents and sister sat behind him in court joined by two other supporters - the mothers of two of the Blackwater employees whose deaths Abed allegedly helped engineer.

Katy Helvenston-Wettengel and Donna Zovko got to know each other after the deaths of their sons, Scott and Jerry. Helvenston-Wettengel reached out to McCabe as soon as she learned about the charges.

The three have kept in touch, and on Monday morning, McCabe's biggest concern seemed to be making sure that Helvenston-Wettengel and Zovko made it inside the courtroom with him. Both women traveled from out of state to attend.

McCabe planned to escort them onto base for the hearing. But arrangements apparently hadn't been made to get them through the front gates.

So Helvenston-Wettengel and Zovko spent the morning at their hotel down the street. Then, around 11 a.m. and with court in recess, McCabe showed up with some news. "I think I got it figured out," he said, greeting both women with hugs. "I know what we need to do to get the right passes for the gates."

"I guess we should get ready to go then?" Zovko asked. She looked at Helvenston-Wettengel. "Are you ready?"

McCabe, who was wearing his dress blues, stepped into the bathroom for a quick look in the mirror. "I guess I should get my hair looking right for this," he said with a laugh, smoothing the top of his head with his hand.

Helvenston-Wettengel stepped over and put her hand on his shoulder. "You look just fine - handsome. It's a good military cut," she said. "Even after Scotty left the service, he never got rid of his military haircut."

Then she turned to the reporter in the room. "You know, my son Scott was a SEAL too, before he went to Blackwater." She paused, then said, "I just think it's crazy that they're putting Matt through this. He's a hero for what he did."

McCabe chimed in: "It's gonna be fine. I know I didn't do anything wrong. I'm feeling really confident that the verdict will be right.

"I just want to get this thing knocked out and over with. It's time to move on."

Two other SEALs charged in the case, Petty Officer 2nd Class Jonathan Keefe and Petty Officer 1st Class Julio Huertas, were cleared of wrongdoing during military trials in Baghdad last month. They had been accused of failing to safeguard Abed.

McCabe, Keefe and Huertas are all assigned to SEAL Team 10, based at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek in Virginia Beach. They could have accepted administrative punishment but chose instead to fight the charges at trial. McCabe could spend as long as a year in the brig if convicted.

The decision to prosecute them became controversial as soon as it made the news, spurring tens of thousands of people to sign petitions calling for the charges to be dropped. Among them were dozens of state and federal lawmakers.

Roughly 50 demonstrators gathered outside the base's gates Monday carrying signs bearing slogans such as, "Honk if you support SEALs" and "You fought

for us. Now we fight for you."

State Del. Bob Marshall, R-Prince William, told the crowd he was "dismayed" when he heard the SEALs would be tried. "There is no sense of proportion in all this," he said. "This is an abuse."

The Army general who ordered the courts-martial, Maj. Gen. Charles T. Cleveland, has responded to the criticism by explaining that his decision was based more on the SEALs' apparent attempt to cover up the mistreatment than by the "relatively minor" injuries inflicted on a high-value terrorism suspect. In a December letter to lawmakers, Cleveland said public perception of the case appeared to be based on "incomplete and factually inaccurate press coverage."

One specific piece of media coverage came up Monday in court. Haytham Faraj, one of McCabe's civilian lawyers, asked the judge to dismiss the charges because of "undue command influence."

As evidence, Faraj presented a transcript from the Fox News television show, "The O'Reilly Factor." On the April 22 show, reporter Geraldo Rivera told host Bill O'Reilly that Cleveland "wanted to do the right thing" but said he'd spoken to people close to the general who said he was under pressure from his superiors - possibly even the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff - not to drop the charges.

Capt. Moira Modzelewski, the military judge, was not convinced.

"There's absolutely no evidence whatsoever of any pressure from the chairman of the Joint Chiefs," Modzelewski said.

Corinne Reilly, (757) 446-2949, corinne.reilly@pilotonline.com