Here is a picture of General Stanley McChrystal. It was taken during a news conference. Notice the wire going to his ear? It attaches to a staff of personally chosen spooky operators who provide him with answers to questions asked by reporters. Why? Because he is a total control freak.
Which makes it all the funnier that his 30 year career in The United States Special Operations Command was ended by a Rolling Stone reporter named Mike Hastings. Hastings was a reporter "embedded" with McChrystal and his band of merry operators when they all got a little buzzed in Paris. Hastings wrote an article for Rolling Stone Magazine where he quoted McChrystal and staff making statements that were obviously violations and offenses under the UCMJ. McCrystal was fired and his staff are presently under investigation by the Army's Inspector General. Which means that our "Free Press" did it's job.
However now the Pentagon has determined that Mike Hastings is no longer allowed to be "embedded" with troops in Afghanistan on the grounds that he cannot be trusted.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100804/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_mcchrystal_rolling_stone_writer
The reason we have a free press in this country is so that the public will be informed when our Generals cross the line concerning our civilian authority over our military. This incident proves the value of our free press and proves that Hastings can indeed be trusted to do what the press is suppose to do in a free society; report.
Someone needs to tell the Pentagon the word is "embed", and does not mean "in bed with". A free press is not something we should be prepared to surrender to those stalwarts of honesty that make up our military leadership.
One last thing? I think the Army's Inspector General should also take a good long hard look at what McChyrtals band of merry operators were up to when all those classified files were released to wikileaks, unless of course they really think we are going to believe that was all done by a private first class? They should look into that before McChrystal announces his Presidential Candidacy.
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