CAAFlog blogger covers SEAL trial with finesse as defense duels with prosecutor

By Kay B. Day

CAAFlog blogger Dwight Sullivan is a rare bird. He has a legal background, but he writes like a seasoned journalist and in this rare case, I am using ‘seasoned journalist’ as a compliment. Sullivan has been posting firsthand accounts of the trial of SO2 Matthew McCabe’s legal battle to defend his honor and his freedom.

McCabe faces minor charges over the detention of an alleged terrorist in Iraq, but the most serious charge he’s dealing with is an accusation he did ‘unlawfully strike [the alleged terrorist] in the midsection with his fist.’ The alleged terrorist is Ahmed Hashim Abed who is suspected of planning and implementing the murders and desecration of bodies of private contractors in Iraq.

Sullivan has covered McCabe’s trial in a Norfolk (Va.) courtroom from the first day on Monday. I’m betting a lot of his readers are like me. Each day I’d check the CAAFlog site multiple times to see if there was anything new.

Sullivan’s last update on McCabe's trial implied the defense had a good day on Wednesday. It appears McCabe’s civilian defense attorney Neal Puckett and his associate Haytham Faraj are successfully picking apart ‘evidence’ such as very questionable eyewitness testimony from sailor Kevin Demartino and a recording  of a deposition of another eyewitness, the alleged terrorist.

Thus far, many witnesses including other members of the military, have contradicted Demartino’s claims. One passage in Sullivan’s account is very significant: “The Det OIC also testified that Abed is believed to have killed hundreds of Iraqis, including cutting heads off and dumping bodies in mass grave sites.  He also testified that the individuals who actually 'took down' Abed at the objective were SO2 McCabe and an Iraqi SWAT member.“

Most corporate media covering McCabe's trial have not—deliberately perhaps—mentioned the accessibility of the alleged terrorist to that Iraqi SWAT member.

Witnesses also noted Demartino was not present at all times as the alleged terrorist was held in detention.

Sullivan has posted updates each day. Alas, yesterday was his final post because he had to return to work.

Coverage by corporate media pales in comparison. For one thing, Sullivan understands military law protocol, something that is eminently confusing to laypersons like me (and probably you too).

For another, Sullivan writes with an acutely unbiased eye, upholding the approach many of us were trained in before many in the current youthful crop of journalists were told something like, ‘Hey! It’s okay to practice advocacy journalism, even if you package it as news!”

Advocacy journalism is of course a crock. It's fine to write opinion, but you should do so on an honest platform just as we do here at The US Report.

Sullivan noted the abilities of Puckett, Faraj and the prosecuting attorneys: “So I succumbed to the temptation to observe this military justice version of Clash of the Titans.” In one post he likened the slow passage of time to the clocks in Salvador Dali’s painting, 'The Persistence of Memory.' That post he titled ‘Hello, Dali.’

At which point I was ready to present Mr. Sullivan with a Pulitzer Prize except for the fact that would be an insult to his fine skills.

We should give Sullivan a tip of the hat (and if he were with us in person, we’d offer a tip of his favorite libation) for what amounts to some of the best writing I’ve seen on the Web in a very long time. I am going to make an attempt to interview him for a freelance column I write for a very respectable magazine. He sets an example aspiring journalists would do well to model. Sullivan writes with finesse and no small amount of creativity while staying within the bounds of level-headed, informed reportage.

I will miss his coverage from this point on.

I’ll tackle corporate media coverage of the Navy SEAL3 trials in a future post, and I promise I will do so with the zeal of an NFL standout.

[For more information and regular updates, visit Support the Navy SEALs who Captured Ahmed Hashim Abed. To contribute to funds for the SEALs’ civilian defense, visit Maritime Tactical Security. The US Report has covered this story extensively. To read previous columns about the SEALs, enter the words 'Navy SEALs' in the search box in the right column.]