SEALs Instructed to Treat Prisoners Well

The Navy SEALs assigned to capture or kill suspected terrorists in Iraq were warned to treat prisoners humanely and not take mocking pictures of them, two military lawyers testified Wednesday at a court-martial.

Yet three members of Foxtrot Platoon of SEAL Team Seven have testified that within days of arriving in Iraq the commandos were kicking and punching prisoners and taking “celebratory photos,” including one in which a handcuffed prisoner was forced to wear a jack-o’-lantern mask.

Beyond the guilt or innocence of the SEAL on trial, platoon leader Lt. Andrew K. Ledford, other questions linger over the proceedings:

Why did a group of one of the military’s most elite and highly disciplined units almost immediately begin breaking the rules drilled into them by their bosses and lawyers?

Was it the stress of being in a war zone, most of them for the first time?

Or was it the influence of CIA operatives who were teamed with the SEALs, and, according to testimony, apparently assumed control of the SEALs and had a view that the Geneva Convention rules about humane treatment of prisoners did not apply?

Although public references to the CIA have been few during the proceedings, issues of the CIA’s presence and influence have been present throughout the trial, which ended its third day Wednesday with the prosecution resting its case.

There have been repeated references to classified material that cannot be discussed in open session.

There have been several closed sessions in which witnesses were apparently questioned about such material.

On Wednesday, prosecutors called a Marine captain who attended the Naval Academy and Marine officer school with Ledford. Capt. Roberto Herrera testified that he and Ledford were taught that beating prisoners “was something that other nations did but not the U.S. forces.”

But defense attorney Lt. Michael Luken asked Herrera if he and Ledford received training on how to act when teamed with the CIA on missions. Herrera’s answer was apparently what the defense wanted to hear: No training was given on how to work with the CIA.

Navy Lt. Dominic Jones, a lawyer, testified Wednesday that he lectured Foxtrot Platoon before it left for Iraq that prisoners “should be given the humane treatment they deserve.”

Army Reserve Capt. Jefferson Cheney, also a lawyer, said he gave a similar lecture to Foxtrot Platoon when it arrived in Iraq in early October 2003.

“My brief consisted of telling the [SEALs] to kill the bad guys,” he said. “But if you take someone into custody, you are to treat them with dignity and respect.”

Cheney and Jones, testifying separately, said they told the SEALs that anyone taken into custody -- even suspected terrorists -- was to be given Geneva Convention protection.

But soon after arriving in Iraq, the SEALs were apparently ignoring the admonitions of Cheney and Jones.

“The briefing I remember is that these [prisoners] did not fall under the Geneva Convention because they were not enemy combatants,” testified former Petty Officer Dan Cerrillo, who also said he was the SEAL who beat a prisoner at the order of a CIA operative.

The Navy began an investigation after a suspected terrorist, Manadel Jamadi, arrested and beaten by the SEALs, died while being interrogated by the CIA at Abu Ghraib prison.

No charges were brought for the death. But Ledford is charged with hitting Jamadi, allowing his men to abuse Jamadi and other prisoners, lying to investigators and conducting himself in a manner that is unbecoming to an officer and gentleman. If convicted, he faces a maximum 12 years in prison.

As the defense attorneys had predicted, the prosecution presented no witnesses to show that Ledford hit Jamadi or was present when his SEALs abused Jamadi or other prisoners.

However, Navy investigators said that Ledford confessed during a lengthy interrogation.

During one of the interviews with Ledford, military investigators were joined by two investigators from the CIA, a former Army investigator said.

The CIA has reportedly referred the death of Jamadi to the Department of Justice. A CIA lawyer has attended the court martial, including being allowed to hear the testimony of a CIA operative.

On Wednesday, the CIA lawyer spent breaks in the trial reading “Ghost Wars,” a history of CIA covert activities in Afghanistan, by Steve Coll.