Holmes admits that Caldwell’s PsyOp wasn’t Psy-ish
LTC Michael Holmes, the fellow who went to Rolling Stone‘s Michael Hastings and told the story repeated breathlessly across the internet that Brigadier General William Caldwell was bending the minds of visiting politicians, has finally admitted that maybe it wasn’t such a big deal as he first indicated. Spencer Ackerman at Wired.com gives Hastings a feather massage;
Lt. Col. Michael Holmes, concedes that Lt. Gen. Caldwell’s effort was little more than spinning legislators — something any press flack could have done innocuously. Holmes’ main message to the inquiry will actually be more meta: he’s a whistleblower, subject to retaliation from Caldwell’s staff after he expressed doubt that an info-ops guy like him should be spinning U.S. citizens.
Caldwell’s command “was all about intimidation and reprisal, making people toe the line,” Holmes tells Danger Room at a Washington D.C. coffee shop.
Toe the legal line.
[T]here was no inherent line crossed. Holmes feared that his training as an information operations officer disqualified him from spinning U.S. legislators, since information operations aren’t supposed to target U.S. citizens. But both Holmes and Caldwell’s team have told Danger Room that the training command didn’t actually perform information operations — like attacking enemy computer networks, psychological warfare, or military deception. Indeed, while Holmes’ September 2010 officer evaluation report refers to Holmes as an “Information Operations Supervisor,” it noted, “there is not an operational requirement for Information Operations” in the training command.
The spin itself, Holmes says, was unproblematic.
Yeah, unproblematic. It wasn’t made to sound unproblematic last month when Holmes’s dramatic retelling was made to sound, as my friend Blackfive said, like “Men who stare at Senators” Jedi mind tricks.
So now with Holmes under oath this morning at the Pentagon with Lt. Gen. William Webster, the investigating officer in this newest investigation, Holmes’ story is suddenly more innocuous than it was in the Rolling Stone. Funny how that works.
And of course, Holmes was claiming that I’m a paid agent of BG Caldwell sent to smear him. Come to think of it, that check is late. Ackerman admits that both Holmes and Hastings are his friends which explains the tongue bath Ackerman gave them today. At this point, I’ll refrain from calling them all three shitbags until my check clears.
Category: Shitbags
Guys,
I don’t know a thing about his client, but the personal attacks on Zaid are ridiculous. Tomorrow you will be cheering him on as he continues to defend SSgt Wuterich against the Kafkaesque tragedy that has become the Haditha investigation.
Zaid is also the attorney who helped expose the low budget horror film that has become the Arlington cemetery scandal. Through negligence and ineptitude our nations veterans were given a final farewell that belonged in a Stephen King novel. It is ghoulish disregard for the dead and Zaid helped expose this shocking disregard for our veterans.
As far as national security law, you have to be a somewhat ideologue to practice it…cause it’s not where the money is.
Zaid is a personal friend, my personal attorney, and he has been an ardent supporter of Team Rubicon, which, for those of you who know me, is a veteran organization that I co-founded, and for which Blackfive serves on the Board of Advisors.
Lawyers are like ecoli. A certain amount is necessary for proper digestion; too much they will kill you.
Gulf War Syndrome issues, stopped the Anthrax Vaccination Immunization Program, ABLE DANGER, exposing all the burial problems at Arlington Cemetery, and dozens and dozens, if not hundreds, of individual military cases that are never public.
M.Z.Esq.
“But obviously we are well beyond that now and I am not going to try and persuade you otherwise as that would be a useless venture because you have already decided what happened and determined what your personal views are about LTC Holmes and me. That’s fine.”
No need to try and persuade anybody of anything. The facebook pages spoke for themselves. I especially liked the comment that LTC Holmes made: “the deadliest fire was indeed, inside the wire at Camp Eggers in Kabul. In Iraq, I was shot at and missed. In Afghanistan I was shit at and HIT.” So now he was hit by “deadly fire”?
Of course, the purging of all content and links that tied the LTC to SyzygyLogos LLC is also a nice touch. I prefer to let the LTC’s comments speak for themselves, including those that show how official government business was corrupted to serve a personal business venture.
you know I might sound a lot spiffier if I put Esq behind MY name too. Mr. Ziad, you complain about an adult conversation, you have to have a thick skin coming in this crowd. When its oh-dark thirty, and you’re going on a half hour of sleep in two days, its 20 below (or conversely 120) it’s snowing/sand storming/God damned monsoon and you whimper or whine, the guy next to you will probably tell you to rub the sand out of your vagina or other such witty retort. When we get together in groups we constantly insult each other make cracks about how glad the other is that DADT is gone etc. I mean go to a VFW and I’m pretty sure that most of the folks there will say shit that will curl your nose hairs. We do not accept excuses, because as a rule excuses get people killed, and we do not appreciate or tolerate grandstanding, or any of the half assed shit your client pulled. Do not plead for understanding, we understand better than most of the saps that ran with the story in the first place. You really want to win this argument HERE? RANGER THE FUCK UP! Prove to us in some way that your client isn’t the monumental shitbag he appears to be. Prove that he placed the mission first LIKE AN OFFICER IS SUPPOSED TO. Prove to us he actually gives a shit about the men/women he commanded. Prove to us that he did not in fact waste the government’s money, and break about 20 rules that by rights should have landed his happy ass in jail. If you can prove any of this maybe we’ll listen. Sincerly, Doc Bailey (The Mad Medic) PS. Anti-war types really don’t persuade us. Most of those jerk offs are kool-aid drinkers in the first place, and really, do you think any stinky smelly hippie that has the option to take a bath is going to have a better view than the stinky smelly Troop that doesn’t have anything but baby wipes (when available)? No one… Read more »
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I am perturbed that a lawyer would come to a blog and pretend not to get on “Jonn’s level”!
No self-respecting lawyer who takes a case seriously should give a rat’s ass about a blog and who says what in regard to the client unless he believes it would impact the outcome.
And you can ask for my name and location anytime. I don’t hide in the sense that is implied. I just like my screen name.
Leta…
Holmes is a (per Uncle J slang) douCHE’!!
Doc Bailey – well said.
Mark – My name is Matt Burden. It’s pretty easy to figure out. Among other things over the last few decades, I served as an Intelligence Officer and ran Counter Intel cases for a few years. I think I can tell the difference between an IO and a PsyOps.
If you have some information or statements that don’t make LTC Holmes appear to be a complete Jackwagon using the media and his attorneys to further his own corporate ends, I’d like to hear it.
But it better be good, because your “client” smeared a good man. And that ain’t right.
Excellent discussion. A++++ Would read again.
I am sure everyone was wondering where I had gone. Sorry to have been away!
TSO, sorry I never heard from you. Did I miss your promised call?
Matt, you’ll have to show me where my client “smeared a good man”. I’m simply not aware of where he has ever done so. Of course, I presume you are referring to General Caldwell. Frankly, I’ve never heard nor read of my client smearing him in the slightest.
BTW, for anyone that is interested in hearing what the case is really about, which is military whistleblowing and providing proper protection to our men and women in uniform (which I certainly presume is something you are ALL interested in), stop focusing on the inaccurately reported and sensationalized Rolling Stone article and listen to the 30 minute podcast interview LTC Holmes gave which can be heard here:
http://pogoblog.typepad.com/pogo/2011/03/new-podcast-an-interview-with-lt-colonel-michael-holmes.html
Also, for those that are interested, here is the most recent information on my Haditha case:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2690985/posts
We have court arguments on March 30th before the CAAF.
I listened to the Podcast, as I was hoping to hear LTC Holmes set the record straight in clarifying the errors from the “sensationalized” Rolling Stone article. I have to say, after listening, I believe LTC Holmes even less. As his lawyer, Mr. Zaid, I would recommend you advise the LTC to not speak to the press anymore. The more he interacts with the press, the less credible he seems. In the process, your good reputation (yes I have a lot of respect for you) is starting to come into question as well.
“Wow”, I am sorry to hear of your negative impression with the podcast. Respectfully, I disagree that LTC Holmes demonstrated any lack of credibility with his comments. I found him to sound very rationale, professional and informative.
That said, I can understand your disappointment that he did not specifically address the sensationalism of the Rolling Stone article. Simply put, that was not POGO’s interest, which solely concerned the whistleblowing facets of what happened in the aftermath of successfully countering the unlawful order. Thus the questions primarily focused on that aspect as POGO is dedicated to whistleblower protection and not military issues per se, although my recollection is that LTC Holmes did explain the nuances of IO and clarified some of the confusion as to what happened and who was involved.
Other than this podcast, which I was not present for, he has not spoken to the media. Anything from here on goes through me so I am very comfortable as to the message that will be conveyed, and I can assure everyone that it will not be the contents of the Rolling Stone article. Hopefully that will ensure my good reputation is also maintained (and I appreciate the kind comment).
Mark
I am glad to hear he has to go through you now for all press contact. Just using his direct quotes from previous press interactions is enough for me to generate a level of reasonable doubt as to the real gravity of his allegations. Bottom line is whistleblowers need to be protected, but if I had to run the Vegas numbers on whether to bet on LTC Holmes or not, I would find another whistleblower to put my money behind. I wish him all the best, but I will put my support behind someone else. Good luck on the case.