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...
He probably was a student of this journalism professor:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1297510/posts?page=1#1
Thanks for the ping.
LOL!
What the hell does this say about our intelligence for allowing this to happen in the first damn place! What the hell would they expect a reporter to do?
I the questions we all fabricated and lies, why in hell did the troops all erupt in cheers when they were asked?
Why in hell did we have a reporter in there?
Where the f**k is our intellegence?
The other soldiers cheering and applauding, was that made up or a plant, too?
Even if the question was "planted", its still a good question. My son will be going to Iraq soon and I for one want him to have armored vehicles available. If it requires putting heat on government than so be it. This country can produce a car a second, its capable of producing enough armored vehicles in Iraq in less than a month for every soldier to have his choice of colors, and optional moon roof.
Dear Lee: This is not the truth. You are a damned liar. Lies of omission are just as much lies. Your actions and your letter are self-serving and traitorous.
That worried soldier has reason to be worried. This isn't a game for him. Yes, the reporter made sure his guys got up to the mike, but the soldier is no child, he bought into the question, and the motive here was not an unpatriotic one. They want better armor. I for one, don't blame them a bit. And this is an American army, not the second best, the best. We have the means to send over the very best of support for those troops. The story that matters to the rest of the guys in that room is that their stuff will be there today.
there were six or eight up-armored humvees. They’re not there anymore.
and that's supposed to be a good thing.
Check out his other articles. he has been working on this little stunt for a long time. I wonder how much info the soldier got from this reporter, not vice versa. MSM propaganda at work.
You're saying this on a message board that was concerned terrorists were using loose FR lips to sink ships during OIF and OEF.
So what? The lack of up armored humvees is still an issue.
Check this ping.......
Re; How is this a planted story? Because the media, which was barred from asking Q's, "worked" with the soldiers in the Q and A.
Re: Is it a false assessment therefore wrong to ask? Depends on how the MSM handles the situation. What's the consequence? Better armament? The consequence of the MSM questions appears to be a feeding frenzy (career enhancement and destroying the military). MSM doesn't care about the soldiers (how do you think Reuters and AP get those delightful pictures of terrorists shooting RPGs and mortar rounds at our boys without warning our boys); the MSM cares about their leftist cause.
The Sherman tank was a death trap in WWII. The MSM did not report this. The military rearmed the beast after years of service in the French hedgerow. BTW, the Sherman tank was able to clear the hedgrows after Army personel rummage through the trash for scrap metal to improvise a hedgerow trimmer.
The MSM routinely gives away tactics (Geraldo), coordinates, weakness, and plays to the enemy's PR machine.
That was not the point I was trying to make .. that is not how the MSM is spinning this .. they are making it sound like our government is doing Nothing
"That email is too perfect...something's fishy about this..."
That's what I think, too. The email may be bogus. If so, it would be dirt on Drudge's nose. I can't really imagine a reporter revealing such damning information about himself, even to staffers on his paper.
I'm holding off on this one until I can see some other confirmation. Drudge doesn't always get it right.
Underequipped? This is the best-equipped military force in any conflict, any where, any time, in the history of mankind. Soldiers will always complain no matter what they have. You can't send them into a conflict with a Star-Trek style force field bubble around them you know.
So what we need to do is strip the armor off existing up-armored vehicles, right?
You mean he wasn't a real soldier but a reporter dressed as a solider?
No, he means he was a ficus...
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