[PhiKapMom]

Wasn't there something about SecDef Rumsfeld sending down a top military aide to assist Franks? This may be the answer!

[Bluntpoint]

He abused his "franking" privileges.

[r9etb]

Wasn't there something about SecDef Rumsfeld sending down a top military aide to assist Franks? This may be the answer!

Yup. It's a contingency to ensure that the new commander is already fully up to speed if Franks has to leave. Which either suggests that there may be a lot more to this than CNN knows, or that Rummy is merely being careful on the eve of war.

[woodyinscc]

"This may be the answer!"

As usual you are right on top of this!
There is a lot more to this this than meets the eye.
I can't find the link to this story, but I recall it(the apointment of the top aide to be out of the ordinary)

[Mo1]

Yes there was but my question is, who is making this complaint about his wife?

[onedoug]

Rumsfeld said in a news conference about two weeks ago that Franks had specifically asked for this aid, but that no one in the Pentagon was keen on the idea since he'd benn doing such a fine job there. Rumsfeld said Franks had initially approched Wolfowitz about it, who replied that Franks would have to convince Rumsfeld. Rumsfeld said he became convinced that Franks needed who he'd asked for, and the aid was assigned.

Is Rumsfeld being cagey? I can't believe he'd be stting himself up to be caught in a lie.

[MindBender26]

Backgrounder:

Franks is more of a staff type. Rummy send LTG Abizaid, a real Warfighter to be Franks' Deputy for "Operations" "Manouver" or some such face-saving term.

If complaint is that wifey sat in, then someone else who was cleared (very high) to be at the meeting must have blown whistle.

Abizaid is a Leboneese-American Christian, real tiger. One of the few upper brass that LIKES and KNOWS HOW TO USE all assets of modern warfighting, i.e. when to use Spec Opns, when to use PsyWar, when to use Marines, TacAir, StratAir, when to lock and load the heavy divisions, when to go "hi diddle diddle, right up the middle." etc.

Abizaid is a a BAMF.

[Quix]

areafiftyone, rs79bm

Hmmmm., I can only think back to the pages and pages of illegal activities the Clinton admin. did. when it came to foreign military affairs.

Yeah. Good point. Have had some funny feelings couldn't put words to re Franks for many months. Hmmmmm. I have a very faint "?memory?" of him during Clinton's reign of tyranny. But I don't remember what it was about. Seems like he made some public pronouncements about a controversial something then. Am I all wet (about that!)?

Just realized what your screen name says--do you want on my UFO ping list? My bro worked there decades ago.

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PhiKapMom. . .

Wasn't there something about SecDef Rumsfeld sending down a top military aide to assist Franks? This may be the answer!

I remember that, too. This could be one way to shunt him aside more. But so close to the action? How wise would that be? Rummy SEEMED to make a strong statement of support. I wonder how hollow it is.

I thought at the time that Rummy needed to have someone in charge of the on scene military brass end of it who he would FULLY trust. And if Franks wasn't it, then Franks needed to step aside or be moved aside. Too many lives depend on solid, lock-step communication between the head on the field and the head in Wash IMHO.

But what do I know. I was just a RM2 in a CREDO human relations project after an autosevocom/hinet role in Asia.

[Stultis]

Wasn't there something about SecDef Rumsfeld sending down a top military aide to assist Franks?

It was reported that way, but Rumsfeld has subsequently emphatically denied the story, noting the Franks lobbied him (Rumsfeld) for the transfer of Gen. Abizaid. See the following thread, including the excerpt from the Pentagon briefing transcript I posted in msg #16:

Rumsfeld finally has his own man at U.S. Central Command to supervise a war against Iraq