Green Beret Discharged For Beating Afghan Child Rapist Speaks Out

Sergeant 1st Class Charles Martland is the Green Beret who discharged from the Army for delivering justice in the form of a beat down to a Afghan police chief who Martland and others came to learn had been raping a little boy. Concerned with what they had learned, Martland and former Captain Daniel Quinn reported their findings to their chain of command. The soldiers were told that such issues are not the US Army’s concern– that local law enforcement issues were not in their purview.

But for Martland and Quinn the injustice had to be answered. The actions they took landed them on the wrong side of a court martial and cost them their jobs. The American public has been sympathetic, but about a month ago Martland began speaking out.

CNN reports:

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

“Kicking me out of the army is morally wrong and the entire country knows it,” Martland writes. Last week the Army rejected his appeal.

Martland and former Captain Daniel Quinn were disciplined by the Army after they beat a powerful local police official who they concluded had been raping a small boy. They say they had been encouraged by higher-ups that there was nothing to do about such horrific acts, that these were Afghan problems for the Afghan authorities to work out.

But the Afghan authorities wouldn’t do anything about it, the two soldiers say.