Radical Muslim terrorists try to generate sympathy for themselves and slow the administration of justice when they are captured overseas by claiming that they are being abused by their U.S. or other captors.
An al-Qaida manual captured by British authorities instructed terrorists who are captured to “insist on proving that torture was inflicted on them by state security before the judge. Complain of mistreatment while in prison.”
So it was not really surprising when one suspected terrorist who was captured by Navy SEALs in Iraq last year claimed he had been punched by one of the SEALs. The terrorism suspect, Ahmed Hashim Abed, is believed to have planned the grisly killings of four American contractors in Fallujah, Iraq, in 2004. Their bodies were burned and dragged through the streets, and two were hanged from a bridge.
It was troubling, however, when the alleged punch led to the courts-martial of three SEALs. One was accused of delivering the punch, and the others were charged with dereliction of duty.
However, military courts found the evidence of “abuse” flimsy and have acquitted all three of the men, who had put their lives on the line in Iraq in valiant service to their country.
Real instances of abuse of detainees ought not to be tolerated. But neither should prosecutions of our military men and women be pursued based mainly on the unreliable “say-so” of terrorism suspects who have a vested interest in claiming “abuse.”