Monday, November 13, 2017

Update on the death of Staff Sgt. Logan Melgar

[T]wo Navy SEALs are under investigation for killing Melgar—an investigation, first reported by The New York Times, sending shockwaves throughout the special-operations community.

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This account is based on five members of the special-operations community who were not cleared to speak publicly.

[...]

As the elite troops do in so many countries, they operate in the shadows, with comparatively little oversight—and what their actions actually look like on the ground can be much dirtier than the heroic image the Pentagon prefers to portray.

For example, part of the intelligence gathering operation in Mali involved a fund used to pay informants.

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Melgar, two special operations sources say, discovered the SEALs were pocketing some of the money from the informant fund. The SEALS offered to cut him in, but Melgar declined, these sources said.

  Daily Beast
This account has Melgar dying from asphyxiation during "an altercation" with the two SEALs.
The SEALs told superiors that Melgar was drunk during so-called combatives—that is, hand-to-hand fighting exercises.
Okay, so nobody said the SEALs were smart. An autopsy was bound to be performed.
A former AFRICOM official who saw the autopsy report said no drugs or alcohol were found in Melgar’s system. At least one source believes he did not drink alcohol at all.

[...]

Melgar’s wife, Michelle, was also suspicious, three sources tell The Daily Beast. She raised concerns about the cause of death and allegations of drinking, according to three people familiar with the investigation, including providing investigators emails sent by her husband about problems he was having with the SEALs.

UPDATE 11/16/18:

Four murder convictions.

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