Can Any American Now Be Court-Martialed?

MILITARY TRIBUNALS CARRIED OUT WITHOUT A GRAND JURY INDICTMENT

by Walter Francis Fitzpatrick, III

(Apr. 4, 2012) — Editor’s Note:  The Post & Email had previously reported on and investigated the court-martial of Walter Francis Fitzpatrick, III, which Fitzpatrick stated was rigged and the charges against him contrived.  He maintains that the Navy has knowingly kept a letter containing his forged signature (pictured below) on file as authentic and that a handwriting expert declared the signature a forgery.

Rear Admiral John Bitoff conducted the court-martial, and a judge advocate, Timothy Zeller, was Fitzpatrick’s accuser.  After having received an outstanding review in which Fitzpatrick’s commanding officer called him a “brilliant Naval officer,” Fitzpatrick was accused of misusing money from a special ship’s fund, a charge he vehemently denies.

An undated memo marked “Personal for RADM Bitoff” written by Zeller reads:

Dear Admiral,

Prior to your final consideration of the disposition of the case against                          , I feel obligated to communicate some reservations in regard to the absence of disciplinary measures.  The one question that I received from almost all concerned, including the members, was why wasn’t it                       on trial instead of LCDR Fitzpatrick.  After the trial, the senior member of the board was left with the distinct impression that                      was looking down on the entire court-martial knowing that they could not touch him.  I recognize the political ramifications of pressing the case against                         , but I also recognize that he could have prevented the entire problem if he had performed his job as he should, especially when he found out about the Hawaii Trip a few days after it happened.

Since I don’t believe in keeping a file to cover this office when decisions are later questioned, there is no copy of this letter in my files or on my computer.

Very Respectfully,

T. W. Zeller

The Post & Email contacted Admiral Bitoff and Kevin Anderson, Fitzpatrick’s defense attorney during the court-martial.  Both granted us interviews but refused to go on the record.

More recently, Fitzpatrick has exposed corruption within the Monroe County, TN grand jury and judiciary and spent considerable time in jail following a citizen’s arrest conducted on the acting grand jury foreman of 27 years.  While in jail in December 2011, his home was burglarized.  After he was rearrested on December 7, his landlords served him with an apparently illegal notice of eviction and refused to return his security deposit or the rent paid for the last nine days of January after he relocated.  Further, a check he had written to the landlords to pay his rent for the month of February was cashed even though he had arranged to have his belongings moved out of the house by January 22, earlier than the landlords had requested.

The landlords had stated in a letter sent to Fitzpatrick while in jail that they had another tenant moving in on February 1, but Fitzpatrick told us that that did not occur.

The Post & Email called the former landlords in mid-February following Fitzpatrick’s discovery that money was missing from his bank account, but the landlady, who had formerly been cordial to us, hung up rudely.

After Fitzpatrick’s release on February 9, 2012, he discovered that most of his personal effects were missing, valued in the thousands of dollars.  The Sweetwater Police Department had taken some initial investigative steps but has refused to respond to The Post & Email’s inquiries and requests for police reports, nor have the perpetrators been apprehended.  There are witnesses to what occurred with Fitzpatrick’s belongings.  More details will be reported when they become available, including the names of the officers who were allegedly investigating.

A visitor to Fitzpatrick’s apartment on April 2 reported that his refrigerator was “bare.”

Fitzpatrick’s observations today regarding his personal situation as it relates to government corruption are as follows:

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I’m in extraordinary distress because of what the government has been doing to me.  They’ve been doing it to me since 1988 or 1989 now.  That’s what brings us to this day.  It all stems back to the court-martial; everything leads back to John Bitoff and his court-martial of Walt Fitzpatrick, which is the most-examined, the most-studied, the most-reviewed court-martial in the United States.  We’ve had this conversation before.

I will do what I have to do to keep my head above water, but the real answer to the problem here is that the United States government be held responsible for the court-martial of Walt Fitzpatrick, and that all centers on the forgery.  The forgery is proven.  John Bitoff, working with his attorney, Tim Zeller, working with the attorney they assigned to me, Kevin Anderson, who is now a prosecuting attorney in Kitsap County, WA, worked to destroy me back in 1989 and 1990 in a court-martial that was all rigged.  John Bitoff is responsible for what is happening to me right now.

I didn’t know this yesterday.  I learned about it yesterday and I learned more about it today.  There’s a Brigadier General named Mark Martins.  One star is on his collar.  He gave a lecture today to Harvard Law School about the sanctity and the credibility and the safety of the military discipline system as we move into the days when Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is going to face the first high-profile military commission out of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The military discipline system has been under extraordinary scrutiny for a long, long time.  General Martins is trying to be ahead of the controversy which is about to explode because the military discipline has never been worthy of respect or trust.  It’s trying to destroy our United States Constitution; that’s always been its purpose, as it’s been used inappropriately over the years, and you see the evidence of that in how they used it against me.

The forgery of my name gives up the game.  That forgery is still a crime today.  They’re representing that document as an authentic writing.  The solution to my immediate financial problems is for the United States Armed Forces to make it up to me; to hold John Bitoff to account; to provide remedy and relief, back pay, back promotion, back benefits, everything that they owe me, to undo my court-martial, and then everything goes away, because it was all created by the government.  Obama is taking full advantage of that today because I’ve continued to go after corrupt government.  That’s what began my quest over 20 years ago:  going after corrupt government, and you know the rest of the story there.

Martins gave a speech today at the Harvard Law School and is about to retire.  He’s the chief prosecutor at Guantanamo right now and he’s leaving.  My speculation is that he’s leaving so that he doesn’t have to deal with the huge issues that are about to explode onto the front pages of the newspapers across the country because of the condemnation which is rightfully visited on the Armed Forces for trying to prosecute people in that system of totalitarianism.

You do not get a fair hearing.  Every part of my court-marital exampled every part of what’s wrong with the system.

General Martins is speaking the same words today that Col. William Winthrop spoke back in 1886-1888 in his Military Law and Precedents:  that the Constitution is too weak, too feeble.  It’s in Winthrop’s Curse, and it’s also in Col. Lakin’s defense.  It’s in Lt. Culpepper’s defense, and there are articles written at The Jaghunter.  I’ve laid this all out.  Martins is leading the charge to tell people, “The Constitution…not so much anymore; the military discipline system will work well.  We can use it against this terrorist, and once they effectively use it against this man…don’t get me wrong; I’m not defending him.  If he were brought into a civilian trial, as he should be, I would expect that he would be found guilty and properly punished to the fullest extent of the law, but that can be done in a civilian setting with a grand jury looking at it first and a trial jury looking at it second.  You don’t have a jury in the military discipline system.

Someone asked me why Obama would allow a Muslim to be prosecuted in the military discipline system, and I reminded him about the Army Major, Nidal Hasan…he hasn’t been brought to a court-martial yet because Obama controls the outcome.  What he’s facing is a court-martial.  They’re going to try to make a distinction, but it’s a court-martial.  The reason that Obama is able to let a Muslim go forward in this process is because Obama, as the resident, the pretend president, recognized by the military as a legitimate commander-in-chief but not by me, Obama can control the outcome.  Obama isn’t allowed to control the outcome of a jury trial or a grand jury.  In a court-martial situation, Obama’s commanders (obeying Obama’s orders, which are illegitimate) do what he tells them to do.  There is nothing safe; there is nothing  just about a court-martial.

I’ve lived this.  And all I have to do is point to the forgery of my name and that memo from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service which says that if you can prove the forgery in the Fitzpatrick case, it proves everything that Fitzpatrick has been saying all along, and it makes the Navy and Marine Corps and now the Department of Defense look really, really bad.  It undoes the whole thing.  And by the way, when the military understands what they’ve done to me, finally, and accepts it publicly because they have to under pressure, then everything else that I’m suffering right now is remedied.

I have laid out more than sufficient information to undo one government organization after the next after the next after the next.  The reason this continues is that the people have not found a way to empower the grand juries to come together and start taking action in this country as I have been trying to get people to do for years and years and years.  Now if that doesn’t happen, then I just have to accept that.  It’s a Biblical thing.  God doesn’t make mistakes; this is all happening for a reason.  I get it.  But I do not mean to burden other people.

This is what I have been trying to tell people:  “The government did this to me; they can do it to you.  If the government isn’t stopped at some point, they will do it to you.” I’ve been trying to tell people: if you want a reason to arrest the government in what they’re doing to people, take a look at what they’re doing to me, and then decide for yourself.  Are you still afraid to come forward and speak out against this?  Are you going to let them do it to you?

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Editor’s Note:  The rest of LCDR Fitzpatrick’s interview will appear in a subsequent article.

Many writers have stated that the National Defense Authorization Bill (NDAA) signed by Obama on December 31, 2011, authorizes indefinite detention of U.S. citizens in their own country without the benefit of a grand jury indictment or jury trial.

Fitzpatrick filed a criminal complaint of treason against Barack Hussein Obama on March 17, 2009 which was never addressed.  Very recently, however, Fitzpatrick has experienced further financial distress which he believes is a retaliatory act of the U.S. government and Obama, in particular.