Marine officer warned fellow Marines about danger; punished
J.C. sends us a link to an article in the Marine Corps Times about Marine Major Jason Brezler in regards to that green-on-blue attack last year by a local Afghan police chief’s “tea boy” which cost three Marines their lives while they were in the gym. You probably remember that we wrote about it then. Well, it seems that Major Brezler warned his troops about that police chief, Sarwar Jan, was habutually allowing his “tea boys” to come on the installation and wander around unsupervised. Then this particular tea boy, Aynoddin, choose to take his AK into the gym where marines weren’t allowed to take their own weapons and killed three Marines and wounded another seriously.
The problem comes when Major Brezler transmitted his warning days before the deadly attack;
Maj. Jason Brezler received “an emergency request for information” from deployed Marines with Kilo Company, 3/8, asking for information about an Afghan police official “whom they believed posed a security risk.”
Brezler, a mobilized reserve Marine at the time, “immediately told his fellow Marines what he knew about the peril they faced,” and realized afterward that he passed “imminent threat” information classified as “NATO SECRET” over an unclassified computer network….
Brezler reported the security breach himself – he tattled on himself and immediately received “an adverse fitness report”. A couple of things here. Why was this particular “imminent threat” classified NATO Secret? Maybe I don’t understand the stuff that’s going on over there well enough (and I’m sure you folks will straighten me out on this point), but it seems to me that an imminent threat warning would be posted on walls every where on the base. And if it was indeed an imminent threat, why weren’t those four Marines within arms distance of their weapons while they were in the gym?
But it looks like the Major sent a warning which fell on deaf ears and three Marines were killed as a result and he was punished. The only reason that I can think of keeping a threat warning secret is so the police chief doesn’t feel bad that he’s considered a breach in security at the base, rather than warning every private about the danger they’re in.
Category: Terror War
Another in a long list of powers-that-be trying to play CYA.
Well, he’s no Chelsea Manning, *THAT’S* for sure.
Right, let’s not investigate how this police chief is a danger, let’s investigate the officer who reported himself and probably ruined his career in the process of being honorable in reporting himself for revealing a secret that shouldn’t have been a secret in the first place. If they knew this sh1tbag was a problem why weren’t the troops issued weapons free in the gym? Nah, f#ck the troops we don’t want some piece of sh1t Afghani 4ssholes upset that we consider them a threat so a couple of Marines die instead, then the one who lives we can f#ck with his VA benefits for months when he separates….but it’s all good because we didn’t hurt anybodies feelings on the side of our enemies…heaven forbid they feel bad about being murderous sh1tbags….
Remind me again how I’m supposed to feel bad when some unarmed civilians get killed in this sh1thole again, cuz right now I’m not really feeling it…..
I’m sure he will be relieved and replaced by an Obama loyalist.
Jonn, there are any number of reasons why friendly knowledge of an potential enemy threat might be classified and not made public. I won’t discuss further or speculate on this particular case in an open forum.
That said: I have the impression that NHSparky is at least partially correct above, and that folks who failed to act appropriately here are trying to deflect blame or obfuscate.
VOV, reading your post, I just get mad as fuck all over again. You are exactly right. In the rush to not offend the baby like sensibilities of our Afghan “friends” we put our own in danger. And it just keeps happening over and over again. It is time to get out of that shit hole and not commit our troops to any more conflict. When being Politically Correct trumps common sense and force protection, it is time to just stay the fuck at home.
Again, I say: “This is what happens when you practice Lawfare instead of Warfare.”
Let’s pull out all our combat troops and send battalions of armed Jag types to replace them.
Well we have found one topic that General Amos is silent on.
How about some undo Command Influence on the part of your Marines.
No one in the higher ups is answering this question: why are those ‘teaboys’ allowed on any US military base, never mind allowed to wander around unsupervised? Why are they not searched?
Oh, wait! Brain fart on my part. Sorry, I was confusing common f!$#!#@@?ing sense with current military procedures. Sorry about that.
What ever happened to Shock and Awe? Now it’s all PC and Pussifacation.
There is nothing about this story that makes a bit of sense except for the actions of Maj Brezler. Naturally (as it is now defined) he is punished for it.
They have to burn someone to bring those marines back to life.
Absolutely disgraceful. Kudos to Brezler for trying to save lives. Piss on those who are attempting to ruin his career.
Semper Fi has also at many times meant, Phuc U I got mine.
The Marines could have been warned to stay away from tea boys and gyms at least.
As former 3/8 Marine, sounds legit.
And by legit I mean all fucked up. And by all fucked up I mean classic 3rd Battalion 8th Marines.
Another example of how commanders are falling in line, assisting in hollowing the force and appeasing our enemies. The Corps has become ruthless in rooting out those who don’t fall in line, as a testament to Gen Amos’ expectations from his “Heritage Brief”. Smedley Butler, Dan Daly and Chesty Puller are spinning in their graves right now.
It’s a shame to read about sh-t like this. Maj Brezler is probably a fine officer and was doing, IMO, precisely what leaders do – take care of their troops and look after their welfare. I cannot fathom why the “tea-boy” info was marked NATO SECRET. Just another reason why hadji’s shouldn’t be allowed on any base, at any time.
Same “stuff”, different place…
USMC/Vietnam
What about people who reported Hassans seditious statements and powerpoint presentations. Did they receive Bad OERs? Have these since been corrected/appealed or do they still stand?
Another good reason to load all our folks on planes and take them directly back home. Might be nice to leave a few nuclear presents behind.
John,
I can answer the why he got in trouble question as I just got back from Afghanistan.
This all starts with Bradly Manning. After his actions CENTCOM got all worked up and discovered that there was considerable amounts of “spillage” between the different networks that the US uses (NIPR, SIPR, CXI). When I was deployed to Iraq they gave us thumb drives (green for UNCLASSIFIED and red for SIPR) now you cannot even go into an office with a SIPR computer with an ipod for fear that some dumbass LT is going to charge his ipod on a gov’t computer (still happened).
From the highest levels spillage and IA violations became a huge priority. Commanders at the highest levels have been pushing Information Awareness training more than anything.
To be very honest my colleagues and I were more afraid of putting a USB device in our DOD Computers than going off the FOB.
So what Maj. Brezler did was violate DOD policy on spillage, when he disclosed a NATO:SECRET document over a UNCLASSIFIED network. Because he was an officer it was also senior leader misconduct (so the 2 star would be involved in any punishment) and that is why he got a negative Fit Rep…likely a Letter of Reprimand/Concern from a GO and that has to be reported on your OER/FitRep.
Each report of spillage or IA violations get reported all the way back to CENTCOM. There are tons of requirements after an incident to include the O6 commander personally approving allowing the Soldier/Marine back on the network. It is a giant pain in the ass for the Chain of Command, with the intention of making it so painful for the COC that they do not have a spillage/IA violation.
I hope that helped…though it does signify what we are most concerned about in AF right now. IA violations.
@20 – So, CENTCOM is more concerned about IA spillage than slaughtering the enemy by the bushel, and letting “tea boys” on base to appease our coalition partners?
All this because of a little faggot named Bradley Manning.
Makes me fuggin’ sick.
@20 – Also, glad you made it back safe. (BTW, my response wasn’t directed at you.)
Chesty Puller, by all accounts a pretty good Marine and all around swell guy, once said:
Our country won’t go on forever, if we stay soft as we are now. There won’t be any America—because some foreign soldiery will invade us and take our women and breed a hardier race.
Might be that the day he was talking about isn’t that far off.
“Brezler reported the security breach himself – he tattled on himself and immediately received “an adverse fitness report”.”
If, I repeat IF, this was a continuing problem with the Major, that would be one thing. But, if this was an isolated incident, then an adverse fitter is absolute, total fucking bullshit.
He made a mistake and he owned up to that mistake without being called on the carpet first. Smack him around in private and strengthen your security. End of story.
I admire his integrity.
If this this incident happened in August 2012, everyone was required to have a weapon with magazine on them at all times. I was over there at that time and we carried weapons even in the gym. I know it’s beside the point, but anyone who ordered them not to have weapons in the gym was in grave violation of a general order. That chai boy should have never been let on base, much less allowed to walk around by himself with an AK.
#23 Nik: how will the foreign soldiery know they are breeding with women? This is America, and a legal affadavit affirming gender may make things confusing for the conquerors.
@7 AW1 Tim, to paraphrase Lonesome Dove,
Gus McCrae: I’ll tell you what. You ride on up there, clear out the Taliban, build a little cabin, get a nice fire goin’ in the fireplace and me and Jake will gather a herd and then we’ll come on up.
Woodrow Call: I’d like to see the herd that you and Jake could gather. Herd o’ JAG Lawyers, maybe.
Second oldest profession.
He is not being punished because he tried to warn people. He is being punished because he passed Classified information over a unclassified medium.
@28.
What is the nature of the punishment?
LOR?
@29 Most likely. It’s not a Court Martial type offense, but IA violations can come with punitive damage such as an Article 15 (which officers don’t get) or reprimands. For those asking why the information was classified, everything operational is classified. We don’t want to transmit anything related to missions or intelligence collection over normal internet. The threat was probably transmitted to patrols, guards, and others who could be on the look out, but if anything in the report could reveal how the threat was learned it could compromise future intel gathering and so may not get posted on the walls.
@30
LOR’s can disappear.
with the correct wording, he could have taken a T/S or S/NATO message and put it in language that would have been OK to send to a friggen Yahoo account. If he just copied a S/NATO msg, and sent it, then he screwed up.
There’s a requirement that you need a fairly high ASVAP score to to that shit.
He was guilty of an IA violation that’s why he got hemmed up. He figured it was better to report than for him to be found out and reported.
We weren’t allowed to take weapons in the gym because they would get lost/stolen/ or would be within reach of local nationals. That was only at the Fluor or Air Force gyms which our command prohibited us from going to. We could only use Army gyms, as they had armed guards at the entrance.
That’s my take also, Anon (33). In principal, it’s no different than passing something classified “in the clear” on an unsecured phone line or discussing it in the in the mess hall around uncleared personnel. All are major “awsh!ts”.
If guidance or policy says something’s classified, there’s virtually always a reason. In such cases the info in question needs to be handled in the prescribed manner – period. The time to ask questions is well ahead of time, or AFTER treating it as classified info and transferring it appropriately.
For those asking why it matters: Manning and Snowden did much the same thing (disclosed classified info to unauthorized recipients). The difference is that they acted willfully and intentionally vice accidentally.
Good to see the guy had the stones to self-report and get the problem fixed. It’s a shame his c-of-c felt the need to give him what appears to be a severely damaging if not career-ending FITREP, but he does appear to have stepped on his crank.
Thank You to Dan Lamothe for this enlightening story. If not for Dan we wouldn’t even know about Major Brezler & the injustice he is facing and IT WAS MY BROTHER’S SON & his fellow soldiers he would have saved. I am LCpl Greg Buckley Jr’s aunt. His father & I have been begging the Marines, NCIS, the DoD, the DOJ & the US Attorneys for information for over a year. To this day we have not received one official communication from any of them. I’m starting to see why. So our question is WHY? Why was the information ignored? Why weren’t Sarwar Jan & his Chai Boy immediately removed from the base? Why weren’t our Marines alerted about the danger Sarwar posed? The soldiers on Delhi were “encouraged” to not carry weapons with them on base. But the Afghans they trained had loaded weapons at all times. Three Marines were assassinated & another gravely wounded because Marine officials were more concerned about the “sensitivity” of the Afghans than the safety of their men. Do they really think throwing Major Brezler under the bus will deflect from their negligence? No doubt about it, if the officer(s) who failed to act to protect his men had half the commitment & integrity of Major Brezler our three young Marines would be here today. This must be further investigated! The hypocrisy of this administration is astounding. Joe Biden & Leon Panetta announced publicly that SEAL Team Six took out Bin Ladin…. pretty much setting up their demise aboard Extortion 17 August 6, 2011, and Washington continues to look the other way. However, when Major Brezler, thinking solely of the imminent threat to his brother Marines, responds to an “emergency request for information” by Marine Captains on FOB Delhi he’s tied to a cross. I hope everyone writes to their Congressman & demands an investigation into both these tragedies. The Buckley family will do everything it can to help Major Brezler, we will be forever grateful to him for his efforts & it breaks our hearts he is being punished for it. Please pass… Read more »