A Look Back At A Carrier At War

As the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk is currently being broken up for scrap metal, I've been thinking about my time aboard the great warship.

I served as a teenage sailor on the USS Kitty Hawk in 1970-1971 during the Vietnam War. 

I left the Kitty Hawk and the Navy in December of 1971, but the carrier's service life went on. 

I reviewed Richard F. Miller's a book about the Kitty Hawk's later service, A Carrier At War: On Board the USS Kitty Hawk in the Iraq War, for the Philadelphia Inquirer in 2006. 

You can read the review below: 

Note: You can click on the above to enlarge.

American Commander: Former U.S. Navy SEAL Team Six Commander And Congressman Ryan Zinke Is Writing A Book On His Experiences

Kristina Wong at thehill.com offers a piece on former U.S. Navy SEAL and Congressman Ryan Zinke, who is writing a book on his experiences.

For Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.), having the right military rules of engagement on the battlefield has become something of a mantra. 

He often says, "When you go to war, you have to make sure you have the right equipment, the right training and the right rules of engagement to win decisively."

As a Navy SEAL commander of thousands of special operations forces in Fallujah, Iraq, in 2004, during the worst of the Shiite insurgency, Zinke had to worry about those things all the time. 

Zinke said he saw, as technology moved into the battlefield, the temptation not only to monitor, but to control operations from afar.

"I saw the beginning of it, and how we transitioned from execution checklist to video, to now telemetry, to [unmanned aerial vehicles]," he told The Hill in a recent interview.

"And that's different from what we had previously. Our operations, more or less you reported an execution checklist by radio, but you were never controlled, you're always given a lot of latitude as the ground force commander and today, that's changed," he said.

"Those people that now are giving the authority to engage are political, they're not military," he said.

It's this perspective, as a Navy SEAL who served for 23 years on SEAL Team Six as a gold team commander, task force commander and a ground force commander, that will be captured in a new book coming this summer, titled "American Commander." 

Zinke is co-penning the book with the author of "American Sniper," Chris McEwen, who immortalized the story of Chris Kyle, a Navy SEAL who was commonly known as the U.S. military's most lethal sniper. Zinke met McEwen through Kyle, who Zinke was a mentor to. 

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/271607-navy-seal-congressman-pens-book-with-american-sniper-author 

Behind Saddam Hussein's Deception

Veteran journalist and author Ronald Kessler looks back at Saddam Hussein's WMD deception in a piece in the Washington Times.

Now that Donald Trump has resurfaced the issue of President Bush’s decision to invade Iraq, Saddam Hussein’s own words to the FBI are instructive.

In seven months of secret FBI debriefings after his capture, Saddam admitted that he faked having weapons of mass destruction when he was in power but had planned on developing a weapons of mass destruction program with nuclear capability within a year.

Saddam made the admissions in videotaped interviews with George L. Piro, an FBI agent who was assigned by the FBI with the CIA’s approval to try to develop the former dictator’s cooperation.

For my book “The Terrorist Watch: Inside the Desperate Race to the Next Attack,” Mr. Piro described the debriefings, which had never been previously revealed.

When the Arabic-speaking Piro arrived in Baghdad during the first week of 2004, he told me, he had no idea if Saddam would even say hello to him much less reveal his thinking about the invasion of Iraq, his role in ordering 300,000 people killed, and whether he had weapons of mass destruction. But Mr. Piro managed to develop Saddam’s trust.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/feb/18/ronald-kessler-behind-saddam-husseins-deception/ 

You can also read my Counterterrorism magazine piece on Ronald Kessler and his book The Terrorist Watch via below:

Bob Woodward: Bush Didn't Lie About WMDs To Justify Iraq War

Greg Richter at newsmax.com reports on veteran journalist and author Bob Woodward, who states that President Bush did not lie about WMDs to justify the Iraq War.

Former President George W. Bush did not lie about the presence of weapons of mass destruction to justify the Iraq War, journalist Bob Woodward said Sunday.

The argument has been used for years by Democrats and other detractors, but Woodward said on "Fox News Sunday" that his own 18-month investigation showed that Bush was actually skeptical that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had WMDs as Saddam claimed.

Though plenty of mistakes were made in the invasion of Iraq, Bush actually told CIA Director George Tenet, "Don’t let anyone stretch the case on WMD," Woodward said.

The reason the United States went into Iraq was "momentum," he said.

 

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

 

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/george-wbush-weapons-of-mass-destruction-iraq-war/2015/05/24/id/646530/?ns_mail_uid=266329&ns_mail_job=1622050_05252015&s=al&dkt_nbr=vxjbo5xi 

 

 

You can also watch a video of Bob Woodward talking about Iraq on Fox via the below link:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cP6yPjMprK8

"Chopper Whopper" Is Serial Liar Brian Williams' Tallest Tale

Kyle Smith at the New York Post takes aim at serial liar Brian Williams' biggest lie.

Brian Williams did it all for the soldiers, you see. His chopper whoppers were patriotic acts. “This was a bungled attempt by me to thank one special veteran,” he explained.

In a similar vein, ­Anthony Weiner’s sext­ing was really just a misunderstood celebration of the technological sophistication of smartphones, and Bill Clinton’s dalliance with Monica Lewinsky was a selfless way to promote that great American company the Gap.

What Williams’ lie was about was what lies are always about: No one who actually scored the winning touchdown on the high-school football team misremembers it as sitting on the bench. The term “fish tale” does not mean you mistakenly tell people you caught a sickly ­8-ounce catfish when actually you snagged a 95-pound monster marlin.

Williams or­iginally told the truth about what happened in 2003 Iraq: He was on a Chinook helicopter. Another helicopter was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG). His helo was nowhere near the one that was struck and landed some 30 or more minutes later. That isn’t a near-miss; that’s just rubbernecking at something you didn’t even know happened until you came along later.

Joseph Miller, who says he was the flight engineer on Williams’ helo, said Williams was excited from the beginning, immediately spinning a what-if story: “He had the audacity to tell me the whole thing was like ‘Saving Private Ryan’ and that the whole Army would be out looking for him,” Miller said, adding, “I called him an idiot in front of his camera crew.”

Hey, NBC, do your job for a change: Let’s see that footage. It’ll be the newsiest stuff you run all week.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://nypost.com/2015/02/08/we-shouldnt-believe-williams-lie-was-an-innocent-mistake/

Note: Every day a new story is surfacing about Brian Williams telling yet another wild story. He is getting hammered and ridiculed in the media so bad that I would think NBC has no choice but to fire him.

American Sniper, American Hero

Rich Lowry's column in the New York Post covers the success of the new Clint Eastwood/Bradley Cooper film American Sniper.  

Clint Eastwood's new movie, “American Sniper,” marks the return of the American war hero.

Heroism on the battlefield had never gone away, of course, far from it (witness the Medals of Honor awarded for acts of extraordinary valor in Iraq and Afghanistan). But the classic war hero is more than just brave or fierce. He is famous and almost universally acclaimed. On top of his battlefield exploits, he is a cultural phenomenon.

That is what “American Sniper” unquestionably makes of Chris Kyle. The late Navy SEAL sniper had already written a best-selling memoir and was known as “The Legend” within the military for his record number of confirmed kills during four tours in Iraq. The success of the movie, where he is played by Bradley Cooper, also means he will be remembered as a larger-than-life figure. Such is the power of the silver screen.

... All of this is profoundly disquieting to the left, which has so much sway in Hollywood. It hates and distrusts the idea of the war hero, believing it smacks of backwardness and jingoism. Its notion of compelling war movies were the tendentiously anti-war flops “Green Zone,” “Stop-Loss” and “In the Valley of Elah.” Its reaction to “American Sniper” has been to belittle the movie and smear Chris Kyle.

Actor Seth Rogen compared “American Sniper” to the Nazi propaganda film featured in the movie “Inglourious Basterds.” Director Michael Moore tweeted that he’d been taught to consider snipers cowards. Kyle “was a hate-filled killer,” according to The Guardian, which also deems him “a racist who took pleasure in dehumanizing and killing brown people.”

You can read the rest of the column via the below link:

http://nypost.com/2015/01/19/americans-love-war-heroes-despite-what-hollywood-liberals-think/

Security of Mosul Dam Critical to Iraq's Infrastructure

Claudette Roulo at the DoD News offers the below piece:

WASHINGTON, Aug. 18, 2014 - President Barack Obama has announced that Iraqi forces, aided by on-going U.S airstrikes, have recaptured Mosul Dam from ISIL terrorists.

U.S. military officials said American aircraft had conducted a total of 68 targeted airstrikes since Aug. 8, the majority directed at setting the conditions for Iraqi security forces to retake the dam.

"These strikes were conducted under authority to support Iraqi security forces and Kurdish defense forces as they work together to combat ISIL, as well as to protect critical infrastructure, U.S. personnel and facilities, and support humanitarian efforts," a release from U.S. Central Command said.

The attacks are aimed at preventing ISIL forces from receiving reinforcements, Pentagon Spokesman Army Col. Steve Warren said, as well as reducing their defenses. This "will allow [Iraqi security forces] to conduct maneuvers around the dam," he explained.

No U.S. military personnel were involved in the ground operations, the colonel said. "We do have U.S military overhead in these aircraft that are conducting airstrikes and of course in our [joint operation centers]," Warren said.

The Mosul Dam captures the flow of the Tigris River, providing flood control, water and electricity to Mosul's 1.7 million residents. First opened in 1986, it is the fourth-largest in the Middle East.

"If the Mosul Dam were to fail, that would lead to a humanitarian disaster," Warren said.

And failure is a real concern, he added.

The dam's location was "chosen for reasons other than geologic or engineering merit," according to a 2007 report by the Army Corps of Engineers.

While the report found that the dam itself was well-constructed, the underlying geology is a cause for "intense concern about the safety of the structure." The dam's bedrock foundation consists of water-soluble rocks, such as gypsum, marl and limestone, and the presence of the dam's reservoir is hastening subsurface dissolution.

The geologic conditions under the dam necessitate "extraordinary engineering measures to maintain the structural integrity and operating capability of the dam," the report said.

A constant program of maintenance is needed to ensure the dam is not undermined, which could unleash a floodwall that would travel southward down the Tigris River valley all the way to Baghdad, nearly 300 miles away.

A letter sent by President Barack Obama to Congress yesterday said the dam's failure would endanger the lives of large numbers of civilians, U.S. personnel and facilities, including the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, and prevent the Iraqi government from providing critical services to the Iraqi populace.

Note: The above U.S. Army photo of the Mosul Dam was taken by Staff Sgt. Brendan Stephens.

General Flynn's Last Interview: Iconocast Departs DIA With A Warning

James Kitfield at breakingdefense.com offers an interview with the retiring director of the Defense Intelligence Agency.

In this exclusive exit interview with Breaking Defense contributor james Kitfield, the outgoing chief of the Defense Intelligence Agency, Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, talks about metastasizing Islamic terrorism, his struggles to reform intelligence-gathering, and the risk of lurching from crisis to crisis in an Internet-accelerated world.  – the editors.

“Disruptive.” That’s how Michael Flynn’s enemies reportedly described him during his time as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, a tenure that ends tomorrow – a year early – when the three-star general retires after 33 years in the U.S. Army. Was Flynn forced out? The Pentagon said his departure had been “planned for some time” when it made the announcement in April. But Flynn had challenged the Obama administration narrative that al-Qaeda’s brand of nihilistic extremism had died with Osama bin Laden in 2011. He had bruised egos at the DIA trying to transform the 17,000-person bureaucracy into a more agile and forward-deployed intel operation, one shaped by the lessons he had learned as intelligence chief for Joint Special Operations Command in Iraq and Afghanistan, working for the ill-fated iconoclast Gen. Stanley McChrystal. As early as 2010, Flynn made waves with a report, Fixing Intel, that said US intelligence could not answer “fundamental questions” in Afghanistan.

You can read the interview via the below link:

http://breakingdefense.com/2014/08/flynns-last-interview-intel-iconoclast-departs-dia-with-a-warning/

My Philadelphia Inquirer Review Of "Brothers Forever"

My review of Brothers Forever apeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

In James A. Michener's 1953 novel The Bridges of Toko-Ri, a carrier jet pilot and two rescue helicopter pilots are killed in action during the Korean War. Upon hearing of the pilots' deaths, the carrier task force admiral wonders why America was lucky enough to have such men.

"Where do we get such men?" the admiral asks himself.

Brothers Forever is a book that may answer that question. It's a book one should read to learn more about the military people who volunteer to serve and sacrifice their lives in America's far-off conflicts.

You can read the rest of the review below:

Note: You can click on the above to enlarge.

The President's Most Blunt Instrument: Can Admiral McRaven's Special Ops Team Save Iraq?

Marc Ambinder at politico.com offers a piece on Admiral McRaven and Iraq.

Attempting to confront the sudden ripening threat of a transnational terrorist haven in Iraq, President Obama has once again turning to his most blunt instrument, the special operations forces commanded by Adm. William H. McRaven, to restore order.

 

No air strikes (yet). No new invasion. No headlines. Just a tiny contingent of America’s best, placed once again in harm’s way and tasked with singlehandedly defending the national interest.

Three hundred special operators will deploy, bringing with them efficient, advanced insurgent tracking technology and tactics that McRaven’s forces use in more than 70 countries today. Don’t let the “training” description of the mission fool you. These forces are intelligence enablers. They are, in the parlance of the military, effects multipliers.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/06/the-last-american-hero-108096.html#.U6dLjIlOWM9

Iraq Crisis: Did Obama's Foreign Policy Blunders Sow Seeds Of Disaster?

Columnist Cal Thomas at FoxNews.com looks at the seeds of the crisis in Iraq.

“It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain...” (The Gettysburg Address)

No life is more wasted than one lost in vain.

 

After the U.S. military battled heroically to liberate Iraq from Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship and to eliminate the possibility that it might become a staging area for terrorist attacks, the Obama administration has created a vacuum now being filled by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), an Al Qaeda affiliate, which has overrun Mosul and Fallujah, cities liberated by American soldiers. ISIS now threatens Baghdad.

 

The administration’s non-policy policy proclaiming the war over, has given ISIS a green light to establish another terrorist state in the Middle East. Following the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan, al-Qaida will likely have two states from which it can plan and execute new assaults on America, Israel, Britain and other “infidel” nations. Having declared the war(s) over and al-Qaida “on the run,”

 

President Obama responds with empty rhetoric about his national security team studying what to do, then leaves for a trip that will end on a golf course in Palm Springs.

 Vice President Biden once called Iraq one of the president’s “great achievements.”

 

On Friday, the president announced the U.S. would not send military forces back to Iraq unless the Iraqi government finds a way to bridge sectarian differences. Even then, he suggested, military power alone won’t bring stability to the country. Basically, the president said, “Iraq, you’re on your own.”

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2014/06/14/iraq-crisis-did-obama-foreign-policy-blunders-sow-seeds-disaster/?cmpid=NL_morninghl

Extortion, Bank Robbery Fuel ISIS Bloody Drive To Establish Sharia Caliphate

Foxnews.com offers a piece on the terrorist group ISIS in Iraq.

Long before it looted the Iraqi central bank in Mosul of $429 million, the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant/Syria (ISIS) was well-funded in its quest to establish a Shariah caliphate, thanks to a raging criminal enterprise of extortion, bank robbery and petty theft, as well as donations from well-heeled sponsors throughout the Arab world, according to experts. 

The latest payday — gained when the jihadist group led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi overran Iraq's second largest city and emptied the vaults of cash and gold bullion — swelled already healthy coffers and made ISIS, by some estimations, the world's richest terrorist organization. The group also seized U.S.-made tanks, Blackhawk helicopters, cargo planes and an unknown quantity of guns, all part of a $14 billion arsenal the U.S. sold or donated to the beleaguered Iraqi security forces.

The money and weapons are already helping ISIS in its ferocious bid to carve out a nation governed by strict and merciless Shariah law in northern Iraq and northwestern Syria. The group already sees itself as an independent state with large swaths of the two battle-scarred nations, areas it now controls and is bent on expanding. The "Levant" incorporated into the group's name historically refers to an eastern Mediterranean area that also includes parts of Lebanon, Israel, Jordan and Cypus, though it's unclear exactly what territory the organization has designs on. 

 

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

 

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/06/14/extortion-bank-robbery-fuel-isis-bloody-drive-to-establish-sharia-caliphate/ 

Civilian Warriors: The Inside Story Of Blackwater And The Unsung Heroes Of The War On Terror

Gary Anderson offers a good review of Erik Prince's Civilian Warriors: The Inside Story of Blackwater and the Unsung Heroes of the War on Terror in today's Washington Times.

Civilian Warriors” is a spirited defense by Mr. Prince of himself and his company, and nothing in the book dampened my admiration for what he was trying to do, and what he succeeded in doing. It is a good read, because he spins an exciting yarn, but it is also a potential handbook for young entrepreneurs on how to start and grow a company on a shoestring if a person sees a marketing niche for his company.

... When Iraq and Afghanistan happened, Blackwater was uniquely positioned to protect American diplomats and other officials tasked with trying to rebuild those two shattered countries. Using retired special operators, Marines and other combat veterans, Blackwater provided that protection and went beyond the call of duty to assist American troops in both countries when all other means of assistance failed.

The second portion of the book details Blackwater’s fall. Mr. Prince freely admits to mistakes, both personal and professional, but I agree with his assessment that much of its downfall was a result of opportunistic left-wing politicians, hysterical blogging by anti-war pseudo-journalists and ambulance-chasing lawyers. Most disappointing was the company’s betrayal by officials at the State Department. That organization benefited the most from Blackwater’s protection; not one department official that the company guarded was ever killed or seriously wounded under its protection. One has to wonder if Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens might still be alive had Blackwater been around to protect him.

You can read the rest of the review via the below link:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/dec/9/book-review-civilian-warriors/

My Q & A With Captain Dick Couch, Former Navy SEAL & Author of "The Sheriff of Ramadi'

My Q&A with Captain Dick Couch (Ret), former Navy SEAL and author of The Sheriff of Ramadi,  appeared in Counterterrorism magazine.

You can read the Q&A below:

Trial Begins For PFC Bradley Manning, The U.S. Soldier Accused Of Leaking Classified Information To WikiLeaks

David Vergun at the Army News Service offers a piece on the opening of the PFC Bradley Manning trial.

FORT MEADE, Md., June 4, 2013 - With the prosecution accusing Army Pfc. Bradley Manning (seen in the above U.S. Army photo) of causing immeasurable harm to national security and Manning's attorney portraying the soldier as "young and naïve, but good-intentioned," Manning's court-martial in what has become known as "the WikiLeaks case" began here yesterday. Manning, 25 is charged with committing various crimes, including aiding the enemy, by leaking classified information to the WikiLeaks website while assigned to Iraq as an intelligence analyst in 2009 and 2010. If convicted, Manning could be sentenced to life in prison. In his opening statement, Army Capt. Joe Morrow, the prosecutor, called the leaks the "biggest ever" in U.S. history, involving hundreds of thousands of classified documents, and that they provided "potentially actionable information for targeting U.S. forces." David Coombs, Manning's attorney, said in his opening statement that Manning was selective about the documents he released and "was hoping to make the world a better place" by doing so. The judge, Army Col. Denise Lind, asked Manning if he wanted to reconsider trial by a military judge alone, herself, rather than by jury, which is termed a "panel" by the military. Manning declined. In the afternoon, the prosecutor called the first witness, Army Sgt. 1st Class Thomas Smith, who was the senior enlisted Criminal Investigative Division agent at the time. He and another case agent, Tony Graham, were the first to investigate the "scene of the crime," as Smith called the sensitive compartmented information facility where Manning worked in Iraq. Smith discussed the procedures they used to collect evidence and conduct interviews. The prosecutor will call more witnesses and use sworn statements as evidence as its case proceeds. The defense will present its arguments in the coming days.

Why Did We Invade Iraq?

Victor Davis Hanson answers the question of why we invaded Iraq in his piece in the National Review.

On the tenth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, the back-and-forth recriminations continue, but in all the “not me” defenses, we have forgotten, over the ensuing decade, the climate of 2003 and why we invaded in the first place. The war was predicated on six suppositions.

 

1. 9/11 and the 1991 Gulf War. The Bush administration made the argument that in the post-9/11 climate there should be a belated reckoning with Saddam Hussein. He had continued to sponsor terrorism, had over the years invaded or attacked four of his neighbors, and had killed tens of thousands of his own people. He was surely more a threat to the region and to his own people than either Bashar Assad or Moammar Qaddafi was eight years later.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/343870/why-did-we-invade-iraq-victor-davis-hanson 

American Sniper Murdered: Former Navy SEAL Chris Kyle Fatally Shot At Texas Shooting Range

 

Foxnews.com reports on the murder of former U.S. Navy SEAL Chris Kyle and a friend at a Texas shooting range.

 

Chris Kyle, a former U.S. Navy SEAL credited with the largest number of confirmed kills, was one of two people fatally shot at a North Texas shooting range Saturday, Texas Highway Patrol confirmed to Fox News.

25-year-old Eddie Ray Routh of Lancaster was arraigned Saturday evening on two counts of capital murder.

Sgt. Lonny Haschel said Erath County Sheriff's deputies responded to a call about a shooting at the Rough Creek Lodge, west of Glen Rose, at about 5:30 p.m. Saturday. Police found the bodies of Kyle, 38, and Chad Littlefield, 35, at the shooting range. Glen Rose is about 50 miles southwest of Fort Worth.

You can read the rest of the story via the below link:

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/02/03/navy-seal-chris-kyle-fatally-shot-at-texas-shooting-range-report-says/

You can also watch an interview with the former Navy chief with Bill O' Reilly via the below link:

http://video.foxnews.com/v/1368144093001/factor-interview-americas-most-lethal-sniper-chris-kyle/

And you can read Joshua Sinai's Washington Times review of American Sniper via the below link:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jan/13/book-review-american-sniper/?page=all

My Share Of The Task: A Memoir By Retired General Stanley McChrystal

Gary Anderson, a retired Marine Corps colonel, wrote an interesting review of retired General Stanley McChrystal's book, My Share of the Task: A Memoir and Fred Kaplan's The Insurgents: David Petraeus and the Plot To Change the American Way of War.

The review appeared in the Washington Times. 

Counterterrorism (CT in military argot) and counterinsurgency (COIN) are two very different things that are sometimes used interchangeably by politicians and journalists not familiar with the national security community’s often confusing tribal language. CT is killing or capturing terrorists and breaking up their networks. COIN is an attempt to wean a local population away from insurgents and to convince those people to support, or at least tolerate, their own government. Each requires different skill sets, and both are things that a host nation should do once it is able. That is not always possible in the early stage of the conflict; and this was the case in Afghanistan and Iraq, albeit for different reasons. The two books that this review addresses are about men who mastered each of these skills in Iraq, but who found Afghanistan a much more difficult challenge.

Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s book, “My Share of the Task,” is an autobiography. For most of his career, the author was a fairly conventional soldier, but he had shown an early interest in unconventional operations. As a qualified airborne officer, and a graduate of the Army’s Ranger Course, he sought out a chance to gain an assignment in the elite Ranger Regiment, and eventually was assigned to the even more elite Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) counterterrorist force, which he rose to command. In Iraq, he wore two hats as commander of JSOC and its Iraqi Manifestation, TF 714. As the counterterrorist commander in Iraq, he transformed his unit from a team of rivals into a network that combined intelligence with direct capture-kill operations and was responsible for the eventual capture of Saddam Hussein and the elimination of the notorious Abu Musab al Zarqawi.

On The Insurgents, Anderson writes:

It’s a warts-and-all account of how people like Gen. Petraeus, Lt. Col. John Nagl, Maj. Gen. H.R. McMaster and others strove to get the Army to readopt counterinsurgency doctrine, which the Army had dropped like a hot potato after the debacle of Vietnam. They succeeded in doing so in Iraq, but suffered a setback in Afghanistan. Here, both books converge.

Gen. McChrystal took over the war in Afghanistan when Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates fired his predecessor. He moved from CT to COIN, and the move from the largely tactical level of war to the realm of strategy was not smooth. However, Gen. McChrystal was smart enough to know that he was in a dogfight. He describes Americans dealing with Afghans as akin to high school students walking into a Mafia bar. I always had that feeling in my meetings with Afghans, but lack the general’s gift of metaphor to express it.

When Gen. McChrystal was, in turn, forced to resign over remarks that his staff made to a disingenuous Rolling Stone reporter, Gen. Petraeus took a demotion to replace him. Like all of us who had success in Iraq, Gen. Petraeus found Afghanistan to be a much harder slog. When he left after a year, he had made progress, but not as much as he would have liked.

You can read the rest of the review via the below link:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jan/22/book-review-my-share-of-the-task/

Note: General Stanley McChrystal appears in the above DOD photo.

Former Army Contractor Sentenced To 39 Months In Prison For Role In Bribery And Money Laundering Scheme Related To Iraq War Support Contracts

The U.S. Justice Department released the below information today:

WASHINGTON –Terry Hall, 45, was sentenced today in Birmingham, Ala., to 39 months in prison for his participation in a bribery and money laundering scheme related to bribes paid for contracts awarded in support of the Iraq war, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division.

U.S. District Court Judge Virginia Emerson Hopkins for the Northern District of Alabama also ordered Hall to serve one year of supervised release following the prison term. Hall has agreed to forfeit $15,757,000 as well as real estate and a Harley Davidson motorcycle.

Hall pleaded guilty on Feb. 18, 2010, to bribery conspiracy and money laundering and agreed to testify against his co-defendants, former U.S. Army Major Eddie Pressley and his wife, Eurica Pressley. The Pressleys were convicted on March 1, 2011, of bribery, conspiracy to commit bribery, honest services fraud, money laundering conspiracy and engaging in monetary transactions with criminal proceeds.

The case against Hall and the Pressleys arose from a corruption probe focusing on Camp Arifjan, a U.S. military base in Kuwait. As a result of this investigation, 17 individuals, including Hall, have pleaded guilty or been found guilty at trial for their roles in the scheme.

According to evidence presented at the Pressleys’ trial, from spring 2004 through fall 2007, Hall operated and had an interest in several companies, including Freedom Consulting and Catering Co. and Total Government Allegiance. The companies received more than $20 million from contracts and blanket purchase agreements (BPAs) – a contract that allows the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) to order supplies on an as-needed basis at a pre-negotiated price – to deliver bottled water and erect security fences for the U.S. military in Kuwait and Iraq.

Hall testified that, to obtain the contracting business and facilitate unlawful payments by other contractors, he made more than $3 million in unlawful payments and provided other valuable items and services to U.S. Army contracting officials stationed at Camp Arifjan, including to Eddie Pressley and former U.S. Army Majors John Cockerham, James Momon, Christopher Murray and Derrick Shoemake.

According to Hall’s testimony and other evidence presented at the Pressley trial, Eddie Pressley demanded a $50,000 bribe before he would issue bottled water orders or “calls” to Hall. Hall testified that in April 2005, he and his associates arranged for Pressley to receive the money in a bank account established in the name of a shell company, EGP Business Solutions Inc., which was controlled by Eurica Pressley.

Hall testified that soon after the $50,000 bribe was paid, Pressley and Cockerham, another U.S. Army contracting official, increased the bribe demand to $1.6 million, which consisted of $800,000 for Pressley and $800,000 for Cockerham. After Hall and others agreed to pay the money, Pressley and Cockerham issued calls for bottled water and fencing, arranged for Hall to receive a fence contract and modified Hall’s agreement to remove the upper limit of the money Hall could receive from the DoD under the bottled water BPA.

Evidence at trial also showed that Eddie Pressley enlisted the help of his wife, Eurica, to receive the bribes. Eurica Pressley traveled to Dubai with Hall in May 2005 and to the Cayman Islands in June 2005 to open bank accounts to receive the bribe money. Hall testified that he and the Pressleys attempted to conceal the true nature of their corrupt scheme by having Eurica Pressley execute bogus “consulting agreements.” They also prepared false invoices that were designed to justify the bribe payments as payment for non-existent “consulting services.”

Hall testified that, in total, he transferred approximately $2.9 million in bribe payments to the Pressleys, approximately $1.6 million of which consisted of payments from other contractors that Hall facilitated for Eddie Pressley. Bank statements, wire transfer reports and other records presented at trial showed that the Hall and Eddie Pressley used approximately $2.9 million of the money to purchase commercial real estate in Muscle Shoals, Ala.

In addition, Hall testified that, after Eddie Pressley and Cockerham left Kuwait, he paid Momon more than $300,000, approximately $100,000 of which consisted of unlawful payments from another corrupt military contractor, which Hall facilitated by routing the money through bank accounts in Kuwait controlled on Hall’s behalf. In exchange, Momon issued calls under Hall’s bottled water BPA worth more than $6.4 million. Hall also testified that he paid Murray approximately $30,000 in exchange for official acts that benefited Hall and his companies.

On Jan. 5, 2012, Eddie Pressley was sentenced to 144 months in prison, and on Feb. 23, 2012, Eurica Pressley was sentenced to 72 months in prison.

On Aug. 13, 2009, Momon pleaded guilty to receiving approximately $1.6 million in bribes and agreed to pay $5.7 million in restitution. Momon’s sentencing has not yet been scheduled. On Jan. 8, 2009, Murray pleaded guilty to charges of bribery and making a false statement. He was sentenced on Dec. 17, 2009, to 57 months in prison and ordered to pay $245,000 in restitution. On Jan. 31, 2008, Cockerham pleaded guilty to participating in a bribery and money laundering scheme at Camp Arifjan. He was sentenced on Dec. 2, 2009, to 210 months in prison and ordered to pay $9.6 million in restitution. On June 9, 2011, Shoemake pleaded guilty to two counts of bribery, including receiving $215,000 from Hall. He is scheduled to be sentenced on April 18, 2012.

The case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Peter C. Sprung and Edward J. Loya Jr. of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section. Assistance was also provided by the Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs. The cases are being investigated by the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command, Defense Criminal Investigative Service, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, FBI, Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation, Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction and the International Contract Corruption Task Force (ICCTF). The ICCTF is a joint law enforcement agency task force that seeks to detect, investigate and dismantle corruption and contract fraud resulting from U.S. Overseas Contingency Operations worldwide, including in Kuwait, Afghanistan and Iraq.

American Sniper: A Review Of Former Navy SEAL Chris Kyle's Book

Joshua Sinai at the Washington Times wrote an interesting review of American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. History.

"One shot, one kill" is the creed of military snipers. For those in elite warfare units such as the U.S. Navy SEALs, the additional skill of being able to quietly infiltrate an enemy's area undetected in order to deliver precision fire is mandatory. Working in proximity to where adversaries are operating, and being expected to survive in order to be deployed to additional firefights, is a given.

"American Sniper" is retired Navy SEAL Chris Kyle's gripping and dramatic account of how he became the deadliest sniper in U.S. history with 160 officially confirmed "kills" in the Iraq War from 2003 to 2009.
    
You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jan/13/book-review-american-sniper/