So we are punishing our military for killing terrorist.
After eight years, two investigations and the intervention of a congressman, Maj. Matthew Golsteyn is being charged with murder in the death of an Afghan man during a 2010 deployment.
Golsteyn’s commander “has determined that sufficient evidence exists to warrant the preferral of charges against him,” U.S. Army Special Operations Command spokesman Lt. Col. Loren Bymer told Army Times in a brief email statement Thursday.
“Major Golsteyn is being charged with the murder of an Afghan male during his 2010 deployment to Afghanistan,” Bymer wrote.
The major’s attorney, Phillip Stackhouse, told Army Times that he and his client learned of the charges on Thursday as well, and that the murder charge carries with it the possibility of a death penalty.
Stackhouse called his client a “humble servant-leader who saved countless lives, both American and Afghan, and has been recognized repeatedly for his valorous actions.”
Bymer confirmed that Golsteyn has been recalled to active duty and is under the command of the USASOC headquarters company. An intermediary commander will review the warrant of preferred charges to determine if the major will face an Article 32 hearing that could lead to a court-martial.
That commander has 120 days to make that decision.
Golsteyn had been placed on voluntary excess leave, an administrative status for soldiers pending lengthy administrative proceedings, Bymer said. He is not being confined at this time.
The path to these charges has been a winding one.
Golsteyn, a captain at the time, was deployed to Afghanistan in 2010 with 3rd Special Forces Group. During the intense Battle of Marja, explosives planted on a booby-trapped door killed two Marines and wounded three others who were working with the major’s unit.
During those heated days, Golsteyn earned a Silver Star, the nation’s third-highest award for valor, when he helped track down a sniper targeting his troops, assisted a wounded Afghan soldier and helped coordinate multiple airstrikes.
He would be awarded that medal at a 2011 ceremony at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. The award was later approved for an upgrade to the Distinguished Service Cross, the second highest award for valor.
But both the medal and his coveted Special Forces tab would be stripped from him due to an investigation that eventually closed in 2014 without any charges.
An Army board of inquiry recommended a general discharge for Golsteyn and found no clear evidence the soldier violated the rules of engagement while deployed in 2010. This would have allowed Golsteyn to retain most of his retirement benefits under a recommended general discharge under honorable conditions.
Though he was cleared of a law of armed conflict violation, the board found Golsteyn’s conduct as unbecoming an officer.
Golsteyn was out of Special Forces and in a legal limbo as he awaited a discharge.
That could have been the end of it, but in mid-2015, Army documents surfaced, showing that Golsteyn allegedly told CIA interviewers during a polygraph test that he had killed an alleged Afghan bomb-maker and later conspired with others to destroy the body.
Those documents were part of a 2011 report filed by an Army investigator, Special Agent Zachary Jackson, who reported that Golsteyn said after the Marines were killed in the February blast that his unit found bomb-making materials nearby, detained the suspected bomb-maker and brought him back to their base.
A local tribal leader identified the man as a known Taliban bomb-maker. The accused learned of the leader’s identification, which caused the tribal leader to fear he would kill him and his family if released.
Trusting the leader and having also seen other detainees released, Golsteyn allegedly told CIA interviewers that he and another soldier took the alleged bomb-maker off base, shot him and buried his remains.
He also allegedly told the interviewers that on the night of the killing, he and two other soldiers dug up the body and burned it in a trash pit on base.
Stackhouse has previously called this alleged admission a “fantasy” that his client confessed to shooting an unarmed man.
Then, in late 2016, during an interview with Fox News, Golsteyn admitted to a version of the incidents involving the killing of the alleged Afghan bomb-maker.
The Army opened a second investigation near the end of 2016.
Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-California, himself a Marine veteran of both Iraq and Afghanistan, stepped in on Golsteyn’s behalf, writing a letter to the Army secretary and making scathing public comments about the case, calling the Army’s investigation “retaliatory and vindictive.”
The congressman called on Army leadership to “fix this stupidity,” describing Golsteyn as “a distinguished and well regarded Green Beret.”
Unrelated to the Golsteyn case, Hunter was indicted earlier this year by federal prosecutors who are alleging conspiracy, wire fraud, falsification of records and prohibited use of campaign contributions.
President Trump called the suspected mail bombs “terrorizing acts” and praised law enforcement officers for the arrest in Florida.
“We will prosecute them, him, her, whoever it may be, to the fullest extent of the law,” he said at a White House event. “We must never allow political violence to take root in America and I’m committed to doing everything in my power as president to stop it and stop it now.”
Authorities had been pursuing a lead that some of the devices could have been mailed from South Florida. After news of the arrest broke, FBI agents and other law enforcement personnel could be seen in news footage draping a blue tarp over a van in a South Florida parking lot before loading it onto a truck and driving it away.
According to someone familiar with the investigation, the suspect in custody lives in Florida near a facility through which the packages were mailed. It remains unclear if he acted alone or had help, this person said.
News of the arrest emerged hours after investigators recovered the latest explosive devices, packages sent to Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and former director of national intelligence James R. Clapper Jr.
The FBI said a package, “similar in appearance to the others” found this week, was addressed to Booker and located in Florida. A spokesman for Booker, a prominent Democrat and potential 2020 presidential candidate, declined to comment and referred questions to law enforcement.
Police in New York said they were responding to a suspicious package in midtown Manhattan, just blocks from where one of the explosive devices was found earlier this week at CNN’s offices in the Time Warner Center. The package was “safely removed” from the post office, police said.
A law enforcement official said that package was a device addressed to Clapper, a CNN contributor, and sent to him at the news network. This is the second time this week a suspected explosive was sent to CNN and addressed to a former intelligence official turned cable news commentator. A device sent to CNN’s New York offices and addressed to John Brennan, the former CIA director, was found in the mail room there, prompting an hours-long evacuation.
The package sent to Clapper was found at a mail-sorting facility in New York City, the law enforcement official said. CNN President Jeff Zucker sent a message to staffers confirming that a suspicious package addressed to CNN was intercepted at a post office, and he reiterated that “all mail to CNN domestic offices is being screened at off-site facilities.”
Clapper appeared on CNN shortly after news broke a package was addressed to him, saying he felt relief no one was harmed by that device.
“This is definitely domestic terrorism, no doubt about it in my mind,” he said. Clapper said anyone who has criticized Trump should take extra precautions when handling their mail, adding: “This is not going to silence the administration’s critics.”
Authorities had intensified their hunt for a serial mail bomber in recent days after suspected explosives were delivered to a string of political figures and others who have publicly clashed with Trump. On Thursday, the FBI said three suspected pipe bombs were found — one in actor Robert De Niro’s Manhattan office, and two in mail facilities in Delaware addressed to former vice president Joe Biden.
“I thank God no one’s been hurt, and I thank the brave and resourceful security and law enforcement people for protecting us,” De Niro said in a statement Friday before going on to urge people to vote.
The wave of packages began this week with an explosive device sent to George Soros, a billionaire activist known to fund pro-democracy and liberal political groups. Then came packages addressed to former president Barack Obama; former secretary of state Hillary Clinton; Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.); Eric Holder Jr., Obama’s first attorney general; and Brennan.
One of the packages was recovered at a South Florida office of Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) because her name was listed as the return address. Current and former investigators have said this suggested she was a possible target of the attacks.
All of the bomber’s targets have clashed sharply with Trump at different times, and the spate of dangerous packages intensified the already full-throated political fights two weeks before congressional elections. Trump condemned the bombs on Wednesday before going on to blame the media for the anger seen in American society. He has also bristled at commentators who have highlighted his rhetoric when discussing the explosive devices, tweeting shortly after 3 a.m. Friday that CNN was “blaming me for the current spate of Bombs.”
The explosives prompted a sprawling, nationwide investigation. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, speaking in Washington on Friday, pledged that local, state and federal authorities were “working tirelessly to follow every lead” in the case.
“I can tell you this, we will find the person or persons responsible and we’re going to bring them to justice,” Sessions said.
The packages sent to public figures had many of the hallmarks of suspicious mail, including large block lettering and excessive postage aimed at making it harder to track, said Matthew Doherty, who formerly led the U.S. Secret Service’s National Threat Assessment Center. And the fact that none detonated provides investigators with considerable evidence, he said.
NYPD’s Total Containment vessel arrives as law enforcement respond to the scene of a suspicious package at a postal facility, Friday, Oct. 26, 2018 in New York. Two law enforcement officials say a package closely resembling parcels sent to critics of President Donald Trump has been found at the postal facility in Manhattan. The suspicious package was discovered by postal workers. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
“There’s a rich treasure trove of forensic information since they were found intact,” Doherty said. That means FBI investigators can “look for patterns such as the device, the technical expertise, the method of mailing, a whole host of great, rich forensic evidence that can be gathered.”
Officials on Thursday declined to say whether the devices were intended to detonate or to scare people, but they repeatedly urged the public to view them as if they could pose a threat.
“We are treating them as live devices,” NYPD Commissioner James P. O’Neill said at a news briefing, urging people not to touch packages they deem suspicious. “This is something that should be taken seriously.”
Authorities pleaded with the public to send in any tips, and William F. Sweeney Jr., assistant director in charge of the FBI New York field office, said people should remain vigilant, warning that more devices “have been or could be mailed.”
Law enforcement officials described the devices as PVC pipes stuffed with what appeared to be fireworks powder and glass. Electrical wires leading out of the pipe led to an electric timer taped to the pipe, according to law enforcement officials speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the investigation.
The FBI said the packages found so far had shared characteristics, including manila envelopes with bubble-wrapped interiors. They all also had a half-dozen Forever stamps, computer-printed address labels and return addresses bearing the misspelled name of Wasserman Schultz, who chaired the Democratic National Committee during part of the 2016 presidential campaign.
Have any of these bastards condemned the Left-Wing nuts that have attacked conservatives?
MILWAUKEE/MOSINEE, Wis. (Reuters) – The undercurrent of rage that has been driving U.S. politics for the past few years surfaced on Wednesday in a series of suspected bombs sent to prominent U.S. Democrats and the news outlet CNN less than two weeks before congressional elections.
None of the devices went off and no injuries were reported, but a number of top Democrats were quick to label the threats a symptom of a coarsening brand of political rhetoric promoted by President Donald Trump, who also condemned the acts.
Police intercepted six suspected bombs sent to targets including Trump’s 2016 presidential rival, Hillary Clinton, former President Barack Obama and prominent political donor George Soros. Law enforcement agencies were investigating.
During his presidential campaign, Trump regularly urged his supporters to chant “Lock her up,” a threat to jail Clinton, and supported conspiracy theories that Soros plays an underhanded role in influencing U.S. politics. Trump has also disparaged the mainstream media and criticized CNN as “fake news.”
At a political rally in Wisconsin on Wednesday night, Trump sought to project a message of unity, pledging to find those responsible for the suspected bombs and calling on Americans to come together.
“You see how nice I’m behaving tonight? Have you ever seen this?” he asked the crowd in Mosinee, Wisconsin. “We’re all behaving very well and hopefully we can keep it that way.”
Democrats were having none of it, saying the Republican president had little credibility to act as a unifying figure.
“President Trump’s words ring hollow until he reverses his statements that condone acts of violence,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said in a statement earlier in the day.
“For years now, Donald Trump has been calling for the jailing of his critics and has lauded violence against journalists,” said U.S. Representative Bill Pascrell, a New Jersey Democrat. “The danger of right-wing extremism cannot be ignored and more attention must be paid to it before even worse violence occurs.”
Politicians from both major parties have made condemning the harsh tone of politics part of their everyday stump speeches.
Republicans have criticized Democrats and liberal activists as a “mob,” decrying protesters crowding the U.S. Capitol to oppose Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, and confronting and chastising Republican lawmakers in restaurants and other settings. Scenes of small-scale violence also marked Trump’s 2017 inauguration.
A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll found rising anger would be a factor driving voters on the Nov. 6 elections when Democrats are seeking to regain control of at least one of the two chambers of Congress.
HEATED TONE
Trump sometimes invokes images of violence in remarks to his supporters. Last week, he reiterated his support for a Montana congressman who body-slammed a reporter in 2017. In August, Trump warned that if Democrats gained control of Congress, they would “quickly and violently” overturn his agenda.
Last year, he said there were bad people on both sides of a clash in Charlottesville, Virginia, between white supremacist groups and counter-protesters.
Some of the people who received suspicious packages, including Obama, Clinton and former Attorney General Eric Holder, have been targeted by online groups such as QAnon that push vast conspiracy theories saying Democrats are behind international crime rings.
Posts on online message boards dismissed the cluster of suspected bombs as a “false flag,” an allegation that a widely covered news event was a politically motivated hoax.
Paul Achter, a professor of rhetoric at the University of Richmond, said Trump’s frequently violent tone increased the likelihood of violent actions.
“Verbal abuse has consequences,” Achter said. “Just because Trump did not send a bomb or beat up a reporter or shoot up a newsroom doesn’t excuse this kind of speech.”
But Republican U.S. Representative Steve Scalise, who was wounded last year by a gunman who opened fire on Republican lawmakers during a baseball practice, said it was a mistake for Democrats to criticize Trump for the suspected bombs.
Two more suspicious packages found – FBI
“I think it was important that the President did come out with a statement the way he did – strongly,” Scalise said in a statement. “I heard silence a lot of times, when Republicans were under attack, from Democrat leaders. We all should be calling this out, whether a Republican or Democrat is under attack.”
Austin police announced that the man described by police as a “serial bomber” is now dead. The suspected bomber reportedly blew himself up with a bomb as police approached. Investigators identified the suspect as a 24-year-old white male.
The self-inflicted death of the suspect brings a three-week terror campaign of bombings to a close. The five exploded bombs left two people dead and five injured.
This may be a picture of the bastard.
UPDATE 8:05 a.m.: “We know the mastermind behind these bombings is deceased,” Governor Greg Abbott told Fox & Friends Wednesday morning, the Washington Times reported.
The governor said “We don’t know if there are any other bombs out there,” and “We need to make sure we rule out whether there was anybody else involved in this process.”
UPDATE 7:55 a.m.: KVUE is reporting that a person has been arrested outside the bombing suspect’s home. A reporter on the scene say the person arrested may be a photojournalist who got too close to the suspect’s home.
KVUE Video Screenshot of person arrested outside bombing suspect’s house.
UPDATE 7:45 a.m.: Pflugerville Police Chief Jessica Robledo said officers are investigating a suspicious package near the downtown area, KXAN reported Wednesday morning. Residents have been advised to remain indoors.
KXAN reporter Lauren Kravets tweeted from the scene that DPS troopers confirmed the location is the bombing suspect’s house.
UPDATE 7:05 a.m.: The scene where the Austin serial bomber killed himself is located less than ten miles from the scene of the original March 2 bombing that killed 39-year-old Anthony Stephan House
UPDATE 7:00 a.m.: Texas Governor Greg Abbott tweeted a congratulatory note to law enforcement authorities following the death of the suspect.
KVUE reports police are inside the deceased suspected bomber’s home and are conducting a search for additional evidence. Investigators are also reported to be talking with the suspect’s parents.
UPDATE 6:40 a.m.: Police warn people in Austin and the surrounding communities to maintain vigilance as they do not know where the suspect has been for the past 24 hours. Investigators found the suspect in Round Rock which is located just north of Austin.
UPDATE 6:35 a.m.: Media outlets in Austin are reporting they know who the suspect was and where he lived but they have not yet released the information.
UPDATE 5:50 a.m.: The Austin American-Statesman reported via KVUE that the suspect wore a disguise, including a wig, when he entered the FedEx store in Sunset Valley where he shipped two explosive devices. In the video surveillance released by investigators, the suspect can also be seen wearing gloves.
UPDATE 5:45 a.m.: President Donald Trump tweeted a congratulatory message to the law enforcement investigators involved in the Austin serial bombing investigation.
UPDATE 5:35 a.m.: Austin Interim Police Chief Brian Manley asked the community to remain vigilant and look out for each other. “We don’t know where this suspect has spent his last 24 hours and therefore we still need to remain vigilant to ensure that no other packages or devices have been left in the community.” The chief asked people in the surrounding communities to remain vigilant as well. This announcement came after locating the suspect in Round Rock, a few miles north of Austin.
Police are waiting for daylight to continue searching the vicinity of the bomb blast that killed the suspect. The delay is to ensure the safety of the investigators and to make certain they can preserve evidence at the scene.
Chief Manley tweeted his thanks to the law enforcement team that successfully brought the bombing campaign to a close.
UPDATE 5:15 a.m.: Chief Manley announced the death the bombing suspect. The man blew himself up with his own device after police made contact with his vehicle. One officer was injured in the explosion. Manley described the bomber as a 24-year-old white male. He did not provide any additional information about the suspect or his motivation for the bombing campaign that left two people dead, five people wounded, and a community terrorized.
Manley said they found the vehicle that had previously been described to police by witnesses. Investigators found the vehicle in the parking lot of a Red Roof Inn in Round Rock, Texas, just north of Austin.
“We had multiple officers from both the police department and our federal partners that took up positions around the hotel awaiting the arrival of our tactical team,” Manley said describing the scene. “We wanted to have ballistic vehicles here so we could attempt to take this suspect into custody as safely as possible.”
The chief said the vehicle began to drive away while the officers were waiting.
Officers began following the suspect’s vehicle and the suspect stopped his car in a bar ditch. “As the SWAT team approached the vehicle,” the chief stated, “the suspect detonated a bomb inside the vehicle knocking one of our SWAT officers back. One of our SWAT officers fired at the suspect as well.”
“The suspect is deceased,” Manley stated, “and has significant injuries from a blast that occurred from detonating a bomb inside his vehicle.”
The chief said he could not release any information about the suspect’s identity pending formal identification by the medical examiner and notification of the suspect’s family.
Original Story Follows:
“A man whom authorities were attempting to arrest early Wednesday in a string of bombing attacks in Austin killed himself with an explosive device as authorities closed in,” according to a report from a high-ranking law enforcement official, the Austin American-Statesman reported early Wednesday morning.
Investigators reportedly used “cell phone technology” to track the suspect’s location and found him just north of Austin in Round Rock, Texas,” KVUE reported.
Police reportedly identified the man after reviewing video at a FedEx store where he allegedly shipped two bombs.
“The Austin serial bomber is dead this morning,” KVUE reported.
Police reportedly used cell phone technology to track down the suspect’s location after identifying him from security video and online searches, KVUE reported.
During an interview on KVUE, American Statesman reporter Tony Plohetski said police began to track down the suspect by finding receipts from materials he allegedly used in the bombings. The investigation led police to obtain a search warrant to obtain online search information. Some of those searches included Google searches for FedEx locations — including the Brodie Lane store where the suspect allegedly shipped two packages.
The searches led to police finding the IP address of the suspect which revealed additional information.
Plohetski said police then used “cell phone technology”to track the suspect down to a location in Round Rock where he eventually blew himself up with his own device.
The man allegedly killed two people and injured five others in a series of explosions that rocked the capital city region since March 2.
The bombing campaign began on March 2 when a package exploded in northeast Austin. The blast killed 39-year-old Anthony House. On March 12, a second package exploded when 17-year-old Draylen Mason opened a package left on the front steps of his home. The parcel exploded, killing him and injuring his mother.
A third explosion detonated a few hours later and sent a 75-year-old woman to the hospital with life-threatening injuries. Shortly after this explosion, Chief Manley disclosed the bombs were linked.
Less than one week later, Austin’s fourth bomb exploded and injured two young men on the city’s southwest side.
On Tuesday morning, officials told reporters that a medium-size package exploded inside the FedEx sorting facility in Schertz, near San Antonio. There were about 75 people inside the plant at the time of the blast that occurred shortly after midnight Tuesday morning. One woman near the package was treated for minor injuries and was released at the scene.
The package originated in Austin and was addressed to be delivered back to Austin, KENS reporter Charlie Cooper stated. An FBI agent told the CBS reporter that “it’s more than possible” that this explosion is connected to the four bombs that have exploded in the Austin area this month.
Officials confirmed Tuesday afternoon that the Schertz explosion and a “suspicious package” that was later determined to be an unexploded device were both connected to the series of package bombs that exploded in Austin since March 2. Both packages were reportedly shipped from a FedEx store in Sunset Valley, southwest of Austin.
