Lee Dunn's List: SIRIANS

• Lawmaker scolds administration on Fort Hood info
• WASHINGTON — Sen. Joe Lieberman, who chairs a Senate oversight committee, chided the Obama administration Tuesday for not providing information to lawmakers probing the Fort Hood killings.
• The Connecticut independent said his Homeland Security panel still has not received the personnel file of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army psychiatrist charged in the Nov. 5 shooting spree that left 13 people dead.
• Lieberman and other committee members met behind closed doors with Pentagon officials to discuss the military's procedures for collecting and sharing information about U.S. service members who might be a threat to others.
• The briefing could have been open, Lieberman said, but the Defense Department refused to testify in public.
• Lt. Col. Jonathan Withington, a Pentagon spokesman, said the Defense Department is following normal procedures when Congress has an interest in a subject related to a criminal investigation.
• But providing Hasan's personnel file is prohibited by privacy laws, he said.

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• U.S. military bloggers go silent
• 'Commands not only failing to support, but acting against' writers
• Posted: December 16, 2009
  2:09 pm Eastern
  
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• Military blog Blackfive.net today stopped posting updates – and was joined by other military bloggers in protest of what they describe as an increasingly hostile environment from within the military.
• According to Blackfive's "Mr. Wolf," military bloggers, or milblogs, have been a vital link in getting accurate news and information about the military and military operations to the public.
• They have provided vital context and analysis on issues critical to operations and to the informed electorate critical across the U.S.
• "While senior leadership has embraced blogging and social media, many field grade officers and senior NCOs do not embrace the concept.

  • The hostility for military bloggers is also coming from the highest echelons of the military. Under the Bush administration the Pentagon led a concerted effort to limit, curtail or otherwise discourage military personnel from blogging or posting on social websites. Once more: SOP..let the blame fall on the lower commands
  Add Sticky Note
• From general apathy in not wanting to deal with the issue to outright hostility to it, many commands are not only failing to support such activities, but are aggressively acting against active duty milbloggers, milspouses, and others.
• The number of such incidents appears to be growing, with milbloggers receiving reprimands, verbal and written, not only for their activities but those of spouses and supporters," the posting said.
• The spark that ignited the blackout – at least one day for the military bloggers, longer for some – was the treatment of milblogger C.J. Grisham of A Soldier's Perspective, whose problems with his command were reported by WND last week.
• According to Wolf, "C.J. has earned accolades and respect, from the White House on down for his honest, and sometimes blunt, discussion of issues – particularly PTSD.
• In the last few months, C.J. has seen an issue with a local school taken to his command who failed to back him, and has even seen his effort to deal with PTSD, and lead his men in same by example, used against him as a part of this.
• Ultimately, C.J. has had to sell his blog to help raise funds for his defense in this matter."
• Blackfive.net reported all military bloggers involved agreed to keep the post about the silence and C.J. Grisham at the top of their sites until Friday, and they are urging their readers to contact their elected representatives in Congress, and to let their opinions be known to them and to other leaders in Washington.
• WND's earlier report described a decision by school officials in Huntsville, Ala., to go to his military commanders and complain when Grisham objected to their plan to require students, including his children, to spend $400 on uniforms.
• "This case is not about me versus the school district," wrote Grisham, a 15-year Army veteran, master sergeant and military blogger who was invited by President George W. Bush to the White House for a historic sit-down meeting with a select gathering of "milbloggers."
• "It's about parental rights and the limits of our educators in dealing with parental concerns, especially when those parents are in the military."
• But, he confirmed, "I am pursuing a lawsuit to clear my name and force the school system to admit they overstepped their bounds by denying my right to participate in my children's education and attempt to ruin my career."
• Grisham now is the the cover story for "Off Duty," an insert included in the Military Times, the magazine for the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps.
• Grisham's photo is overlaid with the headline: "The Rise and Fall of a Military Blogger – Army Master Sgt. C.J. Grisham didn't mince words. His readers loved it. His command hated it."
• Grisham is in a new kind of fight after taking down a squad of Iraqis when his counterintelligence detachment was pinned down in an ambush. He earned a Bronze Star with Valor after rushing through the gunfire by himself with just a nine-millimeter pistol and a hand grenade.

• Before signing off permanently from his blogsite "A Soldiers Perspective," Grisham told his 1,500-plus readers:  

  "In September, my kids brought home a note from their school stating that the school would transition to uniforms beginning in January – midway through the school year. Naturally, this concerned me as the cost for each kid (I have two who would be affected) would be at least $400. A note home to parents assured us that the principal would entertain concerns during the upcoming 'uniform fashion show.' However, the principal ended that meeting without answering a question, even though numerous hands were up. After that meeting, I organized parents with concerns and began a letter-writing and phone-calling campaign to members of the school board and media. We succeeded in getting the uniform issue tabled until next year. But parents still weren't given a voice about whether we even wanted uniforms."
• Instead of dealing with Grisham and other parents who disagreed with her new policy, the school's principal contacted the Army, saying Grisham had threatened her, the blog reports.
• "She pointed to posts on my personal blog about her behavior at the meeting as proof. However, after being referred to military investigators, they concluded that I had never issued any threats through e-mail, blog or otherwise. I collected letters from other parents attesting to my behavior at the meeting," Grisham wrote.
• However, the Army took a dim view of even the conflict.
• "Suddenly, I was a troublemaker after 15 years of honorable service," he wrote.
• Attempts to obtain comment from the school were unsuccessful.

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