James Moriarty, the father of James Moriarty Jr. recently posted on social media regarding the conviction of the Jordanian Air Force gate guard who killed his son along with fellow Green Berets Matthew Lewellen and Kevin McEnroe saying:

Today the FBI advised the families that Maarek abu Tayeh’s appeal has been denied and his sentence of life imprisonment will be carried out.  For reasons the families cannot understand, Jordanian government sources continue to claim that the families are negotiating for restitution with the Jordanian ambassador. That is completely false. The families presented the Ambassador with a list of demands and the only demands that have been addressed are the successful prosecution of abu Tayeh and the release of the video. There are no negotiations whatsoever regarding restitution and I believe I can speak for all the families that we hope abu Tayeh serves every day in prison for the crimes for which he has been sentenced and that he rots in hell.” 

The families of the three murdered soldiers have played an important role in placing pressure on the Jordanian government to ensure that justice was carried out, with Mr. Moriarty being particularly outspoken.  That pressure was largely what led to the Jordanian government releasing the video of the killings, although that video is also in the possession of the DOD and FBI.  The Jordanian courts had been in the process of reviewing the July conviction of Abu Tayeh and his subsequent life sentence.

After the conviction, hundreds of protestors from the killer’s home city of Maan, a long-standing hot bed of Islamism, drove to the Jordanian capital of Amman to protest the court’s decision.  The counter-narrative from Abu Tayeh’s tribe is that he was simply defending the base as directed and that this murders were a misunderstanding after he heard an unidentified gunshot.  Evidence has demonstrated that there was no gunshot prior to Abu Tayeh opening fire, leading one to believe that there were other motives in play, however, the Jordanian courts did not want to get into motives or show the surveillance video of the killings as it clearly shows that there was no accident.

The video of the incident can be viewed here, but viewer discretion is advised.

Moriarty, Lewellen, and McEnroe were assigned to the Inter-Agency or IA mission, a euphemism meaning that they were detached to a CIA-run covert operation.  Called Sycamore Timber, the CIA sponsored various Arab proxy groups of dubious motivations and allegiances who were to fight the Assad regime.  A similar covert program operated out of Turkey.  The failures of the Sycamore Timber program were finally acknowledged by the Trump administration who ordered the operation shut down last week.

(Featured image: Jordanian forces participate in the Eager Lion training exercise)