WASHINGTON: A
Navy SEAL platoon leader controversially pardoned of war crimes by US President
Donald Trump was described as "toxic" and "freaking evil"
by veterans who served with him in Iraq, The New York Times reported Friday.

Video testimony
provided to war crimes investigators and published by the newspaper showed
former members of Eddie Gallagher's elite commando unit accusing him of
shooting at a 12-year-old and discussing the accusations that Gallagher
targeted civilians. "The guy is freaking evil," special operator
first class Craig Miller, one of the most experienced members of Alpha
Platoon's SEAL Team 7, told the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS).

Another platoon
member, identified by the Times as special operator first class Corey Scott,
said: "You could tell he was perfectly okay with killing anybody that was
moving." "The guy was toxic," special operator first class
Joshua Vriens added.

Gallagher denies
the allegations, dismissing them as smears by platoon members who could not
match his performance.

Cause celebre -

The sniper and
medic, now 40, was originally accused of premeditated murder after allegedly
stabbing to death a captured, wounded 17-year-old Islamic State fighter in Iraq
in May 2017. During his 2019 trial, the case became a cause celebre in
conservative media and Trump voiced support for the SEAL. The president
intervened in March to have Gallagher removed from jail and placed in a Navy
hospital, where he had more freedom.

In July,
Gallagher was acquitted of murder by a military jury but convicted of having
posed for a picture next to the body of the IS fighter. He was demoted, and the
Navy moved to remove his official SEAL pin-sometimes referred to as a Trident
pin-a signal Gallagher had lost the respect of the elite group.

But Trump
intervened again, ordering the pin and rank be restored. "The Navy will
NOT be taking away Warfighter and Navy Seal Eddie Gallagher's Trident
Pin," Trump tweeted November 21.

His comments came
as multiple US news outlets reported that then-Navy Secretary Richard Spencer
had threatened to resign over the affair, a claim he denied. "Contrary to
popular belief, I am still here. I did not threaten to resign," the US Navy
chief said in November, adding he did not consider Trump's tweet to be a formal
order. "I need a formal order to act," Spencer told reporters. On
November 24, a Navy spokesman told AFP he could "confirm" the Navy
had been notified the White House would ultimately not intervene in the process
against Gallagher.

Spencer was fired
that same day over the Gallagher dispute. Eventually, the NCIS began an inquiry
and the platoon members were called to give evidence.

"My first
reaction to seeing the videos was surprise and disgust that they would make up
blatant lies about me, but I quickly realized that they were scared that the
truth would come out of how cowardly they acted on deployment," Gallagher
said in a statement to the Times issued by his lawyer. Last weekend, Trump
hosted Gallagher and his wife at Mar-a-Lago, the president's Florida resort,
where he is spending the Christmas holidays. -AFP