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  • Originally posted by TopHatter View Post

    My attorney will be in touch with you regarding your double-posting.
    Have your people talk to my people.
    “Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.”
    Mark Twain

    Comment


    • The Army Digs in for Competition Against Russia, Sets Garrison in Poland



      The Army now has a permanent garrison in Poland, a major milestone underscoring that country's central role as a hub of NATO support for Ukraine's fight against invading Russian forces. Thus far, however, the garrison is shaping up to be a fraction of the size of the service's other installations in three other European countries, all of which are much farther from Russian territory.

      The Army's V Corps, headquartered at Fort Knox, Kentucky, has had a forward presence at Camp Kosciuszko in Poland since 2020, largely to manage logistics of the Pentagon's sprawling mission in the region bolstering NATO's front lines. President Joe Biden in 2022 promised to make it permanent, with that promise being realized Tuesday.

      "We are proud of the declaration of President Biden regarding the permanent presence of American troops in Poland," Polish Deputy Prime Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said in a statement. "We have been striving for this for years, for the word 'permanent' -- and it has just become a reality."

      It's unclear how extensively the service plans to man the newly established U.S. Army Garrison Poland. The garrison has a relatively small footprint in Poznań, one of Poland's largest cities far from its border with Ukraine, being only about the size of a city block.

      The service just recently assigned its first two soldiers there, an active-duty sergeant and a sergeant first class with the Army Reserve, far from the typical size of a garrison -- which usually involves multiple units. However, there are roughly 200 additional soldiers at the garrison on rotation. It is unclear if being assigned permanently to Poland is akin to other duty stations where soldiers live for years and have their families move with them.

      A spokesperson with V Corps did not respond to a request for comment.

      Tadeusz Kościuszko, the garrison's namesake, moved from Poland to the continental United States in 1776 and served as a senior officer in George Washington's army, building fortifications at West Point, among other assignments. He returned to Poland after the war, where he was a key general in the Polish-Russian War of 1792 and led the Polish uprising against the Russian Empire in 1794.

      There are some 10,000 U.S. troops in Poland, including elements of the 4th Infantry Division out of Fort Carson, Colorado, and the 101st Airborne out of Fort Campbell, Kentucky, alongside multiple National Guard units. All of those formations are there on roughly year-long deployments training alongside other European forces to deter Russian President Vladimir Putin from ordering his forces beyond Ukraine, which would likely trigger a massive European theater of war.

      The U.S. Army Garrison Poland is the eighth garrison the Pentagon has in Europe, with others being in Italy, Belgium and Germany.

      As the Pentagon continues to pack Europe with troops, the Army has had many of its formations on virtually constant rotations, to include overseas missions and assignments -- keeping up a pace resembling the peak of the post-9/11 wars, even as the Global War on Terror has wound down.

      The service has a sprawling presence in Africa, particularly in Djibouti, and still has troops in Iraq, Syria and Kuwait. In addition to legacy missions from the GWOT era, Army planners have set 22 Combat Training Center rotations for next year at Fort Irwin, California, and Fort Polk, Louisiana, where units essentially mimic operating in a combat zone for about a month.
      _________
      “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

      Comment


      • The V Corps forward command post had an authorized strength as of September 2022 of 7 Officers, 12 Enlisted & 80 US Government Civilians.

        The Main command post is authorized 216 Officers, 57 Warrant Officers & 373 Enlisted authorized as of the same date. Likely the manpower forward are going to be 9 month rotations from Fort Knox to Poland. A permanent facility allows for a more stable rotation and ability to push forward personnel as needed.

        We have the same type of set up with the 1st Theater Support Command. The main CP is at FT Knox and the expeditionary CP is in Kuwait. Folks rotate to and from them on regular 9 - 12 month cycle.

        9 month rotations saves the Army money as any temporary movement not to exceed 179 days Soldiers and Civilians would be authorized a per diem bonus.

        And frankly, with technology today, the only hinderance is the time zone difference but that is easily overcome.
        “Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.”
        Mark Twain

        Comment


        • DeSantis walks back 'territorial dispute' remark on Ukraine
          COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is walking back his characterization of Russia’s war in Ukraine as a “territorial dispute,” following criticism from a number of fellow Republicans who expressed concern about the potential 2024 presidential candidate’s dismissive description of the conflict.

          In excerpts of an interview with Piers Morgan set to air Thursday on Fox Nation, DeSantis said his earlier comments referenced ongoing fighting in the eastern Donbas region, as well as Russia's 2014 seizure of Crimea. Ukraine’s borders are internationally recognized, including by the United Nations.

          “What I’m referring to is where the fighting is going on now, which is that eastern border region Donbas, and then Crimea, and you have a situation where Russia has had that. I don’t think legitimately, but they had," DeSantis said, according to excerpts. "There’s a lot of ethnic Russians there. So, that’s some difficult fighting, and that’s what I was referring to, and so it wasn’t that I thought Russia had a right to that, and so if I should have made that more clear, I could have done it."

          DeSantis made his initial comments last week in a written response to questions sent to declared and potential GOP presidential candidates by Fox News host Tucker Carlson. The Florida governor, seen as a top rival to former President Donald Trump for the 2024 GOP nomination, said that defending Ukraine wasn’t a national security priority for the U.S., and he downplayed the Russian invasion.

          ​“While the U.S. has many vital national interests — securing our borders, addressing the crisis of readiness within our military, achieving energy security and independence, and checking the economic, cultural, and military power of the Chinese Communist Party — becoming further entangled in a territorial dispute between Ukraine and Russia is not one of them,” DeSantis wrote, echoing how Russia has characterized its ongoing invasion.

          The day responses were posted, Trump told reporters traveling with him that DeSantis' answers were just “following what I am saying." A day later, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley — already in the 2024 GOP field — said she agreed with Trump that “DeSantis is copying him." In an op-ed Monday, she wrote that the characterization of the war as a “territorial dispute” represented “weakness.”

          A number of Republican senators have also weighed in with criticism. In an interview with radio host Hugh Hewitt, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said DeSantis “doesn’t deal with foreign policy every day as governor,” adding that “foreign policy is all about nuance.” Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who has endorsed Trump’s 2024 campaign, told Fox News that DeSantis “is basically taking the Chinese position when it comes to Russia’s invasion.”

          Republican Sens. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, John Cornyn of Texas and Roger Wicker of Mississippi said they disagreed with DeSantis’ framing.

          In the interview with Morgan, DeSantis sought to toughen his position toward Russia, calling Russian President Vladimir Putin a “war criminal” and arguing that his detractors had incorrectly characterized his “territorial dispute” remarks.

          “I think it’s been mischaracterized," he told Morgan, according to excerpts. “Obviously, Russia invaded — that was wrong. They invaded Crimea and took that in 2014 — that was wrong.”

          Democrats have also seized on DeSantis' apparent shifting stance, blasting out emails rounding up the GOP criticism and saying DeSantis' “stumbling over this answer makes clear he is out of his depth.”

          Asked by The Atlantic about DeSantis' initial comments, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy suggested that failure to act on Russia's aggression in his country could ultimately draw the U.S. into a conflict if incursions are also made into NATO member countries.

          “When they will occupy NATO countries, and also be on the borders of Poland and maybe fight with Poland, the question is: Will you send all your soldiers with weapons, all your pilots, all your ships? Will you send tanks and armored vehicles with your young people? Will you do it?” Zelenskyy said. “Because if you will not do it, you will have no NATO.”
          ___

          Smart move, asshole. Still parroting Kremlin talking points though.
          “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

          Comment


          • Trump again defends Putin and rips into DeSantis for calling him an 'authoritarian gas station attendant' and a 'war criminal'



            President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin; Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
            • Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis called Putin "basically a gas station with a bunch of nuclear weapons."
            • Trump knocked DeSantis over the comments, claiming the rhetoric could lead to war.
            • Trump has a long history of defending Putin and called his justification for invading Ukraine "genius."
            Former President Donald Trump has lashed out at Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over the latter's recent comments condemning Russian President Vladimir Putin.

            DeSantis, considered a leading contender for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024 (though he has not announced an intention to run), called Putin a "war criminal" and said Russia's invasion of Ukraine was "wrong" during a Fox Nation interview with Piers Morgan last week.

            He also said the Russian leader was "basically a gas station with a bunch of nuclear weapons," and previously referred to him as an "authoritarian gas-station attendant," echoing rhetoric that was used by the late Republican Sen. John McCain, who, in 2014, referred to Russia as "a gas station masquerading as a country."

            In a new campaign video, Trump defended Putin and condemned DeSantis's comments as "exactly the kind of simple-minded thinking that has produced decades of failed diplomacy and ultimately war."

            He also said DeSantis and Sen. Mitt Romney were "very much alike" and that they "insist on arrogantly treating Russia as deeply inferior to the other nations of the world, with no history or culture or pride." He added their "attitude makes it impossible to negotiate peace."


            Representatives for DeSantis and Romney did not immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment.

            Trump has a long history of defending Putin, who in February of 2022 launched an assault on Ukraine. After the US intelligence community concluded Russia had meddled in the 2016 election, Trump sided with Putin. Following a one-on-one meeting with Putin during a 2018 summit in Helsinki, Finland, Trump doubted the findings, declined to condemn the Kremlin, and said he didn't "see any reason" why Russia would've interfered.

            When Russia invaded Ukraine in February of last year, Trump said Putin's justification for invading was "savvy" and "genius." In October, he blamed the US for the invasion, accusing American leaders of "taunting" Putin and "almost forcing" him to invade.


            Trump was also impeached in 2019 over a phone call in which he threatened to withhold congressionally approved military assistance to Ukraine and pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to investigate the Biden family.

            DeSantis, for his part, previously referred to the war in Ukraine as a "territorial dispute" and said it was not of "vital national interest" to the US, a position that move him closer to Trump on the issue but alienated him from some fellow Republicans.

            In the interview last week in which he called Putin a war criminal, DeSantis said his comments had been "mischaracterized."
            _______

            Find yourself a lover that defends you the same the way Trump defends Putin....

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            “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

            Comment


            • An excellent analysis of how US domestic politics could disrupt US aid to Ukraine. This bears watching and pushback by the American people.

              Politics Beyond the Water’s Edge: The 2024 United States Presidential Campaign May Prove Decisive for Ukrainian Sovereignty – Center for Security Policy Studies (gmu.edu)

              An excellent explainer on just how much aid the US has provided so far with more on the way.

              U.S. Security Cooperation with Ukraine - United States Department of State
              “Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.”
              Mark Twain

              Comment


              • Trump is trying to win more GOP voters with bizarre takes on the Ukraine war and praise for Putin


                In 2019, then-President Donald Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
                • Trump made repeated false and misleading claims about the Ukraine war during aFox News interview.
                • Trump praised Putin as "very smart" amid the stalemated and brutal fight the Russian leader ordered.
                • Trump's grasp of the war's appeared spotty and an echo of Russia's propaganda.
                Former President Donald Trump, the current frontrunner for the GOP presidential nomination, used a Fox News interview on Tuesday to repeatedly make false and misleading claims about the war in Ukraine while offering high praise for the Russian leader and accused war criminal who launched it.

                Trump said Russian President Vladimir Putin "loved" Ukraine, while acknowledging that the unprovoked war Putin ordered has devastated the former Soviet republic. "He considers it to be a part of Russia," Trump said of Putin's view on Ukraine, which was among the few accurate remarks the former president made on the subject during the interview with Fox News' Tucker Carlson — who also has routinely echoed the Kremlin's propaganda on the war.


                "Ukraine is being obliterated," Trump said at another point in the interview, while falsely suggesting that Ukrainian forces are not performing "better than anticipated." Russia has seized large swathes of southern and eastern Ukraine since launching their invasion in February 2022, and the areas that have seen the heaviest fighting are devastated — in large part because of Russia's scorched earth tactics. But Russia's forces have been embarrassed before the world by the war, and top military experts have said that Moscow has already suffered what amounts to a strategic defeat — underscoring that it will take years for the Russian military to be rebuilt.

                Indeed, Ukraine's stiff resistance has shocked Putin's advisors and Western intelligence services, who had projected that Kyiv would fall in a matter of days. The brutal fight in Ukraine has morphed into a grinding war of attrition, but Russia refuses to give up on its major goals even as it finds itself with a shrinking economy and fewer trading partners.

                Trump's high praise for an American adversary and parroting of the Kremlin's talking points appears to be part of his America First pitch to voters worried about the costs and risks of extensive US support, an effort his potential rival for the GOP presidential nomination, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, has also questioned. It also may be an effort to undermine President Joe Biden's successful backing of underdog Ukraine, an achievement strongly supported by many Republican lawmakers.

                Trump has been calling US aid to other countries into question for years. His first impeachment was also linked, in part, to his decision to freeze security assistance to Kyiv as he simultaneously pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to launch an investigation into then-Democratic presidential candidate Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, over bogus allegations of corruption.

                Trump, whose amicable stance toward Russia and its authoritarian leader has long been criticized, may see a political upside to continuing to question assistance to Ukraine as he vies for the presidency once again despite his two impeachments and a recent criminal indictment in New York. Polling has shown that Republican voters are less likely than Democratic voters to support continued assistance to Ukraine.

                At one point in the interview, Trump also appeared to suggest — without evidence — that the US was responsible for explosions that damaged the Nord Stream pipelines, the kind of attack line often heard in Russian state-run media.

                "I don't want to get our country in trouble," Trump said when asked about the Nord Stream sabotage.

                To be sure, investigations into the pipeline explosions are ongoing and inconclusive.

                The former president also falsely said that the Biden administration has "taken the military that I've rebuilt, and they've given it all to Ukraine."

                The extent to which the US military was "rebuilt" under Trump, who continued the war in Afghanistan throughout his presidency, is open to debate. Regardless, Trump's statement is misleading on a few levels: US spending on the military has increased under the Biden administration, which has simultaneously refused to fulfill many of Ukraine's requests for advanced weapons.

                The US has provided Ukraine with billions in security assistance, including vital lethal aid, since Russia invaded. But the Biden administration has pushed against calls for it to provide Kyiv with long-range weapons and has so far ruled out sending F-16 fighter jets. Under Biden, the US has given over $35 billion in security aid to Ukraine. For perspective, the US defense budget for this fiscal year is $858 billion.

                At times, Trump was unintelligible during the interview with Carlson as he jumped from one topic to another. But the former president was quite clear when it came to praising of US adversaries, as he lauded Putin as "very smart," North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un as "smart," and Chinese leader Xi Jinping as "brilliant." It was not the first time Trump has expressed admiration for some of the most repressive leaders in the world. Trump, for example, previously described Putin's justification for invading Ukraine as "genius."

                Meanwhile, Carlson, who's privately said he hates Trump "passionately," described the former president as "moderate, sensible, and wise" in comments to his audience.
                _______
                “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

                Comment


                • Zelenskyy's body language says it all. He is thinking "What a douche nozzle!!! THIS clown is the leader of the free world?!?!? We're fucked!"
                  “Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.”
                  Mark Twain

                  Comment


                  • MAGA-world is rushing to defend Jack Teixeira, the accused Pentagon leaker who allegedly dumped secret documents online to impress his teenage gamer buddies


                    Jack Teixeira, 21, has been charged in connection with the leak of secret Pentagon documents.
                    • Trump's allies are rushing to the defense of the accused Pentagon leaker.
                    • MTG suggested Jack Teixeira is being singled out for being "white, male, christian, and antiwar."
                    • The leak represents the worst military intelligence breach in roughly a decade.
                    By clicking ‘Sign up’, you agree to receive marketing emails from Insider as well as other partner offers and accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
                    Prominent figures associated with former President Donald Trump and the far right have rushed to the defense of Jack Teixeira, the 21-year-old Air National Guardsman who has been charged in connection with the leak of dozens of secret Pentagon documents. To them, Teixeira is a martyr for revealing the truth about the stalemated war in Ukraine to the American people.

                    But accounts of why he allegedly shared the secrets paint a more complicated picture.

                    Rather than a feeling of grand patriotism, Teixeira was largely driven by a desire to inform and impress the mostly teenage gamers he befriended online, according to accounts by those friends reported by the Washington Post and New York Times. Known to them mostly as OG, he didn't intend for the documents to be shared across the internet to provoke a broad public debate about continued US support for the war or the gathering and dissemination of US intelligence. He also reportedly expressed racist and antisemitic views in discussions with his gamer friends.

                    Teixeira was arraigned in federal court Friday in Boston and has not entered a plea. The documents that made their way out of the gamer chat have included revelations about the Ukraine's war against Russian invaders, to which the US has provided extensive support. To prominent far right voices like Tucker Carlson and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, that makes Teixeira a truth-exposer who's being unfairly prosecuted.

                    "Teixeira is white, male, christian, and antiwar. That makes him an enemy to the Biden regime. And he told the truth about troops being on the ground in Ukraine and a lot more," Greene said in a tweet. In another, Greene said that "many are calling Jake Teixeira a hero for pulling back the flimsy transparent curtain and revealing what we suspected all along."

                    Insider asked a spokesperson for Greene whether she's aware of the reports indicating Teixeira made anti-Semitic remarks and reportedly did not intend for these documents to reach anyone beyond the gamers in his Discord group.

                    "You seem to be putting words in Congresswoman Greene's mouth," Greene's spokesperson, Nick Dyer, said in response. "Shame on you. You aren't a journalist, you are a Democrat activist working as a Biden administration propagandist," he added.

                    'Treating him like Osama bin Laden'
                    Teixeira, who worked as an IT specialist at Otis Air Force Base in Massachusetts and had top secret clearance, initially shared images of the documents in a private group on Discord a messaging platform popular with gamers, per the Post. The documents eventually trickled out of that Discord group, known as Thug Shaker Central, making their way other online and social media platforms like Twitter, Telegram, and 4chan.

                    After the leaks were first reported on by the New York Times, the US government scrambled to locate the source and Teixeira was arrested roughly a week later. Attorney General Merrick Garland said Teixeira was taken into custody "without incident."

                    Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who has echoed the Kremlin's propaganda on Ukraine, on Thursday night said that Teixeira was being treated worse than Osama bin Laden, the Al Qaeda terrorist leader who was killed during a Navy SEAL raid in 2011.

                    "Tonight, the news media are celebrating the capture of the kid who told Americans what's actually happening in Ukraine," Carlson said. "They are treating him like Osama bin Laden, maybe even worse actually, because, unlike Al Qaeda, apparently, this kid is a racist."

                    While making the case that Ukraine was actually losing the war, Carlson shared bogus casualty figures from an altered version of one of the leaked documents that misleadingly slashed the number of estimated Russian casualties in the war. Even as he shared the discredited information, Carlson lamented that the "telling the truth is the only real sin" in Washington.

                    Meanwhile, Donald Trump Jr. in a tweet suggested that Teixeira would be a "hero" to the "media & to the left if he leaked that the Trump Administration was waging an unlawful war against a nuclear super-power without the knowledge of the people or the approval of Congress." Trump Jr. was seemingly and falsely implying that the US was waging a war in Ukraine. Though the US has supplied Ukraine with billions in security aid, including weapons, it does not have troops directly involved in the fight against Russia; one secret document revealed that in late February 14 US special operations troops were in Ukraine, and US officials insist they are not involved in combat.

                    The emerging effort by the far right to defend Teixeira connects to a broader campaign by Republicans, particularly Trump, to undermine US support for Kyiv. Trump, considered to be the frontrunner for the 2024 GOP nomination, has railed against US aid to Ukraine amid Russia's unprovoked invasion.

                    The leaks could hurt Ukraine on the battlefield
                    The leak of the documents allegedly perpetrated by Teixeira represents the worst US military intelligence breach in roughly a decade. The Pentagon said the leaks post a serious risk to US national security.

                    The secret documents offered details on US spying on friends and foes alike, many of which pertained to the war in Ukraine. Some of the documents pointed to weaknesses in Ukraine's air defenses and expressed a lack of confidence in its ability to launch a successful counteroffensive this spring. Other documents exposed the extent of US intelligence on Russia's military and intelligence apparatus, revealing that the US has been able to warn Kyiv about upcoming Russian strikes.

                    In many ways, one of the biggest stories surrounding the leak is the fact it happened at all. It's an embarrassment for the US that raises questions about its ability to safeguard its secrets, and places Washington in an unsettling position with allies — particularly those it shares intelligence with. The Biden administration has signaled that it's taken steps to limit how sensitive information is shared.

                    "I'm not concerned about the leak. I'm concerned that it happened," President Joe Biden told reporters on Thursday.

                    That said, military experts have still expressed serious concerns that the leak could hurt Ukraine on the battlefield by offering Russia information on the assessed shortcomings of Ukrainian forces. Moscow could also potentially take steps to limit the US's ability to eavesdrop on its military and intelligence agencies, making it harder to predict what Russia will do next on the battlefield in Ukraine and beyond.

                    "This is not the first time classified documents have been leaked but it is one of the few times in recent history where the documents may have included information about ongoing military operations. That would make this doubly harmful," retired US Army Brig. Gen. Kevin Ryan, a former defense attaché to Russia, told Insider earlier this week.
                    ___________

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                    “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

                    Comment


                    • How f--cked is this guy moving forward, legally speaking?
                      "Draft beer, not people."

                      Comment


                      • Originally posted by Red Team View Post
                        How f--cked is this guy moving forward, legally speaking?
                        A maximum of 15 years in prison, which will probably be what he gets. After the shit-show he's caused, he can't expect an ounce of leniency. That little racist fuck's life is over.
                        “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

                        Comment


                        • Originally posted by TopHatter View Post

                          A maximum of 15 years in prison, which will probably be what he gets. After the shit-show he's caused, he can't expect an ounce of leniency. That little racist fuck's life is over.
                          It would be nice if him and Greene shared a cell. Maybe there would be romance or maybe he will become a monk.

                          Comment


                          • Originally posted by TopHatter View Post

                            A maximum of 15 years in prison, which will probably be what he gets. After the shit-show he's caused, he can't expect an ounce of leniency. That little racist fuck's life is over.
                            Maybe not. If he cooperates from the onset and pleads guilty at the first available opportunity his lawyer may be able to argue the case for a plea deal or at least ask for some leniency from the court upon sentencing based on his youth and the nature of offending (i.e. that the motive for the crime was juvenile egotism not financial gain or any of the other usual reasons). You can also pretty much guarantee that his lawyer will have lined up an 'expert witness' or two who will happily site his clients relative lack of maturity, general naivety and social isolation yarda, yarda, yarda as mitigation psychological factors in his behavior. That and the fact the leaks were apparent extracts from multiple primary documents none of which can be identified from leaked material.

                            That last might change of course if the prosecutors can prove (in a closed court) that confidential sources were exposed as a result of his actions or that long term damage was caused to American interests. But the public will never get to know about that. If that didn't happen then he might be looking at anything from say 8-12 years on the top. We'll see what happens.
                            If you are emotionally invested in 'believing' something is true you have lost the ability to tell if it is true.

                            Comment


                            • How the hell did he get access to those briefings? Leaving papers lying around and in unlocked offices? You're supposed to secure your documents even if you're going for a bathroom break.
                              Chimo

                              Comment


                              • Originally posted by Officer of Engineers View Post
                                How the hell did he get access to those briefings? Leaving papers lying around and in unlocked offices? You're supposed to secure your documents even if you're going for a bathroom break.
                                Possibly off computers he was supposed to be maintaining. They might not even have been full briefings on particular subjects just extracts from intel summaries that get circulated regularly so that people with the right clearances know whats current. That way if someone reads a particular item that 'pings' their attention they can contact the right people to discuss further.
                                If you are emotionally invested in 'believing' something is true you have lost the ability to tell if it is true.

                                Comment

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