Mike Norris, Co-Editor, The American Dossier
On Monday, President Trump granted a full pardon to U.S. Army First Lieutenant Michael Behenna. Behenna, from Edmond, Oklahoma, was convicted in 2009 of fatally shooting an al-Qaeda explosives transporter in U.S. custody. The pardon is the eighth President Trump has issued and the first since July 2018.
Prior to his conviction, Behenna was a model officer with a promising career. A graduate of the U.S. Army’s Ranger School, Behenna was serving as a Platoon Leader in the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), when he deployed to Iraq in 2007.
On April 21, 2008, Behenna and other members of his platoon (5th Platoon, Delta Company, 1st Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment) were heading back to their base after picking up two Iraqi detainees from a desert village in the Salahuddin province, north of Baghdad.
5th Platoon was traveling in a convoy of Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles when the MRAP behind Behenna struck an Improvised Explosive Device (IED). When Behenna got out to assess the damage, it was clear that Sgt. Steven Christofferson was dead. His vehicle had been thrown 75 feet from the blast site and had landed on him, cutting him in half. Behenna immediately performed CPR on Sgt. Adam Kohlhaas, but he too succumbed to his injuries.
Shortly after the explosion, Behenna received intel that an al-Qaeda explosives transporter was responsible for the attack on the convoy. Ali Mansur Mohamed’s plan was to infiltrate the Iraqi police force and plant IEDs in areas patrolled by U.S. forces. His plan was successful; in addition to Christofferson and Kohlhaas, several other U.S. soldiers were killed and wounded by IED’s provided by Mansur.
After a local sheik who was working as an informant confirmed the intel, Behenna’s troops set out to detain Mansur. They found him at home in possession of several weapons, including an illegal machine gun. Additionally, his passport indicated that he had recently made two trips to Syria, a known training ground for terrorists.
Mansur was remanded by Behenna’s troops and turned over to interrogators. After ten days, however, Behenna ordered Mansur released as the interrogators could not find conclusive evidence linking him to the explosion.
On May 16, 2008, Behenna decided to interrogate Mansur again. By a secluded railroad culvert near the town of Baiji, Behenna stripped the terrorist naked and questioned him at gun point. “I told him I wanted more intel on local leaders of al-Qaida, and that I wanted him to tell me about his stops in Saudi Arabia and Syria, and the [roadside] bomb explosion,” Behenna said. “But he kept saying, ‘I don’t know. I don’t know.’”
Then, Mansur said something in Arabic that Behenna didn’t understand. Behenna turned to his interpreter for clarification when he heard something hit the culvert’s wall. When he turned back toward Mansur, Mansur stood up and reached for Behenna’s Glock. In response, Behenna fired a shot into Mansur’s chest and another into his head.
After the shooting, Behenna left Mansur’s body in the culvert and went back to base. The next day, Iraqi police found Mansur’s body.
Behenna was eventually prosecuted for unpremeditated murder in a combat zone and sentenced to 25 years in prison. During his appeal, Behenna’s defense team argued that prosecutors had withheld evidence from them. The U.S. Army appellate court also "noted concern about how the trial court had handled Mr. Behenna's claim of self-defense."
The Army Clemency and Parole Board reduced Behenna’s sentence to 15 years. In 2014, the Army paroled Behenna as soon as he was eligible, just five years into his sentence. Before Trump’s pardon, Behenna faced another five years of parole.
In a statement Monday evening, the White House said Behenna’s case “has attracted broad support from the military, Oklahoma elected officials, and the public.”
“Thirty-seven generals and admirals, along with a former Inspector General of the Department of Defense, signed a brief in support of Mr. Behenna’s self-defense claim. Numerous members of the Oklahoma congressional delegation, Oklahoma’s then-Governor Mary Fallin, and current Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter have also expressed support for Mr. Behenna. Further, while serving his sentence, Mr. Behenna was a model prisoner. In light of these facts, Mr. Behenna is entirely deserving of this Grant of Executive Clemency,” the statement read.
Now 35, Behenna works as a ranch hand in Medford, Oklahoma. He says he no longer thinks much about his time in Iraq. Nor does he dwell on the events that altered his life and cost him a half-decade behind bars.
He’s living out a promise he made to himself while inside. He’s seizing the opportunities he has right now.
After serving as an Airborne Infantryman in the 82nd Airborne Division, Mike attended Florida State University, where he received his Bachelors Degree in Political Science and George Washington University, where he received his Masters in Political Management.
Since 2004, Mike has worked in the Florida Senate, where he was one of only two Chief’s of Staff under 30 and in the Michigan Senate, where he served as the Legislative Aide to the Assistant Minority Floor Leader. The 2018 election cycle was Mike’s eighth as a Political Consultant.
Mike previously served as the Secretary and Vice President of the Tampa Bay Young Republicans, Regional Vice Chair for the Florida Federated Young Republicans and attended the 2012 Republican National Convention as an Alternate Delegate. He currently lives in Grosse Pointe Woods, Michigan, with his rescue Pit Bull, Ike.