https://www.stripes.com/news/us/arm...l-force-soldier-s-fox-news-interview-1.443502
The Army's Criminal Investigation Command has reopened its investigation of an Afghanistan war hero who Army officials said confessed to killing an unarmed Taliban detainee.
The service is again scrutinizing former Maj. Mathew Golsteyn after he appeared in a Fox News television interview in October and acknowledged that he had killed a Taliban bombmaker who had been held as a detainee during the bloody battle of Marja in February 2010.
The bombmaker was not on a list of targets that U.S. forces had been cleared to kill, according to Army documents; Golsteyn said that letting go of the insurgent meant the Taliban member could later target Afghans who are helping U.S. troops.
"You realize quickly that you make things worse," Golsteyn said in the interview. "It is an inevitable outcome that people who are cooperating with coalition forces, when identified, will suffer some terrible torture or be killed."
Golsteyn first acknowledged killing the detainee during a polygraph test while he was interviewing for a job with the CIA in 2011. A lengthy military probe followed. Army documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act last year show that the service investigated Golsteyn on charges of murder and conspiracy but
closed the case after determining that it did not have any evidence to prosecute. The results of his polygraph would not be admissible in court, defense officials said.
