Honor and Betrayal : The Untold Story of the Navy Seals Who Captured the "Butcher of Fallujah"-and the Shameful Ordeal They Later Endured (9780306823091) (56 page)

The former US Marine Corps major had been shopping, purchasing a brand-new white T-shirt and a small bottle of bright red food dye, the stuff used to enhance coloring. It comes in various forms—liquid, powder, gel, and paste. Faraj wanted liquid only, and not much of it.

And now, with his backup equipment on the table before him, he recapped the case, mentioning Westinson's unreliability and the obvious lack of motive for Matt McCabe or any of the other SEALs to walk into the detention facility and punch the prisoner.

“Why,” he asked, “didn't McCabe just shoot Al-Isawi in the first place?”

“These accused SEALs,” he continued, “are professionals. And for the government to be believed, every last one of them has to be lying.”

At which point he produced his final plan of attack. Referring to the bloodstain on the terrorist's dishdasha, he wondered how many
members of the jury realized how little blood it actually took to make a considerable mess of a white garment.

And he poured a small amount of the food dye into a spoon that was no more than a half-inch across and sprinkled it down the front of the brand-new T-shirt. The subsequent stain was more or less the same as that on Al-Isawi's garment.

“That's all it took,” said Faraj. “And you may think this apparent injury was not nearly so severe as that original bloodstain suggested.”

Faraj also resented the prosecutors' statement that the SEALs had circled the wagons to protect one of their own. “Absolutely untrue,” he told the jury. “I disagree with the concept that the SEALs are covering up. I actually find it pretty offensive.”

He formally requested that the jury find Matthew McCabe not guilty on all charges and to “finally free this innocent man of these accusations.” With the closing statements complete, the prosecution requested additional time to prepare a rebuttal.

The attack on Westinson's character that a string of defense witnesses made required the prosecution to find a way to rehabilitate him. But this was very late in the day to resuscitate a key witness.

There really was no way back for the prosecutors. And at 4:15
P.M.
on Thursday, May 6, Judge Modzelewski handed the case over to the jury. They were gone for just one hour and forty minutes, and when they returned the foreman announced that they did indeed have a unanimous verdict.

“We find Matthew McCabe not guilty on all counts,” he said.

Brian Westinson, the only man who claimed he saw Matt strike the terrorist, yet again had not been believed.

And Matt, the last of the three SEALs to stand trial, was finally exonerated of all wrongdoing. The third court-martial had agreed with the first two: no Navy SEAL had punched Al-Isawi.

The three trials had cost the government in excess of $2 million. The SEALs' legal expenses topped $250,000.

Like a true SEAL, Matt accepted the greatest victory as though he were used to it, showing little emotion at the reading of the verdict. But before he could even shake hands with his attorneys a well-dressed
lady walked swiftly out of the public benches, muttering, “Thank God, thank God” as she threw her arms around Matt's neck, thanking him for capturing her son's murderer.

Donna Zovko still clutched her rosary beads in perhaps the most famous picture of the trials, taken on someone's cell phone. Donna's eyes were closed as she clung to Matt and fought back that ever-present apparition of her son's body strung up on that Fallujah bridge. And in her heart were a thousand words that would never be spoken. To Matt she only murmured, “Thank you” over and over. Just a very private thank you in a very crowded courtroom.

One involved person was, however, missing from this final triumph: Katie Helvenston. Distraught almost beyond tolerance, she had left in the middle of the trial and flown home to the Midwest. Her exit was one of high courtroom drama because it happened when the recorded voice of Al-Isawi was heard during the trial. The stress of listening to these people trying to attack Matthew followed by the sound of this mass murderer lying to the court simply overcame her, so, in floods of tears, she went away, still thanking Matt for dragging the murderer of her beloved Scott into captivity to face trial.

In the moments after the verdict Matt turned to his attorneys and embraced each one of them in sincere thanks for everything they had done—although, in truth, this had not been the knock-down-drag-out battle of the first two trials. This one had the inestimable advantage of the two not-guilty verdicts established in Baghdad.

“To be honest, this was far more straightforward,” said Faraj, “because right here we had two very definite villains, who were not telling the truth, and one very definite hero. That quickly laid it right out for the jury.”

With the court-martial concluded, the press stampeded to their phones, relaying the major story that the last SEAL had been found not guilty on all counts.

USNavyseals.com
fired out a release of the good news they wished to share, mentioning the very poor view everyone took of the prosecution's insinuation that the SEALs had circled the wagons. And they quoted Faraj's “pretty offensive.”

They also stated the following: “Try as we might, not to make biased judgments, it is certainly difficult to consider allegations given by a suspected terrorist over the testimonies of Navy SEALs, who risk life and limb for what their country believes in.”

Their e-mail release ended with their own verdict: “An expectant public has heaved a sigh of relief.”

And boy, were they ever right about that. It was 6
P.M.
on a Thursday evening, and the words “acquittal,” “decision,” “verdict,” and “trial” were flashing through cyberspace. The name Matthew McCabe was heard more often than that of Barack Obama.

Outside the courtroom there was something approaching pandemonium. The correspondents for Al-Jazeera, the Arab television station out of Qatar, were ducking and diving, trying to find Iraqi sympathizers and, perhaps, someone who would say that it was impossible for any Arab to get justice in the United States. They had almost no luck.

But when Matt and his lawyers stepped outside there was a scene of genuine joy that transcended even the reporters' duty to report the most objective story for their publications and broadcasters.

Matt kept saying he was “ridiculously happy,” and all the principal characters, who had been swept up for so long by this dubious court-martial, were mingling together in the Norfolk Navy Yards: Jon and Sam, Puckett and Faraj, Anastos and Shea, the SEALs, Eric and Carl, and Reschenthaler and Threatt, and of course, Donna.

Journalists besieged Matt's parents, and Martin McCabe told them: “My son and his friends are the guys who preserve the American dream. You start prosecuting them, that American dream is going to go away, because everything will fall apart.” He added that there had been support for Matt, Jon, and Sam not just nationally but from all over the world.

Matt's mother said, “I'd just like to say I believed from the first day that Matthew was innocent. Because he would never lie to his SEAL commanders. That's what we knew, and that kept us all going. It's been very stressful, and we are very glad it's finally over.”

Almost two hundred miles north, in Washington, DC, Congressman Dan Burton, who had helped immensely in collecting thousands
of signatures in support of dismissing the charges against the SEALs, moved immediately into his office.

He had made it clear to McCabe's lawyers that he had been perfectly prepared to attend the court-martial and testify to the full extent of public outrage and national opinion. He would confirm that a motion to this effect had been raised in Congress.

As the media swept the airwaves with the breaking news of the verdict, Representative Burton released a statement that very night, offering “Heartfelt congratulations to Petty Officer McCabe and his family.”

He added, “With all three Navy SEALs now cleared of all charges in this case, I believe this sends a very positive signal to the men and women in uniform who are fighting for America around the world today.

“I join the many thousands of Americans who cheer for SEALs McCabe, Keefe and Gonzales tonight, and on behalf of the 35,000 who signed my own petition for these three heroes, I thank them for their honorable service and welcome them back to duty.”

FoxNews, which had stood resolutely by the SEALs from the day the story broke, had Matt on the air, live from the Norfolk Base, interviewed by anchorman Bret Baier.

“It's been troubling at times,” said Matt. “Having your career and your life on the line is not an easy thing to handle. But everyone's been pushing for us, and that's made it a lot easier.”

Bret ventured that people at home were “really upset you had to go through this ... people who said this should not have happened. ... What do you tell them today?”

Matt answered right there on national television: “Tell them I thank them, but really, not to worry about it anymore. I mean, we're all acquitted of these charges. And we're all going to move on with our careers, put it behind us. It's done, over with. I'll try not to think about it ever again. Just move on and live a happy life.”

“Thank you,” said Bret. “Thank you for your service to our country.” And that pretty much encapsulated what most people felt. Except for one man, the convener of the courts-martial, General Charles Cleveland, whose office announced he would be making a statement on the following day.

Apparently the major general needed to sleep on this one, as well he might, as the man who could have stopped it months ago, when it became evident that Westinson was unreliable and that the mass murderer Al-Isawi was just about as unreliable as you can get.

As it happened, the general released a rambling essay on his views, and it lacked even one single shred of humility for putting three exemplary, patriotic members of the Special Forces through hell, despite so much learned opinion to the contrary.

Unsurprisingly his opening paragraph was about himself: “I take my responsibility as a commander and convening authority very seriously, and did not make the decision to refer these charges to courts-martial lightly.”

The general then obliquely blamed the three SEALs for requesting court-martial even though he, Cleveland, “would have preferred to handle the incident administratively.” Apparently he did not realize that no incident had occurred for him to handle administratively—and that he was relying on the words of a murderous terrorist and a discredited sailor.

He mentioned that the evidence presented reasonable grounds to believe that offenses had been committed and that the three petty officers had committed those offenses. He failed to mention that the evidence presented even more reasonable grounds to believe no offences had been committed at all. And the best legal minds in the country were telling him so.

With pompous military bureaucracy, he concluded his opening section with these words: “In the interests of justice and to maintain good order and discipline, I chose to proceed with the courts-martial.”

He then rambled on, thanking the jurists and the lawyers for pursuing the interests of justice, protecting the sailors' rights. The general appreciated their examples of dedication to “protecting and defending our Constitution.”

He added that in the face of some opposition, he allowed these charges to go forward because “I truly believe that the best process known for uncovering the truth, when the facts are contested, is that process which is found in our adversarial justice system.”

In the general's view, “There is no better way to discover the truth than by presenting evidence to an unbiased panel of members, having witnesses testify under oath, and having that testimony subject to vigorous cross-examination.”

He concluded with a high-handed overview: “Incidents such as these carry strategic implications for US forces and US National Security, and ultimately cost the lives of Americans. I will continue to take allegations such as this seriously, investigating them whenever they are brought to my attention, and acting on them when the evidence so dictates.”

He greatly looked forward to the SEALs returning to their Team “and continuing their duties in defending our great nation.”

A lieutenant colonel for SOCCENT added, “General Cleveland is satisfied that the military justice process has been executed fairly, and that thorough due process was carried out during these trial proceedings.”

“Well, that's a relief,” said one of the three SEALs (forbidding his name to be used on pain of death). “Thank God he didn't take it lightly. Now he's not only satisfied, but he maintained good order and discipline. Wow!”

The general might have received more universal acclaim had he said what most people thought, something like, “Sorry I authorized the blow-out of over two million dollars of taxpayers' money on these three trials. And I will never again accept the known lies of a rabid Iraqi terrorist against the words of my decorated US Navy SEALs. I accept my shuddering limitations in this instance.”

That would have been acceptable. As it was, the US military was not applauded for its actions in court-martialing their own heroes; instead, it left many throughout the Navy and the general public with a very bad taste in their mouth, and it led many active personnel to resign from the Dark Blue branch of the armed forces.