[V8] A fish stinks....

[Scott Justusson]

 Roger
Being the curious sort when living history in the present, especially in rules (albeit usually of the racing type), I took a look at your reference articles.  For UCMJ, it's articles 133 "Conduct unbecoming an officer" and 134, which specifically states 'infidelity' as a court-martial offense (administrative-only historically).  For DoD, it's probably better addressed under Military Code of Ethics 5500-07R Section 2 12.401.12c "Primary Ethical Values" , "c" directly speaks to "Loyalty."  In  terms of Loyalty synonyms to include the word "fidelity".    As I've read both documents in their entirety, the pivotal spirit and intent as I read every other definition of 'violation' within these documents is to maintain integrity of National Security.  No violation appears to have occurred, confirmed by the very actions the FBI didn't take to notify Congress...  They are not required to if there is no evidence to support a breach of National Security.  They found none = not reported.

For Patraeus:  Problem with "UCMJ" is that the affair started 2 month after his retirement from the Military.  Which then puts his transgression in the more vague DoD interpretation, at best, as CIA is not defined as a Military entity per sae.

For Broadwell:  As far as I can tell, she was in the Reserves - "not on orders" (inactive reserve unit at the time), then she can't be 'court-martialed', but could possibly be dismissed under administrative judgement.

Roger, what I read is two really weak cases for "massive violations" to the spirit and intent of the UCMJ and the DoD Code of Ethics.  I think they just plain don't apply to Patraeus at all, and he did the honorable thing for his President, and just resigned.  Further, to escape the Republican pundits thinking his resignation was to evade an inquiry on Bengazi affair, he killed that expost facto, by agreeing to testify to those events.  Broadwell could receive an administrative judgement that will likely end her career, but nothing more.  But alas, the soap continues, and classified documents in her laptop could affect her outcome more than the Patreaus affair (pun intended).

I did use my v8 to drive to Staples and buy 2 reams of HP paper so I could print the documents required...  And Bob, I would seriously consider cleaning or swapping MAF for known good.  Thankfully v8's are not held to a higher standard of automotive conduct, or we'd all be in jail already.

Cheers, and my .02

Scott J
92 v8



 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Roger M. Woodbury <rmwoodbury at fairpoint.net>
To: cobram <cobram at juno.com>; Scott Justusson <qshipq at aol.com>
Cc: V8 <V8 at audifans.com>
Sent: Wed, Nov 14, 2012 6:29 am
Subject: Re: [V8] A fish stinks....



Scott:  I am mildly surprised that this story continues to grow wings and sprouts as more and more disconnected people, places and events are drawn in. This is largely the manipulation of the mass media and a greater and greater ill-educated population hungry for salacious “news” to drool over.  
 
But the issues surrounding Patraeus and Broadwell are not minor and now exposed, are indeed shameful.  Whether or not the French would laugh is not really relevant. There are so many differences between the cultures in this country and in France that I haven’t time to count them.  
 
In this case, there is a published standard of behavior that Broadwell and Patraeus swore oaths to, promising that those standards of conduct would govern their professional and personal lives.  This code, in their case, originating at the US Military Academy and then continuing during service as military officers is further reinforced by the Uniform Code of Military Justice and is covered under Article (I think it is, 164), generally, “conduct that brings discredit upon the service.”  
 
Technically, Patraeus gets a pass. He was a civilian during the affair. Broadwell does not get a pass. She was an officer in the US Army Reserve and she must meet the standards she swore an oath to uphold.  She was promoted to Light colonel in August so she was screwing while still in the Army.  Not being on active duty is not really an excuse although undoubtedly there will be no prosecution involving her unless she was holding some sort of classified information on her computers which the FBI has seized.
 
It’s clear Patraeus committed a breach of security by his exercise of poor judgement.  He allowed Broadwell access to classified information that she was not entitled to see.  The reason this is obvious is that possessing a security clearance does not give anyone the right to view any or ALL classified documents.  Classifications merely indicate the individual has passed the background investigation necessary to hold the clearance, but the right to use the clearance to see classified material comes from having a “need to know” the information. Broadwell as Patraeus probably holds a top secret clearance, but as his biographer not on duty assigned to his command, she had no “need to know” ANY classified information she might have seen while in Afghanistan or anywhere else.  
 
It seems that the classified documents she had in her possession may have been some she was authorized to have and were not given her by Patraeus.  So, the inference is that Patraeus and seems likely true, that classified information came from someone other than Patraeus.
 
Broadwell removed classified documents from whatever secure facility they originated from and kept them in an unclassfied location: her personal computer. This is a violation of US Code also.  Probably not going to be an issue here, but will likely mean that her US Army commission and service will end right here and now, if it didn’t end in August with her promotion to Lt. Colonel. She was actually promoted to Lt. Colonel a bit late in the reserve promotion scheme...twenty years of total Federal service time and for an Academy graduate, probably a promotion at time of retirement.  Whatever.
 
The fact that sexual indiscretions are commonplace in human history is true but not really relevant here.  Patraeus made it a point throughout his thirty-seven year career to uphold the standards of the professional military officer and preached the importance of that to service members in his command. This is pretty well documented. So what happened was when he retired from the Army and became a very high profile official in the intelligence community, charged with supervising of the US Central Intelligence Agency, he felt comfortable about throwing out the standards of thirty-seven years for a little fast pussy, offering humiliation to his service, his country, his wife and his children.  Simply put he KNEW what he was doing was wrong FOR HIM, and he did it anyway, figuring good old Holly would never know.
 
This will soon fade away.  Patraeus will be called to testify before Congress about Benghazi, Broadwell will sink in oblivion after the tabloids announce her divorce from her Doctor husband, and Holly Patraeus will probably forgive her husband, choosing the comfort of the way things are the same way that Hilary Clinton did after being humiliated by her husband.  General Allen has nothing to do with this.  If he sent flirtatious emails to Jill Kelley, shame on him, but of no matter except to the tabloids.  It is Patraeus who violated his own code as well as that of the professional military service and as I said in my original email, someone wearing four stars on his collar is not allowed to make such mistakes.
 
During my time in uniform in various locations including one war, I saw a whole lot of screwing around.  It was common in SE Asia to have a local female perform all the normal duties of a wife, and I saw many who do it.  Well, it was way over there, and there was no press coverage, and no harm, no foul, right?  Well, I don’t agree.  In the case of Patraeus the colateral damage is to people who never should have been involved at all. They are the family members of both “players” as well as the rest of us who must be reminded once again that we in the US like to preach high standards of moral integrity to the rest of the world but are unable more and more to keep up any of those standards ourselves.
 
Roger