Duncan Hunter (Photo: House Creative Services)

Elham Asaad Buaras

Muslim American campaigners are calling for Congress to investigate a Republican Congressman in light of his confession that he killed hundreds of Iraqi civilians and posed for a photograph with dead combatants while he was in the Marine Corps Reserve.

Speaking about his support of Navy SEAL Chief Edward Gallagher, who is facing a court-martial on numerous charges, including that he allegedly stabbed to death a wounded and captured enemy combatant in Iraq in 2017, Californian Congressman Duncan Hunter said: “We fired hundreds of rounds into Fallujah.”

In an interview with Barstool Sports’ Zero Blog Thirty podcast on May 28 Hunter said that he “frankly [doesn’t] care” if the enemy combatant was killed, and that “even if everything the prosecutors say is true in this case, then Eddie Gallagher should still be given a break, I think.”

“I was an artillery officer and we fired hundreds of rounds into Fallujah, killed probably hundreds of civilians, if not scores, if not hundreds of civilians. Probably killed women and children if there were any left in the city when we invaded. So do I get judged too?” Hunter asked.

Members of the local chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) made their case outside Hunter’s El Cajon office on September 9.
The group said it had collected more than 8,000 signatures asking for the US House of Representatives to investigate Hunter actions while in combat.
“I mean it’s clear from the level of things he’s done he should resign,” said

CAIR’s Executive Director, Dustin Craun. “He’s not a good representative of this county – someone who’s literally a war criminal should be in prison.”
At a town hall meeting on May 22 Hunter also admitted to posing in photos with dead enemy combatants.

One of the counts against Gallagher alleges that he took a photo of himself with the corpse. A spokesman for the Congressman branded CAIR anti-Semitic and aligned with terrorists and equated CAIR’s actions to a political stunt designed to help his Democratic challenger Ammar Campa-Najjar, who is Palestinian American.

CAIR refuted that statement. “To say that we’re a terrorist aligned and anti-Semitic when Muslims are Semitic people – it makes no sense and it shows his level of racism and Islamophobia,” said Craun.

Legal experts said Hunter posing with a dead body is not automatically a crime and the statute of limitations would make it unlikely the Congressman would be charged. The 8,000 signatures were collected online across the nation and delivered to Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Office.