SEALs commander testifies in arms trafficking case

A Navy SEAL facing federal arms trafficking charges never had permission to give an AK-47 to Hollywood director Peter Berg, his commanding officer testified Monday.

Capt. Thomas Chaby, who oversaw SEAL Team Five and Nicholas Bickle during a deployment in Iraq, told a federal jury that any weapons or other war trophies taken from the battlefield required extensive paperwork and approval from the troop’s chain of command.

"I’ve never seen someone go through all the paperwork," said Chaby, the first defense witness to take the stand during Bickle’s trial on charges including conspiracy to unlawfully deal firearms and dealing in firearms without a license.

Berg had testified earlier in the trial that he was embedded with SEAL Team Five for nearly a month in March 2009 while preparing to make his upcoming movie "Lone Survivor," based on the book by Marcus Luttrell.

Berg said Bickle, 33, later gave him the AK-47 at a hotel in San Diego. Berg said he took the weapon to his house and kept it in a safe in his garage until December 2009, when prop master Doug Fox destroyed it for him.

Prosecutors allege Bickle, a San Diego-based SEAL, brought machine guns, other weapons and explosives into the country from the Middle East for his own profit. Three other defendants in the case, including two Las Vegas men, accepted plea bargains months ago.

Chaby testified that he had little contact with Bickle, one of about 550 people under his command among as many as 13 bases in Iraq.

Most of his testimony covered basic procedures, including how SEALs passed their gear through customs and how the weapons used by SEALs were dispensed and tracked.

Chaby said he never saw Bickle with anything other than his personal weapons.

Bickle’s three co-defendants have admitted working with him as middlemen in a conspiracy to sell weapons. According to their plea agreements, more than 70 firearms, including 30 machine guns, were trafficked and sold in the conspiracy.

Bickle, a petty officer first class, returned from a deployment to Iraq in March 2009.

The trial, presided over by Senior U.S. District Judge Roger Hunt, began Sept. 19.

Contact reporter Brian Haynes at bhaynes@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0281.