Classified data puts SEAL abuse case under wraps

[seemslikeadream]

Navy keeps tight lid on identities, details pending punitive proceedings


By Seth Hettena, Associated Press

SAN DIEGO -- When Marine reservists were implicated last year in the abuse of Iraqi detainees, Camp Pendleton quickly released their names to the media.
When photographs surfaced of abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison, it was not long before the public learned the names of the U.S. soldiers grinning in the background.

But the Navy is keeping a much tighter lid on the identity of seven of its elite Coronado-based SEAL commandos who have been charged with assault following probes of Iraqi prisoner abuse. Few details, and no names or ranks, have been released since charges were announced Sept. 2.

The enormous volume of classified evidence may be complicating things, said John Tranberg, a civilian defense attorney in San Marcos who is representing one of the SEALs charged in the case, an enlisted sailor whom he declined to name.

The accused SEALs were members of "capturing units" taking part in sensitive operations in Iraq, often at the direction of the CIA, said Tranberg, who recently represented a Marine reservist convicted of abusing prisoners in Iraq. The SEALs ranged in rank from enlisted sailors to junior officers.
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