Honor and Betrayal: The Untold Story of the Navy SEALs Who Captured the "Butcher of Fallujah" -- and the Shameful Ordeal They Later Endured

by Patrick Robinson

Overview

THEY JUST CAPTURED IRAQ'S MOST WANTED TERRORIST.
NOW THEY HAD TO DEFEND THEIR HONOR.

On a daring nighttime raid in September 2009, a team of Navy SEALs grabbed the notorious terrorist Ahmad Hashim Abd al-Isawi, the villainous “Butcher of Fallujah,” mastermind behind the 2004 murder and mutilation of four American contractors. Within hours of his capture, al-Isawi, with his lip bleeding, claimed he had been beaten in his holding cell. Three Navy SEALs—members of the same team that had just captured the notorious terrorist—were charged with prisoner abuse, dereliction of duty, and lying. On the word of a terrorist!

The three Navy SEALs were placed under house arrest and forbidden contact with their comrades. Despite enormous pressure from their commanders to sign confessions to “lesser charges,” the three resolute and fearless SEALs each demanded a court-martial. They were determined to prove their innocence.

When Fox News broke the story about the accusations, Americans were outraged. Over 300,000 people signed petitions demanding the SEALs be exonerated. Their SEAL teammates were furious; but nothing could stop the cold determination of the military's top brass to hang these guys out to dry—not even U.S. congressmen who petitioned the Pentagon to drop the charges.

Honor and Betrayal is a no-holds-barred account by bestselling author Patrick Robinson. It reveals for the first time the entire story, from the night the SEALs stormed the al-Qaeda desert stronghold, the accusations and legal twists and turns that followed, to the cut-and-thrust drama in the courtroom where the fate of three American heroes hung in the balance.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780306823091
Publisher:	Hachette Books
Publication date:	11/05/2013
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	975,156
File size:	644 KB

About the Author

Patrick Robinson is the coauthor of the recent New York Times #1 nonfiction bestseller Lone Survivor. He is also the author of several interna­tional bestselling U.S. Navy-based novels, including Intercept, Diamondhead, To the Death, and The Delta Solution, as well as several nonfiction bestsellers, including his New York Times bestseller A Colossal Failure of Common Sense: The Inside Story of the Collapse of Lehman Brothers, and the international bestseller One Hundred Days. He lives in the Cayman Islands and and spends his summers in Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

Table of Contents

Author's Note iv

Prologue: Open Letters to Admiral Pybus vii

1 The Butcher on the Bridge 1

2 "We're Navy Seals-and We Never Screw It Up!" 31

3 Echo Platoon in Battle Mode 59

4 We Want This Maniac Alive 83

5 A Presumption of Guilt 111

6 Scapegoats of Empire 141

7 Sound and Fury in Congress 167

8 The Outrage of the American Public 196

9 US Government Denies Immunity 224

10 Denied in Favor of the Defense 255

11 Two Verdicts in the Iraqi Courtroom 287

12 The Green Light from High Command 318

Epilogue 354

Editorial Reviews

"In this very important book, author Patrick Robinson shows how the culture of our military is imperiled by a high command that too frequently allows political correctness to trump honor and common sense.... I was shocked—as a Navy veteran and defense lawyer."—Ray V. Hartwell III, Washington Times

"If you are looking for a strong read, this is a no-brainer."—Sacramento Book Review

"Should be required reading for all military personnel today."—American Spectator

“Written in an even–keeled, reportorial style, the book tells a story...that certainly needs to be told.... Guaranteed to raise eyebrows and spark debate.”—Booklist

Kirkus Reviews, 11/1/13

“Robinson ably discusses the intricacies of military justice…Captures the folly and resource drain of the Iraq War…Should appeal to conservative readers.

From the Publisher

2013-10-21
Blustery, angry account of three Navy SEALs who snared a vicious Iraqi terrorist and were then ensnared by flimsy allegations of prisoner abuse. Writing "with the cooperation of" two of the accused, Robinson (co-author: Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10, etc.) sees this odd case as an indictment of the military's desire for political correctness and its complex relationship with its elite warriors: "The US Navy SEALs belonged to the nation, not to a few yellow-braided officers." By 2009, the special-ops mission in Iraq was directed toward capture-or-kill missions against specific insurgents, like Ahmad al-Isawi, responsible for the notorious mutilation slayings of four American contractors in Fallujah. When the SEALs finally seized him, he accused one of bloodying his lip, a ploy literally out of the al-Qaida handbook. The fear of abuse scandals following Abu Ghraib caused commanders to lose perspective on the reality of how such counterterrorism operations were conducted. Unfortunately, the court martial of the SEALs became a public embarrassment for the military. The whole affair was carried all the way to Baghdad; after considerable expense, all three were quickly acquitted. Robinson ably discusses the intricacies of military justice, but his style is repetitive: Readers are constantly advised that "[t]he Navy had somehow jumped all over an unreliable statement from a stressed-out kid…acting as though a heroic SEAL platoon did not have an honest man among them." Since the case against the SEALs seems like an update of Catch-22, Robinson's frequent assertions that each accused warrior "wore the flag of the United States both on his battle dress and on his heart" become extraneous. Perhaps inadvertently captures the folly and resource drain of the Iraq War, though its emphatic style should appeal to conservative readers.

Kirkus Reviews