Navy SEAL accused of bloodthirsty killings in Iraq

NAVAL BASE SAN DIEGO - Edward Gallagher was something special, even by the punishing standards of the Navy SEALs. Both a lifesaving medic and a crack sniper, he was repeatedly decorated for valor and for coolheaded leadership during 19 years of combat deployments. After his latest tour, fighting Islamic State militants in Iraq, he was named the top platoon leader in SEAL Team 7 and nominated for the Silver Star, the military’s third-highest honor.

But now, less than a year later, Special Operations Chief Gallagher, 39, is locked in the brig, facing charges that during that same deployment - his eighth - he shot indiscriminately at civilians, killed a teenage Islamic State fighter with a handmade custom blade, and then performed his re-enlistment ceremony posing with the teenager’s bloody corpse in front of a U.S. flag.

The Navy has charged Gallagher with premeditated murder, attempted murder and nearly a dozen other offenses, including obstruction of justice and bringing “discredit upon the armed forces.” If he is convicted, he could spend the rest of his life in prison.

Gallagher denies all the charges.

The case could widen as the investigation implicates other SEALs who did not report what they knew. A lieutenant has already been charged.

The chief’s arrest has also shaken his family, who cannot square the list of war crimes with the sailor they have long known.

“This is not who Eddie is,” said his wife, Andrea Gallagher. “He is a lifesaver. He is that guy who runs into the burning building when other people are running out.”

In a two-day preliminary hearing at Naval Base San Diego that concluded Thursday, prosecutors presented accounts from several other SEALs in Gallagher’s platoon describing his behavior as reckless and bloodthirsty.

They said he fired into civilian crowds, gunned down a girl walking along a riverbank and an old man carrying a water jug, and threatened to kill fellow SEALs if they reported his actions.

Some platoon members were so distraught by the chief’s actions, investigators said, that they tampered with his sniper rifle to make it less accurate, and fired warning shots to scare away civilians before the chief had a chance to shoot them.

“They said they spent more time protecting civilians than they did fighting ISIS,” Special Agent Joe Warpinski of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service told the military court.

Gallagher sat in the courtroom in dress uniform during the hearing. He did not testify.

His lawyer, Phillip Stackhouse, said the charges were baseless. Stackhouse said the only evidence that the chief had killed anyone came from accounts offered by a few SEALs who were disgruntled because they could not meet their leader’s demanding standards.

“I promise you, we will call many more SEALs who will say none of his ever happened,” Stackhouse said.

The purpose of the hearing, known as an Article 32 hearing, was to determine whether the case should proceed to a trial. Both sides said they believe it will, probably in 2019.