Most of us in the blogosphere are familiar with the story of the three Navy SEALs being court-martialed on the word of terrorist Ahmid Hashim Abed. Although the story has been picked up by a few main stream media outlets, the case has not gotten the attention it merits. After all, during the Abu Ghraib fiasco, the public was subjected to the ravings of Keith Olbermann nightly. One would think that the prosecution of the men responsible for capturing Abed, the man that orchestrated the murder of four civilian contractors whose bodies were subsequently mutilated, dragged through the streets, burned and hung from a bridge in Fallujah, would warrant as much attention as pictures of a terrorist on a dog leash. Not so. Freelance writers and, to a lesser extent Fox News, are responsible for spreading the word to patriotic Americans.

For those unfamiliar with the story, here is a quick recap.

In March 2004, Fallujah was rife with insurgent actions against US troops and contracted civilians. Four of these innocent civilian contractors – Michael Teague, Scott Helvenston, Jerry Zovko and Wesley Batalona – were set up by the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps and ambushed in what they thought was a traffic jam. Their Mitsubishi Pajeros was soon surrounded by fanatics that opened fire into the vehicle, killing all four men. What happened next was an animalistic display of savagery alien to the mindset of most Westerners. The bodies of the contractors were desecrated – hacked and beaten, dragged through the dirty streets and then set afire. In a final indignation, two of the men were strung up from a bridge that crossed the Euphrates as bizarre trophies for the jubilant crowd.

The murder of the four of the contractors, all former military men and one, Scott Helvenston, a former US Navy SEAL, triggered an overwhelming response by the US military. On April 1, Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt declared, “We will pacify that city.” Four days later, the First Marine Expeditionary Force surrounded the city. The pacification of Fallujah had begun.

The Marines successfully killed hundreds of insurgents, yet the Iraqi civilians wanted the Marines to leave. After insurgents attacked US forces from a mosque, the military responded by blowing up the mosque. This caused a public outcry both in Iraq and abroad and Lieutenant General James Conway decided to turn operations over to the Fallujah Brigade, which promptly gave its US weapons to the insurgents. It soon became clear that the Marines would have to return to Fallujah to subdue the city for good.

The Marines reentered the city the night of November 7, 2004 and created a diversion that distracted the rebels and allowed the Navy Seabees to shut off power to the city. In the early morning hours of November 8 the assault on Fallujah began in earnest. A mere eight days later the Marine command stated its forces were “mopping up pockets of resistance” in the city. By late January 2005, the combat units had left Fallujah.

The fighting in the aftermath of the murders of the four contractors took the lives of 38 US Marines and countless Iraqi civilians. All of these deaths can be traced back to Abed. Now the heroic SEALs that captured this terrorist are being tried on Abed’s word alone.

When news of this atrocity hit the blogosphere, there was an outpouring of public support for the heroes that caught Abed after tracking him for five years. As I write this, there are over 88,000 supporters on the facebook page, Support The Navy SEALs who Captured Ahmed Hashim Abed, alone. At the December 7 arraignment of two of the SEALs, protestors held up signs such as, “S.O.S. Save our SEALS” and “You Fought For Us. Now We Fight For You.”

Some lawmakers have also shown their support. Forty representatives signed a petition asking Defense Secretary Robert Gates to intervene on behalf of Petty Officer Matthew McCabe, Petty Officer Julio Huertas and Petty Officer Jonathan Keefe. Interestingly enough, all forty signers are Republicans.

The facts in the case are muddy at best. After capture, Abed was turned over to the Iraqis by mistake and was later returned to US custody. It was then that Abed claimed to have been punched in the stomach by McCabe. The claims by Abed are suspicious due to the fact that the al-Qaeda training manual advises its members to make false accusations of torture against their captors if they are captured.

In a press release dated December 4, Lt. Col. Holly Silkman states that, “Based upon the evidence uncovered in this investigation, three Sailors were accused of making false official statements with the intent to deceive the investigator, and dereliction of duty for failing to safeguard a detainee who was in their custody. One of the three Sailors has been charged with assaulting the detainee after the prisoner had been apprehended and while he was in their custody at the base. Another has been charged with an additional offense of impeding an investigation by unlawfully attempting to influence a witness in the investigation.”

The dereliction of duty charge is the most ludicrous. These three Navy SEALs captured one of the most notorious terrorists on the Ten Most Wanted list and, based upon the word of a man with the blood of no less than 42 Americans on his hands, these Sailors are being court-martialed. A dereliction of duty charge would be more appropriate for Major Nidal Hasan’s superiors. Hasan gained notoriety for being the man behind the murder of 12 soldiers, 1 civilian and 1 pre-born child at Fort Hood, Texas. His superiors ignored warnings regarding Hasan’s jihadist statements about the beheading of infidels and his opposition to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan on his Muslim brothers. Following the Fort Hood Massacre, Army Chief of Staff General George Casey warned soldiers not to focus on the fact that Hasan was a Muslim. Apparently, Casey fears that there could be a “heighten the backlash” against Muslim soldiers serving in the US military.

The lame stream media parroted Casey’s statements for weeks following the murders. Where is the media when it comes to our heroes? Where are our political leaders? Where are the superior officers that are supposed to be supporting their soldiers, not selling them out? Where is the Commander in Chief? As I am coming to realize, our current president is no friend of the men that keep us safe.

It looks like it is up to We The People to call attention to this story, as well as others that have been uncovered by freelance journalists. Stories abound of soldiers that have been prosecuted and jailed on the basis of nonexistent evidence and questionable witnesses. Or, as in the case of 1^st Lieutenant Michael Behenna, failure of the prosecution to turn over exculpatory evidence to the defense – evidence that almost certainly would have resulted in a “not guilty” verdict.

Due to my investigation into the situation of the SEALs I’ve discovered that there are definitely more soldiers in positions that are far worse. There is an apparent home grown jihad on our men in uniform and I will update the readers as more facts come to light.