When President Obama draped the nation’s highest award for combat valor around the neck of an Afghan war hero at the White House in October 2013, a highly decorated Green Beret officer who sat nearby faced an ugly reality: The Army was investigating him on charges of murder and conspiracy.
Maj. Mathew L. Golsteyn was invited to the ceremony by William D. Swenson, who received the Medal of Honor for his actions in Afghanistan four years earlier. Like Swenson, Golsteyn had braved enemy fire repeatedly, seen fellow soldiers die and voiced deep frustration with the ways he saw U.S. troops restricted in combat. But Golsteyn, a friend of Swenson’s, also may have had a darker chapter to his service.
According to Army documents, the young officer disclosed to CIA personnel during a 2011 job interview that he had killed an unarmed Taliban fighter he suspected of being a bombmaker. The documents, obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, also suggest an elaborate cover-up that, if true, could amount to serious war crimes involving not only Golsteyn but fellow Green Beret soldiers.
