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Three More Navy SEALs Spared Review After Trump's Intervention

Reuters

   WASHINGTON - The U.S. Navy announced Wednesday that it would scrap
   plans to carry out reviews of threeNavy SEALs that could have led to
   their ouster from the eliteforce, after President Donald Trump's
   extraordinary interventionin a related case.

   "I have determined that any failures in conduct,performance, judgment
   or professionalism exhibited by theseofficers be addressed through
   other administrative measures asappropriate," acting Navy Secretary
   ThomasModlysaid in astatement.

   The decision followed Trump's order on Sunday that SpecialOperations
   Chief Edward Gallagher keep his status as a NavySEAL, even after he was
   convicted of battlefield misconduct. Thereview of the three other SEALs
   was connected to the Gallaghercase.

   Critics say the actions undermine military justice and senda message
   that battlefield atrocities will be tolerated. Trump'sformer Navy
   secretary, Richard Spencer, who was fired on Sundayover the case, has
   spoken out against the president on theissue.

   "The president has very little understanding of what itmeans to be in
   the military, to fight ethically or to begoverned by a uniform set of
   rules and practices," Spencer wrotein [1]a piece published Wednesday by
   The Washington Post.

   Trump: I'm defending fighters

   Trump has argued that the Navy mishandled Gallagher's case and has said
   that he is defending America's combat fighters fromunfair and unfounded
   prosecution.

   The now-terminated reviews of the three remaining SEALs--Lieutenant
   Jacob Portier, Lieutenant Commander Robert Breischand Lieutenant Thomas
   MacNeil--had received far less attentionthan the Gallagher case.

   A military jury in July convicted Gallagher of illegallyposing for
   pictures with the corpse of an Islamic State fighterwhile deployed to
   Iraq in2017, butacquitted him of murder inthe detainee's death.
   Gallagher also was cleared of charges ofattempted murder in the
   wounding of two civilians, a schoolgirland an elderly man, shot from a
   sniper's perch.

   Portier, Breisch and MacNeil were under scrutiny in theGallagher affair
   as his superiors.

   Modlysaid his decision to scrap the reviews should not beinterpreted as
   a diminishment of the SEAL ethos, which hequoted. It says the elite
   fighters serve with honor "on and offthe battlefield."

   "The United States Navy, and the Naval Special WarfareCommunity
   specifically, have dangerous and important work todo," he said in his
   statement. "In my judgment, neither deservesthe continued distraction
   and negative attention that recentevents have evoked."

References

   1. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/richard-spencer-i-was-fired-as-navy-secretary-heres-what-ive-learned-because-of-it/2019/11/27/9c2e58bc-1092-11ea-bf62-eadd5d11f559_story.html

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