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01-08-2005, 05:04 AM

January 07, 2005

SEAL: I Was Last to See Iraq Suspect Alive

By SETH HETTENA
ASSOCIATED PRESS

SAN DIEGO (AP) - A terror suspect captured by Navy SEALs in Iraq was able to walk on his own and was resisting his captors when the CIA took custody of him, according to a Navy officer who said he was the last SEAL to see the prisoner alive.

Testimony at a military hearing for a Navy SEAL lieutenant charged with assault and maltreatment indicated that Manadel al-Jamadi died a short time later in the shower room of Abu Ghraib prison while he was being interrogated by the CIA.

Al-Jamadi, a suspect in the bombing of a Red Cross facility in Iraq, was captured during a joint CIA-special operations mission in November 2003.

Friday's testimony from a Navy SEAL lieutenant commander who oversaw the operation to capture al-Jamadi contradicted statements about the operation by a disgraced ex-SEAL. The former SEAL has stated that the prisoner was "lifeless" when he was left at Abu Ghraib following a severe beating by the SEALs.

The unnamed lieutenant commander, testifying by telephone from Guam, said the prisoner bore no traces of such a beating.

"I would have definitely expected it to show up on him," he said. "He would be hurting very bad, and he wasn't."

The lieutenant commander's testimony came during an Article 32 hearing, the military equivalent of a civilian grand jury, for an unidentified Navy SEAL lieutenant charged with assault and maltreatment of Iraqi prisoners. The hearing will determine if the officer faces a court-martial.

The accused lieutenant was the No. 2 in charge of the SEAL platoon that captured al-Jamadi. Injuries to the prisoner from Navy SEALs could be an aggravating factor that could result in stiffer punishment, according to defense attorney Matthew Freedus.

Over the course of the two-day hearing, Freedus has pressed for a full accounting of what injuries al-Jamadi sustained at the hands of the CIA or others outside of the SEAL team. The courtroom was cleared Thursday when Freedus asked a witness what position al-Jamadi was in when he died because the answer was classified.

Other members of the SEAL team have testified that they and others punched, kicked and struck al-Jamadi with the muzzles of their weapons while he was in their custody.

Ten members of the SEAL team were implicated in the investigation started by the sailor who was kicked out of the SEALs last year after he was found guilty of stealing another commando's body armor in Iraq.

The lieutenant commander said the former SEAL was completely untrustworthy. "He's a liar and a thief," he said.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/st...010700193.html