Neocon poses as soldier to write "report" about Gobble Gate...

[radwriter0555]

and freepers fall for it.

So this chick, daughter of a right wing freak think tanker, Simone Ledeen, writes from the position that she's a US soldier, a gristle-warming tale about the shrub's 2.5 hour visit to the iraqi airport where he posed with the fake turkey.

Sorry but it was posted in freepville; (but it's fun to see them gushing about tripe...) http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1036186/posts (snipped)

She was there. Report from Iraq
12/6/03
Posted on 12/08/2003 7:06:54 AM PST by ThePointer
From: Simone Ledeen who was at the Baghdad Airport Thanksgiving Dinner where the President Spoke

"Yes, I was there.

It was totally insane. Let me start from the beginning in the hope that I can catch my breath. Several days ago I received an All Hands email asking anyone who wanted to go to a ‘Thanksgiving Dinner with the Troops’ to respond with badge number and some other information. The email said there would be a lottery drawing for the few seats available. This morning I received notice that I had won (!!) and to go to a meeting point at 1500. Anyway long story short, I arrived at the airport with about 15-20 others, and was escorted into the huge chow hall where several hundred soldiers were sitting. I found an empty spot at one of the tables and started chatting with the men and women in uniform. They were shy at first, thinking I was some kind of VIP (hardly!). We talked about home and what we are doing here- and slowly they relaxed. And so did I. Time ticked on- and we were there over an hour, waiting for something…anything. Bremer and Sanchez came in- still nothing. What were we waiting for, I wondered? The guys were more patient than I- just shrugging their shoulders and looking more and more unimpressed.

After a while, an American General stood up and introduced General Sanchez and Ambassador Bremer. They said they wanted to read the President’s Thanksgiving declaration, but wanted the most senior person there to deliver it. Who is more senior than those two, we wondered aloud…

Then pandemonium. Literally- screaming, jumping and clapping. Who is it, I asked- The President!! Then I, too lept up from my seat, not believing my ears. There he was- President Bush- standing on the podium-smiling and fighting back tears. It was an extremely emotional moment for everyone there.

His speech was awesome- got everyone fired up and motivated when people had been vaguely depressed before. "



Turns out she's not a soldier, merely plays one on email; and is in fact a paid advisor to the newly established Ministry of Finance, in Baghdad. What on earth was she doing in a US military mess hall?

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2003/0312.whoswho.html

<Snip> Simone Ledeen is serving her country. She is the daughter of Michael Ledeen, the Iran-Contra luminary, AEI scholar, and all-around capo in the neocon mafia. She's 29, a freshly-minted M.B.A., with little to no experience in war-torn countries. But as an advisor for northern Iraq at the Ministry of Finance in Baghdad, she is, in essence, helping shape one quarter of that nation's economy.

Snarfy.

[grannylib]

1. This misadministration is just shameless....

[shirlden]

2. Anyone else believe that the Neo-cons

are just another evil cult? Their children are following in the same demented footprints. When do they start making the kool-aid? Will that happen when the sheeple wake up and take back their country from this murderous cabal?

:argh:

[TacticalPeek]

3. Puke.

Just puke.

[wtmusic]

4. snarfarama!!

:silly:

[Loonman]

5. Of course the dumbass freepers bought it

They think Boosh is doing a good job, right?

Freepers are so dumb they need "protected status".

[radwriter0555]

6. Freepers report that

"...everything in the letter was honestly presented."

LOL

Stupid is as stupid does!

[Redleg]

7. "Michael Ledeen, the Iran-Contra luminary..."?

WTF- those Freepers believe Iran-Contra was an honorable thing?

[Walt Starr]

8. Snopes gets taken again!

Assholes at Snopes never confirmed it yet claimed it was true.

[Walt Starr]

9. She impersonated a Captain

Impersonating an officer of the military is a crime last I checked.

[JHB]

18. Where?

This account and the one on Snopes are two different letters.

Call it for the propaganda show that it is, but if you're going to claim she committed a criminal act, have some solid evidence first or else you just look foolish.

[tom_paine]

10. Yes, they are a bunch of lying fucks, aren't they?

They would have and will make great Nazis..."kinder and gentler Nazis, of course".

[Walt Starr]

11. Send your comments to Snopes

http://www.snopes.com/politics/military/thanksgiving.asp

Still reports this astroturf as "True".

Hit the comments and inform the right wing biased people who run Snopes they've been fooled again by the right.

[JHB]

17. Well, what's FALSE about it?

(other than their general perspective, of course)

You've got the "Captain" letter and this one, which offer similar views of the same event. It's not surprising, given that both of them obviously passed the strict "sees a halo over Bush's head" screening to be admitted to the event.

The audience wasn't representative (any more than any other Bush appearance), but that doesn't mean the letter is false. It just means they both were of a mind to scream like kids with the latest pop star when he showed up. Spreading the letter to imply ALL our troops think the same is propaganda, of course, but just point out the parts about the "lottery" weren't exactly drawn in public: Karl & the gang made sure it was a pro-Bush crowd.

[Oilwellian]

12. The Washington Monthly article is interesting

<snip>

When the history of the occupation of Iraq is written, there will be many factors to point to when explaining the post-conquest descent into chaos and disorder, from the melting away of Saddam's army to the Pentagon's failure to make adequate plans for the occupation. But historians will also consider the lack of experience and abundant political connections of the hundreds of American bureaucrats sent to Baghdad to run Iraq through the Coalition Provisional Authority.

It's not that Americans lack such experience. In the last decade particularly, many American officials acquired a great deal of expertise in post-conflict reconstruction in places like Bosnia, Kosovo, East Timor and in post-Communist countries in Eastern Europe and around the globe--expertise that could have been put to good use at the CPA. Names frequently mentioned are those of General Bill Nash, who commanded troops in the Gulf War and NATO operations in Bosnia; Robert Perito, former senior foreign service officer and deputy director of the Justice Department's international police training program, who helped advise peacekeeping missions in Bosnia, East Timor, Kosovo, and helped organize post-conflict police training in Albania, Croatia, and Macedonia; Bob Gelbard, former U.S. presidential envoy to the Balkans; and retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Jacques Klein, who served in various capacities in the Balkans under the United States and the United Nations. Yet according to experts in the field, few of those with experience in these various deployments got the call to serve or even had their opinions solicited.

In their place, the architects of the war chose card-carrying Republicans--operatives, flacks, policy-wonks and lobbyists--for almost every key assignment in the country. Some marquee examples include U.S. civil administrator Paul Bremer's senior advisor and liaison to Capitol Hill, Tom Korologos, one of the most powerful GOP lobbyists on Capitol Hill. Then there's the man in charge of privatizing Iraq's 200-odd state owned companies, Tom Foley, a venture capitalist and high-flying GOP fundraiser. Foley was one of the Bob Dole's top-ten career donors, Connecticut finance chair for Bush 2000 and a classmate of the president's from Harvard Business School.

The chief advisor to the Agriculture Ministry is Dan Amstutz, a Reagan administration veteran who until recently served as the president of the North American Export Grain Association. Oxfam's Director of Policy Kevin Watkins recently quipped that with his record of opening up developing economies to cheap American agricultural exports, "putting Dan Amstutz in charge of agricultural reconstruction in Iraq is like putting Saddam Hussein in the chair of a human rights commission." The presence of so many GOP lobbyists and fat-cats on the CPA roster has led many to suspect that the staffing was driven by the desire to award prized contracts to friendly companies and campaign donors. There is more than a little truth in those impressions. But a closer look paints a more complex picture.

<much more>
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2003/0312.whoswho.html

[JHB]

13. Does she claim to be a soldier?

Sounds more like the "Thanksgiving with the Troops" wasn't just (hand-picked) soldiers but also included a contingent of (hand-picked) American civilian honchos and functionaries, including Simone's well-connected self.

Granted he post is a bit of cheerleading of the converted by the converted (and therefore obnoxious on its face), but I don't see where she makes any false claims.

ON EDIT (after reading the Snopes page): This just looks like more than one person describing the same event (and if they're True Believers to begin with, it's not surprising they both see the same things).

I don't see where either of these people are lying, just that they report lots of cheering from a croud hand-picked to be a Bush-cheerleading squad.

Am I missing something or what?

[Walt Starr]

14. It's being emailed all around the country as being written by a "Captain"

On top of that, snopes reports it as "True"

[radwriter0555]

15. Reading the letter, I was distinctly under the impression throughout

that she was US Military personnel. She makes no distinction whatsoever, and aligns herself with the idealogy in her writing.

Until I read the freeper comments that followed referring to her daddy and her actual position, I didn't know she wasn't military personnel. I'm not stupid. Those far less intelligent than I will also assume the same thing.

[jmags]

16. This looks strangely familiar to this email I recieved

when I recieved it it looked like bullshit to me, but I hadn't seen anything to contradict it. Now I'm more suspicious than ever:

Subject: An Email from a Captain in Iraq

We knew there was a dinner planned with Ambassador Bremer and LTG Sanchez. There were 600 seats available and all the units in the division were tasked with filling a few tables. Naturally, the 501st MI battalion got our table. Soldiers were grumbling about having to sit through another dog-and-pony show, so we had to pick soldiers to attend. I chose not to go.

But, about 1500 the G2, LTC Devan, came up to me and with a smile, asked me to come to dinner with him, to meet him in his office at 1600 and bring a camera. I didn't really care about getting a picture with Sanchez or Bremer, but when the division's senior intelligence officer asks you to go, you go. We were seated in the chow hall, fully decorated for Thanksgiving when aaaaallllll kinds of secret service guys showed up.

That was my first clue, because Bremer's been here before and his personal security detachment is not that big. Then BG Dempsey got up to speak, and he welcomed ambassador Bremer and LTG Sanchez. Bremer thanked us all and pulled out a piece of paper as if to give a speech. He mentioned that the President had given him this thanksgiving speech to give to the troops. He then paused and said that the senior man present should be the one to give it. He then looked at Sanchez, who just smiled.

Bremer then said that we should probably get someone more senior to read the speech. Then, from behind the camouflage netting, the President of the United States came around. The mess hall actually erupted with hollering. Troops bounded to their feet with shocked smiles and just began cheering with all their hearts. The building actually shook. It was just unreal. I was absolutely stunned. Not only for the obvious, but also because I was only two tables away from the podium. There he stood, less than thirty feet away from me! The cheering went on and on and on.

Soldiers were hollering, cheering, and a lot of them were crying. There was not a dry eye at my table. When he stepped up to the cheering, I could clearly see tears running down his cheeks. It was the most surreal moment I've had in years. Not since my wedding and Aaron being born. Here was this man, our President, came all the way around the world, spending 17 hours on an airplane and landing in the most dangerous airport in the world, where a plane was shot out of the sky not six days before.

Just to spend two hours with his troops. Only to get on a plane and spend another 17 hours flying back. It was a great moment, and I will never forget it. He delivered his speech, which we all loved, when he looked right at me and held his eyes on me. Then he stepped down and was just mobbed by the soldiers. He slowly worked his way all the way around the chow hall and shook every last hand extended. Every soldier who wanted a photo with the President got one. I made my way through the line, got dinner, then wolfed it down as he was still working the room.

You could tell he was really enjoying himself. It wasn't just a photo opportunity. This man was actually enjoying himself! He worked his way over the course of about 90 minutes towards my side of the room. Meanwhile, I took the opportunity to shake a few hands. I got a picture with Ambassador Bremer, Talabani (acting Iraqi president) and Achmed Chalabi (another member of the ruling council) and Condaleeza Rice, who was there with him.

I felt like I was drunk. He was getting closer to my table so I went back over to my seat. As he passed and posed for photos, he looked my in the eye and "How you doin', captain." I smiled and said "God bless you, sir." To which he responded "I'm proud of what you do, captain." Then moved on.