Lawmaker: Investigate general who booted MSOC

[Vulture6]

Lawmaker: Investigate general who booted MSOC

By Trista Talton - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Oct 3, 2007 18:42:17 EDT

JACKSONVILLE, N.C. — The Army general who kicked a Marine special operations company out of Afghanistan earlier this year should be investigated, a North Carolina congressman said Wednesday.

In a letter addressed to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Rep. Walter B. Jones, R-N.C., wrote that he is concerned whether Lt. Gen. Frank Kearney’s decision to expel the 120-man company from Afghanistan “was proper and void of any improper motivation.”
Jones also urged an investigation into Kearney’s decision to bring charges of premeditated murder against two Green Berets who were exonerated by the Army’s Criminal Investigation Command in an unrelated incident.

“Not only was this unprecedented, none of the investigations have been completed that would warrant such action,” Jones wrote of Kearney’s decision to pull the Marines from Afghanistan. “Today, Marines involved in the incident are leaving the Corps. Lt. Gen. Kearney’s decision has damaged not only the development of Marine Special Operations Command, but also the Marines’ personal livelihood.”

Kearney, who at the time was the top special operations officer in the Middle East, pulled the company, which belongs to Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command, days after a March 4 car bomb attack on one of its platoons in Nangarhar Province. The attack involved six vehicles and 30 Marines with the company’s direct action/special reconnaissance platoon, and prompted a counterattack that allegedly resulted in the deaths of 19 Afghan civilians. The MSOC was the Corps’ first spec-ops company to deploy.

A Naval Criminal Investigative Service investigation into the incident was handed over to the staff judge advocate’s office of Lt. Gen. Jim Mattis, commander of Marine Corps Forces Central Command, last month.

This is the congressman’s second letter to Defense Department officials concerning the MSOC. Jones sent a letter to acting Army Secretary Pete Geren on May 14, asking for an apology after an Army colonel made a public apology to Afghan families affected by the incident.

The colonel called the shootout a “terrible, terrible mistake” and made condolence payments to the families.