RUMSFELD SET UP; REPORTER PLANTED QUESTIONS WITH SOLDIER (DRUDGE SIREN)

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[Nascardude]

RUMSFELD SET UP; REPORTER PLANTED QUESTIONS WITH SOLIDER
Thu Dec 09 2004 11:49:38 ET

Chattanooga Times Free Press reporter Edward Lee Pitts is embedded with the 278th Regimental Combat Team, now in Kuwait preparing to enter Iraq, and is filing articles for his newspaper. Pitts claims in a purported email that he coached soldiers to ask Defense Secretary Rumsfeld questions!

From: EDWARD LEE PITTS, Chattanooga Times Free Press military reporter
Sent: Wednesday, December 8, 2004 4:44 PM
To: Staffers

Subject: RE: Way to go

I just had one of my best days as a journalist today. As luck would have it, our journey North was delayed just long enough see I could attend a visit today here by Defense Secretary Rumsfeld. I was told yesterday that only soldiers could ask questions so I brought two of them along with me as my escorts. Before hand we worked on questions to ask Rumsfeld about the appalling lack of armor their vehicles going into combat have. While waiting for the VIP, I went and found the Sgt. in charge of the microphone for the question and answer session and made sure he knew to get my guys out of the crowd.

So during the Q&A session, one of my guys was the second person called on. When he asked Rumsfeld why after two years here soldiers are still having to dig through trash bins to find rusted scrap metal and cracked ballistic windows for their Humvees, the place erupted in cheers so loud that Rumsfeld had to ask the guy to repeat his question. Then Rumsfeld answered something about it being "not a lack of desire or money but a logistics/physics problem." He said he recently saw about 8 of the special up-armored Humvees guarding Washington, DC, and he promised that they would no longer be used for that and that he would send them over here. Then he asked a three star general standing behind him, the commander of all ground forces here, to also answer the question. The general said it was a problem he is working on.

The great part was that after the event was over the throng of national media following Rumsfeld- The New York Times, AP, all the major networks -- swarmed to the two soldiers I brought from the unit I am embedded with. Out of the 1,000 or so troops at the event there were only a handful of guys from my unit b/c the rest were too busy prepping for our trip north. The national media asked if they were the guys with the armor problem and then stuck cameras in their faces. The NY Times reporter asked me to email him the stories I had already done on it, but I said he could search for them himself on the Internet and he better not steal any of my lines. I have been trying to get this story out for weeks- as soon as I foud out I would be on an unarmored truck- and my paper published two stories on it. But it felt good to hand it off to the national press. I believe lives are at stake with so many soldiers going across the border riding with scrap metal as protection. It may be to late for the unit I am with, but hopefully not for those who come after.

The press officer in charge of my regiment, the 278th, came up to me afterwords and asked if my story would be positive. I replied that I would write the truth. Then I pointed at the horde of national media pointing cameras and mics at the 278th guys and said he had bigger problems on his hands than the Chattanooga Times Free Press. This is what this job is all about - people need to know. The solider who asked the question said he felt good b/c he took his complaints to the top. When he got back to his unit most of the guys patted him on the back but a few of the officers were upset b/c they thought it would make them look bad. From what I understand this is all over the news back home.

Thanks,

Lee

EDWARD LEE PITTS FILED STORY ABOUT THE TROOPS BEFORE THE POW-WOW WITH RUMSFELD

Developing...

[Jokelahoma]

Look at the freakin' grammar in this thing! This guy is a JOURNALIST? A high school freshman writing his first paper for English Composition would have better writing skills. Find out where this slug graduated journalism school, and let's make certain this letter is sent out in all their literature, showing what fine, talented writers they produce.

It's not enough that he's bragging about invalidating a Q&A with the Secretary of Defense. He can't even brag about it in his native language. No shame. But then, you have to be willing to admit there is such as thing as right and wrong before you can be ashamed of anything, no? That disqualifies leftists.

[West Coast Conservative]

Unreal.

[Mo1]

Rummy may have been a little bit tricked, but if the Armor is not there he set himself up.

Is it not there .. or is it not "all" there and in the process of being sent there

The reason I ask is because I recall from watching Steve Harrigan from FNC .. He did a report describing the protection and armor of the vehicle/truck he was riding in

[Snidely Whiplash]

Oh,man.If that is true.......

Assume it is...so what? Judging from the reaction in the room (lots of loud applause), it would seem that this particular soldier was echoing the concerns of many of his brethren. It's certainly been a topic of discussion for quite some time that our Humvees are under-armored. God knows it wouldn't be the first time our forces have been sent underequipped into harm's way. Why would this war be any different?

But, by the same token,I feel personally that Rumsfeld's response was inappropriate.You don't make cavalier comments such as he did to a gathering of soldiers at wartime. .(Now,before the flaming starts,let me say that I am not siding against Rumsfeld.The man has a tough job.[...]

I dunno...it didn't surprise me much...he's always struck me as a bit of a hack. Yeah, he's can be funny, and he's a smart guy, but funny and smart counts for jack squat when we're in a war. What I want is a SecDef who'll play to win. ISTR Rummy originally wanting to do the Iraq thing with something like 50K troops. Can you imagine the chaos that we'd be seeing now if we only had 50,000 guys in country?

SW

[OXENinFLA]

Funny the press isn't focusing on some of these questions.

Q: Staff Sergeant Kobeck (sp) with Charlie Company 171 Aviation. With the recent success of the elections in Afghan, what message will you take back to the States to the people that say we couldn’t get it done?

Q: Yes, sir. Specialist Anderson, Alpha Company, 2nd Platoon. And my question is I was curious to know why I, as a single soldier, cannot enlist in the regular Army, but I can enlist in the National Guard and be deployed with a family care plan?
SEC. RUMSFELD: Your voice was dropping off on me and I’ve got an aviator’s ear.
Q: Yes, sir. I was wanting to know why I cannot enlist as a single parent in the regular Army, but I can enlist in the National Guard and be deployed?
SEC. RUMSFELD: I don’t have the vaguest idea. But by golly, we’re looking for folks in the Army. You ought to be able to enlist in the Army and I’ll try and figure out how in the world you ought to be able to do it. [Applause] We want people who want to serve and we’ve got ‘em and God bless you for it. Yes.

---

Q: Yes, Mr. Secretary, Specialist McCullough (sp), Alpha Company 1st of the 112th Infantry. There’s a lot of soldiers here from Western Pennsylvania and we were wondering if we were going to be given the opportunity to watch the Steelers win the Super Bowl this year?

---

Q: Sergeant Carr (sp), 3 in the 116 Armored Cav from Oregon. [Cheers] Mr. Secretary, with the recent re-election of our commander in chief to another term in office, the U.S. people sent a message to the world that we are committed to fight this war on terrorism. Specifically, in regards to non-NATO countries, how has this message affected their posture or willingness to renegotiate their relationship with the United States?

---

Q: Mr. Secretary, Lieutenant Colonel Alan Kronolog (sp). I’m the Inspector General for the 116th Brigade Combat team. We’re helping – or trying to help about 150 soldiers get their contingency travel pay. We’ve gone through the chain of command; we’ve tried IG channels. These soldiers have gone – some since July – without getting travel pay. Thousands of dollars, they’re having creditors call them at home, call their spouses at home, threatening collection action. We have a big problem. There seems to be a problem with the Defense Finance Accounting Service. Can you help us to understand that problem, Mr. Secretary or even better, can you point us to a resource that will help us get these soldiers paid? [Applause]

SEC. RUMSFELD: Can someone here get the details of the unit he’s talking about? That’s just not right. Folks have earned money and are due money, ought to be able to get the money and they ought not to have to put their families under stress while they’re waiting for the money. Thank you. [Applause] We’ll take a note and see what we can do. Yes, sir.

[GraniteStateConservative]

His unit has a shortage of up-armored vehicles according to the email. Why wouldn't he have the knowledge to state his question?

[Mo1]

Well they twisted that one pretty good

[Constitution Day]

RUMSFELD SET UP; REPORTER PLANTED QUESTIONS WITH SOLIDER
Thu Dec 09 2004 11:49:38 ET

http://drudgereport.com/flashcp.htm

Chattanooga Times Free Press reporter Edward Lee Pitts is embedded with the 278th Regimental Combat Team, now in Kuwait preparing to enter Iraq, and is filing articles for his newspaper. Pitts claims in a purported email that he coached soldiers to ask Defense Secretary Rumsfeld questions!

From: EDWARD LEE PITTS, Chattanooga Times Free Press military reporter
Sent: Wednesday, December 8, 2004 4:44 PM
To: Staffers

Subject: RE: Way to go

I just had one of my best days as a journalist today. As luck would have it, our journey North was delayed just long enough see I could attend a visit today here by Defense Secretary Rumsfeld. I was told yesterday that only soldiers could ask questions so I brought two of them along with me as my escorts. Before hand we worked on questions to ask Rumsfeld about the appalling lack of armor their vehicles going into combat have. While waiting for the VIP, I went and found the Sgt. in charge of the microphone for the question and answer session and made sure he knew to get my guys out of the crowd.

So during the Q&A session, one of my guys was the second person called on. When he asked Rumsfeld why after two years here soldiers are still having to dig through trash bins to find rusted scrap metal and cracked ballistic windows for their Humvees, the place erupted in cheers so loud that Rumsfeld had to ask the guy to repeat his question. Then Rumsfeld answered something about it being "not a lack of desire or money but a logistics/physics problem." He said he recently saw about 8 of the special up-armored Humvees guarding Washington, DC, and he promised that they would no longer be used for that and that he would send them over here. Then he asked a three star general standing behind him, the commander of all ground forces here, to also answer the question. The general said it was a problem he is working on.

The great part was that after the event was over the throng of national media following Rumsfeld- The New York Times, AP, all the major networks -- swarmed to the two soldiers I brought from the unit I am embedded with. Out of the 1,000 or so troops at the event there were only a handful of guys from my unit b/c the rest were too busy prepping for our trip north. The national media asked if they were the guys with the armor problem and then stuck cameras in their faces. The NY Times reporter asked me to email him the stories I had already done on it, but I said he could search for them himself on the Internet and he better not steal any of my lines. I have been trying to get this story out for weeks- as soon as I foud out I would be on an unarmored truck- and my paper published two stories on it. But it felt good to hand it off to the national press. I believe lives are at stake with so many soldiers going across the border riding with scrap metal as protection. It may be to late for the unit I am with, but hopefully not for those who come after.

The press officer in charge of my regiment, the 278th, came up to me afterwords and asked if my story would be positive. I replied that I would write the truth. Then I pointed at the horde of national media pointing cameras and mics at the 278th guys and said he had bigger problems on his hands than the Chattanooga Times Free Press. This is what this job is all about - people need to know. The solider who asked the question said he felt good b/c he took his complaints to the top. When he got back to his unit most of the guys patted him on the back but a few of the officers were upset b/c they thought it would make them look bad. From what I understand this is all over the news back home.

Thanks,

Lee

EDWARD LEE PITTS FILED STORY ABOUT THE TROOPS BEFORE THE POW-WOW WITH RUMSFELD
http://www.greene.xtn.net/index.php?table=news&template=news.view.subscriber&newsid=117612

Developing...

[Snidely Whiplash]

That soldier is still an idiot. What good does telling the enemy those trucks aren't armored in a public serve? More people will die now because that idiot pointed out a weak point.

Yeah! Right on!

Oh, wait...it's been all over the news for months? Anyone who can get up close to a Humvee can check out the armor? Anyone can look up the specifications for the vehicle and see that it's got basically no undercarriage armor?

Never mind.

SW.

[ex 98C MI Dude]

This troop didn't do his fellow soldiers any favors. Armor has an inherent problem. When something is powerful enough to punch through the armor, it has a nasty tendency to bounce around INSIDE the armored vehicle for a while. It is contained inside by the very armor that was supposed to protect you. And the light armor that a hummvie can carry isn't enough to stop an IED's blast. Matter of fact, the disintergrating armor will actually add to the problem.

So by doing the MSMs bidding, he made the problem worse.

[Pox]

"If so it is not acceptable."

You make that statement as if the soldiers who are expressing their dismay at not having armored-to-the-hilt vehicles are on point. That is not the case.

On the other hand, a good portion of the country is still unstable and IED's are quite effective against unarmored, and many armored, vehicles. This shortcoming has been known since the beginning of the war, and steps have been taken to alleviate the problem.

In WWII, why didn't we just wait to perfect nuclear weapons and have them in bulk before counterattacking the axis? That could have saved so many of our soldiers lives.

IMO, this is actually a good thing for both "sides" of the issue, the troops for multiple reasons, and the government is hearing feedback that will hopefully spur some positive developments for our troops in reaction to their concerns.

[Obadiah]

Okay, I may be in the minority here, but I actually think the question(s) were entirely appropriate. Hey, these guys have their lives on the line; they should have the right to ask the civilian leadership some of these pertinent questions. Moreover, I think Rummy could have provided a better response. I do know they are working hard to get armored humvees, but say so, and reiterate it.

I think what we are reacting to here, however, is the media's ongoing effort, either real or perceived, to try and sandbag the Bush administration.

[Jokelahoma]

And of course, my reply was meant to go to #18, not #22. So while this jackass Pitts has no writing skills, apparently I'm in need of remedial mouse assistance...

[JustAnotherOkie]

There is progress being made. How would you like to be on down the line of allocation.

[baltodog]

That email is too perfect...something's fishy about this...

[Destro]

The "worried" soldier was a plant.

You mean he wasn't a real soldier but a reporter dressed as a solider?

[cyncooper]

I agree with you completely. Thanks for saying it so well.

[Mike Fieschko]

I bet that's the last time that reporter gets into a DoD presser.

It was unusual that the SecDef took questions from the troops with the media present.

A retired Navy SEAL describes the CNO taking questions at Little Creek here.

[GraniteStateConservative]

The issue from the left and the media is that since OIF was at a time of our choosing, we should have chosen a time when all the troops were properly equipped-- from the beginning.

[lainie]

Reminds me of the WWII worthless Sherman tanks that were constantly breaking down, needing off-the-cuff & creative repairs. Not that it's desirable or even happening now, but the soldiers at that time did what they had to do and didn't whine to the press about it like these guys.