Posted on 12/09/2004 9:22:17 AM PST by Nascardude
Edited on 12/09/2004 10:05:10 AM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
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...
A soldier in the field has a chain of command he can address his concerns to. Candor is one thing, but this soldier's actions are an embarassment. He could have asked his 'tuff question' in a professional manner, and without resorting to being some reporters sock puppet.
He chose neither. Now he, his unit, and the National Guard are looking like a pack of whining, useful idiots. As a professional soldier that did just fine in Iraq riding in an unarmored gunvee, you can quote me as saying 'You're wrong'.
jpsb,
what really PISSES people off about this is not that the soldier asked this question, but that a liberal reporter with an agenda, a desire to make a name and a buck is sneaking around in a unit, furtively stirring things up, pitting men against their superiors and such.
Just how detrimental and corrosive do you think this kind of behavior is to unit cohesiveness and morale?
I had a lot more respect for this soldier BEFORE I heard about this, now I think he is a hair away from being a mutineer.
This is NOT about a guy asking a tough question.
Knock it off. You are apparently incapable of having a discussion without insulting and exagerrating.
"And M16 are for pu$$ies,"
Not if you're a good shot.
"I didn't realize a$$ kissing was SOP these days."
Just checked my old basic training book when I went through in '92. @ss kissing isn't in there but respecting those above you in rank sure is.
"Now I know why I joined the Marines and not the army"
Why? GT score wasn't high enough?
The "reporter" was just as wrong by injecting himself into that meeting and makes the question illegitamate. That question would have not likely been asked and certainly not in such a manner to a superior.
The "reporter" disqualified himself by breaking any sort of ethical search for Truth. This is every bit as bad as Dano-saur Rather and his forged documents. He is the lowest form of scum to walk the planet and should never work again.
Pray for W and Our Troops
I was a Grunt during Carter's days, and not only did we not have enough armor, ammo, potable water, decent quarters, field jackets, etc., Jimmah and his a$$hole democRAT congress didn't pay us for a month. I had a question or two for the Peanut man and his Clifford stooge. Delivered with a one finger salute.
And yes, I bitched.
5.56mm
Oh, now since your GOP bashing didn't work, you're going to go with the old inter-service rivalry garbage.
How trollish of you.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1297858/posts?page=888#888
And you're wrong here in post 888, it wasn't the GOP who traded our industrial base away, it was the CLINTONS.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1297858/posts?page=892#892
And who said we're using Chicom steel on Humvees?
It was the CLINTONS who traded it all away.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1297858/posts?page=901#901
Doesn't even NEED a rebuttal.
And finally your post 920.
Since everything else didn't work, you're gonna use the "I was a Marine, You were Army" stuff to try an dinsult with.
"The "reporter" was just as wrong by injecting himself into that meeting and makes the question illegitamate."
A wise radio host once said that "reporters report the news...journalists make themselves a part of the story".
IMHO we have wayyy too many journalists these days and not enough reporters these days.
This schlub Pitts falls...though very weakly...into the "journalist" category.
yea, I understand that aspect of it, but it was obviously a question the needed to be asked since it recieve a roar from the troops. I just don't like posters here attacking this guy for asking a question.
If it were me, Pitts would stay right where he is, the units let in on the score, Pitts handed from unit to unit and carefully spoonfed whatever outrageous fiction we could come up with...then after he writes a few more stories **SLAM** goes the mousetrap when the truth leaks out. Pitts is finished and some of the tarnish he created is buffed off of our military.
Paybacks are a b*tch, and so am I.
As for the soldier, he needs to stay stateside, closely watched and greasing bearings for the rest of his tour.
Oh, so that makes it all okay?
So just because it needs to be asked that makes everything all okay?
Ring ring, hello!
IT WAS ASKED BACK DURING THE CLINTON ADMINISTRATION!!
Anyone hear on the Chris Core Show WMAL that the company that made this armor could make more, but was not asked to do so? If it's not a matter of money or desire but of "logistics" -- and if the company has been able to make more but not doing so because they haven't been asked to do so -- than someone at the Pentagon needs to figure out the "logistics" of ordering it.
I agree. The main issue is a civilian inserting himself into the politics of a military unit, and not in a constructive way.
Damnit, this just makes me so angry. This reporter should be fired for his breach of ethics.
I do not now respect the actions of this soldier, but he was encouraged, aided and abetted by this reporter, and I don't necessarily blame him. Nearly any military person in a tough spot will bitch mightily. That is just the way it is. We don't need friggin reporters egging them on and giving them a national platform.
Well, the Marine Corps must be a lot more professional these days. They're disciplined enough to keep their complaints to themselves, and anyone who'd embarass the Corps like that on national TV would get dealt with in the barracks.
You'd have to join the Army National Guard to get away with that kind of whining. Sounds like it would be more your speed.
1. HumVee's were not designed or intended to be APC's. They are a zippy "go anywhere" troop transporter/utility vehicle, sorta like the Jeep in WWII. Think C47 circa, 1944 vs C17 today!
2.Everyone doesn't get to ride in (or drive) an Abrams, a Bradley, or a Stryker. Sorry, but if that was what they wanted, they should have put in their request for them.
3.Most of the troops got it about the "inbed" reporters pretty quick, I suspect. Those who allow the media A-holes to manipulate them and pull this kind of BS are either pretty damn dumb or suffer low esteem, and trying for their 15 minutes.
But this is just an old Master Sergeant pontificating. Take is or leave it.
EXACTLY WHAT I'VE ALSO BEEN SAYING. THANK YOU.
"The reporter knows that the soldier may catch heat form friends when folks find out the question was a set up....but the reporter does not care about that soldiers well being....he just cars about bashing people."
Yep, he hates our soldiers and could give a wet slap what consequenses the soldiers pay for HIS actions.
Blaming Clinton for problems in Iraq is lame, sorry but is just is. I don't like Clinton any more then you do, but that dog don't hunt any more.
"I just don't like posters here attacking this guy for asking a question."
The guy SHOULD be bashed for asking the question. Since when have soldiers ever been allowed to interjhect their own political opinion into something like this? Discussing politics with your buddies in your hooch after duty hours is one thing...knowingly helping a reporter with a mutual anti-Iraq/Bush agenda is something totally different and completely WRONG.
Really?
So when factories got shut down during CLINTON'S term in office, that is somehow the GOP's fault?
Okay, next speeding ticket I get will be your fault, and I'll forward it to you to pay.
"Blaming Clinton for problems in Iraq is lame, sorry but is just is. I don't like Clinton any more then you do, but that dog don't hunt any more."
It hunts really REALLY well if his policies and actions caused our soldiers to be in the dangerous situation they are today.
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