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U.S. NEWS Saturday 28 december 2019

Navy SEALs call Edward

Gallagher 'evil' in leaked videos

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Navy Special Operator 1st Class his lawyer, the Times report-
SEALs described their pla- Corey Scott, a medic in the ed.
toon leader, retired Special platoon, says, "You could After his court-martial, Gal-
Operations Chief Edward tell he was perfectly OK lagher was demoted from
Gallagher, as "evil," "toxic" with killing anybody that chief petty officer to a 1st
and "perfectly OK with kill- was moving." class petty officer.
ing anybody that was mov- The material also includes Trump restored Gallagher's
ing," in video footage of thousands of text messages rank and has repeatedly
interviews obtained by The that the SEALs sent to one tweeted support for him,
New York Times. another about Gallagher's saying his case had been In this July 2, 2019, file photo, Navy Special Operations Chief
Edward Gallagher leaves a military court on Naval Base San
Gallagher's war crimes case and video from a "handled very badly from Diego.
case earlier this year gained SEAL's helmet camera that the beginning." q Associated Press
national attention after shows Gallagher approach
President Donald Trump in- a barely conscious captive
tervened on his behalf de- — a teenage Islamic State
spite strong objections from fighter — in May 2017. The
Pentagon leaders who said camera then shuts off.
the president's move could In video interviews, three
damage the integrity of the SEALS said they saw Galla-
military judicial system. The gher go on to stab the se-
case also led to the Navy dated captive for no rea-
secretary's firing. son and hold an impromp-
The footage published Fri- tu ceremony over the body
day was part of a trove of as if it were a trophy.
confidential Navy investi- Miller called it "the most
gative materials that the disgraceful thing I've ever
Times obtained about the seen in my life."
prosecution of Gallagher, Gallagher was charged
who was accused of bat- with murder in the death
tlefield misconduct in Iraq. of the wounded captive in
It shows members of Gal- Iraq, posing with the body
lagher's SEAL Team 7 Alpha in photos and shooting ci-
Platoon speaking to agents vilians. A jury of combat
from the Naval Criminal In- veterans acquitted him
vestigative Service about of all charges except one
his conduct in sometimes count for posing with a hu-
emotional interviews. man casualty.
They described how their In the interviews, the pla-
chief seemed to love killing, toon members told inves-
how he targeted women tigators that they tried re-
and children and boasted peatedly to report what
that "burqas were flying." they saw but no action was
The footage provides re- taken. In April 2018, they
vealing insights of the men went outside the SEALs to
who worked with Gallagh- the Naval Criminal Inves-
er and turned him in. They tigative Service, and Gal-
have never spoken publicly lagher was arrested a few
about the case, which has months later.
divided the elite fighting Gallagher has insisted that
force known for its secrecy. the charges against him
"The guy is freaking evil," were concocted by six dis-
Special Operator 1st Class gruntled SEALs in his pla-
Craig Miller says about Gal- toon who could not meet
lagher in one interview. his high standards.
"The guy was toxic," Special Reacting to the videos,
Operator 1st Class Joshua Gallagher called the ac-
Virens, a sniper, says in an- cusations "blatant lies" in a
other. statement issued through