Letters to the Editor
Published Letters: 361 Editor's Choice: 12
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Various items
[Read the article: Col. Boylan's implosion accelerates]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]1) I listened to the Randi Rhodes segment yesterday. I have not listened to Air America much, had never heard Rhodes before. I don't know how valuable these appearances are. She got some key facts wrong after you went off the air(most glaring to my mind was her statement that you'd paid a consultant to assess the authenticity of the emails) and was pretty incoherent in tying this to Beauchamp.
More than anything, though, is that it was clear to me that talk radio is simply not an effective venue for laying out a detailed series of facts in support of a point of view. Reading aloud from a document is bad radio; she knows this, because she only reads aloud briefly. But the bald facts don't carry the program either--Glenn got this unsolicited email, politicized and poorly written, vaguely threatening. The sender issued a non-denial denial about sending it and seems pretty loony.
The listener has no easy way to assess these facts, and the presentation of the evidence is boring and not particularly believable anyway.
The program really illustrated to me why this kind of thing works on the right, but not on the left. Baseless overblown accusation and denigration are not something that the left traffics in, in large numbers. And thoughtfully reasoned presentations of issues does not make for good radio. I say this as someone who does listen to sports talk radio, which does work very well. The segments are almost always very brief and do not require much underpinning--or there is a shared understanding of the underpinning facts, like how much Alex Rodriquez makes.
2) There is shortly going to be open season on Glenn Greenwald--where he lives, where he goes, what he does, who he knows. Attention has to be shifted away from Boylan, and GG is the obvious target. Glenn is hitting them where they live, and they do not respond to such attacks lightly. I hope Glenn is prepared for this.
3) Hallam-Baker's (see linked emails) concern for Boylan's well-being seems well-placed to me. It's hard to imagine a more abject demonstration of incompetence at a very senior level position in the military. My first take, like some other folks, was that Boylan may well have had a few belts when he wrote the first email. But now it appears that he really does express himself this poorly and this inappropriately on a routine basis. This is a pretty strong indictment of his boss, who has been very widely praised by people across the political spectrum. It is impossible to imagine Colin Powell or Wesley Clark employing such a person in such a role.
4) I do not see the traditional media can fail to pick up this story. But I felt the same way about Dodd's hold and filibuster threat, so....
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two comments
[Read the article: Col. Boylan's implosion accelerates]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]1) GG says this in a comment:
It's theoretically possible that someone is investigating who sent a fake email without bothering to obtain the fake email in question or speak with the recipient of that fake email. That's theoretically possible, but highly, highly unlikely. I said that the fact that nobody has contacted me "indicates" there is no investigation, not "proves beyond a shadow of a doubt" that there is none.
No, I actually don't think that is theoretically possible, other than to conduct an investigation that concludes that the email was real. That is, go to the exchange server, retrieve the messageid specified in the header, and see whether they match. If they do, end of investigation.
If they don't match, well then, the first step is to obtain the fraudulent email. There's no known source other than the recipient.
2) karrsic
The ID theft claim is a red herring. There is absolutely no connection between identity theft and spoofing an email, unless by identity theft Boylan means someone stole is Smartcard that provides access to the military network
This is a remarkably bizarre claim on Boylan's part. Having access to any number of records that would lead to his SSNo being used to sign up bogus credit cards, or any of the other hallmarks of identity theft would have nothing to do with simulating mail from a presumably secured exchange server.
Moreover, if this is a known issue--if he is just being a sloppy DFU in confusing identity theft with someone spoofing his email address--then it is easily dealt with. The military has to have technology that authenticates the source of an email. Exchange certainly supports the standard civilian technology. If someone is sending crazy wingnut email with Boylan's name on the bottom, you'd think that he would get himself a digital signature.
This may be why he's switching to the fabrication defense. In fact, having Hallam-Baker involved in authentication may lay the foundation for a fabrication claim. Malkin may get a note suggesting that Glenn collaborated with this known expert to create a plausible false email. This kind of claim would be very difficult to refute; GG would have to prove the negative of never having had any communication with Hallam-Baker before sending out his request for assistance in assessing the possibility of a fraudulent email.
The trouble is that the switch has come too late, and there are too many emails out there with his signature style. I don't see how he keeps this job. I don't see how Petraeus is not significantly damaged by it. Also, you know, public affairs officers aren't exactly important in effectively running military missions. He's hardly a key person (one would most sincerely hope) in the conduct of the war in Iraq; the distraction this affair represents should result, in the very least, in a leave of absence from his position.
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John Cole link in update
[Read the article: Col. Boylan's implosion accelerates]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Fails.