The Line (2021–…): Season 1, Episode 4 - Episode #1.4 - full transcript

Mic check, one, two, three, four.
Mic check, one, two, three, four.

Special Operator 1st Class Corey Scott

dropped a bombshell
during testimony this morning.

He said he suffocated
the injured ISIS terrorist.

This was truly shocking testimony

that stunned everyone in that courtroom.

And with that, this case
is absolutely turned on its head.

We saw a medic say,
"I'm the guy who killed this captive."

Which is not something
anyone was expecting.

So now we have to make sense of it.

Does that erase what Eddie Gallagher
did in any legal sense?



First time I heard
what Corey Scott said on the stand,

I was just reading updates on my phone.

It was a huge bombshell.

I was shocked. I didn't see
any of that coming out of Corey Scott.

That was a shock. You know,
I lived with Corey the entire time.

And he and I shared a room together,

but he didn't say one word to me
about any of this.

I would think that we had that level of
trust that Corey would share this with us.

But everyone, to my knowledge,
was blindsided by this.

If Corey did do what he said
and suffocated the prisoner,

why was he so willing to launch
the investigation in the first place?

We huddled together as a group.

We're like, "Hey, are you gonna
go through with this or not?"

You think he would have been like,
"Hey, guys, I got something to say.



Like, fucking don't go through with this
because I could go to prison for life."

I, personally, was stunned.

Corey Scott was admitting to murder.

But he had been granted immunity,

which protects the witness
from what they say on the stand.

He could've went to NCIS

and said, "Yeah, I plugged
the breathing tube. Eddie didn't."

But he chose to have this big show fiasco
inside the courtroom.

I don't know why
Corey said these things in trial,

but after that, it was, like,
anything can happen now.

We're here to train and go to war.

I was like, "Hell yeah. Let's do this."

These men were my family, my brothers.

This bond of warfighters.

You could just tell
that something was off.

There was this undercurrent
in this platoon.

How do you sleep at night
knowing what you did?

I just saw it as good versus evil.

It's that simple.

Court will come to order.

All parties previously present
are once again present.

Petty Officer Scott, would you please
return to the witness stand?

Defense?

Yeah.

You didn't say that
Chief Gallagher suffocated him, did you?

No.

Did you suffocate him?

Yes.

How?

After Chief Gallagher left the scene,

I was left there, monitoring him.

I thought he would die.

He was continuing to breathe normally,
as he had been before.

So, I held my thumb over his ET tube
until he stopped breathing.

That was a huge, like, holy shit
moment. Like, you cannot make this up.

Now somebody else
is fessing up to the murder.

I don't think that people can relate
to how surreal all of this was for us.

Like, okay, is the military
gonna drop this case now?

The government's own witness

admitted to the killing
that they had charged Eddie for,

and for months had villainized him for.

Like, that whole situation is fucked up.

I asked you
multiple times what happened

after Chief Gallagher
had stabbed the prisoner.

Did I not?

Yes.

And never once
did you mention in the October meeting

that he had asphyxiated or that
you had covered his tube, did you?

I don't remember the exact
language that I used in that meeting.

Well…
In fact, what you said was…

After Gallagher stabbed the individual,
Scott believed

that there was nothing medically
he could have done for these injuries.

So, he stayed next to the prisoner
until he stopped breathing.

Yes.

So, "Until he stopped breathing."

You never said in any way that you were
the one who made him stop breathing.

No, I didn't say that.

Everybody was, like, okay, these guys
are in a bind and they're ticked.

The prosecution is disgusted and upset.

And the judge says, "Defense,
would you like to, you know, recross?"

"Yes, Judge, I would."

How many times
did you say to the prosecutors,

"The ISIS fighter asphyxiated"?

"Yeah, at least once or twice."

Did they ever ask you
the follow-up question of, "How?"

No.

How many times did they say,
"What do you mean 'asphyxiated'?

I thought he died of a stab wound."

Did NCIS ever ask you this question?

No.

Am I the first person
outside of your legal team

to ever ask you this question?

Yes.

The prosecution screwed this thing up.

They didn't listen
and didn't ask the question. Only we did.

Corey backtracked
on several of the things that he told me

during our forensic interview.

I crossed over and asked a probative
question every single which way I could

regarding whether he touched
that cric tube or not.

"Did you ever put the tube in him?" "No."

"Did you see who put the tube in him?"
"No."

"Did you ever touch the tube in any way?"
"No."

"Did you ever put your hand
over the tube in any way?"

In other words, to block respiration
and suffocate this person.

Asphyxiate this person. Right?

Did you ever do that?" "No."

But then when he gets on the stand,

for whatever reason or motivation,

decides to not tell the truth
or tell a different story.

Petty Officer Scott
was interviewed multiple times

throughout the investigation.

He was one of the initial witnesses
that NCIS interviewed.

At each stage, at each interview,
he reiterated what he had seen.

While I was at the head, all of a sudden,
Eddie's stabbing this dude in the neck.

Do you remember what transpired

when you're still on scene
after he stabbed him?

I kinda stayed at the dude's head,

and then, like,
for a few minutes until he died.

Every single time
that I sat down with you,

or that NCIS had sat down with you,

they asked you what had happened after
he had stabbed the prisoner, correct?

Yes.

The prosecutors were down,
and they knew it.

And they were really angry.

There was talk about, "How can we
charge Corey Scott with perjury?"

But there's nothing they can do
because he had immunity.

Only now, when you have
your grant of testimonial immunity...

And you understand,
any statement that you say right now,

you cannot be prosecuted for,
for anything other than perjury.

- Is that correct?
- Yes.

And so, you can stand up there.

You can lie about how the fact
that you killed the ISIS prisoner,

because you don't want
Chief Gallagher to go to jail.

No, if I lied, I would lose
my grant of testimonial immunity.

Immunity is something that is rare.

And in this case, he had every opportunity
under the grant of immunity

to tell the government
that he asphyxiated the prisoner,

and waited until trial.

The Navy was really hesitant
because immunity is a dangerous deal.

It can blow up in your face very easily.

But Corey Scott had a lawyer
who forced the hand.

A guy named Brian Ferguson.

Mr. Ferguson,
we'll invite you to share with the court

what you believe this grant
of testimonial immunity means,

and then I can tell you
whether you're correct.

I appreciate it, sir,
and I have no doubt that you can,

because I do get the sense
you are much smarter than I am.

Um, and I don't say that to suck up.

At the trial, people were looking at him
and wondering, "Who... Who is this guy?"

Brian Ferguson was the bane
in the side of the government,

and he ended up representing
half of the platoon.

Brian Ferguson is the most bizarre,
oddball guy I ever met,

but he's a really good lawyer.

He was workin' the government.
He was workin' the defense.

This was a sporting event to him.

What to say about Brian Ferguson?

I've talked to him several times, and I
still don't know what to make of him.

All he'll say is that he doesn't really
have to worry about working much.

And so, as either a hobby or as charity,

he represents SEALs
who are in trouble for free.

He came in immediately

when the platoon reported Eddie Gallagher
to NCIS in April of 2018.

At the time,
the platoon knew nothing about the law.

They didn't even know that they would
have to testify, most of them, publicly.

And he started scaring the bejesus
out of a lot of guys.

"Hey, you guys need to shut up.
Don't talk to the police."

You're all probably gonna end up in jail.

You probably committed crimes
you don't even know about.

And without a lawyer to protect you,

"you know, all of you guys
are gonna get hung out to dry."

Brian Ferguson said to me,
"Honestly, what I think's gonna happen

is they're going to extradite you to Iraq
to be charged for war crimes.

Eddie's gonna get off, and he's
gonna write a book and get a movie,

and you guys are gonna be
sitting in jail."

You know, and I'm thinking...
I didn't know anything at the time.

I'm not an attorney.
I didn't know anything about war crimes.

Ferguson started
representing one SEAL after another

that was involved in the case
but not charged in the case.

He had Corey Scott,
who had seen the stabbing.

He had Ivan Villanueva,
who had seen the stabbing.

He had Joe Arrington,
who had seen one of the shootings.

Josh Graffam, who could possibly
corroborate one of the other shootings.

These were key witnesses,
and Brian Ferguson's biggest priority

was to get immunity
for all of his clients.

When I was a federal prosecutor,

I don't think I ever
gave anybody immunity.

I think that Eddie's case
was so politicized and so controversial

that Brian Ferguson,
and perhaps other people,

were trading these immunity deals
like they were baseball cards.

To see this growing number

of witnesses have Brian Ferguson
representing them…

In my ten years as a judge advocate,
I had never seen a case

where so many grants of immunity
were issued.

What happened with Corey Scott
happens in mob cases all the time.

You get someone in the gang who
decides they're gonna take the fall,

and the prosecutor gives them immunity.

And then they get up on the stand,
and they take credit for everything.

And then they can't prosecute that person,
and everybody walks.

Ferguson kept sending me
emails and text messages saying,

"You're really at risk here
for, uh, prosecution

based on what Eddie has told the Navy."

And so, I just got a bad feeling.
I didn't wanna be represented by him.

There are two clear groups at this point.

Those that were represented by Brian,
and those that were not,

which were more
on the crucify Eddie train.

If you look back at guys
who gave their first interview

and then lawyered up with Brian Ferguson,

there is a huge difference
between their testimony.

Mr. Graffam, good afternoon.

Good afternoon, sir.

Josh Graffam was one of the SEALs

spotting for Eddie Gallagher
in the sniper tower.

He initially didn't want to testify.

And then
Ferguson got him an immunity deal.

Okay, directing your attention
to early June 2017.

Were you working the spot
for Chief Gallagher around that time?

Yes.

Please describe that for the jury.

Uh, the target I called out for, for him,

they were two males.

In my opinion, these were two shitheads.

When you say "shithead,"
you mean an ISIS terrorist?

- ISIS, yes.
- Okay.

I called them out to Eddie.

What did he do in response?

He took the shot.

Graffam basically challenged
the whole narrative

around the sniper killings.

He directly contradicted Dylan Dille.

Later that day,
did you debrief this event

with anybody else in the platoon?

Slightly. It was, uh, talked about

amongst myself and Dylan Dille.

He had disagreement with whether or not
the shot should have been taken. Um…

I, on the other hand, was confident
that the right shot was taken.

It's a flat-out lie
that Graffam and I had a discussion

about whether or not the old man
was an ISIS shithead.

There was no discussion.
There was no back and forth.

It was a mutual understanding
of what happened, and he was upset.

As far as that story
about the old man in Iraq,

Josh Graffam had mentioned to us
that it was bothering him

because he kept seeing this memory
over and over.

His story on the stand
is a complete 180 from reality.

I'm just thinking to myself,
like, "How's this even happening?

I mean, something's at play."

Well, I can really only speculate

about what happened
between Ferguson and the defense,

but what is clear
is that there was cooperation there.

This was a very choreographed thing
from the beginning.

I do know that the two legal teams,

Ferguson, Parlatore,
I think they talked a lot.

I think that Parlatore went right up
to the line of legal deniability,

and he really went into the courtroom

not knowing what Scott would say
about covering the tube.

But he also knew exactly
what he was gonna say.

And he barely misses a beat

when Scott blows this giant bombshell
in the courtroom

and says, "Eddie didn't kill him. I did."

Not even a stammer.
All he does is say, "Heh!"

And then he just keeps going.

Brian Ferguson made, uh, Corey Scott

and some of his other clients
available to me to speak.

But I really didn't know
what he was gonna say.

Ultimately, we knew

what Corey Scott
was gonna say at the trial.

We were confident
after interviewing Corey Scott…

That Eddie was gonna have a great case.

Ferguson was definitely a key component

in everything that went on.

He knows more about the case than anybody.

He was like, "My clients don't want
to testify. They want to help you."

Um, so, yeah. He was definitely
an integral part in everything.

A few days
before Corey Scott was going to testify,

I remember seeing him and Eddie Gallagher

yukkin' it up in the hallway.

It was really odd
that they seemed to be very friendly,

and days later,
I... I think we all figured out why.

I never expected
one of our boys to turn against us.

Corey Scott was the one
who encouraged all of us to come forward.

So, if Corey Scott
really plugged the breathing tube,

I couldn't tell you what his motive was.

Why did you kill him?

Because I wanted to save him

from waking up to whatever
was gonna happen next to him.

On the stand, Corey Scott said,

"I killed him because I was afraid
that the Iraqis would do worse."

You've seen them torture,
rape, and murder prisoners.

Yes.

- You've listened to this?
- Yes.

Is this why you… asphyxiated?

Yes.

Very early on in the deployment,

we were colocated with the Iraqi division
that was clearing Mosul with us.

And I occupied a room that was
next to one of their secret prisons.

And each and every single night
for months,

we would hear what sounded like torture.

We would hear men screaming,
crying out in pain.

We would hear muffled gunshots.

In Mosul, we literally shared a wall

with the Iraqi torture chamber.

It's a cinder block wall, but, you know,
it only muffles so much.

You could hear guys screaming.

And you could hear them... Like,
what sounded like a guy getting shocked.

They made 'em, like, bark like dogs.

It's very interesting
when we talk about,

you know, our American morality
and the way that we fought our battle,

and then sitting next to,
for all intents and purposes,

you know, a secret execution
and torture chamber.

Absolutely,
we should not be in bed with that.

But does it happen?

As far as the Iraqi torture house…

Yeah,
there's no denying that it was there.

And I have no doubt that that dude
would eventually have been killed.

But medics don't just kill their patients,
even if it is for a mercy killing.

The Corey that I know
would not have done that.

I don't know why Corey said
what he said during Eddie's trial,

but the last thing Corey told me
right before he went into trial…

He said, "I just feel really bad

that Eddie's gonna go to jail
for the rest of his life

and his kids aren't gonna have a father
or anything

over a stupid Iraqi ISIS fighter."

And my response was, "Well, dude,
you're not the one that walked in there

and stabbed the kid in the neck.

You're not the one
that committed the war crime.

Eddie made his bed,
and he's gonna have to lay in it."

Corey is like, "I know, man.

I know what he did was wrong,
but I just... I feel so bad about it."

And then Corey testified
that he killed the kid, which, um...

I don't believe for a minute
that that's actually what happened.

After Corey Scott testified,

the prosecution was just lost.

How do you come back from that?

What do you do?

You had a witness
that you were counting on

to really, really make your case
and drive that home.

And that witness, instead,
testified for the defense.

The lawyers knew that that had put
the most important charge in jeopardy.

But he also said that he saw the chief
stab the prisoner in the neck.

I remember thinking, you know,
he still said he watched him stab him.

Even if Corey Scott ended up
killing the guy, that's attempted murder.

While cause of death is now gone,

I still have an attempted murder charge
to deal with.

If Eddie makes a fatal wound
of any kind to the captive,

even if the captive
dies from something else,

Eddie's still on the hook for murder.

You had how many Navy SEALs
get on the stand,

saying that Eddie Gallagher
stabbed a prisoner in the neck?

And then you had Eddie himself,

in his private text messages
to his friend,

saying that he got him
with his hunting knife.

I mean, you know, what more do you want?

Closing arguments are
getting underway this week in California

in the case of Chief Eddie Gallagher.

The prosecution said the text messages

and pictures that Gallagher took
with the body of the Iraqi teen

are direct evidence of his guilt.

However, the defense said,
"No body, no evidence, no case."

It'll now be up to seven active duty
combat veterans to come to a decision.

What was on the line for Eddie
was the rest of his life in prison.

This was the highest of high stakes.

When the jury went back to deliberate,

it was, uh, nerve-racking for sure.

There was a lot of waiting around.
You don't know what to expect.

- Morning, Chief.
- Good morning.

Are you concerned
it's taking a little longer than hoped?

No.

- Still confident?
- Yes.

And the next morning, it came out,
like, hey, jury's got their decision.

We got called back in.

And we stood up.

And the foreperson,
who was a naval commander, said,

"In the matter
of The United States of America

v. Special Operations Chief
Edward Gallagher on the charge of murder,

we the jury find the defendant...

And time stopped.

And the world
stopped rotating on its axis.

And I could feel Eddie's energy vibrating.

It was probably
the scariest moment in my life.

I felt like my heart was gonna,
like, come leaping out of my chest.

There's no more media.
There's no more nothing.

There's no more trial.

Your whole life for the past two years
has been up to this point. Boom.

"On, uh, count one, not guilty."

Not guilty. Not guilty. Guilty.

"Not guilty. Not guilty."

We heard, "Not guilty, not guilty,
not guilty, not guilty, not guilty."

But there was a "guilty."

I remember just standing there,
like, hearing a lot of "not guiltys."

But that one "guilty,"
I'm like, "Holy shit, what is that?"

All of us were like, "What one is guilty?
Like, what does that mean?"

Uh, and then Tim, I think,
pretty quickly looked on the sheet.

And I turned to him
with a big smile on my face.

And I said, "It's just the photo."

It's just the photo.

"You beat it."

Alcohol and tattoos for everybody.

Yeah.

He's not facing life.
He's not facing any more prison time.

You know,
the maximum sentence on the photo

is well below the time
he's already served.

He is free.

I was in disbelief.
Our hearts were pumping.

It's over. Not guilty. We're done.

And that's when we all
just burst into tears.

I mean, it was a very emotional moment
that we all experienced,

and I was sitting directly behind Eddie.

I was, like, in a state of shock.

Like, still...
I mean, people were hugging me.

Andrea, she was crying. Um…

Then, uh...

I remember, like, walking out and seeing...

You know, I had all these Team guys there
that were there supporting me.

And all of them were bawling.

It was huge.

It was like a big win for everybody.

That was a crazy feeling.

For sure.

When I heard the verdict of the trial,
my jaw just dropped.

I couldn't believe it.

I was so pissed off.

The first person I texted was Dylan.

He is not guilty of murdering
that ISIS prisoner in 2017…

When I first heard the verdict,
it felt like I was falling in a void.

It was sickening to me to know

that Eddie Gallagher was gonna be
walking the streets a free man.

After the Gallagher trial,

there were a lot of people
who were really kind of stunned.

But we couldn't catch a break anywhere.

The special warfare community was not all
on board with what Chief Gallagher did.

It was a very divisive situation
that was going on.

The community needs to police
its own community, and it wanted to.

We definitely wanted to make sure
that there was a peer review board,

and this would be the final period
on the end of this situation.

Here's what we were trying to do.

Chief Gallagher would stand
before a board of his peers.

They would read his file,

and they would decide whether
he gets to keep his trident or not.

The Navy SEAL trident is big.

It's gold.

It signifies an elite status.

Taking that away is a huge deal.

It doesn't happen
without you doing something

that brings dishonor on the Teams.

Richard Spencer is the civilian
overseeing the entire Navy.

He's almost like a circuit breaker
between civilian and military worlds.

And what he really wanted to avoid

was any more conflict
between the president and the military.

I spoke to the Chairman
of the Joint Chiefs, and I said,

"If you could put a word in
with the president

that this is tribal business,

um... If he could just stand back
and let the process work...

Let us convene the peer review board
because this is their business."

I thought we actually had a clear path
to a good outcome,

and that was not the case.

The Gallaghers thought it was
unfair that he would be punished at all.

They weren't gonna let it rest.

What's the rationale
for all the things they're still doing?

It's vindictiveness.
We went through the process

and came out victorious, and yet...

And yet, they are still trying to,
as Eddie said, put their thumb on him.

What would your message be
to the president?

To the commander-in-chief
who has been monitoring this case

- throughout the process?
- Yeah. Once again, I'd like to say,

"Thank you for stepping in
and doing the right thing

and being the, uh,
true leader that you are."

And, uh, you know, they...
He's probably looking at this in dismay.

They played the Fox fiddle beautifully,

and it went, you know,
right into the White House.

With Eddie Gallagher,
you know that story very well,

they wanted to take his pin away, and I
said, "No, you're not gonna take it away."

He was a great fighter.
He was the... one of the ultimate fighters.

And, uh,
we're gonna protect our warfighters.

I got a call from
the Secretary of Defense, Mark Esper,

who said, uh, "The Gallagher thing
has just gone too far.

Uh, I'm gonna have to fire you."

We thought we had the case
pretty well tucked in and all over with.

So it was a bit of a surprise.

The Secretary of the Navy is out of a job
after disagreements with the president.

It comes following a dispute

over the case of a Navy SEAL
accused of war crimes.

I don't think he really understands
the full definition of a warfighter.

A warfighter is a profession of arms,

and a profession of arms has
standards that they have to be held to

and they hold themselves to.

I made a statement
that I didn't really think

the president understood
how the military works.

The disservice he did
to the rest of the service members

who were doing the right thing
is meaningful.

And the fact
that the president got involved,

in my eyes, was inappropriate.

Does he have the right to do it? Yes,
he does. Is it the right thing to do? No.

After firing Spencer,
the president lets the whole Navy know

nobody is going to take
Eddie Gallagher's trident.

Stop what you're doing. Get back to work.

The president's attention on this case,

his willingness to back this guy...

And then, in addition, the jury
refusing to hold this guy accountable

had this really broad ripple effect.

After the fallout
from the Gallagher case,

other pending war crime investigations
were dropped.

Essentially, the Navy decided they
weren't gonna jump in that realm again.

At that point,
everybody just gave up on justice.

They're like, "There is no justice here."

And for us, a lot of us, honestly,
that's really all we were looking for.

We just wanted
some sort of accountability in some way.

After the trial,

the persecution from my command
just escalated.

It was like one thing after the next.

Without Trump, we would be,
who knows... you know, broke, in debt.

And that was my decision point.
Like, yes, I'm fucking retiring.

Like, I'm getting out.
This is... That's it for me.

After the trial ended,
I made my decision. I was getting out.

I found a program where I could
move my family out of the state

and I could be transferred
to another command.

This is what I call
my personal witness protection program.

Perfect.

I eventually decided to leave the Teams.

It was just, you know, time to move on.

The fallout
from the... the trial and investigation

kinda galvanized my decision to get out.

One takeaway from this whole thing
is that you find out who your friends are.

I guess I'm upset with people
that, you know, lost the courage

to go forward and do what was right.

There's a line in the sand now.
The circle of trust has gotten smaller.

I absolutely feel sadness

in losing friends
that I was once really close with.

I think
the average person wouldn't understand

exactly what that bond entails.

And then, um, having it
kind of fall apart like it did.

I don't think there's anybody
in the platoon

that can say, honestly,
that they didn't get emotional about it.

This is a tragedy.
Nobody wins in this story.

The Navy doesn't win. NCIS doesn't win.

Eddie Gallagher doesn't win.
The country doesn't win.

This is a loss for everyone involved.

This is a loss of friendship.
This is a loss of brotherhood.

The way that these men fissured
and broke and what they did...

I can't imagine some of these men

still being able
to look each other in the eye.

Recently,
I got a... a text from Corey Scott

saying he was visiting near me

and wanted to know
if I would meet up with him.

I said, "Yeah, sure. You know,
let's meet up on my turf. That's fine."

I wanted to hear
what he had to say.

We were just catching up,

and I said, "Hey, Corey, you know,

you're the first person
to reach out to me since the... the trial

from all the guys
that were working with Ferguson."

And he's like,
"Well, how... how are you now?"

I said,
"Well, I don't know, man. You tell me."

"I'm confused, Corey.
You want to give me answers?"

And he said
he didn't want Eddie to go to jail.

I was like, "Were you working
with the defense? What was going on?"

Corey said, "Tim Parlatore didn't know
what I was going to say.

He knew what questions to ask."

He's like, "You know, it's not my problem
that I'm smarter than NCIS."

I was like, "Corey, what are you saying?

You actually think
you're the puppet master here?

You're a little puppet.

Like, they used you to get Eddie off.
How do you not understand that here?"

You know, he kept just saying
this was water under the bridge.

Every single hard question I'd ask him,

"This is water under the bridge.
I'm just trying to be friends with you."

I'm like, "Corey, you...
You gotta be kidding me here."

Do you know what you put us through?

We trusted our lives with you.

We knew you. You were our friend,
and you came and turned on us.

You screwed us.
You left us burning in that fire.

How do you sleep at night
after what you did?

And you tell me this is
all water under the bridge.

You know, if you want to be friends,
you can go up and go on the news

"and tell everyone exactly what happened."

He's like, "You know,
I don't want us to end like this."

So I was like,
"Fuck you. I'm out of here."

And, uh, I haven't talked to him since.

I've called Corey
three or four times since I've been out,

just to check up on him.

I think Corey... He doesn't want
any animosity with those guys.

But they're still stuck on, like...
You know, oh, I...

"He killed, whatever, this ISIS prisoner.
You're a war criminal."

But I didn't do anything wrong.
I mean, this... this was an ISIS fighter.

He was just trying to kill me
and... and my platoon, so that's war.

During the trial,

no one really cared
about the ISIS fighter.

The prosecutors even said
when they closed the case,

"This is not a sympathetic person.

You know, he was the ISIS fighter.

He was a terrorist."

No one really ever used his name.

When ISIS took control of the area…

And this sectarianism started spreading,

the situation here got really bad.

At night, they would stop any person
and just kill them.

I mean, those were really bad days.

They were in control of everything.

We were forced to go to the mosques

out of fear for our lives.

His real name was Khalid.

When he joined ISIS,

he changed his name to Ahmad Al-Shourah.

He was about 16 years old.

He was very much attached to me because,
you know, he was my first son.

Wherever I would go,
I would take him with me.

We were inseparable.

He liked soccer.

He used to like the club Real Madrid
from Spain. He loved them a lot.

And I like Barcelona, which is its rival.

I would joke and say,
"Barcelona are going to win."

If Real defeated Barcelona,
he would tease me.

He was very clever in school.

Every year, he would be
at the top of his class.

I wasn't expecting
that he would take such a path.

In 2016, roughly before Ramadan,

a friend came to me, one of his friends.

And he told me Khalid was going to take
an oath of loyalty to ISIS.

I told him, "Stop. Stay away from it."

I told him, "I will buy you a car.

Whatever you want.
Just don't go down this path.

Take it from me,
this path is a dead end."

I scolded him, I even hit him.
And he started to cry.

He told me he will not go.

I remember, on Saturday,

the same friend came and told me
Khalid has gone.

He used to always do what I told him.

But when this time came to pass,

I don't know, they changed him.

Would he come home?

A day, two days, three days… and a month.

Then he came.

And we looked at each other, face-to-face.

He started to cry, and hugged me.

He said, "Dad, I made a mistake.
Please forgive me."

He said, "I got stuck in this. I was
thinking about jihad and all that talk."

I told him, "Look, quit them.

Turn yourself in and you'll be tried
for this period you were with them.

And you have not hurt anyone, as of yet."

He told me, "Dad, I cannot.

If I quit, they will kill me."

So then quite a bit of time passed by.

My brother came by.

He said,
"You know, Khalid showed up on TV."

What is your name?

Ahmed.

- How old are you?
- Sixteen.

Why did you work with them?
Did they force you or was it your choice?

My father…

- What?
- My father used to hit me.

Your father hit you?

Yes, he hit me
and told me not to join them.

- Your father doesn't accept it, right?
- Yes.

Then why did you go?

Because they tell me it's a good job.

Viewers, he is 17 years old.

He is with ISIS.

As you can see he is a young man
and they fooled him

with their special convincing methods,
and this is the result.

He was shot during the battles and
transferred by the rapid reaction force.

He will be taken to treat his injuries
and they can question him.

I look at the video
and I see that it is Khalid.

My son.

There's more to the story.

The Americans took him from
the Iraqi forces in order to treat him.

During the course of the treatment…

…they killed him.

The American forces, they are the ones
who uphold the law, human rights.

If they were to put him on trial
and execute him,

we would have accepted that.

But for the American soldiers
to just kill him like that…

Yes, he was a member of ISIS.

Nobody denies this,
but they shouldn't have killed him.

It's the most difficult thing

for someone to see
their son dying in front of them.

My son was killed like this as a prisoner.

He was only 17 years old.

He was killed by an American officer,
and they talk about human rights

and the liberation of Iraq.
Liberation? What has he liberated?

He didn't come to liberate.
He came to kill.

So it's been
almost two years since the trial,

and the details around this have
kind of expanded a bit.

I don't want to say "changed," but...

Uh, no. They've changed. They've expanded.

So, can you tell me,
what really happened here?

When the ISIS fighter
incident happened,

uh, the moment he was probably...
He was brought to us was when I was like,

"Fuck this guy." Um…

Nobody had any intention
of saving this dude

or trying to bring him
to a higher level of care.

The way everybody was acting at the time,
it was like it didn't have to be said.

Everybody was on the same page, you know?

And I'm... Along with me.

Like, I didn't give a shit
what happened to him.

I just knew... I was like,
we're not gonna execute this guy.

We're not going to...
And... You know, we're not...

We can't just outright kill this dude
in front of all, like...

So we'll just do medical treatments on him
until he expires.

You know, we'll get
some medical practice out of it.

So we were just, like,
using it as almost like a cadaver.

Like, go ahead and practice it.

We were not trying to save this guy.

Um, and was full on board
with, like, making this guy feel pain.

Is your intention
to kill the guy with these experiments?

Yeah. Pretty much.

It was just an ISIS fighter.
The guy needed to die.

I mean, he was already on death's door.

That air strike
was what brought him to death.

I mean, we just helped it along the way.

I'd say the procedures
were just like a cherry on top, I guess.

Wow. Never heard that.
That's pretty stunning.

I am gobsmacked.

That's a travesty for humanity.

I would sincerely hope that the Navy
has an immediate reaction to that

that is outrage
and that the word gets out.

It violates everything that
the special warfare community is about.

Everything.

Now that the trial's over,

Eddie's gonna start saying
all kinds of crazy stuff 'cause he can.

The best thing he could've done
is just walk away from this whole thing,

ride off into the sunset,
and get away with murder.

But he can't keep his mouth shut.

He wants to just say, "Hey, I just want
to let everyone know I killed this guy,

and I meant to."

I think Eddie can't live with himself
not getting credit.

There was a lot of frustration
at the end of the trial.

I didn't really know where to aim it.

But at the end of the day, you know,
it really wasn't about the system.

It wasn't on the prosecution.
It wasn't on the investigators.

It was on Eddie Gallagher.

Despite Eddie "winning,"

you know, there is some consolation

in the fact
that Eddie will never be a SEAL again.

He will never lead people in combat.

Yes, we want justice to be served,

but if Eddie can't kill
any more innocent people

or get any Americans killed…

…that takes precedence over everything.

This case is finished
for Eddie Gallagher,

but it's not finished
for the Navy SEAL community.

You know, what does this case mean

for the young teenagers
that are gonna go join the SEALs?

You had half a dozen SEALs
report war crimes,

and they've been dragged through the mud

by media, by their fellow SEALs.

Ultimately they risked all that

and then ended up getting to the result
that was "not guilty."

I can't see that
as anything other than a reason to pause

when you see a war crime in progress.

To have to actually stop and think

about the consequences
of doing the right thing.

It's an absolute shame.

And that's something
that the Navy's gonna have to deal with

for a really long time.

For those members of the Team
that came forward

and started the ball rolling
on this whole Chief Gallagher case,

I'm so wildly impressed
with their ability to do that.

Because this is a very hard thing to do.
You're in a very tight-knit community,

and you're basically turning in a "hero"
in the eyes of many in that community.

The experience
of being a whistleblower...

You know, everyone's like, "Oh, man,
you had to feel good about what you did."

Right in the beginning it was like, "No."

Like, this whole thing
turned into a whole circus.

Nothing went the way it should've.

But now that I've had time
to digest everything,

I've realized that there's no way
that I could live with myself

had I not gone forward
and said what I saw.

Because in the end,
I got to get the truth out.

And that's not a lost cause.

I think it should be noted

that Eddie Gallagher
never testified under oath,

and, you know, none of us are surprised.
It shows, you know, the coward that he is.

I can rest my head on the pillow at night
knowing that I did the right thing.

You know, that's truly the approval
that I'm looking for.

America needed to see
that this is not who the SEALs are.

We don't go around killing people
just because we can.

Come on, baby!

I mean, trust me.
We live and breathe for a fight.

But that fight has to be
a moral and ethical fight

and something that we can
look back on 40 years from now

and say, "I am so proud
I was a part of that fight."

The wars we've had
over the past two decades

have been very, very taxing
on the US military.

The thing about these wars is that

the military has never
been given a end goal.

And I think that's left a hole,
in some respects, for ethics.

But you don't get the result you want
by dirtying up your own honor.

You know,
are we here to win or not?

It seems that if we play by the rules
that are given to us,

we're not gonna
even come close to winning.

You have to get your hands dirty
a little bit to win.

If I did stab, do I...

No, I don't think I did anything wrong.

Even if I had taken a knife out
and stabbed him, I don't think...

I should not be on trial for murder
for killing an ISIS terrorist.

Like, I stand behind every shot
that I took. I sleep fine at night.

There is no definite line
that's universal.

However, on my deployment,
the line was clear as day,

and Eddie crossed it time and time again.

Oh, dude.

A really experienced operator
once said

that you should never
take great joy or great sorrow

when targeting someone.

And when you have the power
to take someone's life,

you should really consider it heavily.

Yeah, it looks good.

These things don't end
when you pull the trigger.

It's a heavy thing
that you'll always walk with.

You know, I'll carry that with me forever.