Congressmen to Pentagon: Exonerate Navy SEALs in Iraq incident
Washington (CNN) - A trio of congressional Republicans passionately appealed to the Pentagon on Thursday to drop charges against three Navy SEALs accused of assaulting an Iraqi suspected of orchestrating the 2004 killing and mutilation of four U.S. contractors.
Flanked by about a dozen retired Navy SEALs at a news conference near the Capitol, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-California; Rep. Dan Burton, R-Indiana; and Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, insisted that the U.S. is sending the wrong message to its troops.
"These Navy SEALs were apprehending a terrorist murderer, and they are being accused of roughing him up? Give me a break! These men should be given medals, not prosecuted. These men are heroes," Rohrabacher said.
Burton agreed, saying, "These people are laying their lives on the line every day, and they can't go into a combat situation with kid gloves on."
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Just a second.. let me get the straight... While apprehending a potentially armed and dangerous individual an individual with law enforcement authority used force.... and he is punished for doing his job? Who came up with that bright idea?
For these brave Navy SEALS to be treated as common criminals is an outrage. These men are heros and should be treated as such.
Right On! These charges are bogus, these men should be honored not prosecuted.
Sorry, the terrorist is a Muslim, and the president does not want Muslims roughed up–doesn't matter about the Christian seals.
I say lets just pull out of both these wars and that way we wouldn't have this problem. We can't afford them anyway.
How would you feel if foreign troops broke into your country, uninvited ,and started to tell you how to live?? A little resentful perhaps?? These insane wars of occupation are fueling so much hatred.
Don't you think the Navy bosses in the Pentagon know this? They just have to make a show of it so that no one will accuse them of whitewashing a crime. This Republican political posturing is just going to screw everything up. They are so dumb.
If they cant do their job as they were trained without breaking international law then they shouldnt be Navy Seals.
Of course the rule of law means nothing to republicans anyway so I am not suprized at all.
Send poorly trained seals who lack common sense into battle and this will always be the result. Dishgrace for America.
We have too many examples of such disgraces over these past ten years and it needs to end.
Start holding their superiors accountable and this wont be an issue in the future. Where was their commander? These men were NOT sent there to take personal revenge. Why was this allowed to happen? If they cant handle the job, (which they have proven they cant) get them out of there and have them choose a different career.
Stop disgracing America!!!
These guys are heroes and to cast them in any other light is treason. Who cares what they did to the scum they arrested in my opinion they deserve much worse than a playground bully punch to the gut and fat lip, we are turning into a socialist group of pansies.
Yep, I agree.
These men should have never been charged to begin with. What did this "assault" consist of? The thug got a fat lip and thats debatable whether or not the SEALs actually gave it to him. This whole thing is ridiculous.
Well lets just make the men that did MaiLai in Vietnam heros too.They just torched and killed men,women and children.The so called contractors were going around killing civilians without any oversight.
Exonerate the Nave SEALs. They were doing their job. They are heroes risking their lives.
Prosecute Cheney instead. He was orchestrating a torture program from the safety of his bunker.
I do not understand why we feel that we have to take these terrorists as captives and provide them a legal platform? Why are we not just exterminating them on site, haven't we learned the failures from our own legal system? I heard AG Holder espouse how great our legal system is then turn on the tube and see another serial rapist/murderer caught for killing and raping another kid, turned out to be number 5. This happens over and over and over, why was he still breathing, who makes the green for keeping these guys going in and out of the court system? Get the info and put one in their grape, end of story, clean, efficient, financially sound and fire up old sparky on the home front. Hey, think of the environmental carbon credits and tax dollars you would save by exterminating these vermin.
Pentagon to congressmen: 'Rules exist to be followed. Have a nice day.'