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Thursday, September 04, 2008

What's all this about national security?
Posted by Jill | 7:28 AM
Going unnoticed in all the hoopla over Sarah Palin this week was the news that Alberto Gonzales took classified documents about the government's wiretap program home and neglected to keep them locked up "because he couldn't remember the combination" to his safe -- and that the Justice Department is not going to prosecute. If you needed any further proof that Michael Mukasey's Department of Justice is about protecting his bosses and predecessor and not about upholding the law, there it is. So let us have no more talk about Sandy Berger, shall we?

But playing fast and loose with national security isn't the exclusive province of those currently in power. The woman who is running for the office of Waiting For McCain to Sneeze, in an effort to score cheap political points off of her son's service, has violated Operational Security.

Here is Sarah Palin, telling the world the date her son is to be deployed to Iraq:




Jon Soltz of VoteVets explains how this may very well be a violation:
Calling around to a couple of Public Affairs Officers (PAO) who would be handling the flow of information about Track and his unit, VoteVets.org found out that, first, Track is not deploying on September 11. He may be part of a deployment ceremony that day, before going to Kuwait, though one Public Affairs Officer said that any details of the upcoming ceremony hadn't been made public yet by the military.

Governor Palin may have spilled the beans on that one, while showing she doesn't know the difference between a soldier deploying to Iraq vs. one preparing to deploy to Iraq. And while not illegal, if she really did believe that's when he's deploying to Iraq, then she didn't know enough to keep quiet about that to keep from violating OPSEC - something a potential Commander in Chief should know.

But, more disturbing, and definitely in violation of security, are an explosion of stories that say specifically where in Iraq Track is deploying to, which have been dutifully eaten up by right wing websites, and reprinted. I will not reprint it here, because I would only be compounding the issue. But, unfortunately, it is very easy to find on the web at this point.

It is simply impossible that any reporter could figure this out on their own. Just by knowing Track's name and the date he is heading to Kuwait, one could not figure out specifically where Track and his company would be going in Iraq. There's a reason it's impossible to figure that out - because the military doesn't want that information out there. It only serves to aid the enemy to know where are troops are moving.

Did the Pentagon release that information to the press?

No, according to another PAO that VoteVets.org talked with. In fact, this PAO said, the military was actively trying to quash this story, and keep reporters from repeating all these details, because it was a clear OPSEC violation. The PAO was adamant that the military has no idea how these details got out there and doesn't want them out there.

So where is this information coming from, if not the military? Certainly not the Obama campaign, which would not gain anything by promoting Track's service. The only people who I can think of would be those in the McCain-Palin campaign.

If the McCain-Palin campaign has disclosed details about Track's company's movements to gain stories in the press about it, they will have put many American lives in danger - not the least of which would be Track's.


Heckuva job, Sarah.

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6 Comments:
Anonymous Anonymous said...
Why is this significant or any different than past misdeeds? We've got plenty of precedent: Valerie Plame/Wilson.

How many Brewster Jennings "employees" were put at risk -- not counting the money and effort that went down the tubes when the "business" closed -- when Mr Cheney outed Ms Plame?

Putting a military unit or two, who haven't even been deployed yet and could easily be reassigned, at risk would seem to be small stuff to that bunch.

You might think that McCain -- he's ex military and a POW after all and, by his own continuing statements, imminently qualified as CIC -- would know better, but this is Rove's doing. McSame hasn't been in charge of anything since his plane went down... And given his flying record, even that could be questioned.
9/4/08, 8:43 AM  
Blogger merlallen said...
do you really think that they care? maybe about him but not the rest of the unit
9/4/08, 11:19 AM  
Blogger Steve said...
In all fairness, Joe Biden and/or his campaign let it be known that Beau Biden's NG unit was going to Iraq in November, I believe. Wouldn't that also be an OPSEC violation?
9/4/08, 4:41 PM  
Blogger Jill said...
Nope. Palin gave an exact date. Biden didn't. That's the difference. If you have a problem with that, take it up with John Soltz. But of course you won't.
9/4/08, 5:27 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...
Well, heckuva way to keep young Track as far away from the fighting as possible. Like she didn't know that.
9/5/08, 2:07 PM  
Blogger Steve said...
I think you need to calm down instead of just lashing out like that. It doesn't do us any good become amateur NS nitpickers when there are far better issues to explore.

Palin was obviously resorting to the G911iani technique by stating that her son was going to be deployed on 9/11. That date only jives with a ceremonies date, and even Soltz admits it "probably wasn't illegal".

I was first concerned about this whole deployment-of-sonsgate stuff when Biden did it. As a former Marine, I thought at the time - not smart. Remember Prince Harry?

Obviously, two wrongs don't make a right, but with so much stuff going on out there over this new kid on the block from a state most of us know little about it might be best to sift the flour thoroughly before baking.

Yeah, she's beating the patriot drum, as is her partner. So was Biden. It's a wash.
9/5/08, 8:32 PM  
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