Posted on 05/19/2007 5:23:46 PM PDT by Lorianne
Site contained violent, sex-oriented images one official called 'repulsive' ___ The soldier son of talk radio relationship counselor Laura Schlessinger is under investigation for a graphic personal Web page that one Army official has called "repulsive."
The MySpace page, publicly available until Friday when it disappeared from the Internet, included cartoon depictions of rape, murder, torture and child molestation; photographs of soldiers with guns in their mouths; a photograph of a bound and blindfolded detainee captioned "My Sweet Little Habib"; accounts of illicit drug use; and a blog entry headlined by a series of obscenities and racial epithets.
The site is credited to and includes many photographs of Deryk Schlessinger, the 21-year-old son of the talk radio personality known simply as Dr. Laura. Broadcast locally on 570 KNRS, "Family Values Talk Radio," the former family counselor spends three hours daily taking calls and offering advice on morals, ethics and values. She broadcast a show from Fort Douglas, in Salt Lake City, last week.
Military leaders have long grappled with how to balance positive publicity and operational security with technological opportunities for troops to tell their personal stories.
The Pentagon last week shut down access to a variety of video-sharing and social networking Internet sites, including MySpace, on its computer systems worldwide. Officials said the change was made to enhance security and protect a strained bandwidth, but critics worried that it might close a public window into the lives of deployed U.S. troops, some of which can be raw, frightening, violent and revealing.
"Yes . . . F---ING Yes!!!" said one blog entry on the Schlessinger site. "I LOVE MY JOB, it takes everything reckless and deviant and heathenistic and just overall bad about me and hyper focuses these traits into my job of running around this horrid place doing nasty things to people that deserve it . . . and some that don't."
Deryk Schlessinger joined the Army in 2004, telling a crowd of Santa Barbara, Calif., Army reservists gathered for an appearance by his mother that he resented the way Americans criticize the war without recognizing soldiers' sacrifices.
"Real people were fighting, and I wanted to be part of that," the younger Schlessinger said, according to The Associated Press.
Since Deryk Schlessinger deployed earlier this year, his mother's talk show increasingly has been focused on the battles being waged in Iraq and Afghanistan and the wars' effects on families back home. Meanwhile, the radio host has taken to referring to herself as "the proud mother of a deployed American paratrooper" and speaks frequently about her soldier son before military audiences nationwide.
Deryk Schlessinger did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment from The Tribune.
Mike Paul, spokesman for Laura Schlessinger, released a statement which said, in part, "We hope all news media outlets will respect his privacy for his safety and the safety of those serving with him." In an interview with The Tribune, Paul suggested that the page could be a fake.
That was a contention echoed by Army spokesman Robert Tallman, who said "it may be possible that our enemies are actually behind this.
"Our enemies are adaptive, technologically sophisticated, and truly understand the importance of the information battlespace," Tallman continued. "Sadly, they will use that space to promulgate and disseminate untrue propaganda."
MySpace is an online social network in which users link pages together through like interests and shared friendships. The Deryk Schlessinger page included nearly a dozen "friends," including a number of soldiers in Afghanistan, several of whom were linked back to Schlessinger's page and some of whom had additional photos of, and comments from, Schlessinger on their sites.
Deryk Schlessinger's Web site indicated the 21-year-old soldier is stationed in Kandahar, Afghanistan, where, the site's author writes, "godless crazy people like me," have become "a generation of apathetic killers."
The site indicated Schlessinger's team has survived numerous mortar, rocket and roadside bomb attacks. It also included several graphic cartoons. In one of the stick drawings, a top-hatted man laughs as he rapes a bound and bleeding woman in front of her family. In another depiction, a man forces a boy to perform oral sex at knifepoint as the child's mother pleads for her son's life.
It's unclear who created the cartoons, but Army spokesman Robert Tallman said the drawings "are repulsive and not anywhere near being acceptable," for a soldier's personal Web page.
The Tribune learned of the Web page earlier this week from a former schoolmate of Deryk Schlessinger. Army officials said they were unaware of the site until alerted to its presence by the newspaper Thursday.
David Accetta, public affairs director for the 82nd Airborne Division in Afghanistan, said the Army "will investigate thoroughly and impartially."
In an e-mail to 82nd commanders, Accetta asked to see "how the site is being administered and if we can shut it down." By Friday morning the site was offline, but officials didn't immediately respond to questions about who took it down.
Accetta said the pictures and writings he reviewed from the site were inconsistent with the values of Army special forces soldiers.
J.P. Borda, who administers an online index of thousands of personal military Web pages, said military guidelines and common decency are respected by "the overwhelming majority of military bloggers in Iraq and Afghanistan."
"There are a few bad apples and they have soured the whole bunch," said Borda, who began his site - www.milblogging.com - during his first tour of duty in Afghanistan in 2004.
Laura Schlessinger's appearance in Utah last week included a visit with Army families at Fort Douglas. In an interview with The Tribune, she said, "We raised our son to be a warrior."
After her Utah visit, Schlessinger received criticism for telling The Tribune that she didn't want to hear the complaints of military wives whose husbands are deployed. "He could come back without arms, legs or eyeballs, and you're bitching?" Schlessinger said. "You're not dodging bullets, so I don't want to hear any whining."
Schlessinger later wrote on her Web site - www.drlaura.com - that she was trying to communicate her belief that military spouses shouldn't complain to war-deployed family members, who have more pressing concerns. "I never whine to my son when he is able to call between missions," she wrote.
I'm thinking this latest articlel is to further damage Dr. Laura and her family.
I’d like to believe young people in our military are smarter than the average 18-22 year old ... but I fear some of them aren’t.
Laura is a very hard woman. She never explains the concept/theory behind her explanations, which leaves me wondering whether she really understands what she believes.
You don't listen to her often, I see...
According to Dr. Laura she’s a recovering ex feminist. During her early years she worked and did many things she’s ashamed of now. We all change.
She’s not always right but she’s changed a lot of lives in the process.
Yea probably so. I’ve listened on many occasions and she’s one that will be brutal if necessary.
Don’t listen if you’re sensitive, she’ll step all over your toes.
It isn’t.
I wouldn’t discount the fact that he’d be a likely target for a hacker to put up just such content.
This is from the SL Tribune, pathetic urban lefty rag.
Ok, i just don’t like her.
I think she is a phony. AND very ambitious.
“i HAVE ALWAYS THOUGHT DR LAURA WAS VERY STRANGE...”
No, it’s very simply. She’s the latest incarnation of the old Jewish Court radio programs.
As some here might recall, large Jewish populations (NYC) used to have their own court system for civil matters, and to get direction of various dilemmas (”Is it right to say to my mother...”).
The trials were broadcast, kinda like Divorce Court of its era, due to the popularity of the advice as well as the “Jerry Springer” entertainment value.
Some of these old broadcasts were in Yiddish, and are now being preserved — http://www.npr.org/programs/atc/features/2002/yiddish/
Judge Judy is another example of this kind of “Jewish Court” program.
she has no degree or training in mental health or psych. ha.
“I think she is a phony. AND very ambitious.”
Just because the person giving the advice if flawed (ie, phony, ambitious, etc) doesn’t mean that her advice if flawed.
The advantage of giving advice based on ancient moral codes, as well as 4000 years of tradition in understanding those codes, is that the Authority in her advice doesn’t rest on Dr. Laura, but on something much older, much stronger — GOD.
that is such very interesting info.
She does the Jewish thing very well, considering that she converted. which is all ok, except I think she is a phony all the way through.
“she has no degree or training in mental health or psych. ha.”
So? Neither did Jesus, Moses, or even your mom. Did that invalidate their advice?
I realize that...and you make a very valid point. However, she flies all over the place...psychology, psychiatry, tradition, Jewish and Christian religions.
i still find her to be very phony.
Yea I guess that’s why she’s getting paid and has a following and we’re discussing her on FR.
Well then! She converted well! :)
Just cry Uncle, will ya? ;)
Hey, for YEARS I didn't care for her...why? Because I didn't listen on a regular basis. I've heard her go OFF on CAIR...not bad for a "phony". Cry Uncle...come on. We're winning...the whole thing was a set-up IN MY OPINION to get at her...
But she presents her self as a “therapist”//
I don’t like her and so maybe, it is her phoniness or her persona.
It would be horrible if this is real. The content just seems so evil to me. It doesn’t seem like an American soldier (espeically one with such a conservative mother who works with military families) would ever post such vile images and hateful comments. It sounds like someone could have hacked his MySpace. I really hope it was a hack job, and he didn’t do this.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.