Meanwhile, speaking of things that make you reach for the nice tall mug of Whiskey Tango Etcetera...
It appears as if Rolling Stone scribbler Michael Hastings has emerged as front runner in this year's Nick Meo Awards for Journalistic Rectumtude (uhhh... my Spellcheck is broken, so I may be a bit off on my wordsmithery, but you know what I'm trying to say).
Hastings is awesome. First, he wrote the article that likely was a reverse psyop allowing Gen. Stan McChrystal to bug out of Afghanistan. Now, Hastings has unearthed a secret project in the grand old tradition of MK Ultra and other covertness, aimed against... JSM himself, and other Senators! Or so he claims.
This is from the blurb that lures us into reading Another Runaway General: Army Deploys Psy-Ops on U.S. Senators:
The U.S. Army illegally ordered a team of soldiers specializing in "psychological operations" to manipulate visiting American senators into providing more troops and funding for the war, Rolling Stone has learned – and when an officer tried to stop the operation, he was railroaded by military investigators.
Really? I mean... really? Wow. I am impressed. Go, Team PsyOp! Can we use some of that on the enemy? Or... are we unable to do this because there is... a convoluted secret agenda at work, helping the enemy in order to conceal the hidden underground prison system and brainwashery (oh, wait...that was in Vietnam). Matty O'Blackfive has a fun take on the latest runaway general over at his place. Check it out. As for me, I'm calling my bookie now to get a read on the current odds for those Meo Awards. And - because I do hear from DoDo from time to time - tightening the tinfoil fence protecting the blog, just in case.
8 comments:
So glad I read this, Susan. Dealing with a migraine (which *may* have been triggered by reading the first article on this @ WOTN). Now I get WHY! MY tinfoil hat wasn't on properly. Phew! Off to take care of that STAT!....What a pal ya are.:)
Brat, you have to place the foil around your blog... otherwise, you aren't protected at all. You okay? Need some J.D. to rub on your temples?
The general’s chief of staff also asked Holmes how Caldwell could secretly manipulate the U.S. lawmakers without their knowledge. "How do we get these guys to give us more people?" he demanded. "What do I have to plant inside their heads?"
Why, that's just beyond the pale -- asking your intel folks to give you an in-depth background briefing, along with the salient information which will enable you, the CG, to make a more effective pitch as to *why* you need more troops in-theater?
Unheard of!
Soooo, this "Nick Meo Award" is given to whoever can create the most overblown tempest in a teapot?
It reads more like the psyops guys didn't want to venture outside their own box onto the PAO's turf rather than a targeted info-op...
Who's more likely to present a cogent argument for the tools with which to apply more pressure on the enemy? PAO? MI? Psy-Op? Right. PAO is a place they stick zero's when they want a sub-standard zero outta-sight-outta-mind...PAO collateral also involves MWR and laudry as well.
However, in all fairness to potentially offended PAOs out there: PAO, at battalion level is also the youngest and most junior zero they got. Or, it's the guy/gal the BC don't want around HIS troops.
MI/Psy-op is likely to have bestest intelligence with regards to enemy capability vice PAO. If I'm a visiting Senator, I'm askin the PAO where the best chows are, when's the best time to hit MWR facilities, and who's on the docket for USO shows. Would not liason with PAOs with regards to enemy movements and contact.
In all my years of dealing with DoD, I consistently have found PAOs to be friendly, helpful, accomodating, and... often the last to know what's going on. The MI and psy-op types, however, see beyond what's in front of them. What are they supposed to do? Keep their info and analysis to themselves? Isn't that like asking a radiologist to read an X-ray, but to remain quiet for fear of exerting undue influence on the doc?
As for the Nick Meo Award... it goes to the journo who does the best job of unfairly trashing American combatants in an attempt to bolster his or her own career.
Hastings qualifies with the Meo award!
And thanks for the helpful hints as to where the tin foil is s'posed to go. Fixed it now!
D'Oh!
Read you 5x5 on Meo Award: My nominee for the Meo award is that filthy piece of shit female that took the pix of the mortally wounded Marine couple yrs ago. Can't recall her name, don't wanna either. But, y'all what I'm talking about...
It was Julie Jacobson of the Associated Press. She took a picture of a 21 year old Marine in the final moments of his life. His family asked the AP to withhold the picture. The SecDef himself personally begged the AP to keep the picture off the wires.
I understand the rage against Jacobson. I'll give her the benefit of the doubt for taking the pic, allowing that she may have been caught up in the moment and perhaps wasn't thinking clearly. That may even have been at play when she neglected to delete the photo from her camera and turned it over to her editors. The big crime was when the REMFs at AP made the calculated choice to send it out to every client on their list.
That one deserves a Nick Meo Team Trophy.
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