Honor and Betrayal by Patrick Robinson

Author:Patrick Robinson [Robinson, Patrick]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780306823091
Publisher: Da Capo Press

The one hundred-mile-long peninsula of Qatar juts upward like a giant thumb from Saudi Arabia into the Persian Gulf. There were, however, no thumbs-up for Matt, Jon, and Sam when they finally left Iraq and arrived in yet another ancient Arab land.

After three almost unbearably frustrating weeks, their questions came raining in to anyone who’d listen: And how about the letter of caution? Where do we stand with complete exoneration? Is this Westinson guy still making these accusations? Do we have a lawyer yet? Right now we’d take an out-of-work Bedouin.

But no one was listening. In the kingdom of Major General Cleveland military politics and the dreaded “politically correct” was elbowing its way to the front.

The case, which had begun before sunrise on September 2, when the blindfolded Ahmad Hashim Abd Al-Isawi had complained that a mysterious punch to the stomach had made his lower lip bleed, was now moving inexorably toward a courtroom.

On their first morning in Qatar the three SEALs were led into an office of the legal department, where a senior officer awaited them—a naval commander, legal assistant to General Cleveland. In turn a paralegal Army sergeant assisted him. According to Jon, this now made fifteen people who were all lined up alongside General Cleveland to help.

“We, on the other hand, had no one,” said Jon.

They were then taken to another room, where the sergeant placed one piece of paper in front of each man. It stated that Matt was charged officially with assault, the other two with dereliction of duty and making a false official statement.

“This was the first time,” said Matt, “any of us had seen the charges all written down, complete with references to Article 128, and 92 [dereliction of duty].”

Now it should be noted that there could not have been one living person who had breathed the desert air anywhere around the SEAL bases who was not acutely aware that all three of them were denying the charges vehemently.

And here were these three pieces of paper being thrust in front of them, with a total stranger demanding they each sign them, here and now, admitting their guilt.

“I’m signing nothing,” said Jon.

“Sign there,” repeated the paralegal, pointing to the signature space on Jon’s document.

“None of us are signing anything,” said Matt.

“You guys are being charged with these violations,” he replied. “That’s where you sign.”

Matt’s mind was in overdrive. He recalled the many conversations they had sat through in Ramadi, especially the one in which the authorities had seemed to accept that there was an element of doubt here that would almost certainly end with a letter of caution—not even a reprimand.

All three SEALs had intimated they would accept the mild rebuke of a naval caution letter, despite being completely innocent of everything. And now, here was this Army sergeant effectively throwing the book at them, leveling charges of the most damaging nature against them and trying to slide the gravity of the matter right past them, almost by sleight of hand.

“Just sign the papers, right where I instruct,” he repeated.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.