Navy SEAL charged with bloodthirsty killings

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SAN DIEGO NAVAL BASE >> Edward Gallagher was something special, even by the severe standards of the Navy SEALs. A life-saving doctor and sniper, he has been decorated several times for his courage and ruthless leadership during 19 years of combat deployments. After his last tour against the militants of the Islamic State in Iraq, he was named best platoon leader of the SEAL Team 7 and was named for the Silver Star, the third highest honor of the army.

But today, less than a year later, Gallagher, the 39-year-old special operations chief, is locked up in a cell, accused of having, during the same deployment, his eighth, shot indiscriminately at civilians and killed a young fighter of the Islamic State with a handmade blade. and then performed his re-enlistment ceremony, posing with the bloody cadaver of the teenager in front of an American flag.

The Navy indicted Gallagher with premeditated murder, attempted murder and nearly a dozen other offenses, including obstructing justice and discrediting the armed forces. If he is found guilty, he could spend the rest of his life in jail.

Gallagher denies all charges.

The case has sent waves across the secret world of SEAL, who prefer to operate behind the headlines in an atmosphere of silent professionalism. And the case could expand as the investigation involves other SEALs who did not report what they knew. A lieutenant has already been charged.

The arrest of the leader has also shaken his family, who can not compare the list of war crimes to the seafarer he has known for a long time.

"That's not what Eddie is," said his wife, Andrea Gallagher. "He's a lifesaver. It's this guy who rushes into the building on fire while other people are exhausting. "

During a two-day preliminary hearing at the San Diego Naval Base that was completed on Thursday, prosecutors presented reports from several other members of the Gallagher Platoon's SEAL group, describing his reckless behavior. and thirsty for blood. They claimed to have shot at a crowd of civilians, shot dead a girl walking along a river and an old man carrying a jug of water, and threatened to kill SEAL comrades they were reporting his actions.

Investigators said some platoon members were so distraught by the leader's actions that they altered his sniper rifle to make it less accurate and fired warning shots to frighten civilians before the leader Had the chance to shoot them.

"They said that they had spent more time protecting civilians than they had done to fight the Islamic State," said Special Agent Joe Warpinski from the Naval Criminal Investigation Service to the military court.

Gallagher was sitting in the courtroom in ceremonial attire during the hearing, his face deeply wrinkled and tanned by years of service in combat. He did not testify.

His lawyer, Phillip Stackhouse, said the charges were unfounded. He added that the only evidence that the leader would have killed someone would have been provided by the accounts of some SEALs who were unhappy that they could not meet the demanding standards of their leader.

"I promise you that we'll call a lot more SANDS that will not say anything about its past," Stackhouse said.

The purpose of the hearing, known as a section 32 hearing, was to determine whether the matter should be tried. Both parties claimed to believe that this would be the case, probably in 2019.

Son of a West Point graduate and career officer of the Army, Gallagher enlisted in the Navy as a nurse in 1999 and was deployed to Iraq, attached to a Navy infantry unit. He then decided to become SEAL and was one of the few Navy doctors to complete the demanding Marine Marines School. He completed his SEAL training in 2004.

His combination of skills puts him in high demand. He frequently deployed with different teams, continued to advance in his rank, and built an award-winning record for exemplary behavior and courage, braving fire to kill enemies, and saving friends in Iraq and Afghanistan.

His eighth deployment, from February to September 2017, was in Mosul, Iraq. Some of the SEAL members who served under him told the investigators that they were initially excited about being run by a person known to Gallagher, but they soon began to see him as disturbed. He fired his rifle about ten times more often than other snipers, even when he did not seem to have a target.

"Every sniper in the platoon said he was not a good sniper," Warpinski told the court.

The investigators said that the leader was hard on his platoon, reprimanding and punishing the SEALs which, in his opinion, were not aggressive enough.

Gallagher's lawyers have stated that the platoon's feelings about his actions have led some SEALs to concoct stories in the hope of forcing him to leave the command.

In May 2017, Iraqi forces captured a wounded enemy fighter during an air strike. Video footage shows the blood fighter, who would be between 12 and 17 years old, being brought to the SEAL platoon on the hood of a truck, and Gallagher and other people cutting off his clothes. to provide medical help.

The fighter 's photos, viewed by the New York Times, seemed to show that the doctors had put tubes used to treat a collapsed lung at his side and cut off an emergency airway in his throat.

Naval investigators said that a doctor from the SEAL knelt over the soldier's head and treated him. When Gallagher approached and, without saying a word, took out a knife in his hand and stabbed the teenager several times around the neck and side.

Investigators said two other SEALs had given similar accounts.

The platoon members then posed for photos with Gallagher as he held the teenager's head by the hair with one hand and his knife in the other. The photos then show Gallagher raising his right hand to perform a re-enrollment ceremony on the body, while another SEAL member holds an American flag.

Shortly after the episode, investigators said, Gallagher sent a photo of the body to another SEAL member with the message: "I got it with my hunting knife."

The defense attorney, Stackhouse, stated that the teenager was probably dead from the serious injuries that he had suffered during the air strike, and that no evidence whatsoever Had been introduced showing stab wounds. As for the photos taken after, posing with the body, Stackhouse said, "These types of photos are not unique; they were in all cases in Iraq that I've ever done. "

Investigators said several members of the platoon platoon had spoken to the commanders about the episode, but that no action had been taken. Some of them reported it to senior management in December 2017, and then again in April, when a criminal investigation was opened.

In September, when the navy learned that the prosecutors had tried to intimidate the witnesses, the prosecutors were then arrested and placed in pre-trial detention.

At Thursday's hearing, Navy prosecutor Chris Czaplak said the leader had inflicted damage other than the murder.

"Does the public still believe we are the right ones, because Chief Gallagher has decided to act like the monster that terrorists accuse us of being?", He said. "He handed the propaganda manna to ISIS from heaven. His actions represent everything that ISIS tells us.