Pentagon halts feeding of information to retired officers while issue is reviewed

[Newsjock]

Source: Stars and Stripes

ARLINGTON, Va. - The Defense Department has temporarily stopped feeding information to retired military officers pending a review of the issue, said Robert Hastings, principal deputy assistant secretary of Defense for public affairs.

... Hastings said he is concerned about allegations that the Defense Department's relationship with the retired military analysts was improper.

"Following the allegations, the story that is printed in the New York Times, I directed my staff to halt, to suspend the activities that may be ongoing with retired military analysts to give me time to review the situation," Hastings said in an interview with Stripes on Friday.

Hastings said he did not discuss the matter with Defense Secretary Robert Gates prior to making his decision. He could not say Friday how long this review might take.

"We'll take the time to do it right," he said.


Read more: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=54330

[musette_sf]

1. "Pentagon halts feeding" ZOMG

we must have an emergency meeting of Congress!! we must have emergency legislation!! RE-INSERT THE FEEDING TUBE NOW!!!

http://www.confusionroad.com/article.php?article_id=276

[Phred42]

2. Wanta bet?!

IF you believe this - I have a bridge........

[jody]

3. A handful of senior retired officers manage to stay current on DoD activities and that includes flag

and senior field grade officers.

[elehhhhna]

4. Are these people employed in the arms/war/contracting biz? Hmmm.

[stillcool]

7. I have read that...

..ex-military have always served on the boards of Defense Industries. Annapolis, and West Point followed by a career in the military carries a lot of weight, and prestige, and these people are sought after for the image they bring, as well as their expertise. The way the 'Defense Industry' and the 'Defense Department' have morphed, I guess it's not surprising that the Pentagon would choose ex-military to pimp their latest new product..'war without end..Amen'

[nichomachus]

13. It's called the "revolving door"

You succeed in the military by kissing the butt of the person or persons above you. The harder and faster you kiss, the faster you rise to the top. If you get to the top echelon, then you can retire with a nice pension AND you get a job with the military industrial complex. It's a cozy incestuous group -- concerned only with personal gain and corporate profits. If you're really good, you get to also be an analyst on TV, promoting the interests of the military corporations, as filtered through the Pentagon. That means more money. If you're lucky too, you can get someone to ghost write a book for you and make even more money.

However, if you ever place the interests of the people or the country ahead of corporate profits and Pentagon interests, then they will stop the gravy train dead in its track and boot you out.

[stillcool]

16. I think the 'revolving door'...

is about elected officials, or government officials, going from appropriations and awarding contracts, to lobbying and sitting on the boards of these corporations. I think in the past, say getting Patton to join the board of one of these Defense Corporations would be a PR coup. They bring prestige, knowledge, a sense of leadership..and who knows more about war? I'm sure getting Wesley Clarke to sit on the board of Boeing would still be great PR.

[msongs]

5. will the democrats APOLOGIZE for asking about it and CAVE like usual?

we are still waiting for john conyers to actually enforce any of his subpoenas. grrr

[stillcool]

6. Is the State Department...

picking up the slack?

[maddezmom]

8. NYT: Pentagon Suspends Briefings for Analysts

(April 21, 2008) A spokesman for the Pentagon said the briefings and all other interactions with the military analysts had been suspended indefinitely pending an internal review.

On Sunday, The New York Times reported that since 2002 the Pentagon has cultivated several dozen military analysts in a campaign to generate favorable coverage of the administration’s wartime performance. The retired officers have made tens of thousands of appearances for television and radio networks, holding forth on Iraq, Afghanistan, detainee issues and terrorism in general.

Records and interviews show that the Bush administration worked to transform the analysts into an instrument intended to shape coverage from inside the major networks.

The analysts, many with undisclosed ties to military contractors, have been wooed in hundreds of private briefings with senior government officials, given access to classified information and taken on Pentagon-sponsored trips to Iraq and Guantánamo Bay in Cuba, The Times reported.

more:http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/26/washington/26analyst.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&ref=washington&adxnnlx=1209209013-rgXUNaFhrd8goIsuIQNTHg

[unhappycamper]

9. Pentagon halts feeding of information to retired officers while issue is reviewed

Source: stripes.com

Pentagon halts feeding of information to retired officers while issue is reviewed
By Jeff Schogol, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Saturday, April 26, 2008

ARLINGTON, Va. - The Defense Department has temporarily stopped feeding information to retired military officers pending a review of the issue, said Robert Hastings, principal deputy assistant secretary of Defense for public affairs.

The New York Times first reported on Sunday that the Defense Department was giving information to retired officers serving as pundits for various media organizations in order to garner favorable media coverage.

Some of these retired officers saw their access to key decision-makers as possible business opportunities for the defense contractors they represent, according to the newspaper. The story also alleged that the officers who did not repeat the Bush administration's official line were denied further access to information.

Hastings said he is concerned about allegations that the Defense Department's relationship with the retired military analysts was improper.

Read more: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=54330

[gratuitous]

10. It just sounds so . . . I don't know how it sounds

"Pentagon halts feeding of information." It almost sounds like one of those dead of winter feeding programs where helicopters are brought in to air drop hay bales for starving livestock. After scanning the story, I half expected to read about demonstrators outside the Pentagon with giant spoons and signs saying "Let the Retired Generals Live!" and "Feed the Generals."

And gloriosky! Robert Hastings is "concerned" that slipping information to retired military persons whose present employers might profit from that information might be considered "improper." I guess Bush Executive Ordered the laws against war profiteering off the books without us knowing about it.

[UpInArms]

11. here's the image I get

[nichomachus]

12. Error: Headline should read "disinformation" n/t

[bean fidhleir]

14. It's illegal on at least one of two levels, I'm sure

(1) After retirement, the officers no longer have need-to-know, an absolute requirement for getting classified information. Or at least that's what the law says.

(2) The government is forbidden from propagandizing us in favor of its positions, even if they do it by remote control. Or at least it used to be.

[UpInArms]

15. and that means what to the criminals in charge?

legal smegal!

they're the deciders and they make signing statements and hide behind "executive privilege" even when it's not "executive".

Impeach

Indict

Imprison