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...

[faithincowboys]

Here's a good question: Why were these Humvees and trucks ever made without this armor? This is a systemic problem. This problem was exposed in the 90s.

Why was the military starved in the 90s? Why was the bureaucracy so slow to move? Why, after Mogadishu, didn't the whole Humvee, light and heavy truck fleet get fully armored and fitted with bullet proof glass?

This has been an issue for awhile. It would have been nice if the military brass, Clinton appointees, Clintoon and the Congress had done something about this in the 90s. Where were all the whistleblowers then? Where the Hell was the media? The POTUS -- who was starving the military and slashing the Hell out of the Army's end strength.

Bush and Rummy have to answer for this, but much of our current problems stem from the neglect and abuse heaped on the armed forced during the 1990s.

Wouldn't we be better off if Clintoon hadn't cut so many divisions? Wouldn't there be less stress on the Guard and Reserve? Wouldn't we be better off if a complete audit of the campaign in Mogadishu had been done? Wasn't it plain as can be that the Humvees and other wheeled vehicles were exposed as easy-to-hit death traps in an urban fight with guerilla insurgents with RPGs? In Chechnya and the West Bank, we have seen what IEDs can do. Not a darn thing that we have seen in Iraq is new.

Why in the Hell were no lessons learned, appropriations sought, and on and on? Bush inherited a broken, underfunded, badly managed military. But Bush should have reacted better on some scores. In a just world, Clintoon would be getting hammered for this. Don't you remember the days, immediately after the fall of Baghdad, when the Clintoonistas declared that Bush had won the war with Clinton's army? There is no doubt, we are fighting this war with Clinton's army. In the postwar phase we are paying the price for the steep cuts in infantry divisions and the defunding of the 90s.

[alnick]

So all the troops didn't "erupt in cheers" to the questions asked?

I didn't see anyone make that claim, did you?

[Mo1]

I didn't post it. Just commented to it.

My mistake . you are correct that you didn't post it

But you did link it and the rest of my response remains the same

[Twinkie]

No. The majority of them were probably not commanding
officers. (The commanders of this guy were rather upset
because they felt it made THEM look bad.) - The question
came out of left field, and it was made to look like here's
this low ranking guy with the hutzpah to confront the
head honcho about something of substance. I noticed the
guy was reading the question off a paper. I also noticed
that it didn't particularly throw Rumsfeld off all that
much; he didn't put the guy down, he answered his question.
At first, he didn't hear the first part of the question
and had to ask for him to repeat it. Clinton would have
had him arrested later and thrown in the brig if he had
done it to him.

Now, given the Ratheristic quality to the whole incident,
it brings on more thought as to the tactics used by the
MSM to produce the anti-war backlash they want.

[faithincowboys]

So, Carville, what do you think of post 781? If the media was fair and balanced, the blame would be flowing in several directions-- one of which being Chappaqua.

[faithincowboys]

See my post 781. It think it is a fair appraisal of this issue.

[alnick]

Are you saying all of those cheering soldiers were in some kind of grand conspiracy to embarrass the sec of defense??

Look, it is what it is. You can't change the fact that the "journalist" put the guy up to asking the question and then reported on it as if it were a spontaneous event rather than something he himself had set up.

[Darksheare]

The Humvee was originally just a 2 1/2 ton utility truck to replace the Jeep.

And now it's being asked to do the job of what should be an ASV.

[Milligan]

This poor fool E-4 will be under the microscope by his higher ups. They will jump on him when he makes another small infraction. No advancement for this young man. I can see restriction and extra duty.
Idiot.

[KC Burke]

Well I saw his WIFE this AM on GMA, she was neither worried or uneasy at all about his safety. If fact she was quite smug and talked about how proud she was at what he did.

The one I heard on the radio was his EX-wife. She was not at all surprised by his question or direct attitude. Perhaps you misunderstood her reaction, if this was the same woman.

From my stand point we have the wrong tool, with the wrong edge, doing their best at the wrong job.

Armies aren't for "nation building".

Humvee's weren't designed to do this work; nor designed to be quickly modified and neither were the troops. They are doing a yeoman's job, but we should have had a better monopoly on violence at the end of the war. To avoid civilian causalities, and perhaps in hope of a better nature amongst the liberated, we waged a "modern" war and not a Sherman War: a war to take their will and ability to wage war away.

Masefield is telling a straight truth, you go with what you have. Soldiers can take the truth. Civilians can't, and won't.

[alnick]

Look at the freakin' grammar in this thing! This guy is a JOURNALIST?

It gets even better. He was a school teacher before he bacame a journalist.

[Indy4w]

Nothing to prove...the soldier didn't say anything the enemy couldn't find out on the internet.

[cyncooper]

Interesting that 'distorting reality' can get 1000+ soldiers to cheer isn't it?

But they didn't. You discredit yourself right off the bat.

[cake_crumb]

"OTOH, the soldiers themselves involved may have not been out of line in that their three principle traditional duties have always been to kill people, break things, and belly ache about the CO."

Yep, that's pretty much their job description.

However, it should frighten everyone reading this that a reporter can so easily taint a military Q&A. Tarl had it exactly right by saying Pitt's eploit has caused devisiveness between command and the enlisted men.

A member of the brass can't walk in to reassure his men by answering their questions now without wondering whether a reporter is carrying a loaded question, to be fired at him by a soldier with HIS (officer rank and name here) name in it. Wich is exactly what Rummy was doing. IMO, that rift was Pitts' entire objective.

[SE Mom]

" Soldiers can take the truth. Civilians can't, and won't."

---

I wholeheartedly agree.

We civilians expect war to be somewhat like a video game- it's madness to have the attitude we have.

[QQQQQ]

Pentagon's response:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1298125/posts

[cyncooper]

I didn't hear 1000 soldiers that are currently there cheering about those questions.

No, you didn't. Some---not even close to all---of the troops present applauded after the question. Which got answered, by the way.

[Twinkie]

The reason the MSM did not respond as they should have on
Mogadishu was because their Messiah, Bill Clinton, was in
office. He got a pass on EVERYTHING, until at first on
Monica, and even then the MSM twisted itself into a pretzel
to finally give him a pass on that. The MSM is dedicating
itself to undermining the Bush (Republican) Administration
in every possible way it can, and if they can engineer an
impeachment of President Bush, they will, no matter what
they have to do. It will be night after night of relentless
attacks. The sad fact is that little Willie Clinton should
have gotten down and kissed Petah Jennings' feet instead
of getting testy with him for what little the MSM was
finally FORCED by the sheer weight of Clinton's depravity
to at least do lip service to making a stab at reporting the "truth". In the end, THEY,
along with the Democrats and the RINOs in the Senate saved his bacon. - He is in no
way being held accountable for leaving the military high
and dry in the '90's. Neither was Carter in the late
'70's.

I will say, though, that this armor business absolutely
must be addressed in a real tangible way. It has been
horrible press for this administration, and they had
better give it very high priority from here on out.

[mountainfolk]

The military ought to ship him home. If any harm comes to him in Iraq, the MSM will slant the situation as a payback for his participation in setting up Rumsfeld. I do not understand why this soldier did not simply ask the question on his own. Why did he allow himself to be used by a reporter? Being forthright about a military problem instead of sneaking around with a 'gotcha' reporter would have been to the soldiers credit and not compromised his integrity.