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IG looks into handling of spec ops shootings

WASHINGTON — The Defense Department’s inspector general has opened an investigation into an Army general who ordered a Marine Special Forces unit out of Afghanistan after a shooting in March that left as many as 19 civilians dead.

The probe will review whether Lt. Gen. Francis H. Kearney III, deputy commander of Special Operations Command, exercised poor judgment and potentially compromised eventual legal proceedings in incidents involving Special Forces troops in Afghanistan, according to a Defense Department official.

One incident was the Marine shooting and a second involved two Army Green Berets, who have been charged with premeditated murder in the killing of an Afghan man last year.

The official, who requested anonymity because the Pentagon does not publicly discuss investigations while they are underway, said the IG would look at whether Kearney exerted undue command influence over the legal proceedings by taking actions that could suggest he presumed the individuals guilty before they were brought before a court.

Kearney ordered a Marine special operations company out of Afghanistan after the unit allegedly fired at civilians on a road in Nangarhar province. Besides up to 19 dead, the shooting left as many as 50 civilians injured. At the time, he was special operations chief for U.S. Central Command, which oversees the operations in a region that includes Afghanistan and Iraq.

Eight members of the Marine Corps company involved in the March 4 shooting were ordered back to their base in the U.S. after the incident, and the rest of the company was told to leave Afghanistan and return to ships in the Persian Gulf.

The IG review comes two months after Rep. Walter B. Jones, R-N.C., wrote to Defense Secretary Robert Gates urging “a thorough investigation” of Kearney’s actions.

He complained that Kearney directed that premeditated murder charges be brought against two Army soldiers in connection with the Afghan shooting even though they were exonerated by the Army’s Criminal Investigation Command.

“The situation is just one instance among many that involve improper command influence and poor decision-making by Lt. Gen. Kearney,” Jones said in the letter.

Just last month, Marine Maj. Gen. Dennis J. Hejlik, head of Marine Corps Special Operations Command, told reporters that the Marines responded appropriately to an ambush against them, and should not have been pulled out of the country.

After the Marine incident, Kearney was promoted to lieutenant general and named to the deputy commander job.