Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Major Victory: Sergeant First Class Martland Exonerated, Will Remain in Military



Intro to “Major Victory: Sergeant First Class Martland Exonerated, Will Remain in Military
Edited by John R. Houk
5/3/16

Thanks to an email update from Christian Breaking News, I discovered that Sergeant First Class Charles Martland has been removed from an Army list that would have had him prosecuted for going after an Afghan policeman who sexually molested several young boys. Frankly I am uncertain if this means Sergeant Martland is totally exonerated from future prosecution however according to an American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) he can resume duty with the Army.

In case you haven’t heard the Obama Administration’s reasoning why SFC Charles Martland should be punished here are some excerpts I have gleaned:

… It seems Sergeant Martland committed a heinous infraction, one for which there is no forgiveness, no accommodation in Obama's Army. He is being discharged from the Army because he shoved a corrupt Afghan police official who was repeatedly raping a 12 year old boy. The police official is a Muslim pedophile who kidnapped the boy, raped him repeatedly and decided to keep him as a sex slave, so he chained the boy to his bed. That way he could continue raping the boy at will.

The boy's mother tried her best to secure his freedom. She complained to the rapist/kidnapper's superiors, but unfortunately they did nothing. She confronted the rapist/kidnapper directly in an attempt to free her little boy. But the child rapist was having none of it. Instead of freeing the child, he savagely beat the woman.

Because the boy was being raped and was imprisoned on a US military base, and having nowhere else to turn, the boy's mother appealed to the US Army for help. This story made its way to Sergeant Martland and his detachment commander, Captain Daniel Quinn. These two highly decorated special forces soldiers did exactly what every American who reads this article would do under the same circumstances. They confronted the child rapist and demanded that he release the boy.

The child rapist, who is a corrupt Afghan police official, admitted all of the crimes and perverse acts we have outlined in this article and laughed at the two Americans who confronted him. When he laughingly refused to release the boy, Sergeant Martland shoved the child rapist sending him to the ground. SFC Martland showed tremendous restraint when he didn't kill this pedophile.

Sergeant Martland and Captain Quinn really had no choice in the matter; their path was set. After all, the men were Green Berets, whose motto is De oppresso liber, which means to liberate the oppressed. … (Shocking Why Obama Kicking Green Beret Out Of Army; By SCOTT SCHAEFER; Intelligent US Politics; 10/9/15)

Here’s another example:

According to CNN, SFC Martland is under a Pentagon-imposed gag order, but at the request of Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif, he wrote a statement detailing his actions on Sept. 6, 2011.

“Our ALP (Afghan Local Police) were committing atrocities and we were quickly losing the support of the local populace,” he wrote to Rep. Hunter.   “The severity of the rapes and the lack of action by the Afghan Government caused many of the locals to view our ALP as worse than the Taliban.”

As reported by Fox News and countless other news agencies, SFC Martland and CPT Quinn learned that the boy had been tied to a post at the home of ALP commander, Abdul Rahman, and raped repeatedly for up to two weeks. His mother was beaten when she attempted to intervene. The boy showed the Green Berets his arms where the scars from being tied remained. A medic took the boy to a back room for an examination with an interpreter. Quinn verified the story with other nearby ALP commanders.

“After the child rapist laughed it off and referenced that it was only a boy,” CPT Quinn and SFC Martland took action, physically removing the Afghan commander from the U.S. military camp. According to SFC Martland, “He was never knocked out, and he ran away from our camp.” He reiterated that the incident lasted no more than five minutes. (Green Beret Cut from Army for Intervening on Behalf of Child Assault Victim in Afghanistan; By Jay Sekulow; ACLJ; 12/2015)

Yet another:

Five years ago, Sgt. Martland saved the life of an Afghan boy who was abducted from his mother, imprisoned as a sex slave, and repeatedly raped by an Afghan police chief, Abdul Rahman. Martland’s heroic actions to rescue a defenseless child cost him dearly. The Army punished not Rahman, but Martland, and relieved him from his duty post in Afghanistan…


In 2011, Martland and his Special Forces Captain Dan Quinn (who has since resigned from the military) physically assaulted Abdul Rahman, after learning that Rahman had abducted an Afghan boy, chained him to a bed, repeatedly abused him as a sex slave and beat up the boy’s mother when she sought to find and rescue her son. The Green Berets intervened when they discovered that the boy was being raped and held by Rahman. According to the Martland and Quinn, the Afghan villagers were pleading with them to do something about repeated sexual assaults against children by the Afghan police.

Here is the dirty, not so little secret of Afghanistan: The sexual abuse of children is widespread and embedded into the Afghan Pashtun culture. There is scant prosecution of child sex exploitation in Afghanistan. American military have long been saddled with the knowledge of the Afghan practice of “bacha bazi,” translated as dancing boys. Bacha Bazi is the ancient and widespread practice of Afghan men who abduct and lure poor boys into the grisly world of child sex slavery where they are raped and exploited by Afghan men. Frontline exposed this lurid child sex trafficking trade.

U.S. military stationed in Afghanistan experience the hideous reality that children are expendable in the worthless Afghan criminal justice system. Cultural mores trump human rights among the tribesman of Afghanistan. Incredibly, our military is warned to turn a blind eye to this insidious abuse of children. See no evil.

This wasn’t the first time that Martland and Quinn experienced inaction from the Afghan government for serious child sexual exploitation crimes committed by the Afghan police force. Martland and Quinn knew that two Afghan commanders were not prosecuted nor punished for the rape of a 15-year-old girl and the honor killing of an Afghan commander’s 12 year old daughter who kissed a boy.

Martland, who was disgusted and fed up with the ongoing sexual exploitation of children by Afghan officials said, “I felt that morally we could no longer stand by and allow our Afghan commanders to commit these atrocities.” (NONE SO BRAVE; By Elizabeth Yore; FrontPageMag.com; 2/11/16)

JRH 5/3/15
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Major Victory: Sergeant First Class Martland Exonerated, Will Remain in Military

April 29, 2016

It’s a massive victory more than six months in the making. Sergeant First Class Charles Martland – a decorated war hero who faced expulsion from the Army for defending a child – has been exonerated and will be allowed to remain in the U.S. military.

We have been aggressively advocating for SFC Martland for more than six months, and now we’ve helped achieve a significant victory for this Green Beret war hero.

SFC Martland faced expulsion from the Army for defending a child from sexual abuse and confronting an admitted sexual predator in Afghanistan. The ACLJ argued that his actions – stopping the perpetrator who was violating Afghan law and forcibly removing him from a U.S. military base – were heroic.
Today, the military reversed course.  As Fox News reports:

An Army spokesman said Thursday that Martland's status has been changed, allowing him to stay in the Army in a statement to Fox News.

"In SFC Martland’s case, the Army Board for Correction of Military Records determination modified a portion of one of SFC Martland’s evaluation reports and removed him from the QMP list, which will allow him to remain in the Army," said Lt. Col. Jerry Pionk.

The decision by the Army to retain this hero is long overdue and represents a significant victory for SFC Martland.  Justice has been served. The U.S. military has a moral obligation to stop child sexual abuse and exonerate SFC Martland for defending a child from rape. The Army finally took the corrective action needed, and this is not only a victory for SFC Martland, but for the American people as well.

The ACLJ has been on the front lines of the fight for SFC Martland. We’ve sent critical legal letters to President ObamaArmy Chief of Staff General Mark Milley, Army Deputy Chief of Staff, G1 Personnel, General James McConville, the chairmen and ranking members of both the House and Senate Armed Services committees, acting Secretary of the Army Patrick Murphy, three letters to Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter, and 19 letters to the leading veterans organizations in the country.

Earlier this week, we delivered a letter signed by 65,102 concerned Americans to the acting Secretary of the Army and the Secretary of Defense in addition to another 1,743 individualized letters from Americans who wished to express their support for SFC Martland.

The letters, urging top U.S. military officials to reinstate SFC Martland, were clear and direct:

SFC Martland's actions reflect American values – military values – and I am proud of what he did. He intervened on behalf of a victimized child. Please intervene for him. SFC Martland is the consummate American hero. He should be defended, not discharged. Please don't turn your back on him. SFC Martland has dutifully sacrificed to defend the freedom I hold dear as an American, and as an American I am standing up for this war hero. Please put this warrior back on the battlefield where he belongs. Do the right thing. Clear SFC Martland's name and reinstate this American hero immediately.

At the same time, nearly 350,000 Americans signed on to the ACLJ’s petition demanding justice for SFC Martland.

This massive letter-writing and legal advocacy campaign has paid off.  SFC Martland is now able to return to his dedicated service in defense of our nation – what he has always wanted to do and what he has done superbly well.

We are hopeful that this victory sheds new light on the horrific practice that SFC Martland helped expose and that it will lead to meaningful policy changes in the U.S. military and our interaction with our allies.  The sexual abuse of children must not be tolerated, and those who are willing to stand up to this horror should be supported and honored, not condemned.

Protect Afghani Kids from Sexual Torture

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American Center for Law and Justice | Washington D.C. | Copyright © 2016, ACLJ

The ACLJ is an organization dedicated to the defense of constitutional liberties secured by law.


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