A motorcycle rally to support one imprisoned soldier has blossomed into a nationwide ”freedom ride” to support a group comprised mostly of Army soldiers who have become known as “The Leavenworth 10.“

On July 18, Scott and Vicki Behenna, parents of Army Ranger 1st Lt. Michael Behenna, informed me that plans were in the works to stage a motorcycle rally to bring attention to the plight of wrongfully-imprisoned soldiers such as her son, whose story has been highlighted in several posts at BigGovernment.com and is now serving a 15-year sentence for killing a known Al-Qaeda operative in self-defense.  Today, it appears those plans are coming to fruition.

“FREEDOM RIDE FOR THE LEAVENWORTH TEN” will originate in many states and culminate the morning of Sept. 4 in Leavenworth, Kan., according to the Behennas, and Army Lt. Col. Allen West, a congressional candidate from Florida, scheduled to be the keynote speaker at the event.

“The intent of the Freedom Ride is to bring awareness to how our soldiers are being imprisoned for killing the enemy during a time of war which one news commentator compared to ‘giving speeding tickets at a NASCAR race,’” the Behennas said in a recent e-mail. “These soldiers, serving multiple deployments, are provided complex and ever changing rules of engagement and then have to deal with untenable ‘catch and release’ policies against an enemy the U.S. military generals have yet to figure out how to defeat.”

Organizers are also looking for celebrity involvement in the ride to help increase the amount of attention paid to the plight of soldiers behind bars.

(more…)

On Thursday, the Army Clemency and Parole Board reduced the sentence of Army Ranger 1st Lt. Michael Behenna from 20 to 15 years, according to a news release from Rep. Mary Fallin (R-Okla.).

Lieutenant Behenna, who is currently serving his sentence at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., was convicted of unpremeditated murder in the shooting death of Ali Mansur, a known Al-Qaeda operative, while serving in Iraq.

Previous cases of similar or more aggravating circumstances, where the defendants were found guilty of premeditated murder, have resulted in less severe sentences, which prompted the Oklahoma Congressional Delegation to appeal to the board for a careful review of this case and relevant precedent.

(more…)

By Bob McCarty and Carrie Fatigante

An e-mail Dr. Herbert Leon MacDonell sent to Capts. Meghan Poirier, Jason Elbert and Erwin Roberts — Army prosecutors all — just after 4 o’clock in the afternoon Feb. 27, 2009, should have warranted their attention for several reasons, but they opted to treat the information it contained in exactly the same manner as they had treated it when delivered in person a day earlier.

Largely as a result of the prosecutors’ decisions, Army Ranger 1st Lt. Michael Behenna is now serving a 20-year sentence at Fort Leavenworth after being convicted by a seven-member court-martial panel of unpremeditated murder in the shooting death of Ali Mansur, a known Al-Qaeda operative.

Why should the prosecutors have paid attention to what Dr. MacDonell had to share with them?

For starters, they should have paid attention, because Dr. MacDonell is the expert witness in blood stain forensics they had flown to Fort Campbell, Ky. to testify in the case. Now serving as director of the Laboratory for Forensic Science in Corning, N.Y., Dr. MacDonell’s expert forensics career spans five decades and includes such high-profile and complex cases as the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., and the case against O.J. Simpson. In other words, he’s no slouch when it comes to investigations.

(more…)

By Bob McCarty and Carrie Fatigante

It’s not uncommon for people convicted of crimes to proclaim their innocence. Most deserve to be ignored, but not Army Ranger 1st Lt. Michael Behenna.

On July 31, 2008, Lieutenant Behenna was charged with the premeditated murder of Ali Mansur, a known Al-Qaeda operative operating in the area of Albu Toma, north of Baghdad. Seven months later, the 26 -year-old leader of the 18-member Delta Company, 5th platoon of the Army 101st Airborne Infantry Division, was sentenced to 25 years confinement at Fort Leavenworth after being convicted by a military court-martial panel of unpremeditated murder in violation of Article 118 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

Though a judge later reduced his sentence to 20 years, the Edmond, Okla., native remains confined at the U.S. Army Garrison in the middle of Kansas, largely due to the fact that a forensics expert whose testimony likely would have exonerated him was never allowed to be heard during the court-martial.

That forensics expert, Dr. Herbert Leon MacDonell, is director of the Laboratory of Forensic Science in Corning, N.Y. During a career spanning five decades, he’s been involved in such high-profile cases as the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., and the 1994 double-murder case involving O.J. Simpson. In this case, he appears to harbor strong feelings about the evidence — the kind of feelings that might lead anyone who doesn’t earn an income as an expert witness to say he believes Lieutenant Behenna is innocent.

(more…)

In recent years, I’ve published too many posts about members of the Armed Forces facing undeserved charges:

• First, it was the so-called “Haditha Marines” who faced trumped-up charges, thanks largely to idiots like Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) declaring them guilty before a mainstream media eager to paint them in a bad light.

• Next, it was Army Ranger 1st Lt. Michael Behenna who was wrongly convicted of executing an Iraqi detainee, Ali Mansur, on May 16, 2008, and is now serving a 25-year sentence at Fort Leavenworth, Kan.

• Now, I’m following the case of three Navy SEALs facing assault charges related to their capture of Ahmed Hashim Abed.  Who is Abed?  He’s the alleged planner of the March 2004 ambush, killing and mutilation of four Blackwater contractors in Fallujah, Iraq.  The SEALS gave this enemy combatant piece of dirt a fat lip while apprehending him.

As my first investigative reporting effort related to the SEALs’ case, I offer six important facts about the case you’re likely not to read about in the mainstream media supplied to me by a source whom I cannot name inside the Pentagon:

(more…)