Posted on 11/13/2012 10:40:27 AM PST by billorites
WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has demoted the former head of U.S. Africa Command who was accused of spending thousands of dollars on lavish travel and other unauthorized expenses, a senior U.S. official said Tuesday.
Panetta stripped Gen. William ‘‘Kip’’ Ward of a star, which means that he will now retire as a three-star lieutenant general despite arguments from the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff against the demotion. Ward also has been ordered also repay the government $82,000.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the person wasn’t authorized to discuss a personnel matter.
The demotion comes as retired Army Gen. David Petraeus resigned as CIA director because of an extramarital affair and Marine Gen. John Allen is being investigated for improper communications with a woman.
According to the official, Panetta reviewed the Ward matter and concluded that the wrongdoing found by the Defense Department Inspector General, in a report released earlier this year, demanded accountability.
Retiring as a three-star will cost Ward about $30,000 a year in retirement pay — giving him close to $208,802 a year rather than the $236,650 he would get as a four-star.
Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, urged Panetta to allow Ward, the former head of U.S. Africa Command, to retire at his full four-star general rank, according to defense officials. Other military leaders had noted that the demotion would cost Ward a lot of money.
The inspector general’s report found that Ward used military vehicles to shuttle his wife on shopping trips and to a spa and billed the government for a refueling stop overnight in Bermuda, where the couple stayed in a $750 suite. The report detailed lengthy stays at lavish hotels for Ward, his wife and his staff members,
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
Your statement would be correct if GEN Ward were interested in remaining on active duty. He is not. His intention was to retire at the end of his appointment at Cdr, AFRICOM and he submitted his request for retirement before leaving that billet. He expected to be retired in grade as a four star. The investigation delayed his retirement and he was put on ice pending resolution. In olden days, an adverse finding on an investigation of this sort would result in his retirement in his permanent grade, Major General. However, now the law says that you must retire in the last grade satisfactorily held. Since the charges did not include any offense committed when he was a Lieutenant General, that's the default position.
The recommendation has been sitting on Panetta's desk for several months. Since Ward is Black, Dempsey was paraded out to recommend clemency and retirement as a four star while Panetta let the packet sit on his desk until after the election. This was always going to be the outcome, but it couldn't happen until after the election.
Like lambs to the slaughter.....there are danger signs everywhere and we are enthralled in a sex scandal. I honestly never understood how all the Jews willingly got on Hitlers cattle cars and quietly lined up for the ovens, now I get it.
BEWARE
1. Obama is demanding that we accept the results of a not even concealed stolen election. There are numbers that are so amazing and obvious that it defies comprehension.
2. Obama is lying to us about everything surrounding Benghazi. We are supposed to suspend rational thinking and accept ridiculous theories, that a fifth grader wouldn’t believe.
3. There is a purge of the military exactly one week after the election.
4. A patriotic brilliant General/CIA director has gone down in flames. Obama is pretending he knew nothing about this affair, which any ration thinker would not begin to believe.
5. Obama is ready to appoint Susan Rice as the Secretary of State. A radical unknown who was sent out to openly lie to the American people and to protect Obama.
6. The FBI is conducting search and seizure late evening raids looking for “sex evidence.”
Interesting - the 3rd top general to be “scandalized” in the past 10 days.
What the hell is Obama planning?
Sorry, not true. GEN Ham remains in command of AFRICOM. He replaced GEN Ward in that billet, and his replacement has in turn been named, but awaits Senate confirmation. The RADM in question was relieved for other reasons not known to me. However, his flagship, USS Stennis was in port in Thailand on 10 Sep, so his relief had nothing to do with Benghazi.
I think the Ward stuff has been going on for awhile. We did have 500 retired admirals and generals come out for Romney. Could there be some payback to the military? John Kerry as Secretary of Defense? There’s a slap in the face. There’s an old saying, “If you’re going to strike the king, you’d better kill (defeat) him because if you don’t he will kill you.”
i thought it was the fourth. How about Gen. Carter Ham from AFRICOM?
We have 38 Four Stars.
Before we all spontaneously combust from an orgy of finger pointing, let’s all take a deep breath and consider a simple fact.
This would be the same general that would have automatically greenlighted the Combatant Comander’s In Extremis force when the call for help came in from Benghazi.
The CI force is a dedicated ops unit attached to all Special Forces groups, and it’s usually made up of SEALs and Delta. Their specific directive is direct action counterterrorism. They’re required to maintain a ready status 24/365 - aircraft fueled and on the tarmac, ready to be geared up and en route to target within 25 minutes - and they would have been immediately deployed. Once in the air, they would require cross border authority or be told to stand down... and that order can come from only one man in the world. Not CIA, not State, not the VP or anyone else. You guessed it... that guy is Obama.
This administration is attempting to smear the people who would testify against it if compelled to do so. It’s also an obvious attempt to distract the attention of the typical idiot voter away from Benghazigate.
FMCDH(BITS)
“We have 38 Four Stars.”
Army only, or all branches?
Where does one find such information?
Should such information be classified?
Hmm, wouldn’t someone above him have to authorize those trips? I question the timing. What did he know and when did he know it? Sounds like he’s getting the screws put to him just like the other high ranking military folks.
It’s just a week after the election and things are just getting started.
Kind of like Michelle Obama stating her daughters were “Sinor Advisors” so she could have them travel for free, yet, nothing will ever be done to get taxpayer monies back.
This is the Night of the Long Knives for Generals not favorable to Obama.
See post 50 and tell me what you think. Please.
FMCDH(BITS)
Geeze...This is starting to look like a bad remake of “The Night Of The Generals”
It’s Stalin and the Red Army, circa 1938, all that’s missing are the one-way tickets to The Lubyanka.
Short answer?
Too many.
Longer answer: GO (general officer) billets DoD-wide have been slashed over the last 2 years from waaaaaay too many to just too many. Full disclosure: I stepped into a GO billet that was downgraded to O-6 while I was in mid-stride about 2 years ago. That’s the way the cookie crumbles.
Trying to embarrass the Armed Services? Very likely. Beyond that though, he sees these people as opponents for sure, and wants them out. But why? I think it is more than just cuts to military spending, but I don't know what else it could be.
7. John effin’ Kerry is about to be the new Secretary of Defense. Ho - ly crap.
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