Seymour Hersh unleashed

[gilliam]

DOHA, Qatar
…“That’s the attitude,” he continued. “We’re gonna change mosques into cathedrals. That’s an attitude that pervades, I’m here to say, a large percentage of the Joint Special Operations Command.”

He then alleged that Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who headed JSOC before briefly becoming the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, and his successor, Vice Adm. William McRaven, as well as many within JSOC, “are all members of, or at least supporters of, Knights of Malta.”

Hersh may have been referring to the Sovereign Order of Malta, a Roman Catholic organization commited to “defence of the Faith and assistance to the poor and the suffering,” according to its website.

“Many of them are members of Opus Dei,” Hersh continued. “They do see what they’re doing – and this is not an atypical attitude among some military – it’s a crusade, literally. They seem themselves as the protectors of the Christians. They’re protecting them from the Muslims [as in] the 13th century. And this is their function.”

“They have little insignias, these coins they pass among each other, which are crusader coins,” he continued. “They have insignia that reflect the whole notion that this is a culture war. … Right now, there’s a tremendous, tremendous amount of anti-Muslim feeling in the military community.””

Hersh relayed that he had recently spoken with “a man in the intelligence community… somebody in the joint special operations business” about the downfall of Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia. “He said, ‘Oh my God, he was such a good ally.’”

blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/01/18/seymour_hersh_unleashed

 

[autdrew]

crusader coins? Ill have to tell my husband about that, he will get a good laugh. The military has coins for units, services, even ranks. They give special ones for promotions, reenlistments etc. Many people collect them, including my husband. Will have to tell him he is missing one

 

[Ridgerunner]

McChrystal’s religion is stated as Assemblies of God by Wikipedia. If so, he would not be a member of either the Knights of Malta or Opus Dei.

 

[Kadaveri]

Hersh is the only journalist allowed an interview with Hasan Nasrallah after the 2006 war.

 

[ronnie_bonigli]

Seymour Hersh is a military hating left-winger, and this is not a “News” article, it’s just more of the anti-military propaganda we saw from Hersh all during the Bush presidency.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Seymour Hersh is a military hating left-winger, and this is not a “News” article, it’s just more of the anti-military propaganda we saw from Hersh all during the Bush presidency.

Might just be an attempt, through Hersh, to cover an upcoming Hezbollah opporession of Christians in Lebanon. Gin up some religious hatred; set up a scapegoat, that sort of thing.

 

[Jerry_Miah]

I once met a military person who had left the service because there was pressure forming in the upper ranks to show how Christian you are before getting promotions. This is relatively new in the military, he said.

And today’s news supports Hersh:
articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-04-25/news/sns-rt-us-usa-military-trainingbre83o12c-20120425_1_afghan-war-top-military-officer-review

Military to review course teaching “U.S. at war with Islam”
April 25, 2012|Missy Ryan | Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top military officer ordered a review of training material after a course for officers was found to espouse the view that the United States is at war with Islam, the Pentagon said on Wednesday.

General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, sent a letter on Tuesday to leaders of the Army and other services, along with regional commanders and officials heading the National Guard, ordering a review of relevant training and education material across the military.

 

[SamH]

I once met a military person who had left the service because there was pressure forming in the upper ranks to show how Christian you are before getting promotions. This is relatively new in the military, he said.

Was this before or after he told you about his Big Foot sighting?

 

[Rich_Olszewski]

I once met a military person who had left the service because there was pressure forming in the upper ranks to show how Christian you are before getting promotions. This is relatively new in the military, he said.

Sounds doubtful. I think that the Promotion Review Boards don’t know one’s religion, and even if they did, there’s no way for them to pressure those up for promotion regarding religion.

 

[OrdinaryMelkite]

Was this before or after he told you about his Big Foot sighting?

Don’t be sarcastic, Sam. Does NOT become you.

 

[SamH]

Don’t be sarcastic, Sam. Does NOT become you.

Agreed.

No sarcasm involved.

 

[ellipsis2]

Was this before or after he told you about his Big Foot sighting?

You seem to be following this poster around with pithy bon mots. Is there a rule against stalking here?

 

[SamH]

You seem to be following this poster around with pithy bon mots. Is there a rule against stalking here?

 

[Jerry_Miah]

articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-04-25/news/sns-rt-us-usa-military-trainingbre83o12c-20120425_1_afghan-war-top-military-officer-review

Hersh is usually right, or in the ballpark. If not for Hersh, both the Mai Lai massacre and Abu Ghraib torture camp might have been covered up.

This story is not new, I have been hearing about it for years. Besides today’s news in the link above about “war on Islam” indoctrination going on in military training facilities, there is this from 2010:aolnews.com/2010/02/19/religious-incidents-raise-concern-about-military-proselytizing/

(Feb. 19) – The Pentagon has been pushing religious tolerance for decades, but several separate incidents in recent months are reinvigorating advocates who worry that the U.S. military is being controlled by a small but powerful subculture of evangelical Christians.

Then there is this, 2009:
harpers.org/archive/2009/05/0082488

a small but powerful movement of Christian soldiers concentrated in the officer corps. There’s Major General Johnny A. Weida, who as commandant at the Air Force Academy made its National Day of Prayer services exclusively Christian, and also created a code for evangelical cadets: whenever Weida said, “Airpower,” they were to respond “Rock Sir!”—a reference to Matthew 7:25. (The general told them that when non-evangelical cadets asked about the mysterious call-and-response, they should share the gospel.) There’s Major General Robert Caslen—commander of the 25th Infantry Division, a.k.a. “Tropic Lightning”—who in 2007 was found by a Pentagon inspector general’s report to have violated military ethics by appearing in uniform, along with six other senior Pentagon officers, in a video for the Christian Embassy, a fundamentalist ministry to Washington elites. There’s Lieutenant General Robert Van Antwerp, the Army chief of engineers, who has also lent his uniform to the Christian cause, both in a Trinity Broadcasting Network tribute to Christian soldiers called Red, White, and Blue Spectacular and at a 2003 Billy Graham rally—televised around the world on the Armed Forces Network—at which he declared the baptisms of 700 soldiers under his command evidence of the Lord’s plan to “raise up a godly army.”

What men such as these have fomented is a quiet coup within the armed forces: not of generals encroaching on civilian rule but of religious authority displacing the military’s once staunchly secular code. Not a conspiracy but a cultural transformation, achieved gradually through promotions and prayer meetings, with personal faith replacing protocol according to the best intentions of commanders who conflate God with country. They see themselves not as subversives but as spiritual warriors—“ambassadors for Christ in uniform,” according to Officers’ Christian Fellowship; “government paid missionaries,” according to Campus Crusade’s Military Ministry.

 

[ellipsis2]

articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-04-25/news/sns-rt-us-usa-military-trainingbre83o12c-20120425_1_afghan-war-top-military-officer-review

Hersh is usually right, or in the ballpark. If not for Hersh, both the Mai Lai massacre and Abu Ghraib torture camp might have been covered up.

This story is not new, I have been hearing about it for years. Besides today’s news in the link above about “war on Islam” indoctrination going on in military training facilities, there is this from 2010:aolnews.com/2010/02/19/religious-incidents-raise-concern-about-military-proselytizing/

Then there is this, 2009:
harpers.org/archive/2009/05/0082488

I, too, have been reading about this in the last few years. Jeremy Scahill wrote a book about it. I have it on my Kindle, but I haven’t read it yet.
As far as Hersh goes, he’s right more often than wrong. The stories seem outlandish because they ARE outlandish…and unfortunately, true.

 

[Jerry_Miah]

I, too, have been reading about this in the last few years. Jeremy Scahill wrote a book about it. I have it on my Kindle, but I haven’t read it yet.
As far as Hersh goes, he’s right more often than wrong. The stories seem outlandish because they ARE outlandish…and unfortunately, true.

I’ll have to check out the Scahill book. I wonder if those who dissed Hersh are eating crow now that the “war with Islam” course is in the news today. Hundreds of officers potentially went through this course. These things don’t come out of nowhere, and a large number of people in the military would have to had signed off on it and organized it. I wonder how many of them are the extremist, evangelical Christians that Hersh warned about.

Dempsey also ordered an inquiry into how the material, which Kirby described as “objectionable” and “inflammatory,” got into the course at Norfolk.

While hundreds of officers would have taken the course since it began in 2004, it’s unclear how long the material identified as objectionable had been part of the curriculum. The 30-day inquiry should establish that.

The eight-week course, which was aimed at officers, has been suspended as the inquiry moves ahead.

The instructor has not been suspended from teaching duties, Kirby said. The soldier who made the complaint was not been identified.

 

[scipio337]

Just so I’m clear on this:

The Pentagon closing a class that taught “War Against Islam”, is actually proof that there really is a secret “War Against Islam”?

I’m familiar with counter-intel, but that seems a little counter intuitive. Also, I don’t note any mention in your news links of a secret Catholic Crusade/cabal formed by Opus Dei or Knights of Malta, replete with Crusader Coins.

And here I was stuck at O-2 for years!

As far as Hersh goes, I’m sure you’re familiar with his JFK bio, that was slammed as sloppy from all sides, and of course, his famous allegation of filmed unspeakable acts at Abu Ghraib during an ACLU conference, which he later retracted.

Even NY Mag confirms Hersh is loose and fast with facts:

nymag.com/nymetro/news/people/features/11719/index3.html