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Originally posted by Forever_frost
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It is just a matter of time now. At the filtration rate we are getting more and more information, there is no way they can go the other direction with this.Fuck you. We're going to Costco. -
Not to mention the Afgan military couldn't give a flying fuck. I saw a docu where it was showing US soldiers trying to train them. They were constantly high or could not/would not follow orders. It appeared we could not treat them as heavy handed as we do our own in boot camp. It looked like we were babysitting a bunch of 3 year olds. As soon as we are out of there, they will just go with the Taliban or something.Originally posted by kbscobravert View PostComment
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Yep. You can't fuck with them or the Iraqis because if you hurt their feelings, they take their weapon and shoot up the team and then go get paid by the insurgents. That's if you can catch them not stoned out of their mind and you have to plan training around their 5 times a day praying and then their fasting days where they can't do much because they'll just pass out.Originally posted by Frank View PostI wear a Fez. Fez-es are coolComment
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Why Was the FBI Investigating Michael Hastings’ Reporting on Bowe Bergdahl?
By Alice Speri
June 3, 2014 |
Three years into the disappearance of Bowe Bergdahl in Afghanistan, Michael Hastings — the journalist whose reporting cost General Stanley McChrystal his job — wrote a Rolling Stone story on the missing soldier, a piece which the magazine called “the definitive first account of Bowe Bergdahl.”
Hastings, who died in a car accident in Los Angeles in June 2013, had unparalleled access for that story.
Last POW in Afghanistan has been freed. Read more here.
He spoke to Bergdahl’s parents, who had by that time stopped talking to the press, following “subtle pressure” from the army, and he quoted from emails the young soldier had sent to them, documenting his growing disillusion with the war and the US military.
Hastings also spoke to several unnamed men in Bergdahl’s unit — soldiers who, we now know, had to sign a strict nondisclosure agreement forbidding them from discussing the soldier’s disappearance and search with anyone — let alone one of the top investigative journalists in the country.
'Michael and Matt both worked really, really hard on that story, and I know for a fact that they did it in a way that completely angered the US military and the US government.'
But most controversially, Hastings’ piece revealed what has been the subject of much debate and vitriol over the last few days: That a disillusioned Bergdahl had actually abandoned his post and “walked away.”
At the time of the story’s publication, the media had all but forgotten about Bergdahl — who was released on Saturday after five years in the hands of the Taliban, in exchange for five Guantanamo prisoners. And, with the exception of some initial chatter, Hastings’ piece, which paints a deeply unflattering picture of Bergdahl’s unit and its leadership, hardly had the impact of some of his other investigations.
But someone did pay attention to it: the FBI.
That, at least, is what was revealed in a heavily redacted document released by the agency following a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request — filed on the day of Hastings’ death — by investigative journalist Jason Leopold and Ryan Shapiro, an MIT doctoral student whom the Justice Department once called the “most prolific” requester of FOIA documents.
‘Superhero’ suing feds over Nelson Mandela’s 1962 arrest records. Read more here.
The document, partially un-redacted after Leopold and Shapiro engaged in a lengthy legal battle with the FBI for failing to fulfill its FOIA obligations, singles out Hastings’ Rolling Stone piece — “America’s Last Prisoner of War” — as “controversial reporting.” It names Hastings and Matthew Farwell, a former soldier in Afghanistan and a contributing reporter to Hastings’ piece.
'If this deployment is lame, I’m just going to walk off into the mountains of Pakistan.'
The document also included an Associated Press report based on the Rolling Stone piece, and what it identifies as a “blog entry” penned by Gary Farwell, Matthew’s father — which actually appears to be a comment entry on the Idaho Statesman’s website.
“The article reveals private email excerpts, from [redacted] to his parents. The excerpts include quotes about being ‘ashamed to even be American,’ and threats that, ‘If this deployment is lame, I’m just going to walk off into the mountains of Pakistan,’” the FBI file reads. “The Rolling Stone article ignited a media frenzy, speculating about the circumstances of [redacted] capture, and whether US resources and effort should continue to be expended for his recovery.”
'I’m happy the FBI is reading Rolling Stone on the job.'
The FBI file — as well as a Department of Justice document released in response to Leopold and Shapiro’s lawsuit — suggests that Hastings and Farwell’s reporting got swept up into an “international terrorist investigation” into Bergdahl’s disappearance.
A spokesperson for the FBI told VICE News that the agency does not normally comment on pending investigations and that it lets FOIA documents “speak for themselves.” The investigation was still pending as of last month, Leopold said.
According to the files — and a rare public statement by the FBI following Hastings’ death — Hastings was never directly under investigation by the agency, despite having pissed off a lot of people in very high places.
White House defends prisoner swap to free American POW. Read more here.
But it is not exactly clear why Hastings and Farwell’s “controversial” reporting made it into a criminal investigation that was already active before they even wrote the Rolling Stone story.
'The FBI says Hastings was not a target of their investigation but his reporting was. How do you investigate someone's reporting without investigating them?'
“Michael and Matt both worked really, really hard on that story, and I know for a fact that they did it in a way that completely angered the US military and the US government, and while other reporters were steering away from it, they were totally on it,” Leopold told VICE News. “The FBI was investigating this, whether they were investigating Michael or investigating the story, and there was a lot of fear around it, because they characterized the story as ‘controversial’ — whatever that means.”
“Then the question became, why was the FBI looking at this, what were they looking at?” Leopold added. “The FBI says Hastings was not a target of their investigation but his reporting was. How do you investigate someone's reporting without investigating them?"
Farwell declined to discuss the details of the file, but told VICE News, “I’m happy the FBI is reading Rolling Stone on the job.”
He had not known that his name, and his father's, showed up in the FBI's files until Leopold pointed it out to him. Leopold told VICE News: "When I showed Matt these files he was like, oh my god, this is basically outlining my conversations."
Farwell said: “When it first came out it was just Michael, and Jason was like, ‘Hey dude, this has your dad in it.’ And I was like, ‘Oh shit, they're talking about me in these redactions, that's weird.’ Anyway, I signed a privacy waiver and sent it out to Jason."
Entire paragraphs in the FBI documents remain redacted — leaving many questions about the scope of the investigation into the journalists’ work. But the un-redacted sections about Farwell characterize him as a 10th Mountain infantryman, who helped broker a meeting between Hastings and — presumably — some of the sources for the Rolling Stone story.
Now that Bergdahl is free, the lid on Pandora’s box has been lifted.
In his comment on the Idaho Statesman's site, also picked up in the FBI file, Farwell Senior comes to Bergdahl's defense after the Rolling Stone article sparked backlash against the soldier, of a similar sort that we are seeing today. He also credits his son for brokering Hastings’ meeting with the Bergdahls.I wear a Fez. Fez-es are coolComment
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“I’m going to excuse that young kid for his choice of words, but I’m not going to excuse the leadership of his outfit, nor the misguided policies of our government in Afghanistan and elsewhere which have put our young people in harms way without a clear vision of what they are doing,” Farwell, himself a retired Air Force officer, wrote then. “It’s my hope this Rolling Stone article helps the Bergdahl’s get their son back and helps expose some misguided policies and conduct far above the pay grade of this young disillusioned soldier.”
Now that Bergdahl is free, the lid on Pandora’s box has been lifted.
'Even before Bergdahl’s release, “the dam was getting ready to burst.”'
“For five years, soldiers have been forced to stay silent about the disappearance and search for Bergdahl. Now we can talk about what really happened,” Nathan Bradley Bethea, who served in Bergdahl’s battalion, wrote in the Daily Beast on Monday. “I served in the same battalion in Afghanistan and participated in the attempts to retrieve him throughout the summer of 2009. After we redeployed, every member of my brigade combat team received an order that we were not allowed to discuss what happened to Bergdahl for fear of endangering him. He is safe, and now it is time to speak the truth.”
"Bergdahl was a deserter, and soldiers from his own unit died trying to track him down," Bethea stated.
Soldiers forced to silence for years have now taken their accounts — and anger — about the missing soldier’s ordeal to social media and the press. Republican strategists eager to turn Bergdahl into the next Benghazi have also jumped on the opportunity to offer critics of the young “deserter” up for interviews, as the New York Times noted today.
'As for the circumstances of his capture, when he is able to provide them, we’ll learn the facts.'
In the last few days, Bergdahl has been blamed with the deaths of “every American soldier killed in Paktika Province in the four-month period that followed his disappearance,” according to the Times — charges that the Pentagon dismissed as unsubstantiated. Today it was reported that the army will launch an inquiry into the circumstances of Bergdahl's disappearance and his personal conduct.
"The questions about this particular soldier’s conduct are separate from our effort to recover ANY U.S. service member in enemy captivity," General Martin E. Dempsey said in a Facebook post today. "As for the circumstances of his capture, when he is able to provide them, we’ll learn the facts. Like any American, he is innocent until proven guilty. Our Army’s leaders will not look away from misconduct if it occurred."
The Gitmo prisoner exchange puts deals above grim justice. Read more.
A US Army investigation into Bergdahl's own conduct might appease or inflame his critics. But even before Bergdahl’s release, “the dam was getting ready to burst,” Farwell said.
“That was one of the weirdest things about the case, that everyone in the whole brigade was required to sign a pretty strict nondisclosure agreement that was enforced at a pretty high level, so basically if any of the people from that unit talked about Bowe, they thought they could be losing their careers,” Farwell said. "It was a blanket statement, ‘you will not talk about anything about this.'”
And while there is no suggestion — in the un-redacted bits of the FBI file on Hastings — that the agency was after any soldier who had taken his frustrations to the press, the fact that the FBI was looking into the reporters’ sources and methods raises at least the question.
Now, everyone wants to talk about it. But Hastings’ ever “controversial” reporting got to it first.
Follow Alice Speri on Twitter: @alicesperiI wear a Fez. Fez-es are coolComment
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Is there any proof he deserted
Did he admit to the deed
Im just saying because it would suit the left quite well if they could portray him that way.WHComment
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Bergdahl's squad leader.
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Having lived here and worked this life for the past 8 years, I cannot find anything in his writing that would lead me to believe it was not factual. The 501st AO HQ was on the same base I was on. Hell their building, TOC and Colonel's office was 50yrds from my office. They were a jacked up bunch.Originally posted by sc281 View Post
Funny enough, not really but I can laugh now....hell I kind of laughed then. Bergdahl was not the only troop that walked off. They had another leave from FOB Sharana and get 3 miles before being picked up by ANP and handed to the ANA at FOB Rushmore. This was around the very end of their deployment, March or April of 2010. Kid just flipped his lid and might have been high. Wearing army pt shorts/shirt and carrying a sword. lolLast edited by KBScobravert; 06-05-2014, 01:31 PM.Fuck you. We're going to Costco.Comment
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The plot thickens: Classified military report says Bergdahl walked away twice before
http://hotair.com/archives/2014/06/0...-twice-before/Comment
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Some Senate Democrats say President Obama should not let the angry backlash over Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl deter him from negotiating with al Qaeda for other American prisoners.
Sen. Barbara Mikulski (Md.), one of the most powerful Democrats in the Senate, is pressing the Obama administration to renew its efforts to secure the freedom of a government contractor held captive by al Qaeda.
She wants the Obama administration to pursue talks to free Warren Weinstein, a USAID contractor, who was kidnapped by al Qaeda in 2011 in Lahore, Pakistan, and Alan Gross, another USAID contractor, who is imprisoned in Cuba. Both are from Maryland.
“I have two Marylanders that were in service to their country working as contractors for [US]AID and I would like also now a renewed effort and also, using what they’ve done, how can we look to Gross and Weinstein,” said Mikulski. “What I’ve done is ask about that. I’ve brought it up as every meeting that I could. As their senator, my job is to advocate for them.”
Mikulski said she has spoken to White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough about making a renewed effort to free Weinstein and Gross and broached the subject at a classified briefing with senior defense, intelligence and diplomatic officials.
“We know that they’ve been working on it but this seems to be a new step of trading prisoners for release and I want to know how we could take a new look at the situation of my two Marylanders and even some other Americans that are being held,” Mikulski said Wednesday evening after a classified briefing on the prisoner exchange that led to Bergdahl’s release.
Caitlan Coleman is another American being held by al Qaeda, along with her Canadian husband Joshua Boyle. She disappeared in Afghanistan in late 2012. Her parents, James and Lyn, live in Pennsylvania.
The Associated Press reported that two videos of the Coleman and Boyle were e-mailed to James Coleman last year by an Afghan man who claimed to have ties to the Taliban.
Republicans have criticized the exchange of five Taliban commanders detained at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp for Bergdahl as setting a dangerous precedent of negotiating with terrorists.
But some Democratic lawmakers say those negotiations should continue to free other Americans.
When asked if the Obama should negotiate with al Qaeda to bring Weinstein back home, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said, “I would think so.”
Kaine declined to say whether he would endorse freeing additional prisoners from Guantanamo or other negotiating tactics until he was brought up to date on the captive Americans.
Several other Americans are being held by authorities considered enemies of the United States.
Amir Hekmati is a former U.S. Marine who was arrested in Iran in 2011 and accused of spying for the United States.
Saeed Abedini is an Iranian American who was imprisoned in 2012 for allegedly undermining the Iranian government after developing underground home Christian churches. He was accused of attempting to sway Iranian youth away from Islam.
Robert Levinson is a former FBI island who disappeared in Iran in 2007. The Iranian government has denied knowledge of his whereabouts but the Washington Post reported that he had been working for the CIA.
American Kenneth Bae was sentenced in 2013 to 15 years of hard labor in North Korea on charges of trying to overthrow the government. He was working as a tour guide and reportedly was carrying a computer hard disk with images of starving North Korean children.
Republicans fear Obama may trade other detainees from Guantanamo to secure his foreign policy aims.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said Wednesday that he will introduce legislation to halt additional prisoner releases.
“We're hearing talk that they are now considering releasing yet another Guantanamo terrorist,” Cruz told Fox News host Sean Hannity.
“I intend next week to file legislation to halt any releases from Guantanamo until we get to the bottom of what happened with Bergdahl and provide some real Congressional oversight here, because it is really needed,” he said.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Wednesday warned Republican lawmakers would call for Obama’s impeachment if he released more prisoners from Gitmo without Congress’s approval.
Mikulski declined to say whether the administration should trade any detainees for Weinstein.
“Right now I’m not into what is going to be the methodology. Right now I want the focus and the exploration,” she said.
Mikulski said she would speak further to McDonough and State Department officials.
“As their senator, my job is to advocate for them,” she said of Weinstein and GrossI wear a Fez. Fez-es are coolComment
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