Trump Shows Signs He Will Pardon Servicemen Accused or Convicted of War Crimes

winning those hearts and minds...


Maj. Mathew L. Golsteyn, left, the Army Green Beret accused of killing an unarmed Afghan in 2010.

President Trump has requested the immediate preparation of paperwork needed to pardon several American military members accused or convicted of war crimes — including high-profile cases of murder, attempted murder and desecration of a corpse — indicating that he is considering pardons for the men on or around Memorial Day, according to two United States officials.

The requests are for Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher of the Navy SEALs, who is scheduled to stand trial in the coming weeks on charges of shooting unarmed civilians and killing an enemy captive with a knife while deployed in Iraq.

They are also believed to include the case of a former Blackwater security contractor recently found guilty in the deadly 2007 shooting of dozens of unarmed Iraqis; the case of Maj. Mathew L. Golsteyn, the Army Green Beret accused of killing an unarmed Afghan in 2010; and the case of a group of Marine Corps snipers charged with urinating on the corpse of a dead Taliban fighter.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, said they did not know if other service members were included in the request for pardon paperwork.




https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/18/us/trump-pardons-war-crimes.html

BBC panel so not impressed with Ben Shapiro