President Donald Trump said Saturday morning in a tweet that Navy SEAL Chief Eddie Gallagher will be moved to "less restrictive confinement" after a group of 40 lawmakers sent a letter urging him to be freed from pre-trial confinement.
Gallagher, a 19-year SEAL accused of war crimes during the 2017 Battle of Mosul, "will soon be moved to less restrictive confinement while he awaits his day in court," Trump tweeted. "Process should move soon."
The former Navy SEAL among a group of eight men arrested earlier this week in Port-au-Prince on weapons charges says he was providing security work "for people who are directly connected to the current President" of Haiti.
"We were being used as pawns in a public fight between him and the current Prime Minister of Haiti," said Chris Osman, 44, in a now-deleted post on Instagram Friday. "We were not released we were in fact rescued."
(From left to right) Chris Osman, Chris McKinley, Kent Kroeker, and Talon Burton
A group comprised of former U.S. military veterans and security contractors who were detained in Haiti on weapons charges has been brought back to the United States and arrested upon landing, The Miami-Herald reported.
The men — five Americans, two Serbs, and one Haitian — were stopped at a Port-au-Prince police checkpoint on Sunday while riding in two vehicles without license plates, according to police. When questioned, the heavily-armed men allegedly told police they were on a "government mission" before being taken into custody.
(From left to right) Chris Osman, Chris McKinley, Kent Kroeker, and Talon Burton
At least four American veterans were among a group of eight men arrested by police in Haiti earlier this week for allegedly driving without license plates and possessing an arsenal of weaponry and tactical gear.
Police in Port-au-Prince arrested five Americans, two Serbians, and one Haitian man at a police checkpoint on Sunday, according to The Miami-Herald. The men reportedly told police they were on a "government mission" but did not specify for which government, according to The Herald.
They also told police that "their boss was going to call their boss," implying that someone high in Haiti's government would vouch for them and secure their release, Herald reporter Jacqueline Charles told NPR.
What they were actually doing or who they were potentially working for remains unclear. A State Department spokesperson told Task & Purpose they were aware that Haitian police arrested a "group of individuals, including some U.S. citizens," but declined to answer whether the men were employed by or operating under contract with the U.S. government.
File photo: Navy SEALs in Mosul (Photo: CNN/screenshot)
SAN DIEGO — The commander of Naval Special Warfare said Wednesday that he recently commissioned a 90-day review of recruiting, selection, training, and leadership development in his command amid allegations of drug use, murder, and other ethical lapses within the SEAL community.
Robert O'Neill, the Navy SEAL Team 6 operator who fired the shot that killed Osama Bin Laden during the May 2011 Abbottabad, Pakistan raid, recently signed a movie deal with Universal Studios to base a film on his best-selling biography.
The rights to the film were obtained by Universal Pictures and Broadway Video, owned by SNL creator Lorne Michaels, Deadline originally reported on Feb. 7. Titled The Operator: Firing the Shots That Killed Osama Bin Laden and My Years as a SEAL Team Warrior, the film is based on O'Neill's biography of the same name.
