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Stay classy, Michael Hastings! Part III
Well, hopefully this will end the furor over an ugly and now thoroughly discredited hit piece. In a more just world, Rolling Stone would conduct an internal investigation to determine how one of its reporters managed to so grotesquely smear an honorable man. Kudos to Spencer Ackerman, a friend of Michael Hastings, for doing some actual reporting:
The “information operations” officer at the center of an explosive Rolling Stone story about an allegedly-illicit propaganda operation will meet on Wednesday morning with an official inquiry to determine if his old boss, the general in charge of training Afghan troops, broke the law.
Only the officer, Lt. Col. Michael Holmes, concedes that Lt. Gen. Caldwell’s effort was little more than spinning legislators — something any press flack could have done innocuously. ...
And all that raises questions about precisely what Caldwell is supposed to have done wrong. (Full disclosure: Both Michael Hastings, the author of the Rolling Stone piece, and Caldwell are longtime friends of this blog.) After the story broke, the Internet was filled with breathless allegations about Caldwell’s “psyop,” making it seem like his staff used Jedi mind tricks to convince senators that the Afghan training mission is going swimmingly. But even Holmes says that’s overblown. ...
He was also asked to contribute to briefings for visiting U.S. dignitaries, like senators and congressmen, who came to Kabul’s Camp Eggers to observe the training mission and talk to Caldwell. Initially, that meant “just a Google search” on their bios, personalities, and voting records, he says. “That’s not illegal… At that point, I wasn’t asked, ‘Hey, what is it we’ve got to tell them to get our message across?’ I wasn’t asked to put a spin on it.”
And that’s the extent of what Holmes says Caldwell did wrong: “putting a spin” on what to tell legislators about the training.
Holmes is upset about the command climate at NTM-A, and that's now what his complaint to a specially appointed investigating officer will be about. In the interests of full disclosure, LTG Caldwell's former chief of staff is a friend of mine, so I'm going to refrain from commenting about all that. But those of you who jumped the gun and were calling for Caldwell's head a few weeks ago should now feel free to both apologize to Caldwell and to cancel your subscriptions to Rolling Stone.
Or.... we could wait for the
Or.... we could wait for the investigation instead of either a) condemning Caldwell or b) slurping Caldwell.
But that wouldn't make good blog fodder.
Thanks to Ackerman for
Thanks to Ackerman for clarifying the issues at stake, one of which seems now to have involved differing views as to whether one officer's background in information operations disqualified him from shaping a training command's message to visiting American dignitaries. What about the other one?
This would be Lt. Col. Holmes' allegation that the training command responded to his protests in regard to the first issue with a retaliatory investigation intended to reach a career-ending conclusion. Per Spencer Ackerman, a friend of Gen. Caldwell's, who has done some actual reporting:
"...Caldwell’s staff didn’t find it credible that Holmes’ information operations training disqualified him from a communications effort. A judge advocate general Holmes consulted, Capt. John Scott, agreed with Holmes that it was problematic for him to be involved in the spin. But in March, an attorney in Caldwell’s command, Maj. Tami Mitchell, found that Holmes had been given “a lawful order.”
The command, however, suddenly began investigating Holmes’ own behavior that spring. And it chided Holmes for improper use of Facebook, walking around Kabul out of uniform and for an unprofessional relationship with a subordinate, Maj. Laural Levine. Holmes denies any impropriety with Levine — with whom he now runs run a strategic communications firm — and says that he needed to occasionally go out of uniform to advise the Afghans without drawing attention to himself. Indeed, Holmes’ evaluation report, which he provided to Danger Room, praised his “capacity, competence and enthusiasm” and recommended him for promotion. But both he and Levine were ultimately reprimanded in what Holmes has called a “kangaroo” proceeding.
And that apparent reprisal is what Holmes wants to impress upon Webster at the Wednesday morning interview..."
Now, this issue may turn out to be as problematic as the other one. It may be that Lt. Col. Holmes only complained about the investigation because he had been misusing Facebook, been engaged in unprofessional relationships with a subordinate, and walked around Kabul out of uniform for no good reason, and that his evaluation report was just bogus. It is also possible that the procedure against Lt. Col. Holmes could have been a kangaroo court-type proceeding of which Gen. Caldwell himself was ignorant.
We'll see. In the meantime, I can restrain myself from sharing the former very junior officer's outrage at a bad press story directed at the command of an admired, very senior officer.
Maj. Laural Levine. Holmes
Maj. Laural Levine. Holmes denies any impropriety with Levine — with whom he now runs run a strategic communications firm.
I don't know nothing about nobody. But I get the feeling that Holmes may come out the worst in this investigation.
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