Troops charged in Green Beret's death in Mali planned to record him being sexually assaulted, Marine

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: Washington Post

Military
Troops charged in Green Beret’s death in Mali planned to record him being sexually assaulted, Marine says

By Dan Lamothe, Reporter covering the Pentagon and the U.S. military
June 5 at 2:11 PM

Four elite U.S. Special Operations troops charged in the death of a Green Beret soldier in Mali plotted to record him being sexually assaulted as part of a plan to embarrass him through hazing, according to one of the accused service members.

Marine Staff Sgt. Kevin Maxwell said in a written stipulation of facts submitted for the case that the plan included bursting into Army Staff Sgt. Logan Melgar’s bedroom in the capital city of Bamako with a sledgehammer, choking him until he fell unconscious, tying him up and recording it on video. The service members involved had just returned from a night of drinking, he said. ... Those statements roughly match the testimony of Chief Special Warfare Operator Adam C. Matthews, a former member of the Navy’s SEAL Team 6, who pleaded guilty in the case last month.

But Maxwell, a Marine Raider who was in Bamako to assist the SEALs, also told authorities about the sexual assault plan, according to the stipulation. A copy of it was obtained by The Washington Post and verified with two sources who are familiar with the investigation. They did so on the condition of anonymity, citing the sensitivity of the matter.

The four service members charged in the case were joined in the room by a Malian security guard and a British man who had befriended the Americans, Maxwell told authorities. The security guard was to carry out the sexual assault, while the British national planned to record it on a cellphone, Maxwell wrote. Those accusations have not previously been disclosed.
....

Dan Lamothe joined The Washington Post in 2014 to cover the U.S. military and the Pentagon. He has written about the Armed Forces for more than a decade, traveling extensively, embedding with each service and covering combat in Afghanistan numerous times. Follow https://twitter.com/danlamothe

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2019/06/05/troops-charged-green-berets-death-mali-planned-record-him-being-sexually-assaulted-marine-says/

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Troops charged in Green Beret’s death in Mali planned to record him being sexually assaulted, Marine says

Link to tweet

[IronLionZion]

1. WTF!

[marble falls]

2. What is it with men and rape.

[orangecrush]

3. Jesus Christ.

No words.

[mackdaddy]

4. No problem, Trump will just pardon them. N/t

[MarcA]

5. It's what you get with Authoritarian/Sociopathic culture. n/t

[LeftinOH]

6. There are some sick f*cks in the military. This particuar incident resulted

in death, but how many incidents did not, but were uniquely awful otherwise - and subsequently got swept under the rug? It's partly why I cannot get on board with the culture of "hero" worship of all-things-military that's so prevalent.

[world wide wally]

7. And we blindly say thank you for your service to all of them

right

[Evolve Dammit]

9. I don't do that. They all have their own story. Most honorable, some not, and some war criminals.

It depends on their COC and individual experience.

[ck4829]

25. +1

[salin]

8. appalling.

snippets from the article:

“They committed a prank on Melgar," Bouffard said. "It was a stupid prank, and it was not the kind of prank you or I would want pulled on us. It went bad. Maxwell is eager to accept his role in it.”

said by the civil defense attorney for Maxwell.

Square that with this:

The four men and witnesses who were with them in the hours before the attack joked about sexually assaulting Melgar, according to military documents obtained by The Post. But Maxwell’s stipulation of facts states that the defendants also intended to carry it out.

A sexual assault as part of hazing is not a "prank" that went bad.

As Matthews did in court last month, Maxwell also said that before the assault, the men woke up Melgar’s team leader, Sgt. 1st Class James Morris, asked for permission to haze Melgar and received it. Morris has not been charged in the case, and could not immediately be reached to comment.

Sexual assault is not hazing.


This is some awful shit, and in no way be framed as hazing or pranking. The plans weren't about staging photos that looked like something that didn't happen happened. That would be awful, but nothing like this.

[Evolve Dammit]

10. Awful shit is right. How about murder??

[salin]

11. Absolutely murder. Horrific.

I was more commenting on the disturbing language in the defense, and in the story itself.

Can't we ever grow up past variations of "boys are boys, and oops, it went wrong" in the face of horrible actions. Time for minimizations to go to the dust bin of history.

[Evolve Dammit]

12. Agree. Thanks

[salin]

13. Thanks for the comment - which got me to clarify my point more specifically.

Peace.

And I LOVE your duname!

[JudyM]

14. His CO gave them permission to haze him. Wonder if that's in their protocol books.

[salin]

18. Surreal (and horrifying) times.

[Haggis for Breakfast]

15. Let's get one straight here.

This was NEVER about hazing. It was never about a "party snub" or any other BS that is getting put out there. They planned this for for some time. Witnesses have come forward with information that go back weeks before the actual event.

Staff Sgt. Logan Melgar found clear cut evidence that the two NAVY SEALS were involved in a series of significant thefts from a fund set up by the US government, established with the sole purpose of paying local informants for humint. He reported this up the chain of command. This is not in question. Stars and Stripes, Military Times, Navy Times, Army Times and the Daily Beast and others have been covering this story since it first cracked.

The minute he filed his reports, he was a marked man. He even confided to family that he was becoming increasingly disturbed by the actions and behaviors of the two SEALS.

This was no accident. He was murdered.

It will not come as a surprise that these men are allowed to plead down. God forbid anything should tarnish the image of the US NAVY or SEAL Team Six.

As retired NAVY, this sickens me to my core. But they murdered this man. They deserve the harshest punishment for this.

[Evolve Dammit]

16. Thank you for this insight. Some "elites", military or otherwise, operate with impunity.

This must be incredibly sickening as a Navy ret.

[Haggis for Breakfast]

17. Having known many a SEAL in my time,

this is morally unconscionable to me. The SEALS I have known were honorable men of character with extraordinary courage and integrity. This is an ugly stain on the our service.

[salin]

19. Agreed. And well explained.

It is sickening.

[Sapient Donkey]

27. Hey yeah, so I am not mistaken about that.

I read through this recent article and I didn't hear any mention of it. I find that odd.

[Blue_Tires]

28. +1

[The Wizard]

21. Military standards have sunk to a new low.

It's time to reinstate conscription.

[ck4829]

24. Other way... we need to support counter-recruitment. Don't sign up.

[Farmer-Rick]

22. Yeah, it was murder

If he was doing an investigation into the 2 , it was very likely murder.

I've done numerous investigations in the Navy during my career and received some death threats because of them. And that was over 17 years ago.

[ck4829]

23. Tragic

[Sapient Donkey]

26. A prank? Really?

Wasn't there some mention about these guys involved being suspected of stealing money used to pay informants? I didn't see that mentioned in this article. I guess that just went away. I find a motive involving that far more likely than them being upset just because he avoided them while going to a party.