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

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...

I think it stinks and is disgraceful. My opinion of this whole business, if it did go down as it now seems, is 180 degrees from what it was a half hour ago.

It is one thing, worthy of respect, for someone to speak out for themselves and their buddies on a matter of principle, and to put themselves on the line.

It is quite another thing to have a leftist reporter, out to make a name for himself and out to make a buck, collaborate to attempt to embarrass a Secretary of Defense and the administration in general, while doing it on the back of a soldier.

Now, sure, the soldier may have known what he was doing. In actuality, look at the quote from this guys ex-wife:

"He is always like that," she said. "I don't think he understands the concept of biting one's tongue. It wouldn't matter if it was [President] Bush himself standing there. He would have dissed him the same."

So the issue for this soldier is not about information, it is about about taking advantage of his loudmouth personality and collaborating with a reporter with an agenda to "diss" the Secretary of Defense.

No damned wonder there was a mutiny in one of these groups.

And make no mistake about it. Look at the number one sentence from this POS reporter: "I just had one of my best days as a journalist today." This is all about him. He could give a rats ass about these guys. Anyone want to guess what the conversations are like when he gets these guys alone?

This just completely disgusts me and changes my whole perspective of this story. My opinion of this soldier has plummeted as well. I thought well of his gumption for asking the question. If, however, he collaborated beforehand on this, he is treading pretty close to the edge of what is acceptable in the military.

Even if it's true, I find it disingenuous that Bush and Rumsfeld take the hit for any supply or logistics problems, but there's no mention of Klinton spending 8 years slashing military budgets, running members off, and diverting as much military money as possible toward non-military things (like having submarines out studying arctic ice floes and whale migrations).

LOU DOBBS TONIGHT Pentagon Says It's Working to Arm Vehicles

The shortage of armored humvees in Iraq and Afghanistan is nothing less than a scandal. Nearly two years after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, a quarter of all humvees in Iraq are still without armor. Joining me now are Congressman Gene Taylor, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, and our military analyst, General David Grange. Gentlemen, good to have you here.

GEN. DAVID GRANGE, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Thank you.

REP. GENE TAYLOR (D-MS), ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: Great to be there, sir.

DOBBS: Congressman Taylor, let me turn first to you on this. The fact that this young soldier had the courage to stand up and, frankly, we should give the Pentagon credit, that the military had the guts to put the senior defense leader in a town hall meeting in front of the troops to their credit. The answer, however, was not what any of us would have liked to have heard, was it?

TAYLOR: No. In fact, I wish the answer had been for Secretary Rumsfeld to turn to whatever general was accompanying him and say, fix this. That should have been the correct answer. It should have been the correct answer a year ago, when I raised the question, when Congressman Rob Simmons of Connecticut raised the question, when the chairman of our committee, Duncan Hunter, raised the question, and it still hasn't been fixed. We've told them repeatedly, send us the bill, fix the problem.

DOBBS: General Grange, you are amongst those who here, over the course of the past year, have said straightforwardly, give our men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan the best. Is there any possible reason for the senior leader of the United States military to say, we take what stands, and it will go on in perpetuity, rather than deal with a crisis like this?

GRANGE: The equipment should have been resourced to the military. Lou, this is a problem, actually decades ago -- we had this problem for Somalia. We had the same problem going into Kosovo, trying to get armed kits, scrounging throughout the system to provide those for the logistic units to move in. And especially in a counterinsurgency operation where there are no front lines, all vehicles are subject to attack. So this has been an age-old problem and a failure of leadership in the military and administration throughout decades.

DOBBS: Defense Secretary Rumsfeld is squarely in focus on this for that rather unfortunate aphorism that "we go to war with the army we have," not necessarily, parenthetically, the one that we want.

But the fact is, the generals in the Pentagon, the generals in Iraq and Afghanistan, to listen to that three-star today basically say that we're working the problem, does that reflect a spirit in the U.S. military's command that has established itself? I keep waiting to hear, "Can do. Let's get up and get them."

GRANGE: Lou, the generals in the military -- and it was the same when I served -- we were responsible to make things happen. When you put on those stars, you're the guy in the arena. You have to find it. And it's tough to do that. But it's your responsibility to resource the troops. Yes, it falls on the general officers.

DOBBS: Congressman Taylor, as a member of the Armed Services Committee, and some of our best representatives serve on that committee from both parties, Duncan Hunter, a terrific leader of that committee...

TAYLOR: I agree.

DOBBS: ... how in the world, can you guys in your oversight role -- I understand your complaint, but in your oversight role, for us to have men and women in harm's way without the best, and accept the idea from a production line manager that they can't do something in the course of 20 months when young men, in particular in uniform, are losing arms and legs and being killed?

TAYLOR: Lou, No. 1, I want to thank you for your broadcast last night. You were right on target. Just today, the people who make the armored kits said that they can increase production by 22 percent overnight, and they're waiting for the Pentagon to ask them to do it. That's without any additional expenditure.

This is inexcusable. And quite frankly, I think some of the people who have failed to get this done ought to be riding around in Iraq right now in unarmored humvees, and maybe they'd get the message. Maybe they'd realize the importance. A year ago right now, I met with some Mississippi National Guardsmen who had actually gone to a scrap heap and who had welded a couple of boxes around their humvees in order to protect themselves. I came home immediately and said, "this is unacceptable." Nothing's been done about this for over a year now. This is ridiculous.

DOBBS: General Grange, give us a sense, your sense of the attitude of the generals in the Pentagon. I am sure they are all the best in meaning of people who have served with distinction, their country in uniform, but the idea that there is a mind-set that would accept this level of inadequacy and protection, forced protection, is, I think, to most Americans, utterly astounding.

GRANGE: It is amazing. And the issue is, it has to really be driven by the top, because one general in this particular shop or in the field in a certain country cannot do it all himself or herself. It has to be driven at the top. It has to be in synchronization with not only the administration, the Pentagon, but Congress.

You know, the problem is, Lou, that all these years, the focus was on big-ticket items, big-weapons systems, not the foot soldier, not the boots, the flak vests, someone's truck being armored to some extent. The 30 years I served, that was not the priority.

So really, a lot of people bear this responsibility, to include Congress, but then it boils down to who answers the trooper? The general in charge of the unit. And that's a tough thing to be put on you, but you've got to figure out how to make it happen.

DOBBS: Congressman Taylor, you've got a number of Mississippians about to ship out.

TAYLOR: Almost 5, 000.

DOBBS: Five thousand to Iraq. What are your thoughts tonight? We're going to give you the last word.

TAYLOR: Lou, I'm just telling you, I don't want to go to a single funeral and have to look a mom or dad or a spouse in the eye, and knowing that this Congress has gone to Secretary Rumsfeld for over a year now, saying, "fix the problem. Send us the bill," and they have failed to do it. This is inexcusable, and it does start with the secretary.

Every general, every admiral, every private, they work for the secretary of defense. If he would have said, "fix the problem," it would have been fixed by now. It's time for him to do that, or it's time for him to let someone else do that.

DOBBS: And I think it's appropriate, proportional and fair to point out that Secretary Rumsfeld works for the commander in chief, for whom it is the ultimate responsibility.

Gentlemen, we thank you for being here to share your views, and we appreciate it, Congressman Gene Taylor, General David Grange, as always. TAYLOR: Thank you, sir.

GRANGE: Thank you.

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