Soldier faces murder charge

WASHINGTON — A former U.S. Army commando is being charged with murder in a long-simmering case alleging he tracked down and killed a suspected bomb-maker in Afghanistan.

Army Lt. Col. Loren Bymer said in a statement Friday that Maj. Mathew Golsteyn is charged with killing the Afghan during his 2010 deployment to Afghanistan. Bymer said Golsteyn’s commander determined there was sufficient evidence to charge the former Army Green Beret with the crime.

Golsteyn, who was leading a team of Army Special Forces troops at the time, believed that the bomb-maker was responsible for an explosion that killed two U.S. Marines. The new charges will be reviewed to determine if the case should go to trial.

The Golsteyn case has been bounced around since 2011 when he told the CIA in a job interview that he had shot and killed the man. The Army Criminal Investigation Command, acting on information from the CIA, looked into the incident, but could never find anyone to corroborate Golsteyn’s claim and couldn’t find any remains of the Afghan.

CID, however, concluded the soldier committed the offenses of murder and conspiracy based on the interview provided by the CIA, according to an Army memo.

The Army revoked Golsteyn’s Special Forces designation and the Silver Star he was awarded for heroism during a Taliban attack on his base in Helmand Province.

In November 2011, about two months before being promoted from captain to major, Golsteyn told the CIA during an interview that before that medal-winning battle he shot and killed the bomb-maker whom he blamed for the explosion that killed the Marines.

The Army’s Criminal Investigative Division, acting on the CIA’s tip, could find no one who corroborated Golsteyn’s claim to have killed the bomb-maker, nor could it find any cremated remains of the Afghan.