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Hi Seth,

Nicely done on this. I have a few observations, just in the nature of constructive criticism. First, it's important to note why EITs were never allowed in Iraq. They were always a legal and moral obscenity, but the war in Iraq was at least ostensibly constrained by the Geneva Conventions and IHL. The EITs, by contrast, could not even pretend to be consistent w/ IHL. That means, second, the SEAL officers of the sort pictured in your article committed an independent violation of both IHL and military regulations, for which punishment was entirely appropriate. Not for the murder but for Jamadi's mistreatment. I don't doubt that the CIA protects its own, but the implication of your piece is that the military should have done the same. No, it did exactly the right thing by holding SEAL officers accountable for their abuses. A soldier who takes a smiling selfie next to a detainee's corpse has committed a grave offense, as soldiers well know. Joe Margulies

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Please check your info on the military who were punished for the Abu Gra.. incident. The prison was run by the Army . (not the Navy) and the enlisted personnel who had selfies taken which resulted in court cases were mostly Army reservists and National Guard. The commander of the prison was a Army reservist female Brigadier General who had been called to active duty. Make sure credit is given where it is due. Many found it interesting that Seal Team VI involved with Osama's death .. themselves wound up dying in a helicopter crash... the question was asked by those who had been familiar with many operations IF that was intentional to get rid of evidence.

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