Navy SEAL Not Guilty of "Assaulting" Enemy Combatant

Well, HALLELUJAH!  The third and final Navy SEAL charged with assaulting Ahmed Hashim Abed, suspected mastermind of the gruesome slaughter of four American private security contractors in Fallujah in 2004, has been found not guilty of all charges!!!!

The story from FoxNews (emphasis added):

Navy SEAL Found Not Guilty of Assaulting a Suspected Terrorist

Military jury found a Navy SEAL not guilty on charges of punching a suspected Iraqi terrorist.

A Virginia military jury found a Navy SEAL not guilty Thursday on all charges he punched an Iraqi suspected in the 2004 killings of four U.S. contractors in Fallujah.

"I'm really happy right now," Matthew McCabe, the Navy SEAL, told Fox News shortly after hearing the outcome of the court martial. "It's an amazing feeling. I'm on cloud nine right now."

McCabe, a special operations petty officer second class, called the proceedings "troubling at times," adding "having your career on the line is not an easy thing to handle.

McCabe was the third and final Navy SEAL to be prosecuted in the case. He had faced charges of assault, making a false official statement and dereliction of performance of duty for willfully failing to safeguard a detainee. McCabe was accused of punching last year is Ahmed Hashim Abed, the suspected mastermind of the grisly killings six years ago.

After the court martial, the 24-year-old from Perrysburg, Ohio, thanked the public for its continued support.

"It's been great everything they've done," he told Fox News. "But, don't worry about it anymore. We are putting this all behind us. It's done and over with. I'm going to try not to think about this ever again."

This follows four days of pre-trial motions, jury selection and testimony before a judge advocate general, Capt. Moira Modelewski, at naval station in Norfolk, Va.

Another one of the Navy SEALs charged, but acquitted in connection with the Abed case, Petty Officer First Class Julio Huertas, took the stand for the defense Thursday morning.

He said that he and the other two Navy SEALs, McCabe and Jonathan Keefe, did visit the detention facility where Abed was being held on the night of the alleged incident.

But, he insists, there was no assault. Huertas and Keefe were found not guilty last month in separate trials in Baghdad.

The defense called an oral surgeon Thursday who testified by phone from Baghdad. He said Abed might have bitten an ulcer on his lip, causing it to bleed. Defense attorneys hope this validates their position that no assault occurred and that Al Qaeda detainees are trained to injure themselves then claim abuse.

Abed was captured in a surprise raid by the Navy SEALs in Fallujah, Iraq, in September of last year. The murders he’s accused of masterminding were a turning point in the Iraq war, galvanizing the U.S. military to launch a major offensive against the insurgents in Fallujah. The bodies of the four Americans were burning and dragged through the streets, and two of them were hanged from a bridge over the Euphrates River.

It's disgusting and ridiculous that the case got as far as it did, putting those men and their families through hell ... all because they supposedly punched an enemy combatant?  I mean, c'mon!  Any kind of scuffle between soldiers and someone like Abed will most likely result in someone getting roughed up.  Who's to say such claims won't come cascading down on the heads of our soldiers just to make their lives miserable and to impede the military's actions?

Frankly, if Abed had indeed been assaulted, he's lucky he got away with just a punch in the face.  He deserves so much more.  Look at the "justice" those contractors got from the citizens of Fallujah!