2 posts tagged “dod”
I have been following the case (if you will) of Maj. Stephen Coughlin’s contract not being renewed by the Department of Defense (DOD). Most posts I have read in the blogosphere have laid the case that Hesham H. Islam and Coughlin were knocking heads over Coughlin’s tough portrayal of Islamists and Islamist infiltration into American government entities of which the DOD was one. Islam is a friend and advisor to Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon English and is accused of using that influential position to not renew Coughlin’s contract as an expert on Islam for the DOD.
You can follow my posts backward from this post: Islamist Infiltration in America and the West.
I have recently come to understand that Rep. Sue Myrick (R-NC) decided to personally investigate the Coughlin case. Her efforts have earned Coughlin a renewed contract at the DOD in another department other than the one associated with English and Islam.
Sounds good, right?
Rep. Myrick issued a statement (which I picked up at Andrew Bostom’s blog) laying heaps of praise on Coughlin’s thesis of Islamist infiltration in America; however there is a big BUT. The BUT is that Rep Myrick in her investigation of the circumstances of Coughlin’s dismissal, found NO evidence of a conspiracy by Islam to have Coughlin removed. Rep. Myrick in her statement even says she interviewed Coughlin and Coughlin told her he did not feel there was a conspiracy to shut him up.
I was gratified to read about Coughlin’s renewed contract and the admonishment that America should step up to the plate to examine Islamist infiltration just as much as America did with Communism during the Cold War.
I was confused about exonerating Hesham H. Islam and Gordon English of trying to shut Coughlin up. The first thing that comes to my mind is that Rep. Myrick pulled the hat trick to not embarrass the DOD while twisting the DOD arm to put Coughlin back to work. Rep. Myrick simultaneously got Coughlin to go along with inter-departmental diplomatic negotiation to allow Coughlin’s influence to continue to be heard in official channels.
I am (hopefully) speculating this is not the complete happy ending and that Islam (and perhaps English) is to be watched to see if there is any Islamist infiltration or influence. Time will tell.
The Inspector General from the Pentagon investigated the Intelligence provided by Douglas Feith's Office of Special Plans. In essence the IG’s analysis had “… concluded that there was nothing illegal or unauthorized about Feith's group, but that it was somehow "inappropriate" for that group to draw conclusions from intelligence data that were different from the CIA's conclusions.”
Feith was happy with the exoneration by the IG but not happy with the IG’s criticism of “inappropriate.”
Power Line’s perspective is that the AP has changed it’s report sent out on the wire so much, that newspaper’s that have picked up the AP line may not be able to discern the actual facts. In other words the AP keeps manipulating the facts to muddy the picture.
