U.S. defence secretary fires Navy chief over handling of SEAL saga

[webfact]

U.S. defence secretary fires Navy chief over handling of SEAL saga

By Phil Stewart

 

FILE PHOTO: U.S. Navy SEAL Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher arrives at court for the start of his court-martial trial at Naval Base San Diego in San Diego, California, U.S., June 18, 2019. REUTERS/Mike Blake

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Defence Secretary Mark Esper fired the Navy's top civilian after losing confidence in him over his handling of the high-profile case of a Navy SEAL convicted of battlefield misconduct in Iraq, the Pentagon said on Sunday.

 

Esper also determined that the sailor in question, Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher, should be allowed to retain his Trident pin designating him as a SEAL - effectively ending the Navy's efforts to carry out a peer review that could have led to his ouster from the elite force.

 

President Donald Trump had publicly opposed taking away Gallagher's Trident pin. Trump had already intervened in Gallagher's case earlier this month, using his authority to restore the decorated officer's rank and pay and allow him to retire later this year on a full pension.

 

Navy Secretary Richard Spencer made headlines last week for suggesting a possible split with Trump by saying Gallagher should face a peer review board.

 

But Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said Spencer also had a private line of communications with the White House.

 

"Secretary Spencer had previously and privately proposed to the White House - contrary to Spencer's public position - to restore Gallagher's rank and allow him to retire with his Trident pin," Hoffman said.

 

Spencer never informed Esper of his private proposal, Hoffman said.

 

Esper decided to ask for Spencer's resignation after "losing trust and confidence in him regarding his lack of candour over conversations with the White House," Hoffman said.

 

Gallagher, 40, was demoted in rank and pay grade after being convicted by a military jury in July of illegally posing for pictures with the corpse of an Islamic State fighter.

 

On Nov. 15, the White House said in a statement that Trump had restored Gallagher's rank and had pardoned two Army officers accused of war crimes in Afghanistan. Critics had said such actions would undermine military justice and send a message that battlefield atrocities will be tolerated.

 

In an appearance on Fox News Channel on Sunday, Gallagher indicated that he hoped to retire next Saturday, "without the board" convening to decide whether he could continue to be a SEAL, considered among the most elite of U.S. fighting forces.

 

(Reporting by Phil Stewart, Patricia Zengerle and Howard Schneider; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall and Peter Cooney)

 

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-11-25

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[LomSak27]

4 minutes ago, webfact said:

Esper decided to ask for Spencer's resignation after "losing trust and confidence in him regarding his lack of candour over conversations with the White House," Hoffman said.

Translation Mr BIG Twitter; Donald Trump wanted him GONE. Thy will be done.

 

[Matzzon]

1 hour ago, webfact said:

after losing confidence in him over his handling of the high-profile case of a Navy SEAL convicted of battlefield misconduct in Iraq

I know he was accused, but I never know when he was convicted. Didn´t Trump restore his rank for not getting convicted?

[Somtamnication]

The guy gets fired for going around the DOD Secretary and going straight to Trump to help this Seal. Dangerous grounds for the Defense Secretary to fire someone who talked to POTUS. What a circus!

[Eric Loh]

Another Acting Navy Secretary I presume. 

[J Town]

1 hour ago, Matzzon said:

I know he was accused, but I never know when he was convicted. Didn´t Trump restore his rank for not getting convicted?

The ENTIRE sum of Trump's communication was via tweets. Navy Secretary Richard Spencer said he wouldn't follow orders from a tweet but WOULD if an official order came down from the White House and got fired for it. You can't make this ???? up!

[Tug]

So here we have a draft dodging pow insulting gold star family insulting firing the secretary of the navy we are truly weak and in disarray 

[billd766]

 

Probably not the best way to instill confidence in the troops (Officers and enlisted men and women alike) by the nominal CiC.

 

"Navy Secretary Richard Spencer made headlines last week for suggesting a possible split with Trump by saying Gallagher should face a peer review board."

 

If Gallaher was selected as a Seal Team leader for an operation, I wonder how many of his colleagues would volunteer to be on the same team?

 

Military discipline is something that must be left to the uniformed officers and NOT to civilians, and especially NOT to Trump, who never served at all.

[Boon Mee]

6 hours ago, LomSak27 said:

Translation Mr BIG Twitter; Donald Trump wanted him GONE. Thy will be done.

 

Well, Trump is the Commander in Chief and the Military works for him. 

Good move, Donald. ???? 

 

MAGA 

[Jonnapat]

A truly disgraceful episode.

[Scot123]

So many people on here seen to just forget or have very selective memory. Right or wrong this should have been thrown out and the whole prosecution team charged. For god sake they were spying on the defence. If you had been a front line soldier (I use that term covering all arms) you would know your hummer becomes very black/dark and maybe it is away to deal with what you go through. If you were to hear front line troops joking and chewing the fat you would think them sick or deranged but walk in their shoes and see how you get on. As to the answer to a question on here: yes I would volunteer and follow this man and I would imagine all his troop would. Far to many snowflakes.... 

[oldhippy]

10 minutes ago, Scot123 said:

So many people on here seen to just forget or have very selective memory. Right or wrong this should have been thrown out and the whole prosecution team charged. For god sake they were spying on the defence. If you had been a front line soldier (I use that term covering all arms) you would know your hummer becomes very black/dark and maybe it is away to deal with what you go through. If you were to hear front line troops joking and chewing the fat you would think them sick or deranged but walk in their shoes and see how you get on. As to the answer to a question on here: yes I would volunteer and follow this man and I would imagine all his troop would. Far to many snowflakes.... 

Defending decency, but behaving indecently. OK, I get it.

In a war, there are only enemies, oneself included.

And tell me again, what was he fighting for?

 

Yes, I am an old fashioned soixante-huitard (you may have to google that).

 

 

[LomSak27]

3 hours ago, Boon Mee said:

10 hours ago, LomSak27 said:

Translation Mr BIG Twitter; Donald Trump wanted him GONE. Thy will be done.

 

Well, Trump is the Commander in Chief and the Military works for him. 

Good move, Donald. ???? 

He should be in Leavenworth. Fitting that a draft dodger like President Trump (bone spurs 1-Y) would intervene. 

[billd766]

4 hours ago, Boon Mee said:

Well, Trump is the Commander in Chief and the Military works for him. 

Good move, Donald. ???? 

 

MAGA 

You are wrong there.

 

The military works for the USA.

 

Trump as POTUS is only CinC for 4 or 8 years at a time. The military is always there.

[billd766]

1 hour ago, Scot123 said:

So many people on here seen to just forget or have very selective memory. Right or wrong this should have been thrown out and the whole prosecution team charged. For god sake they were spying on the defence. If you had been a front line soldier (I use that term covering all arms) you would know your hummer becomes very black/dark and maybe it is away to deal with what you go through. If you were to hear front line troops joking and chewing the fat you would think them sick or deranged but walk in their shoes and see how you get on. As to the answer to a question on here: yes I would volunteer and follow this man and I would imagine all his troop would. Far to many snowflakes.... 

Do you not realise that it was some of his own team that turned him in?

 

That is what they thought of him.

[bristolboy]

4 hours ago, Scot123 said:

So many people on here seen to just forget or have very selective memory. Right or wrong this should have been thrown out and the whole prosecution team charged. For god sake they were spying on the defence. If you had been a front line soldier (I use that term covering all arms) you would know your hummer becomes very black/dark and maybe it is away to deal with what you go through. If you were to hear front line troops joking and chewing the fat you would think them sick or deranged but walk in their shoes and see how you get on. As to the answer to a question on here: yes I would volunteer and follow this man and I would imagine all his troop would. Far to many snowflakes.... 

So many people seem not to know that it was his own troops that filed the complaints in the first place.

[sirineou]

7 hours ago, Boon Mee said:

Well, Trump is the Commander in Chief and the Military works for him. 

Good move, Donald. ???? 

 

MAGA 

And Gallagher should enjoy his pin for the next 421 days until trump is gone 

[newnative]

    My God what a total circus and Trump the insane ring leader.   

[lust]

4 hours ago, bristolboy said:

So many people seem not to know that it was his own troops that filed the complaints in the first place.

It was one snowflake soldier..

[oldhippy]

9 minutes ago, lust said:

It was one snowflake soldier..

I didn't know snowflakes sometimes become professional soldiers.

 

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

15 hours ago, Eric Loh said:

Another Acting Navy Secretary I presume. 

 

I think it's got to be either Rudy Guiliani or Kellyanne Conway. Those are just about the only two people he's got left...

 

[richard_smith237]

This whole affair should never have been made public. 

 

There exists a set of moral standards afforded to us by an unfortunate few who live in a world the public will never understand. We [the general public] are privileged not to have to deal with the moral dilemma of warfare, we are instead protected from decisions we may never wish to make or be able to comprehend. 

 

When a truly dichotomising grey area in which only those experienced experts who are trained in the military arts exists only those experts and their peers should rightfully be the only ones fit to pass judgement.

 

They [military peers] surely must do so [pass judgement] safe in the knowledge their judgement is free from the potential slipping through the veil of 'understanding' into the public eye to become judged based on political correctness and moral standards we are free to live by in the protected world provided for us.

 

Unfortunately, the genie is out of the bottle, this has become a circus whereby decisions have been made by those initially considered fit to pass judgement, but perhaps where their judgment 'fits' a modern protocol of 'black and white' more readily understood by the public for 'safe opinion' rather than an acceptance of the dark arena of warfare. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[bendejo]

With the Justice Department in his pocket, the only physical force to eject this president is the military.  If he was smart he would try to be on good terms with them, the key word there is if. 

The US has never had a military coup, but we are living in a time of firsts.

 

 

 

[Benmart]

I served in the US Army for 20 years. Comments from various camps are comical, uninformed, misinformed and irrelevant. All I know about this incident is...not much, and I have plenty of company.

[earlinclaifornia]

On 11/25/2019 at 9:10 AM, Matzzon said:

I know he was accused, but I never know when he was convicted. Didn´t Trump restore his rank for not getting convicted?

No. He was only convicted of posing with the dead, though.