Marine with Classified Documents

A Marine Corps officer who was ordered discharged because he sent classified documents about a corrupt, child-molesting Afghan policeman is getting his day in court.Jason Brezler deployed to Afghanistan in 2010 as a civil affairs officer. During his time in Helmand Province, he found out that an Afghan police officer named Sarwan Jan was a threat to United States forces because he was corrupt and conducted sex trafficking with young boys, a practice known as bacha bazi in Afghanistan.After building evidence on Sarwan Jan, Brezler helped fire the Afghan police officer. He was escorted off the base.Two years later, while stateside, Maj. Brezler found out that the same Afghan police officer had been hired again by the U.S. military despite his previous transgressions. He took it on himself to send a classified document regarding the Afghan policeman’s record over an unsecure email system.[caption id="attachment_8542" align="aligncenter" width="876"]

Jason Brezler deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan multiple times. Source: Fox News.[/caption]He was told by the Marine on the receiving end of the email that the document was classified. Brezler immediately contacted his superior officer and self-reported the "spillage." His commanding officer did not seem overly concerned and ordered him to report to the intelligence officer. Brezler eventually received a negative fitness report but no other punishment.Despite the Major's efforts, no action was taken by the deployed unit.Less than two weeks after Brezler's warning, one of the Sarwan Jan's subordinates grabbed an AK-47 and killed three Marine advisers in a “green on blue” insider attack.

Classified Documents Commonly Found on Deployed Marines' Computers

Months went by, and the family of one of the murdered Marines had not received any information about their son's death. They contacted U.S. Congressional Representative Pete King, and Brezler volunteered to help. When King pushed the story in the media, the Marine Corps investigated Brezler, not the incident.Brezler was put before a board of inquiry and in three days a decision came down to discharge him honorably from the Marine Corps. Brezler, who has served in the Corps since 9/11, including several overseas deployments, has been fighting the discharge, believing that he did the right thing.At the time, Brezler said that he was trying to save lives, and that the documents were on his computer due to the fact that the Marine Corps had not provided him with a secure computer for use during deployment."Almost a year had gone by from the time, he had moved on, the Marine Corps had moved on," says lawyer Mike Bowe. "A news story comes out that reveals that he's talking to Congressman King about these murders, and three days later he is sent to a Board of Inquiry to be kicked out of the Marine Corps."Now, a federal judge has blocked the order to discharge Brezler and given the Marine Corps 10 days to prove it did not retaliate against him for speaking with the Congressman and embarrassing senior leadership.While Brezler’s lawyers had initially intended to use the “Clinton” defense in this case, he was not able to bring up her mishandling of classified documents due to time constraints.