This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Phony soldiers

  • The Phonies Files

    The other day, I had a conversation with some people who worried they were on our list of folks we’re investigating. I guess that’s the drawback of doing what I do – folks spend most of their conversation with me explaining why their stories might not match their files. I think it’s funny, but to put people’s minds at ease, here’s a screen shot of my “Phonies” files. They might not be phonies, but I’m keeping my eye on them. Some of them you’ve read about before, they’re just a continuing saga.

    One is my car salesman who, out of a clear blue sky, for no reason, made the mistake of telling me he was “Special Operations. I flew around dropping stuff on people.” He was an Air Force E-4 paper weight. I’m saving that one for the next car I buy.

    I also have an external hard drive full of other people – but these are the ones I’m working on now.

    phonies-files

    If there’s someone that should be on the list, let me know. If your name isn’t on the list, you can sleep well tonight. Well, until I publish the next list.

  • Birthers use Ron Paulian tactics

    stefan-cook

    You probably remember the big dust up we had this week with the “birthers” (or “nirthers” if you really want to piss them off) over Stefan Cook’s dismissed lawsuit this last week. TSO and I were reminded of the ordeal we suffered through last year as a result of the Paulian invasion of TAH. The comments were all the same; “learn your Comstitution”, “read a book”, “educate yourself” and all of the same old stupid general blather. An attempt to take over the comments by the intellectually shallow. And we always get the blowhards who think that quanitity equals quality.

    Apparently, they’ve adopted the same blathering obnoxious approach across the internet. take a look at the comments Uncle Jimbo’s Ace of Spades post in the post below. Same techniques. I guess they didn’t recognize that Ron Paul’s biggest failing was having nutjobs as supporters who would cut and paste their comments on every Technorati search result of “Ron+Paul”.

    The Columbus, Georgia Ledger-Enquirer discovered the same thing.

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  • Bacon resigns as IVAW ED

    We got word today that Alex Bacon, the Executive Director of the IVAW, resigned his position today due to health reasons.

    Dear members of IVAW,

    We regret to inform you that our Executive Director, Alex Bacon, resigned early yesterday due to personal health issues. We wish him a full recovery and look forward to him once again becoming active with IVAW.

    The Board of Directors had a call last night where we discussed this issue (among other issues facing the organization) and the following decisions were made:

    1- Aaron Hughes (the Organizing Team Leader) will act as the point of contact between the Board and the staff while there is no ED in the office.

    2- Wes Davey (the Board Treasurer) will be going to Philadelphia, on Monday 20 July 09, to act as the interim ED until a new ED is hired.

    3- The Board will hire a full time ED to replace Alex. At this point we are inclined to hire the “runner up” for the job as we had an exhaustive process a mere 3 months ago. That being said, we will be negotiating with this person over the next week or so and will update you accordingly.

    4- This new ED will work with Wes (on site) and Alex (via phone and email) to transition into the position full time.

    The Board, staff, and members are working very hard on the convention and we are still planing on a successful convention that once again brings together members of IVAW to collectively move forward as an organization and a movement.

    We will update you as soon as we are ready to take our next step. Please feel free to send questions to Board@ivaw.org.

    In Solidarity

    Board of Directors
    Iraq Veterans Against the war

    Here at TAH, we hope that Alex has a speedy and complete recovery.

    For those of you who don’t know Alex Bacon, he went AWOL from the Coast Guard while he was stationed in Honolulu, HI. In his own words from his IVAW profile;

    I grew up in the Unitarian Church and had some illusion that I was going to make the military more humane by joining. What I didn’t realize was that you don’t change the military, the military changes you. I was disappointed in our mission, which was really focused on protecting American fisheries and seemed to have very little to do with lifesaving. I was also surprised by the dehumanization of other people, including fellow shipmates that I saw. I realized fairly quickly that I had made a mistake, and as impulsively as I joined the Coast Guard I went AWOL.

    No, really, that’s what it says. I don’t think I could make the story any funnier.

    So who is going to be the next person to take over IVAW? Well, I’m waiting on the answer to that one from one of my countless moles, but one person told me that the only two others who applied for the position were Matthis Chiroux and Adrienne Kinne. Kinne’s profile says she “served stateside in direct support of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan as a voice interceptor.”

    Kinne is touted as a “whistleblower” because she told the press (Amy Goodman from Democracy Now) that the Palestine Hotel, which housed journalists, was on the target list for the initial bombing of Baghdad in 2003. We didn’t strike the Palestine Hotel, it was merely on a target list but somehow it’s important. it’s another of those stories that go no where.

    According to my source in IVAW, Kinne is a hardcore member of the International Socialist Organization. My source also tells me that Chiroux and Kinne both withdrew their applications to be ED so we’ll have to wait to find out whether the Board decides to perpetuate it’s image as an anti-war organization or a veterans’ organization.

    Oh yeah, Carl Webb wrote yesterday that he’s to blame for the slim pickin’s for a new ED who might actually be a veteran of the Iraq War;
    webb-cheeks

  • The drama over Peskoff’s resignation

    Jeff Peskoff, the member of our little community here at TAH who resigned from IVAW this morning “friended” me at Facebook so I could witness the drama over there as another valued IVAW member left the fold. It’s instructive to read what influence the old VFP/VVAW members hold over the younger members. After the letter that I posted this morning, Jeff wrote;

    Tomorrow I will burn my f***in T-shirts. Hopefully someday this war will end or we (the intellectually effective) anti-Iraq War vets will come together to bring it to an end.

    To the point that Jeff made in regards to Carl Webb, Ward Reilly, our own phony Ranger, replied;

    reilly-vs-ivaw

    “The Right Wingers”. That’s us, I’m so proud. But now two months after I wrote the post about Webb, they begin to ask each other if he belongs with them. Little late? This is the third or fourth member to leave (that I know of) because of Webb, not to mention Chiroux.

    Reilly admits that he’d rather keep Peskoff than Webb, though, but not before he claims that everyone who went to the war in Iraq is a criminal – including himself because he didn’t stop Peskoff from going. Notice Army Sergeant in there swinging for the honorable service of those who answered their nation’s call;

    coppa-vs-reilly-pt-2

    Reilly goes on to justify Webb’s contention that Iraqis are right to kill Americans. Set aside the fact that mostly we’re killing Al Qaeda at this point.

    peskoff-vs-reilly

    That comment from Peskoff about the oath of enlistment came from TSO’s post yesterday. I’m so proud.

    I’m just sitting here waiting for the day I can post Army Sergeant’s resignation letter, but I’ll probably have to wait until after the IVAW convention next month.

    Here’s a question for John Grant; why are you over here defending the “honor” of your organization when it looks like IVAW is falling apart at the seams. You and Reilly should be calling the IVAW board and convince them to kick Carl Webb and Matthis Chiroux to the curb before some more members bolt.

  • Another IVAW member resigns

    Regular readers know “Another Disgruntled IVAW member”, one of our regular commenters here. Well, his real name is Jeff Peskoff. Last night, he resigned from the IVAW (not surprisingly, judging by his screen name) and sent us a copy of his resignation letter;

    14 July 2009

    To: Iraq Veterans Against the War Members/Board of Directors/Executive Director

    In light of recent events (e.g., IVAW’s tacit support of the ideology of Carl Webb and the actions of Matthis Chiroux), it is with a heavy heart that I have to admit to losing faith in IVAW’s leadership therefore effective immediately I am resigning my membership from IVAW. I find it more than a little ironic that I am seeing the same failure in leadership here that I have seen in the very military that IVAW is attacking wholesale now.
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  • Lie down with dogs

    I can already see the ALL CAPS!!!!!! comments I’m going to get for this one. But here goes.

    Greyhawk has a bit up about U.S. Army Maj. Stefan Frederick Cook who has refused to deploy to Afghanistan because he thinks that Barack Obama isn’t a US citizen and therefore, can’t order him to war (or the rest of the military). According to this major; “[The entire army] becomes merely a corps of chattel slaves under the illegitimate control of a private citizen.”

    In my opinion, who is Stefan Frederick Cook? As foolish as I think it was, the American people elected Barrack Obama to be our President. It may turn out to be that he deceived us, but who is one soldier (who is actually obeying the American people, by the way, by pledging his allegiance to the Constitution) to refuse to do his duty with no real proof that his President isn’t eligible to be President? I assume that the Major joined during the Bush Administration – did he ever see President Bush’s birth certificate? Is every President now required to show his birth certificate to every major in the Army? Act your age, Cook.

    Does the Left get a pass? Nope. I went over to “Courage to Resist” – they’re the folks who are protecting and defending the likes of Kimberly Rivera, Dustin Che Stevens, Travis Bishop and Victor Agosto who are all refusing to deploy to various assignments. The motto of CTR is “Support the troops who refuse to fight”. So where’s their support for Major (soon to be Inmate) Cook? Cook is claiming Conscientious Objector status, just like the aforementioned doofuses (or is it doofi?).

    Yeah, I know, they’re all taking a principled stand. I’m sure Cook will enjoy his cellmates constantly pointing that out. Kind of like Ron Paul wondering why all of the KKKers and Nazis were at his rallies.

    But in the meantime, I don’t see CTR, IVAW or Vets For Peace carrying around “Free Cook” signs either.

  • Phony soldier is sorry

    Charlie Bass told his story one too many times;

    Charles Bass had told the story about how he survived a deadly snake bite in Vietnam so many times it seemed natural to tell it again, this time in front of a TV camera on the Fourth of July. He pointed at scars on his hand and the crook of his elbow, explaining how he’d stuck a hollow bamboo in the vein to stop the venom from reaching his heart.

    Bass, in a rumpled fatigue jacket, seemed humbled by the attention. “I thank God that I endured what I had to endure for my country,” he said.

    I guess “SGM” Charlie Bass had an attack of conscience finally after 40 years of telling bogus war stories and being honored in a museum.

    Bass said he enlisted in the Army and deployed to Vietnam in 1969. He returned to the U.S. a year later, pained by post-traumatic stress and disillusioned by the prejudice he says was within his unit.

    On his way home, Bass said, he bought some ribbons in a military supplies store, just to make his uniform look a bit more impressive.

    First, he told a few tall tales to his family, to make them proud. Then to fellow veterans, for respect. “For a while I was talking about it so much I was actually believing it myself,” he said.

    Matthews asked Bass to produce his discharge papers for verification. The document showed Bass had served in Vietnam as a private from 1969-70, earning a Combat Infantryman Badge, but no Distinguished Service Cross, Silver Stars, Bronze Stars or Purple Hearts. Army officials say it will take at least a week to verify Bass’ service.

    I will never understand why someone who served their country in time of war feels the need to embellish their history. Like this guy that our friends at POW Net busted;

    The P.O.W. Network, which has researched false claims since 1989, submitted requests for public information on the two men and received documents back which do not support the claims of being a SEAL.

    Mary Schantag of the P.O.W. Network sent the Herald-Banner copies of the documents she received from The National Archive Center in St. Louis, upon filing the FOI requests..

    Brown, from Wisconsin, served in the United States Navy from Dec. 22, 1964 to Jan. 31, 1967, according to the information. No decorations nor awards were listed.

    Mary writes that he was just one of the nine Navy Cross self-awardees she busted the week before Memorial Day. I’m supposing that she got their information from news articles and Google alerts. I noticed an uptick in stories about them around the same time in my own alerts.

    If you find that you have a couple of bucks left over this week, send it to the folks at POW Net. I just did.

  • Matthis as literature

    Long time readers may remember several months ago when one of Matthis Chiroux’s girlfriends started feeding us stories about the true nature of Matthis. Of course, his fan club showed up and criticized us for using anonymous sources (like the kind of sources real journalists use) to disparage poor Matthis. Well, the thing is, I knew who the source was, and I checked out her story as best I could before I published her story here.

    She told me that she was working on a book that included some of her experiences with Chiroux but that I should keep that quiet for the time being. I honored that request.

    A few weeks ago, I’d heard from someone else that one of Chiroux’s ex-girl friends was writing a book so it was becoming common knowledge and I mentioned it in passing on previous post.

    Well, my source emailed me this morning (I’m still keeping her identity quiet, at least until the book comes out) and sent me some excerpts of the book. I put them below the jump because they’re really NSFW.
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