SEAL Eddie Gallagher claims platoon intended to kill ISIS fighter
Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher, who was found not guilty of murdering an ISIS fighter, claims his entire platoon agreed to kill the detainee as part of a plan to practice medical procedures on him.
www.dailymail.co.uk
'Our intention WAS to kill him': Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher who was found not guilty of murdering ISIS fighter now claims entire platoon agreed 'to do medical scenarios on prisoner until he died'
- Eddie Gallagher, 41, was found not guilty in 2019 of murdering an injured 17-year-old ISIS fighter while on deployment in Iraq
- He has now claimed his entire platoon agreed to kill the captured fighter as part of a plan to practice medical procedures on him
- Prosecutors claimed during his trial that Gallagher briefly treated the ISIS fighter by inserting a breathing tube in his neck after being injured in an airstrike
- Gallagher's platoon members told investigators they then saw Gallagher stab the fighter in the neck several times
- He has always claimed the war crimes charges brought against him were made up by six platoon members who wanted to force him out
- His attorney claims that prosecutors already knew that the SEALs had practiced medical procedures on the ISIS fighter before he was pronounced dead
- The knowledge that the fighter was used for medical training was detailed as part of a defense motion filed back in 2019 and also in other court documents
Former Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher, who was found not guilty of murdering an injured ISIS detainee, has now claimed his entire platoon agreed to kill the captured fighter as part of a plan to practice medical procedures on him.
The 41-year-old retired SEAL made the bombshell admission in an interview on Apple's 'The Line' podcast on Tuesday regarding the 2017 death of a 17-year-old militant captive in Iraq.
'The grain of truth in the whole thing is that that ISIS fighter was killed by us and that nobody at that time had a problem with it,' he said.
'We killed that guy. Our intention was to kill him. Everybody was on board... It was to do medical scenarios on him until he died.'
Gallagher was acquitted by a military jury in 2019 of stabbing the ISIS fighter to death but was convicted of unlawfully posing for photos with his dead body.
His trial drew widespread controversy at the time after then-President Trump repeatedly intervened on his behalf and had him released from pretrial detention.
It's not clear what his admission could mean for him legally - if anything.
Prosecutors claimed during his high-profile trial that Gallagher had briefly treated the ISIS fighter by inserting a breathing tube in his neck after he was brought to the US operating base in Mosul when he was severely injured in an airstrike.
Gallagher's platoon members told investigators they then saw Gallagher stab the fighter in the neck several times.
Gallagher, who was the platoon chief during the Iraq deployment, has always claimed the war crimes charges brought against him were made up by six platoon members who wanted to force him out.
In the podcast interview, Gallagher continued to deny that he stabbed the fighter.
He claimed, instead, that the SEALs did not treat the fighter for his injuries and jointly decided to practice medical procedures on him until he died.
'I didn't stab him. I didn't stab that dude,' Gallagher said. 'That dude died from all the medical treatments that were done – and there was plenty of medical treatments that were done to him.
'I mean, he was going to die, regardless. We weren't taking any prisoners.'
It is not clear exactly what procedures were allegedly performed on the ISIS fighter, who died about 20 minutes after being brought to the US base.
When he was asked why he cut the airway into the fighter's throat to insert the breathing tube, Gallagher said in the podcast: 'Just for practice. I was practicing to see how fast I could do one in.'
The Navy would not comment on Gallagher's latest claims.
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This FIEND can NEVER be tried again due to double jeopardy and being pardoned by President Dumbass (Trump).