Navy SEALs Face Assault Charges for

Capturing Most-Wanted Terrorist

Wednesday, November 25, 2009
By Rowan Scarborough

AP

March 31, 2004: Iraqis chant anti-American slogans as the charred and mutilated bodies
of U.S. contractors hang from a bridge over the Euphrates River in Fallujah, Iraq.
Navy SEALs have secretly captured one of the most wanted terrorists in Iraq —
the alleged mastermind of the murder and mutilation of four Blackwater USA
security guards in Fallujah in 2004. And three of the SEALs who captured him
are now facing criminal charges, sources told FoxNews.com.

The three, all members of the Navy's elite commando unit, have refused non-judicial
punishment — called a captain's mast — and have requested a trial by court-martial.
Ahmed Hashim Abed, whom the military code-named "Objective Amber," told
investigators he was punched by his captors — and he had the bloody lip to prove it.

Now, instead of being lauded for bringing to justice a high-value target, three of the
SEAL commandos, all enlisted, face assault charges and have retained lawyers.
Matthew McCabe, a Special Operations Petty Officer Second Class (SO-2), is facing three
charges: dereliction of performance of duty for willfully failing to safeguard a detainee,
making a false official statement, and assault.

Petty Officer Jonathan Keefe, SO-2, is facing charges of dereliction of performance of

duty and making a false official statement.

Petty Officer Julio Huertas, SO-1, faces those same charges and an additional charge of
impediment of an investigation.

Neal Puckett, an attorney representing McCabe, told Fox News the SEALs are being
charged for allegedly giving the detainee a “punch in the gut.”

“I don’t know how they’re going to bring this detainee to the United States and give us
our constitutional right to confrontation in the courtroom,” Puckett said. “But again, we
have terrorists getting their constitutional rights in New York City, but I suspect that
they’re going to deny these SEALs their right to confrontation in a military courtroom in
Virginia.”
The three SEALs will be arraigned separately on Dec. 7. Another three SEALs — two
officers and an enlisted sailor — have been identified by investigators as witnesses but
have not been charged.

FoxNews.com obtained the official handwritten statement from one of the three
witnesses given on Sept. 3, hours after Abed was captured and still being held at the
SEAL base at Camp Baharia. He was later taken to a cell in the U.S.-operated Green
Zone in Baghdad.

The SEAL told investigators he had showered after the mission, gone to the kitchen and
then decided to look in on the detainee.

"I gave the detainee a glance over and then left," the SEAL wrote. "I did not notice
anything wrong with the detainee and he appeared in good health."

Lt. Col. Holly Silkman, spokeswoman for the special operations component of U.S.
Central Command, confirmed Tuesday to FoxNews.com that three SEALs have been
charged in connection with the capture of a detainee. She said their court martial is
scheduled for January.

United States Central Command declined to discuss the detainee, but a legal source told
FoxNews.com that the detainee was turned over to Iraqi authorities, to whom he made
the abuse complaints. He was then returned to American custody. The SEAL leader
reported the charge up the chain of command, and an investigation ensued.

The source said intelligence briefings provided to the SEALs stated that "Objective
Amber" planned the 2004 Fallujah ambush, and "they had been tracking this guy for
some time."
The Fallujah atrocity came to symbolize the brutality of the enemy in Iraq and the
degree to which a homegrown insurgency was extending its grip over Iraq.

The four Blackwater agents were transporting supplies for a catering company when they
were ambushed and killed by gunfire and grenades. Insurgents burned the bodies and
dragged them through the city. They hanged two of the bodies on a bridge over the
Euphrates River for the world press to photograph.

Intelligence sources identified Abed as the ringleader, but he had evaded capture until
September.

The military is sensitive to charges of detainee abuse highlighted in the Abu Ghraib
prison scandal. The Navy charged four SEALs with abuse in 2004 in connection with
detainee treatment.