Good catch. I meant to write Admiral Mullen, Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Can you determine, Glenn, what time of day it was (in Iraq) when you received the communication(s) from Col. Boyman?

coward probably thinks of himself as a "warrior" and he can't even cop to the emails he sends.

Glen,

first off, thanks for helping fight the cancer that

has infected our country.

Spoofing someone's email address is quite simple. It

is quite easy to send an email with any "from" address

you want. But the mail headers will reveal the IP

addresses of all mailmail relay servers that involved

in sending the message. Thus if if someone is simply

spoofing someone's email address it will revealed when

you look at the mail headers and see an IP address

that is not part of the senders mail system. Of course

you can prove via the headers that the message came

from the sender's mail system but you can't prove that

someone ( a coworker lets say) didn't access his

account and send the message as him. Of course one

would think that in this particular circumstance this

latter scenerario unlikely.

Not long ago, I commented in this space that you were to be congratulated because those who would destroy our liberties were telegraphing that you were hurting them, but I warned that you should expect to become the focus of orchestrated attacks. Now they telegraph that you are HURTING THEM BADLY, and are considered A THREAT, so much so that they have determined to try and place you on the permanent defensive with the goal of eliminating your voice. Assuming that Boylan is the channel chosen for this orchestrated attack, you are of sufficient consequence that they are effectively bringing in the Great God Petraeus, through his aide, to launch it. But even if Boylan is not the mouthpiece, this constitutes a clear warning to you to pipe down or suffer the serious consequences of a relentless, full-scale assault that will make your life difficult.

I am just one person who recognizes your value to the progressive movement, and I am hoping that you will be willing to make this sacrifice and not back down. It is a lot to ask, I know. As Thomas Paine wrote, "These are the times that try men's souls...he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict the more glorius the triumph." And you are HURTING THEM BADLY.

This is garbled syntax similar to that of the original letter. Note the weird dangling modifier "trying."

In-teresting...

-- Enceladus

"In-teresting"--Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In

There is an expert genius out there spoofing the idiot Col.

"Yeah, that's the ticket."--Saturday Night Live

Are you positive the first email didn't originate at FEMA.org?

It shows the same incomprehensible blather that they seem to specialize in.

Maybe we could enlist the good services of AT & T and Verizon to sort out the origin of this email in exchange for chipping in and setting up an illegal wire tap defense fund??

Never mind…..

Just read the update.

Glenn, I am afraid the form of your question ("can you confirm") left him wiggle room.

Boylan's "no" could just as easily mean "no, I cannot confirm" as "no, it was not from me."

That would explain the ambivalence about spoofing.

ready and able to respond immediately to your emails, sent to the address from which the email he didn't send came from. What a man. Colonel. Cadre. Whatever.

I hadn't seen the Democracy Now! clip of him "engaging" with Reuters last year, linked elsewhere. Dude creeps me out. Christ was I drunk last night, indeed.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/04/07/144212

(From shawnfassett's post way back.)

<<shiver>>

First:

Send a letter devoid of any of the emotional diatribe of Col. Boylan’s tone, as you do in all your articles, to SECDEF Gates with copies to Gen. Petraeus, CINCCENTCOM, the secretary and chief of staff of the Army, and the chairman of the armed services committees in the House and Senate.

Then:

I forgot...

to include Admiral Fallon. In fact, you could consider writing the letter to him and copying Gates.

I thought Adm Fallon was CINCCENTCOM. Has there been a change of command while I wasn't watching?

Taking Col. Boylan at his word, there is another story lurking here, IMO. It means that the iraq.centcom.mil servers can be spoofed. I can imagine that someone could provoke an international incident by spoofing email to be from an official spokesperson of the US Military.

Ah, maybe they can be spoofed only by someone *within* the domain. Still a problem, don't you think? Hey, if Scott Beauchamp wants to give the military a black-eye, then aren't there other people in a similar position who might want to do so?

If Boylan is not alarmed, then things really stink.

Glenn,

I've not read through all the letters so maybe hundreds of people have already said this. Email's can be totally spoofed including the headers. You need to confirm "out of band" to see if an email is authentic.

From Boylan's update: "I have been a victim of identity theft of late in Vermont and at least two other places trying to rent property and that person identified themselves as me."

This is garbled syntax similar to that of the original letter. Note the weird dangling modifier "trying."

In-teresting...

It's a poorly written, dimly expressed letter, which points to how fuzzy the man's thinking is. Isn't it grand knowing that we have such people defending our freedom?

Great post, I just went back to find it. It is comforting to know that UT has someone with your experience on our side. It's no wonder to me (now) how you know so much about the pathos of media-types. I agree that this letter is so childish and disgraceful- just utterly unprofessional- and how that explains all the skepticism about its authenticity.

All of this- your post, the surge of action on Dodd/FISA Amnesty- makes me hope that Glenn finds a sponsor/fellowship/grant, etc. that can provide him with a proper staff for handling the administrative tasks you recommend. I don't want to denigrate the effectiveness of everyone's volunteer efforts, there are just some things that are better handled from a central, official entity.

There's a guy you've probably heard of- George Lakoff- who has applied some academic research into the undeniably impressive GOP organization on influencing the modern media and controlling the language ('framing') of the Debate of Ideas in this country. One of his observations is the unconditional private funding of think-tanks, which operate as hubs for financing and networking right-wing academics. There is no shortage of funds for any pundit, academic, or 'journalist' who will generate content- papers, articles, conferences- that supports the Republican agenda. These groups are established for the express purpose of saturating the political world with self-affirming documentation. The loose affiliations of groups and organizations (such as the think-tanks or the Federalist Society), private funding, and 'independent' journalists and academics (through grants, fellowships, etc.) provides a public face of broad, disparate support for ideas that in fact all have the same origins.

So back to my point: If there was anyone deserving- rather, who's performance demands- similar attention from private foundations and funding, it is Glenn. He could be a new model for activism- speaking from authority, with a voice and venue that makes even the most complex issues accessable, combined with the more traditional advocate support structures.

Eh? Anyone? Bueller?