Navy officer acquitted in Iraq detainee death

US Navy SEAL (elite forces) officer Lt. Andrew Ledford was found not guilty this week by a Naval jury on the charge of assault in the homicide death of an Iraqi detainee in 2003. Nine other SEALs were tried in the case and administratively punished. Only Ledford, their superior, went to a court-martial, at the request of the highest-ranking SEAL admiral.

The case was special because it shed some light on the CIA's methods and relations with US Armed Forces in Iraq. Most of the hearings were public, but there were repeated secret sessions, including one which raised the question of whether the CIA had ordered the SEALs to ignore the Geneva Conventions. From the LA Times story:

In Iraq, Ledford's platoon conducted 40 to 50 "kill or capture" missions to arrest suspected terrorists for interrogation in late 2003. Jamadi was suspected of involvement in the bombing of the Red Cross facility in Baghdad that killed 12 people.

No one has been charged in Jamadi's death, but the CIA's equivalent of an internal affairs unit has referred the case to the Department of Justice.

After Jamadi's death, his body was packed in ice and whisked out of the prison. Pictures were taken of Army personnel leaning toward the body and grinning; when the pictures were published in the media, it added to the controversy about U.S. handling of Iraqi prisoners.

Ledford's SEALs were also accused of taking unauthorized pictures of prisoners. In one, a SEAL was pointing a loaded gun at a hooded prisoner; in another, a prisoner was wearing a pumpkin mask while a Navy officer crouched over him.

Ledford was pictured smiling and holding up a can of Red Bull energy drink with a prisoner in the background.