Navy SEALs Face Assault Charges for Capturing Most-Wanted Terrorist

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 an admiral'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.

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.

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Somali pirates fire at U.S. helicopter, Navy says

The Maersk Alabama was targeted in an April hijacking
that ended with Navy snipers killing three pirates

By Mike Mount

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Pirates holding a Taiwanese-flagged ship off the coast of Somalia fired on a U.S. Navy helicopter Wednesday as the aircraft monitored the ship, the Navy said.

The helicopter was not struck and all crew members were safe after the incident, the Navy said in a news release.

The incident highlights the ongoing piracy problem in that region even as U.S. and coalition ships patrol the waters to deter pirates.

Somali pirates hijacked the M/V Win Far on April 6. Navy officials said the vessel is being used as a "mother ship," or a floating base, to launch attacks on other ships, including the U.S.-flagged Maersk Alabama. The Alabama was targeted by pirates in an April hijacking that ended with U.S. Navy snipers shooting dead three pirates who were holding the captain of the ship hostage.

According to the Navy's news release Thursday, the flight crew on the SH-60 helicopter "noticed activity" on the ship but could not determine if the pirates had fired at them.

When the helicopter returned to the USS Chancellorsville, a review of its infrared camera showed the aircraft was fired on.

The helicopter did not return fire, according to the release.

Since the start of the year, dozens of ships have been attacked or hijacked, according to statistics from the International Maritime Bureau, an organization that monitors piracy around the world.

Source: CNN

Pirates vow revenge after rescue mission

By Abdiqani Hassan | April 13

SOMALI pirates have threatened revenge after two separate hostage-rescue raids by foreign forces killed at least five comrades, raising fears of future bloodshed on the high seas.

Picture: Reuters

The latest raid by US forces this morning saved American hostage Capt Richard Phillips. Three pirates were killed and one was taken captive, the US Navy said.

That rescue mission and one by France last week have upped the stakes in shipping lanes off the anarchic Horn of Africa nation where pirate gangs have defied foreign naval patrols.

"The French and the Americans will regret starting this killing. We do not kill, but take only ransom. We shall do something to anyone we see as French or American from now," Hussein, a pirate, told Reuters by satellite phone.

"We cannot know how or whether our friends on the lifeboat died, but this will not stop us from hijacking," he said.

Sea gangs generally treat their captives well, hoping to fetch top dollar in ransoms. The worst violence has been an occasional beating.

"We shall revenge," said another pirate, Aden, in Eyl village, a pirate lair on Somalia's eastern coast.

Some fear the US and French operations may make the modern-day pirates more like those of previous centuries.

"The pirates will know from now that anything can happen. The French are doing this, the Americans are doing it. Things will be more violent from now on," said Andrew Mwangura of the Kenya-based East African Seafarers Assistance Program.

"This is a big wake-up to the pirates. It raises the stakes."

Piracy is lucrative business in Somalia, where gangs have earned millions of dollars in ransoms, splashing it on wives, houses, cars and fancy goods.

After a wane in business early this year, pirates have struck back. They presently hold more than a dozen vessels with about 260 hostages, of whom about 100 are Filipino.

Eyl, Haradheere and other pirate havens along the Indian Ocean coastline have come back to life with the windfall of successful operations.

Somalia's anarchy - whose 18 years of civil war have given sea gangs assault rifles, grenade launchers and little central control - has long been ignored by world powers.

The saga over the capture of Capt Phillips has thrown international attention on the long-running piracy phenomenon that has hiked up insurance costs on strategic waterways where warships now patrol.

"Killing three out of thousands of pirates will only escalate piracy," said Sheikh Abdullahi Sheikh Abu Yusuf, spokesman of the moderate Islamist group Ahlu Sunna Waljamaca.

Source: The Australian

US captain failed in attempt to escape pirate captors: US media

April 10

THE US ship captain being held hostage in a lifeboat by pirates off Somalia managed to jump off the boat but failed to escape his captors, US networks have reported.

Captain Richard Phillips jumped into the water during the night and tried to swim towards the nearby US destroyer, the USS Bainbridge, but pirates jumped into the water and recaptured him, three television networks reported.

US military officials said Captain Phillips was fine, and that the pirates did not hurt him.

The pirate commander said that he was demanding a ransom to free Captain Phillips.

"We are demanding to get ransom and to return home safely before releasing the captain," Abdi Garad said.

Mr Garad also said their men were negotiating with the US navy "not to be arrested if they release the captain and the American officials will hopefully fulfil that condition otherwise the captain will not be released."

Source: The Australian

Cairo bars Iran ship with arms for Gaza

Correspondents in Jerusalem | January 28, 2009

AN Iranian freighter carrying weaponry for Hamas has been blocked by Egypt from entering the Suez Canal, amid concerns that Tehran is trying to supply the Palestinian militant group with missiles capable of striking Tel Aviv.

Reports yesterday said Israel was closely tracking the ship, which is docked in the Red Sea outside the Suez Canal after Cairo refused to permit it to cross the waterway to the Mediterranean.

The stand-off comes after a report to the Israeli Defence Ministry from the Pentagon said the US Navy had boarded another Iranian vessel and said it was carrying artillery shells and other weapons.

"This is a big test for the Egyptians," a senior Israeli defence official told The Jerusalem Post. "So far the Egyptians have prevented the ship from crossing the Suez and we hope it will stay that way."

Israeli defence officials told the paper Iran was trying to supply Hamas with new Grad-model Katyusha rockets and to replace high-grade explosives that were exhausted or destroyed by the Israeli Defence Force during this month's war in Gaza.

The IDF is concerned Iran will supply Hamas with long-range Fajr missiles capable of reaching Tel Aviv.

A US Navy task force fighting pirates in the Gulf of Aden has been instructed to track Iranian arms shipments to Gaza.

Reports last week said troops from the USS San Antonio boarded a former Russian cargo vessel that was flying a Cypriot flag and was reportedly carrying weaponry destined for Hamas.

The French have also dispatched a frigate to the Mediterranean to participate in the clampdown on the Gaza Strip and to prevent weapons shipments from reaching Hamas, the Post said.

Israeli defence officials told the paper that since the conclusion of Operation Cast Lead, large quantities of explosives, machine guns and other weaponry had arrived in the Sinai peninsula, but the Egyptians were taking measures to prevent them from being smuggled into Gaza.

The reports came as US President Barack Obama yesterday sent envoy George Mitchell to the Middle East with a brief to "engage vigorously" to achieve real progress.

Mr Mitchell is due to visit Israel, the Palestinian West Bank and Arab states. During his trip, which lasts until Tuesday, Mr Mitchell will also travel to Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Europe.

In the short run, the trip is aimed at bolstering a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip following the three-week Israeli military offensive, and tackling the humanitarian crisis there.

State Department spokesman Robert Wood said Mr Mitchell, who will report to Mr Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, would "not have contact with Hamas", which has been labelled a terrorist group since George W. Bush was in office.

Mr Mitchell, a Maronite Catholic whose mother was Lebanese, managed to bring together the leaders of Northern Ireland's religious communities with a mixture of compromise and talks to sign the historic Good Friday agreement in 1998.

But his efforts to help end the Israeli-Palestinian violence that erupted in 2000, after the collapse of the peace process brokered by former president Bill Clinton, proved fruitless.

He set off for the region as reports yesterday said Hamas had launched an internal probe into the failures of its military wing during the Gaza offensive.

Citing an unnamed top Hamas military commander, Jane's Defence Weekly magazine said a full report by the militant organisation would be critical of almost every decision taken by Hamas battlefield commanders during the 22-day assault, which ended last week.

The source quoted by Jane's said exiled Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal and his followers had effectively pushed for a conflict the military wing was not ready for. The report would highlight the losses of Hamas interior minister Said Siam and about 50 of Hamas's top explosives experts.

Source: The Australian