Shame on the nation: American Hero Michael Behenna Loses Final Appeal

There is something horribly wrong in America when a soldier is jailed for killing the enemy. The criminalization of our heroes is the liberal wet dream and the goal of the enemy, Islamic supremacists. Indeed, they make common cause of their hatred of the good.

Lt. Behenna shot a known al qaeda killer on the battlefield, a terrorist the Army had actually issued a kill/capture order for before they realized he was already dead.

His mother wrote here:

… we will not give up the fight. It is our hope that Congress will hold hearings on the Army’s Catch and Release policy and the current ROE’s that limit our soldiers and Marines ability to defend themselves sometime this fall…… I have come to believe that the only way the Army will release Michael from prison is for the American public to demand it.  In that regard I am once again asking for your help.  The Savage Nation has been so supportive of Michael, helping us with his legal expenses, and writing letters of encouragement to him.  Now I need their voice.  I need the voice of the American public to demand his release.

Michael is an exceptional young man and would never have been involved in the criminal justice system but for his attempt to interrogate Mansur.  Michael’s character and professionalism has shown through even through this difficult time.  When he was pending charges of premeditated murder he was never placed in pre-trial confinement. He continued to work in Iraq and when he redeployed with the 101st Airborne Division in November 2008, he lived off post in Clarksville, reporting to work every day at Ft. Campbell.  One of his assignments during that time was to work on President Bush’s security detail when President Bush visited the 101st Airborne Division just before Thanksgiving of 2008.  

Read the rest.

Michael Behenna Loses Final Appeal Bob McCartey

Short of a presidential pardon, which isn’t likely in this day and age, it appears Army Ranger 1LT Michael C. Behenna will remain behind bars at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., until he turns 40 years old.  The Court of Appeals of the Armed Forces in Washington, D.C., has upheld the 29-year-old Edmond, Okla., native’s conviction stemming from a May 16, 2008, shooting in Iraq of Ali Mansur, a known Al-Qaeda operative.

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Clockwise from upper left: Michael’s family; Michael; Michael as a youngster; and Michael and his girlfriend, Shannon.

The sad news arrived shortly after 6 p.m. Central Thursday, almost 11 weeks after the five-member CAAF panel heard Lieutenant Behenna’s final appeal of the verdict that found him guilty of unpremeditated murder in the shooting death of Ali Mansur, a known Al-Qaeda operative in Iraq.

It is beyond comprehension how multiple levels of the military justice system were able to reconcile the lieutenant’s conviction with the fact that the government’s own expert witness reached the conclusion that the lieutenant acted in self defense — see this post and this post for more details — but they did.  And by a 3-2 margin.