Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Most Bizarre

If you haven't been following the Glenn Greenwald/Col. Steven A. Boylan affair, you should get in on it.

It started with GG writing a column on the fact our military seems to be closely linked, exclusively, with right-wing news sources and right-wing bloggers.

Col. Steven A. Boylan, the spokesman for General Patraeus, wrote an e-mail to Greenwald basically saying that GG was full of shit, didn't know what he was talking about, and it a hack "journalist."

Greenwald published the e-mail and wrote another column about how Boylan's response only goes to prove Greenwald's point and doesn't dispute any of Greenwald's theses.

Because Boylan's e-mail is over-the-top and he speaks for the commander of US forces in Iraq, many people thought maybe the e-mail was a fake. Greenwald wrote to Boylan asking him to verify that the e-mail was from him. Boylan said that the e-mail was not from him.

And you can read from the many updates, the story is now about whether or not Boylan wrote the first e-mail. Apparently, many, many, computer experts, including the GTFF's own Peter Boothe have determined that there are no differences between the e-mail Boylan denies sending and other e-mails that he has sent to Greenwald.

Through other sources, Boylan has emphatically denied writing the first e-mail.

We now have a choice to make. One thing is true, the other is not.

1. Boylan sent the e-mail and is now lying when he claims he did not.

2. Someone was able to gain access to the US military e-mail service and send an e-mail that is indistinguishable from legitimate e-mails sent on this system.

Certainly, option #2 is the most disturbing, but option #1 is not much better. Let's not forget that this guy is the personal spokesman for General Patraeus and is a Public Affairs Officer in the US military.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

HOW TO EMBROIL AN INCOMPETENT LIKE BOYLAN

With general incompetents like Boylan in the league
Can it be any wonder that there is so much intrigue?

The military of today excessive partisan
Is like the kind of force you would expect in Pakistan--
Defending not the rule of law and civil policy
As set by Congress, now it chooses with whom to agree:
It was impartial long ago but now those days are gone,
Wherefore upon democracy one finds the setting sun.

With general incompetents like Boylan in the league
No wonder that the apparatus suffers from fatigue.

Hot-headedly so he will falsify (or so it seems)
In his abusive emails, truthful content by the reams,
Defending of Petraeus stooping no matter how low--
You see now how pervasively infection seems to go:
It is a virus, culture nurtured by the Neocons
To boast self-worth superior while shitting for the nonce.

With general incompetents like Boylan in the league
Can it be any wonder that there is so much intrigue?

Petraeus, as ambitious, like begins to forward sprint,
While calling from the sidelines there has been no minor hint
That he should run for president: I see it coming soon,
For people grow enamored of that military tune,
And so his flunkies (Boylan´s name immediately comes to mind)
Shore up the man for all his lapses to which playing blind.

With general incompetents like Boylan in the league
Where is the wonder that the structure suffers from fatigue?

Democracy depended on an exercise of reason,
Till those who exercised it suffered calumnies of treason,
From which day, so it seems, instead of subtle analyzing,
Hot-headedness, pomposity and gain are the comprising
Factors as motivate--severely in partisanship--
All sorts of "civil servants" trying hard to get a grip.

Then is it any wonder? No the wonder is perhaps
Skullduggery no sooner caused the structure to collapse.