No Limit
Party Escort Bot
- Joined
- Sep 14, 2003
- Messages
- 9,018
- Reaction score
- 1
Remember how when we had discussions on Brad Manning many people didn't think what he did was appropriate and instead should have went up the chain of command when he saw something illegal?
Well, that's what happened here, or atleast that's what was attempted here. And as a result the person making the complaints was officially reprimanded after an investigation was started on him based on the fact that he refused to follow the illegal orders given to him. The investigation turned up among other things that he used too much facebook and made inappropriate jokes (seriously).
The story is here:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politic...ploys-psy-ops-on-u-s-senators-20110223?page=1
I have a hard time believing they will court-martial this guy as you would normally do when someone in the military breaks the law, instead they will probably simply ask him to resign.
Well, that's what happened here, or atleast that's what was attempted here. And as a result the person making the complaints was officially reprimanded after an investigation was started on him based on the fact that he refused to follow the illegal orders given to him. The investigation turned up among other things that he used too much facebook and made inappropriate jokes (seriously).
The story is here:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politic...ploys-psy-ops-on-u-s-senators-20110223?page=1
The U.S. Army illegally ordered a team of soldiers specializing in "psychological operations" to manipulate visiting American senators into providing more troops and funding for the war, Rolling Stone has learned – and when an officer tried to stop the operation, he was railroaded by military investigators.
...
The list of targeted visitors was long, according to interviews with members of the IO team and internal documents obtained by Rolling Stone. Those singled out in the campaign included senators John McCain, Joe Lieberman, Jack Reed, Al Franken and Carl Levin; Rep. Steve Israel of the House Appropriations Committee; Adm. Mike Mullen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; the Czech ambassador to Afghanistan; the German interior minister, and a host of influential think-tank analysts.
...
Under duress, Holmes and his team provided Caldwell with background assessments on the visiting senators, and helped prep the general for his high-profile encounters. But according to members of his unit, Holmes did his best to resist the orders. Holmes believed that using his team to target American civilians violated the Smith-Mundt Act of 1948, which was passed by Congress to prevent the State Department from using Soviet-style propaganda techniques on U.S. citizens. But when Holmes brought his concerns to Col. Gregory Breazile, the spokesperson for the Afghan training mission run by Caldwell, the discussion ended in a screaming match. "It’s not illegal if I say it isn’t!" Holmes recalls Breazile shouting.
...
Three weeks after the exchange, however, Holmes learned that he was the subject of an investigation, called an AR 15-6. The investigation had been ordered by Col. Joe Buche, Caldwell’s chief of staff. The 22-page report, obtained by Rolling Stone, reads like something put together by Kenneth Starr. The investigator accuses Holmes of going off base in civilian clothes without permission, improperly using his position to start a private business, consuming alcohol, using Facebook too much, and having an "inappropriate" relationship with one of his subordinates, Maj. Laural Levine. The investigator also noted a joking comment that Holmes made on his Facebook wall, in response to a jibe about Afghan men wanting to hold his hand. "Hey! I’ve been here almost five months now!" Holmes wrote. "Gimmee a break a man has needs you know."
"LTC Holmes’ comments about his sexual needs," the report concluded, "are even more distasteful in light of his status as a married man."
Both Holmes and Levine maintain that there was nothing inappropriate about their relationship, and said they were waiting until after they left Afghanistan to start their own business. They and other members of the team also say that they had been given permission to go off post in civilian clothes. As for Facebook, Caldwell’s command had aggressively encouraged its officers to the use the site as part of a social-networking initiative – and Holmes ranked only 15th among the biggest users.
I have a hard time believing they will court-martial this guy as you would normally do when someone in the military breaks the law, instead they will probably simply ask him to resign.