An interesting post on Drones by Darksyde over at DKOS.
Droning On
by John Cole| 13 Comments
This post is in: Military, War on Terror aka GSAVE®
by John Cole| 13 Comments
This post is in: Military, War on Terror aka GSAVE®
An interesting post on Drones by Darksyde over at DKOS.
This post is in: Cruz-ifiction, Election 2016, Gay Rights are Human Rights, Military, Open Threads, Republican Stupidity
Cruz in Iowa: "Fortune 500 is running shamelessly to endorse the radical gay marriage agenda over religious liberty." http://t.co/LFjcQHBDfo
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) April 2, 2015
… because — and nobody knows this better than a Texas legislator — no GOP candidate gets to be the presidential nominee by bad-mouthing “Fortune 500”. Although Cruz can surely use his Bible-based dog-whistling to collect a sufficiency of “love offerings” to make up for putting his wife’s Goldman Sachs career on a temporary hiatus.
But if he’s knocked out early, at least he won’t have to defend his record, and EvenTheDeterminedlyBothSiderist Politico can find lots that needs defending:
Ted Cruz thunders about what he calls a “fundamentally unserious” U.S. defense policy, but when he had a chance to weigh in during Senate Armed Services Committee hearings, he rarely showed up.
Cruz, who announced last week he’s running for president, has the committee’s worst attendance record — by far.
The Texas Republican attended just three of the panel’s 16 public hearings so far this year, according to a POLITICO review of transcripts from full committee hearings. The average committee member attended 13 of the 16 hearings, and Cruz is the only one of the panel’s 26 members with an attendance rate below 50 percent.
Cruz missed opportunities to cross-examine the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan and was absent from a session on the U.S. military prison at Guantánamo Bay — despite being a leading opponent of President Barack Obama’s decision to swap five Taliban commanders at Guantánamo for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. The freshman senator also missed opportunities to cross-examine officials about the effects of across-the-board spending cuts on military readiness and the appropriate levels of compensation for the troops…
Ted Cruz: Fundamentally Unserious.
On Ted Cruz's big campaign debut in Iowa, no "Cruz for president" signage or stickers or swag. Is Cruz himself all the stagecraft needed?
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) April 2, 2015
Open Thread: Yeah, It’s Just A Grift NowPost + Comments (41)
by John Cole| 92 Comments
This post is in: Military
This was rumored a while back and shot down, but now it appears to be real. Sgt. Bergdahl charged with desertion:
The U.S. military has charged Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl with one count each of desertion and misbehavior before the enemy, officials announced Wednesday afternoon. Bergdahl left his post in Afghanistan before being captured and held captive for five years.
The decision comes nearly a year after Bergdahl returned to the United States as part of a prisoner exchange and since the Army began a formal investigation into his disappearance from his unit in eastern Afghanistan in June 2009.
The Army concluded its investigation into the circumstances of Bergdahl’s capture in December. Until now, it has been in the hands of Gen. Mark Milley, head of U.S. Army Forces Command, who made the decision. Several U.S. military officials CNN has spoken with suggested privately that the process took longer than expected.
I’ll just repeat what I said the last time- this is how the system is supposed to work:
If you’ll remember, wingnuts were furious that he was brought home, saying he should have just been left there based on their anecdotal evidence. But that is not how things are supposed to work. He is one of ours. You bring him home, and then you trust the military to investigate, and if it is determined he did something wrong, then he will face the charges in our justice system, not one run by a bunch of neanderthals who stone women for adultery and throw homosexuals off the roof of a building.
And what Soonergrunt said, too.
OK, Now They are Charging Bergdahl With DesertionPost + Comments (92)
This post is in: Military, Decline and Fall, Ever Get The Feeling You've Been Cheated?, Security Theatre
And that's why you don't give diaries full of classified material to your jealous lover. http://t.co/YkDUW4HdhT
— Josh Barro (@jbarro) March 3, 2015
From the NYTimes article:
David H. Petraeus, the best-known military commander of his generation, has reached a plea deal with the Justice Department and admitted providing his highly classified journals to a mistress when he was the director of the C.I.A.
Mr. Petraeus has agreed to plead guilty to one count of unauthorized removal and retention of classified material, a misdemeanor. He is eligible for up to one year in prison but prosecutors will recommend two years of probation and a $40,000 fine…
…[T]he deal also ends two years of uncertainty and allows Mr. Petraeus to focus on his lucrative post-government career as a partner in a private equity firm and a worldwide speaker on national security issues. Even while under investigation, he has advised the White House on Iraq and terrorism issues….
“The broader nation needs his advice, and I think it’s been evidence that people still want to hear from him,” said Michael E. O’Hanlon, a senior fellow with the Brookings Institution. “People are forgiving and know he made a mistake. But he’s also a national hero and a national resource.”
Mr. Petraeus’s friends and allies have been highly critical of the Justice Department for keeping the investigation open so long. Republicans in Congress accused Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., of using the investigation to silence Mr. Petraeus. On the other side, some investigators were privately critical of the Justice Department for not moving more aggressively against Mr. Petraeus, particularly when Mr. Holder has led a crackdown on government officials who reveal secrets to journalists…
Hey, remember when Chelsea Manning’s defenders were lectured about how her crimes were so much worse than even Snowden’s, because members of the military need to be held to a higher standard? Of course, Manning was just a grunt, not a four-star general.
From the Washington Post:
… Among the secret materials contained in the “black books” was information on identities of covert operatives, the coalition war strategy and notes about Petraeus’ discussions with President Barack Obama and the National Security Council, prosecutors said.
Those binders were later seized by the FBI in a search of Petraeus’ Arlington, Virginia, home, where he had kept them in the unlocked drawer of a desk in a ground-floor study.
Prosecutors said that after resigning from the CIA, Petraeus signed a form falsely attesting he had no classified material. He also lied to FBI agents in denying he supplied the information to Broadwell, according to court documents…
Leaving aside the easy jokes on thinking with the wrong head: This wasn’t about sexual appetites. This was about a Very Important Man’s desire to make sure that his hot younger amanuensis correctly reported every detail of his Very Important Career. The extracurricular nookie may have been the sizzle, but plain old asexual vanity/narcissism was the steak.
… If he manages to avoid prison, Petraeus will receive far more lenient punishment than that meted out to others convicted of leaking secrets.
In 2012, former CIA officer John Kiriakou pleaded guilty to intentionally disclosing the identity of a covert agent to a reporter and was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison. Petraeus, then CIA director, hailed the conviction.
“Oaths do matter, and there are indeed consequences for those who believe they are above the laws that protect our fellow officers and enable American intelligence agencies to operate with the requisite degree of secrecy,” he said at the time…
Sen. John McCain, a longtime supporter of Petraeus, said it is time to consider the issues raised by the ex-general’s extramarital affair closed.
“At a time of grave security challenges around the world, I hope that Gen. Petraeus will continue to provide his outstanding service and leadership to our nation, as he has throughout his distinguished career,” the Arizona Republican said…
RT @JesselynRadack: Tom Drake @Thomas_Drake1 had to sacrifice job, life savings, retirement to get misdemeanor. Petraeus had to get laid.
— Tim Shorrock (@TimothyS) March 3, 2015
On #Petraeus, @JohnKiriakou says, "I spent two years in prison; he gets two years probation." https://t.co/vd0wBTwNTP pic.twitter.com/epPFSYWlHD
— Peter Maass (@maassp) March 3, 2015
A 22-year-old was recently sentenced to two years in prison for lying to agents, just like Petraeus did. http://t.co/FkqpCOiLsf
— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) March 3, 2015
Re-upping Stephen Kim story after Petraeus plea. Petraeus leaks trove, gets wrist slap, Kim leaks little, gets jail. https://t.co/JvhUWQVhoM
— Peter Maass (@maassp) March 3, 2015
QOTD: “Snowden wud entertain returning to #US for kind of plea Gen. #Petraeus rec'd," sed his atty .@JesselynRadack
http://t.co/W1cK65QCGH
— Thomas Drake (@Thomas_Drake1) March 3, 2015
Nice thing abt Petraeus plea deal is EVERY SINGLE LEAKER from this now on will be able to say, "Well, more sensitive secrets were probation"
— emptywheel (@emptywheel) March 3, 2015
by John Cole| 75 Comments
This post is in: Military
This really is turning out to be nothing (kudos to Tapper, Stelter, and CNN for this interview):
Like I said yesterday:
Personally, I’m sympathetic to the notion that he intended no ill will. First, he was doing this to honor a guy who Williams felt defended him for days when Williams was undoubtedly scared. Second, he’s not trying to claim he was some sort of brave soldier, he’s thanking all the guys who defended him. Third, Brian Williams is a civilian with no training whatsoever. He was probably all hopped up on adrenaline just being on the helicopter, let alone in the desert during a war, and then to be told that someone had been hit, etc. I can see how years later it would all run together. Hell, a simple combat landing in a plane would make many civilians think they had been hit by a nuke. I have no practical experience, but I imagine it would be just as dramatic in a helicopter.
From the transcript:
Rich Krell, who was piloting the Chinook that Williams was on, tells a slightly different story than the crew members who spoke to Stars and Stripes.
“Some of things he’s said are not true. But some of the things they’re saying against him are not true either,” said Krell, who spoke exclusively to CNN on Thursday morning.
Krell explained that, contrary to Williams’ comments in the past, there were three helicopters flying in close formation, not four.
“One of the birds broke down, so we were a flight of three,” Krell said. “We were hauling metal bridges.”
Williams was in the back of Krell’s aircraft along with three other NBC staffers. Krell referred to his Chinook as the “second bird” in the formation. The “first bird,” right in front of the “second bird,” was struck by the RPG.
Due to his seat in the back, Williams was most likely unable to witness the RPG attack, Krell said.
All three of the helicopters were hit by small arms fire, Krell said, supporting Williams’ past claims about that.
“The bridge expansions we were hauling took most of the hits,” Krell said.
The three Chinooks took evasive maneuvers. Krell’s helicopter dropped off its payload, then met up with the other two about 45 minutes later. That may explain why the other crew members told Stars and Stripes that Williams arrived in the area later.
Krell said of Williams, “Yeah, he messed up some things and said some things he shouldn’t have. I [first] heard it a few years ago. … Actually one of my flight engineers said, ‘Did you hear him say that? Wasn’t he on our bird?'”
As I noted yesterday, over time, memories fade and get mangled:
Finally, and most importantly, memories fade and get muddled. About 90% of the time when Shawn and I are reminiscing about things we did together while overseas, one of us will say to the other “I remember that happening, but don’t remember if I was there.”
“Were you there for that?”
“I think so. I mean, I remember it happening.”
“Or was that me and Geoff?”
“Again, I don’t remember. I remember it happening, but I don’t remember if I was there or there right after.”
It is what it is. Big fish and all that. That’s how memory works, that’s why eyewitness testimony is a shitty thing to use as the sole basis for a conviction, and that’s why old soldiers talk about the same stories over and over again- to retain the collective memory when the individual memory fails, to have a few laughs, and to remember what it was like being young and dumb.
Here’s CWO4 Krell:
Krell didn’t seem overly bothered by Williams’ revisionist history — he chalked it up to wartime theatrics. “After a while, with combat stories, you just go ‘Whatever,'” he said.
And note, Williams isn’t the only one whose memory faded and is inaccurate. The soldiers who accused Williams of lying also have some facts wrong- They claim he was on a chopper an hour behind them, when he was on the Chinook right behind them. What happened was he was with them when the RPG hit the shithook, but they then flew off to drop off their payload, returned to the downing an hour later, and that is why the soldiers “remember” him not being around during the RPG incident at all.
As far as I am concerned, Williams is owed an apology by some of his harshest critics. Many of whom, I might add, never left their barcalounger and got anywhere near as close to danger as Williams did. Their sole contribution to the war was slapping yellow ribbons on their cars and ranting about the Dixie Chicks.
As someone noted earlier in the other post, the best that can come from this is a heightened awareness of how memory works and how dangerous eye witness testimony can be in the court of law.
by John Cole| 91 Comments
This post is in: Military, Our Failed Media Experiment
The real Brian Williams crime is that fucking bronzer he uses.
— John Cole (@Johngcole) February 5, 2015
Apparently the scandal of the day is that last week, Brian Williams was at a Rangers game with a retired CSM, and the Rangers and fans honored the CSM for his service. Apparently, fifteen years ago, Williams was embedded with the unit in Iraq, and one of the choppers was hit by an rpg and went down. The CSM was one of the soldiers on the BFV that defended the helicopters for several days, and he and Williams kept in touch, so Williams invited him to the game so they could reunite. All in all, a nice gesture to a guy who spent 23 years in the military and earned three bronze stars.
Here’s where it goes south. Williams apparently misremembered/lied/whatever, and stated in his tribute that he was on the helicopter that got hit. Some of the guys on the chopper that actually was hit took umbrage, and Williams apologized and said he misremembered. This is now being treated as if Williams was caught in a General’s uniform in a New Jersey mall pretending to be a medal of honor winner.
Let me start by saying a couple things. I don’t care for Williams or his delivery. I find him at least partially responsible for the abomination that is Girls, as his spawn is one of the stars.
Having said that, I find this to be a pretty big nothing-burger. He wasn’t trying to personally profit from the situation, he was just trying to do something nice for the CSM. He even initially accurately reported what happened, and only now seems to have screwed up the narrative. And he immediately apologized when he realized he was wrong, on facebook in the thread where he was confronted, and again on tv tonight:
Brian Williams responds on Facebook: “Nobody's trying to steal anyone's valor” http://t.co/UBIhoxFmxD pic.twitter.com/R50WOnxZgC
— Michael Calderone (@mlcalderone) February 4, 2015
Personally, I’m sympathetic to the notion that he intended no ill will. First, he was doing this to honor a guy who Williams felt defended him for days when Williams was undoubtedly scared. Second, he’s not trying to claim he was some sort of brave soldier, he’s thanking all the guys who defended him. Third, Brian Williams is a civilian with no training whatsoever. He was probably all hopped up on adrenaline just being on the helicopter, let alone in the desert during a war, and then to be told that someone had been hit, etc. I can see how years later it would all run together. Hell, a simple combat landing in a plane would make many civilians think they had been hit by a nuke. I have no practical experience, but I imagine it would be just as dramatic in a helicopter.
Finally, and most importantly, memories fade and get muddled. About 90% of the time when Shawn and I are reminiscing about things we did together while overseas, one of us will say to the other “I remember that happening, but don’t remember if I was there.”
“I think so. I mean, I remember it happening.”
“Or was that me and Geoff?”
“Again, I don’t remember. I remember it happening, but I don’t remember if I was there or there right after.”
It is what it is. Big fish and all that. That’s how memory works, that’s why eyewitness testimony is a shitty thing to use as the sole basis for a conviction, and that’s why old soldiers talk about the same stories over and over again- to retain the collective memory when the individual memory fails, to have a few laughs, and to remember what it was like being young and dumb.
The internet experts are all atwitter on twitter, though. Folks saying things like “I’m pretty sure I’d know if someone aimed at me” or “I know I would remember being shot at,” to which my response is a pretty emphatic “No, you wouldn’t.” If you’re in a helicopter, I’m not sure how the hell you would know if someone was aiming at you or shooting at you unless saw tracers or you got hit, and even then, there are a bazillion stories (A10 pilots are full of them) about aircraft getting back to base and the crew finding holes while the pilot was oblivious to the fact he/she was under fire. Here’s our own Sooner with his own story:
@Johngcole None of them felt the hit or the detonation. They didn't know until we got back to base and they saw the trunk all blown to hell.
— soonergrunt (@soonergrunt) February 5, 2015
Like I said, I don’t care for Williams, but I find this a big nothing. He wasn’t trying to promote himself or steal someone’s valor, he was trying to do a solid to a guy he thinks saved his ass. Sooner, who has a lot more experience than I do, will hopefully chime in.
And no, liberals, this is not the same as Hillary’s sniper fire bullshit, in which she completely made up stuff to embellish herself. Here, Williams just misspoke (misremembered/whatever blows your trumpet) in a tribute to an American soldier.
BTW- if I read more and he was lying repeatedly about this, I’ll change my opinion accordingly.
by Zandar| 46 Comments
This post is in: Military, Flash Mob of Hate, Security Theatre, Sociopaths, Their Motto: Apocalypse Now
“Son, where did you learn about disproportionate military response?”
“From you, Dad! I learned it from watching you, okay?!?”
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Wednesday that Israel should harshly respond to the Hezbollah shelling of IDF convoys near the border with Lebanon.
“The firing of rockets at our sovereign territory should be responded to harshly and disproportionately, just as China or the US would in similar circumstances,” said Lieberman.
Countries that blow up the crap out of the Middle East have client states that blow up the crap out of the Middle East.
And we wonder why Gaza is 139 square miles of lunar craters and despair with checkpoints.