...when he described Petraeus as "an ass-kissing little chickenshit" and then said, "I hate people like that"

Would a person of any wisdom or integrity choose a semi-literate fool like Col. Boylan as their spokesperson?

****************

U.S.-IRAQ: Fallon Derided Petraeus, Opposed the Surge

By Gareth Porter*

WASHINGTON, Sep 12 (IPS) - In sharp contrast to the lionisation of Gen. David Petraeus by members of the U.S. Congress during his testimony this week, Petraeus's superior, Admiral William Fallon, chief of the Central Command (CENTCOM), derided Petraeus as a sycophant during their first meeting in Baghdad last March, according to Pentagon sources familiar with reports of the meeting.

Fallon told Petraeus that he considered him to be "an ass-kissing little chickenshit" and added, "I hate people like that", the sources say. That remark reportedly came after Petraeus began the meeting by making remarks that Fallon interpreted as trying to ingratiate himself with a superior.

Yes, it is easy to forge email headers. No, it doesn't require hacking into the military network. Yes, that is a real problem for families of service members. Ironically enough, Bruce Schneier (a real security expert, even without a Ph.D.) wrote on his blog on another issue just today "The headers on an e-mail are not a good authenticator of its origin."

On the other hand, if I received an email from someone claiming that a previous email with nearly identical headers wasn't really from them I'd 1) ask them how I could be sure the denial was really from them, 2) insist that they always use some form of strong authentication when communicating with me in the future, such as that provided by PGP or its free variant GPG and 3) insist on a face to face meeting to exchange the necessary keys for PGP. Once an email has been either forged or denied no further email from that address can be trusted. Without action by Col. Boylan to fix the situation all further email from that address has to be assumed to be fake. This unreliability in Col. Boylan's email communications should be published as widely as possible

As far as the larger problem that exists, for families of service members and everyone else who uses email - the internet was never designed to be secure (hence spam and other nasties). If you want security you actually have to use the additional tools.

When he was attacked, Boylan was wearing blue jeans, a button-front shirt and casual jacket.

That’s from the article linked to by our latest anonymous who, for the purpose of accuracy, I’ll just call “Col. Steve.”

Steve,

It’s time to put the cap on the Jack Daniels and pull away from your computer. Yes, you’ve made an ass out of yourself by your rambling, incoherent e-mail to Glenn, but you really need to get a grip, you’re just making things worse with these anonymous posts.

Nobody here thinks that what happened to you in 2002 has any relevance at all to what you’re doing to the military in 2007. We will not be distracted by this story – it has nothing, absolutely nothing – to do with the issue of our politicized military.

Just stop. Really, you’re just making things worse for yourself.

Sincerely,

Zack

You were the first to alert us to Glenn being on the Randi Rhodes show on this or the other thread and I enjoyed it thoroughly. Hopefully this visibility will result in more visibility in the M$M and the further expose the politicization of our military.

http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=11582&archive=true

A U.S. Army officer was attacked at knifepoint by three Korean males Sunday night outside Yongsan Garrison in Seoul and sustained a minor stab wound.

U.S. military authorities declined to release the officer’s name, but Stars and Stripes has learned he is Army Lt. Col. Steven Boylan, chief spokesman for 8th U.S. Army.

I followed this entire situation on Sunday afternoon and almost couldn't believe what I was reading. I say "almost" because this corrupt administration has taught me that dishonorable behavior on the part of our government has become the norm. Still, the idea that Gen. Petraeus' spokesman comports himself in such a disgraceful manner is appalling.

I was hoping that you would pursue this and not let it drop. Our country is in such trouble now because too many people just let the questionable behavior continue and did nothing about it. Our President, the Congress, the Democrats since the election of '06, the MSM.....the only voice left for truth and courage and our civil rights is here.....on the liberal blogosphere with people like you, Glenn Greenwald. You are our Washington and Jefferson and Franklin, so scream loudly and clearly and, for God's sake, speak up for the American people!

Venturing a guess... my bet is that Boylan has a staffer whose job is is to troll left-wing blogs and compose pushy emails in the style of the Colonel. Thus, he says he did not 'send' you the first email - a parsing to be sure - but one he feels no need to clear up, and in fact encourages for the simple reason he enjoys controling the information theatre. That IS his job, anyway. He thinks he's performing some sort of psy-ops mind-fuck, and could care less if you waste time conjecturing on the abilty of anyone to hack his office.

Let the whiners whine. Keep the updates coming.

Good job as usual Glen.

If you don't have the time or expertise to do your taxes, you hire an accountant.

If you don't have the time or expertise to talk to the media, you hire a press flack.

If your tax return under reports your income, you get in trouble.

If your press flack lies then you have lied.

I know in modern politics the media has somehow swallowed the idea that a press flack doesn't really speak for their boss. Oh sure, the flacks are given a microphone only because they speak for their boss, but the bosses are never held accountable for their flack's actions.

Tony Snow said so and so. NO!! George Bush said so and so.

Press flacks are now just considered freelance opinion writers by the media. It is the worst of both worlds. The media gives away the microphone, but won't do any follow up because "Petraeus didn't say it, Boylan did."

BULLSHIT!!