Honor

I hope that this story proves to be untrue, but if not, the Green Beret in question showed a high degree of personal honor.
The mysterious death of US Army Staff Sgt. Logan Melgar is under scrutiny after the Green Beret, who was killed by strangulation, reportedly declined to accept money from a dubious scheme.

A Daily Beast report, sourced from five service members in the special-operations community, says that a portion of funds used to pay informants in Mali for intelligence were allegedly pocketed by members of the elite SEAL Team Six. The SEALs' actions were reportedly discovered by Melgar, who eventually turned down the money when he was offered a cut.

Prior to his death, Melgar reportedly told his wife of the problems he had with two of the SEALs, and was going to elaborate further when he went home, the Daily Beast said.
The story holds that he was choked to death during martial arts practice, and that the claim that he had died unexpectedly because he was drunk proved false on medical examination. I hope that there proves to be another explanation, and that the investigation shows that no pilfering of cash was taking place. It is never proper to take accusations as proven simply because they have been forwarded in the press. The press report follows an official notification that the NCIS is investigating his death as a homicide, so in time we should see the evidence formally presented.

1 comment:

Ymarsakar said...

The SEALs' actions were reportedly discovered by Melgar, who eventually turned down the money when he was offered a cut.

Classic spy response is to respond to the loyalty test with "sure, I'll go in and prove I'm the same as you", then turn around after people think they have something on you, backstab them, get rid of the bodies, and report the whole thing to the spymasters.

The straightforward response is the report for Melgar instead. Loyalty tests are designed to weed out the straightforward people first. Even if people try to play along, they usually won't have enough courage to break the blackmail chains. The straightforward people do, which is why weeding them out first is wise.

Those that are both loyal to the truth and personal integrity, yet understand human cleverness enough to put on the mask appropriately, are quite rare.