Barry McCaffrey
Encyclopedia
Barry Richard McCaffrey (born November 17, 1942) is a retired United States Army
general
, former U.S. Drug Czar
, news commentator, and business consultant.
He is currently an Adjunct Professor at the United States Military Academy
, where he was the Bradley Professor of International Security Studies from 2001 to 2005. He is also an NBC
and MSNBC
military analyst as well as president of his own consulting firm, BR McCaffrey Associates. http://www.mccaffreyassociates.com/
in Civil Government from the American University
in 1970. He also attended the National Security and Executive Education programs at Harvard University
. His postgraduate military education includes the National Defense University
, the United States Army War College, the Command and General Staff College
, and the Defense Language Institute
's program in Vietnamese.
His combat tours included action in the Dominican Republic
with the 82nd Airborne Division in 1965, advisory duty with the Army of the Republic of Vietnam
from 1966–67, and company command with the 1st Cavalry Division from 1968–69. During the course of his service in the Vietnam War
he was twice awarded the Distinguished Service Cross
, the Purple Heart
three times and the Silver Star
twice.
During Operation Desert Storm, McCaffrey commanded the 24th Infantry Division (Mechanized). Under his command, the division conducted the "left hook" attack 370 km into Iraq. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal
. In Operation Desert Storm
he was known for his speed and boldness. Joe Galloway, the co-author of We Were Soldiers Once...And Young, rode with and reported on the division, where he favorably compared McCaffrey with Hal Moore
.
General McCaffrey's peacetime assignments included tours as an instructor at the U.S. Military Academy from 1972–75, Assistant Commandant at the U.S. Army Infantry School; Deputy U.S. Representative to NATO; Assistant Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff
(JCS); Director of Strategic Plans and Policy, JCS.
General McCaffrey's last command in the Army was that of the United States Southern Command
(SOUTHCOM), the unified command responsible for U.S. military activities in Central and South America. He commanded SOUTHCOM, whose headquarters were then in the Republic of Panama
, from 1994 to 1996. Besides managing military personnel, as part of his duties in Panama, McCaffrey supported humanitarian operations for over 10,000 Cuban refugees in 1996. It was also during his last military position that he created the first Human Rights Council and Human Rights Code of Conduct for U.S. Military Joint Command.
McCaffrey was the youngest General in the Army at the time of his retirement.
(ONDCP) under President
Bill Clinton
from 1996 to 2001. As Drug Czar
, McCaffrey was instrumental in negotiating a deal to place anti-drug messages in prime time television shows without acknowledging that these messages were paid for by his Office. This created quite a scandal when it was revealed in Salon.com
.
, in response to a complaint by the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, sent inquiries to five major television networks about ONDCP's practice of offering millions of additional advertising dollars to networks that embedded anti-drug messages in their programming. The House Committee on Government Reform's Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources held hearings on the matter on July 11, 2000. In December of that year, the FCC ruled that the networks should have identified the Office of National Drug Control Policy as the sponsor of the television programs.
network's senior vice president for broadcast standards Rick Mater admitted, "The White House did view scripts. They did sign off on them – they read scripts, yes."
Running the campaign for the ONDCP was Alan Levitt, who estimated that between 1998 and 2000 the networks received nearly $25 million in benefits.
One example was with Warner Brothers' show, Smart Guy
. The original script portrayed two young people using drugs at a party. Originally depicted as cool and popular, after input from the drug office, "We showed that they were losers and put them [hidden away to indulge in shamed secrecy] in a utility room. That was not in the original script."
Other shows including ER
, Beverly Hills, 90210
, Chicago Hope
, The Drew Carey Show
and 7th Heaven
also put anti-drug messages into their stories.
found that the ONDCP had violated domestic propaganda and publicity prohibitions by preparing prepackaged news stories that did not disclose to television viewers that the government had produced them and had illegally spent appropriations to develop, produce and distribute the covert propaganda. Due to a three year statute of limitations the GAO opinion (B-303495)
was limited to fiscal years 2002, 2003 and 2004 however its detailed analysis of the core legal issues involved is applicable to the McCaffrey era ONDCP propaganda scandal.
Appropriation acts had stated, "No part of any appropriation contained in this or any other Act shall be used for publicity or propaganda purposes within the United States not heretofore authorized by the Congress." (Congress had imposed this same prohibition, using identical language, on the use of all appropriations for publicity or propaganda purposes annually since 1951.)
21 U.S.C. 1802(a)(1)(H), does not relieve ONDCP of the need to comply with the publicity or propaganda prohibitions.
One of the activities banned under the publicity or propaganda prohibition involves what is referred to as covert propaganda.
The critical element of covert propaganda is the concealment of the agency's role in sponsoring the materials. (citing B229257, June 10, 1988).
Use of appropriated funds in violation of the publicity or propaganda prohibition also constitutes a violation of the Antideficiency Act, 31 U.S.C. 1341(a).
, retired), note that the U.S. Army's objective in the western desert of Iraq was to degrade Saddam Hussein's military capability by destroying the Republican Guard, especially its equipment, while the Marine Corps forces liberated Kuwait
. The VII Corps and XVIII Corps of the army were about to heavily engage the Republican Guard when a ceasefire was declared at the behest of Bush administration officials.
After the cease fire was declared, McCaffrey ordered his unit, the 24th Infantry Division, to push forward to a point where it would be in between the retreating Iraqi forces, who were coming up from the south, and the northern direction they were headed. He did so without explicit orders from his superiors. This put the division in position to make contact with retreating Iraqi forces.
McCaffrey claims his division received fire from an Iraqi. Units of the 24th Infantry Division, under McCaffrey's direction, returned fire in under the doctrine of self-defense, according to the book. The Iraqi forces engaged were destroyed.
published in 2000 The New Yorker
, General McCaffrey committed war crimes during the Gulf War
by having troops under his command kill retreating Iraq
is after a ceasefire
had been declared. Hersh's article "quotes senior officers decrying the lack of discipline and proportionality in the McCaffrey-ordered attack." One colonel told Hersh that it "made no sense for a defeated army to invite their own death. ... It came across as shooting fish in a barrel. Everyone was incredulous."http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2000/05/15/hersh/
These charges had been made by Army personnel after the war and an Army investigation had cleared McCaffrey of any wrongdoing. Hersh dismissed the findings of the investigation, writing that "few soldiers report crimes, because they don't want to jeopardize their Army careers."
Hersh describes his interview with Private First Class Charles Sheehan-Miles
, who later published a novel about his experience in the Gulf:
According to Georgie Anne Geyer
of the Chicago Tribune
from May 2000, Hersh’s accusations were disputed by a number of military personnel, who later claimed to have been misquoted by the journalist. She argues that this may have been Hersh’s misguided attempt to break another My Lai story, and that he "could not possibly like a man such as McCaffrey, who is so temperamentally and philosophically different from him…” Finally, she suggests that Hersh may also have been motivated to attack the general for McCaffrey’s role as the drug czar.http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/access/53912132.html?dids=53912132:53912132&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=May+19%2C+2000&author=Georgie+Anne+Geyer%2C+Universal+Press+Syndicate&pub=Chicago+Tribune&edition=&startpage=23&desc=SEYMOUR+HERSH%27S+GULF+WAR+MISCONCEPTIONS
Lt. Gen. Steven Arnold, interviewed by Hersh for the controversial article, was one of the officers who later claimed to have been misquoted. He wrote the editor of The New Yorker saying "I know that my brief comments in the article were not depicted in an entirely accurate manner and were taken out of context…. When the Iraqi forces fired on elements of the 24th Infantry Division, they were clearly committing a hostile act. I regret having granted an interview with Mr. Hersh. The tone and thrust of the article places me in a position of not trusting or respecting General Barry McCaffrey, and nothing could be further from the truth."http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/wsj/access/53954284.html?dids=53954284:53954284&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=May+22%2C+2000&author=By+Barry+R.+McCaffrey&type=8_1984&desc=The+New+Yorker%27s+Revisionist+History
Similar criticism came from Gen. Colin Powell
, former Secretary of State
and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
during the Iraq War, who described the Hersh article as "attempted character assassination on General McCaffrey," in an interview with Sam Donaldson
for the TV show This Week
, in May 2000.
ABC interviewed Major General John LeMoyne, who oversaw the Army investigation into the charges against McCaffrey. LeMoyne denies the incident occurred: "Nobody was killed. None, zero. Soldiers—the Iraqi soldiers were never shot at, ever, at that point. None of us, hundreds and hundreds of us ever saw a body. None of us."
ABC reviewed LeMoyne's investigation and found it "flawed and incomplete. The Army failed to interview the aide Le Moyne told investigators he immediately sent to the area. It failed to interview many of the Scouts, and it failed to interview all the Bradley crews. While the Army did conclude there was firing, it failed to establish which Bradleys were firing. The Bradley crew members who did submit statements denied any knowledge of the incident and denied shooting at anything. Further, the Army failed to establish why there was firing at all in an area known to hold the prisoners. To this day, Battalion Commander Charles Ware does not have a clear explanation."
. According to McCaffrey: "We should never, as a policy, maltreat people under our control, detainees. We torture
d people unmercifully. We probably murdered dozens of them during the course of that, both the armed forces and the C.I.A." He "supports an investigation of the government lawyers who knowingly advocated illegal torture, and he specifically cited Bush
's White House counsel and attorney general
in the same discussion, emphasizing that 'we better find out how we went so wrong.'"
"the biggest mistake that happened so far." In an official memorandum, McCaffrey nevertheless expressed optimism about the operation's longer term future:
McCaffrey returned a third time in March, 2007, and followed the visit with a third memorandum.http://www.newt.org/forum/topic.asp?fi=20000001&catId=30000001&ti=400002094 The grimness of the 2006 assessment was repeated, additionally asserting a concern about the effect of the continuing war on the readiness of the small-sized U.S. military. He tempered his optimism about the future saying: "There are encouraging signs that the peace and participation message does resonate with many of the more moderate Sunni and Shia warring factions."
confirming that military analysts hired by ABC
, CBS
and NBC
to present observations about the conduct of the war in Iraq had undisclosed ties to the Pentagon and/or military contractors. Former Army Major General John Batiste
told National Public Radio that there was "a very deliberate attempt on the part of the administration to shape public opinion" about the war. One of the participants, Robert S. Bevelacqua, a retired Special Forces
soldier and former Fox News analyst, said of the program, "It was them saying, 'We need to stick our hands up your back and move your mouth for you'." And Kenneth Allard, a former NBC military analyst, called the campaign "a coherent, active policy," and lamented, "I felt we’d been hosed."
McCaffrey was "at the heart of the scandal" detailed by Barstow. In late Nov 2008, the New York Times published another front page article by Barstow, this time specifically profiling General McCaffrey. It detailed his free movement between roles as a paid advocate for defense companies, media analyst and a retired officer. An earlier report with some of the same information had appeared in The Nation
in April, 2003 but was not widely picked up. McCaffrey and his consulting firm BR McCaffrey Associates, LLC responded to the Times piece, stating that he is "absolutely committed to objective, non-partisan public commentary". The response highlighted his military record, as well as his history of criticizing the execution of the Iraq War and specifically Rumsfeld
. It was later revealed that there had been "extensive collaboration between NBC
and McCaffrey to formulate a coordinated response to David Barstow's story."
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
general
General (United States)
In the United States Army, United States Air Force, and United States Marine Corps, general is a four-star general officer rank, with the pay grade of O-10. General ranks above lieutenant general and below General of the Army or General of the Air Force; the Marine Corps does not have an...
, former U.S. Drug Czar
Drug Czar
Drug Czar is an informal name for the person who directs drug-control policies in the United States, following the U.S. use of the 'czar' term. The 'drug czar' title was first published in a 1982 news story by United Press International which reported that “Senators... voted 62–34 to establish a...
, news commentator, and business consultant.
He is currently an Adjunct Professor at the United States Military Academy
United States Military Academy
The United States Military Academy at West Point is a four-year coeducational federal service academy located at West Point, New York. The academy sits on scenic high ground overlooking the Hudson River, north of New York City...
, where he was the Bradley Professor of International Security Studies from 2001 to 2005. He is also an NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
and MSNBC
MSNBC
MSNBC is a cable news channel based in the United States available in the US, Germany , South Africa, the Middle East and Canada...
military analyst as well as president of his own consulting firm, BR McCaffrey Associates. http://www.mccaffreyassociates.com/
Education
McCaffrey attended Phillips Academy, Andover. He is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy (Class of 1964), and earned an M.A.Master of Arts (postgraduate)
A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...
in Civil Government from the American University
American University
American University is a private, Methodist, liberal arts, and research university in Washington, D.C. The university was chartered by an Act of Congress on December 5, 1892 as "The American University", which was approved by President Benjamin Harrison on February 24, 1893...
in 1970. He also attended the National Security and Executive Education programs at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
. His postgraduate military education includes the National Defense University
National Defense University
The National Defense University is an institution of higher education funded by the United States Department of Defense, intended to facilitate high-level training, education, and the development of national security strategy. It is chartered by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, with Navy Vice Admiral...
, the United States Army War College, the Command and General Staff College
Command and General Staff College
The United States Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas is a graduate school for United States Army and sister service officers, interagency representatives, and international military officers. The college was established in 1881 by William Tecumseh Sherman as a...
, and the Defense Language Institute
Defense Language Institute
The Defense Language Institute is a United States Department of Defense educational and research institution, which provides linguistic and cultural instruction to the Department of Defense, other Federal Agencies and numerous and varied other customers...
's program in Vietnamese.
Military career
Following his graduation from West Point in 1964, McCaffrey was commissioned into the infantry.His combat tours included action in the Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...
with the 82nd Airborne Division in 1965, advisory duty with the Army of the Republic of Vietnam
Army of the Republic of Vietnam
The Army of the Republic of Viet Nam , sometimes parsimoniously referred to as the South Vietnamese Army , was the land-based military forces of the Republic of Vietnam , which existed from October 26, 1955 until the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975...
from 1966–67, and company command with the 1st Cavalry Division from 1968–69. During the course of his service in the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
he was twice awarded the Distinguished Service Cross
Distinguished Service Cross (United States)
The Distinguished Service Cross is the second highest military decoration that can be awarded to a member of the United States Army, for extreme gallantry and risk of life in actual combat with an armed enemy force. Actions that merit the Distinguished Service Cross must be of such a high degree...
, the Purple Heart
Purple Heart
The Purple Heart is a United States military decoration awarded in the name of the President to those who have been wounded or killed while serving on or after April 5, 1917 with the U.S. military. The National Purple Heart Hall of Honor is located in New Windsor, New York...
three times and the Silver Star
Silver Star
The Silver Star is the third-highest combat military decoration that can be awarded to a member of any branch of the United States armed forces for valor in the face of the enemy....
twice.
During Operation Desert Storm, McCaffrey commanded the 24th Infantry Division (Mechanized). Under his command, the division conducted the "left hook" attack 370 km into Iraq. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal
Distinguished Service Medal (United States)
The Distinguished Service Medal is the highest non-valorous military and civilian decoration of the United States military which is issued for exceptionally meritorious service to the government of the United States in either a senior government service position or as a senior officer of the United...
. In Operation Desert Storm
Gulf War
The Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...
he was known for his speed and boldness. Joe Galloway, the co-author of We Were Soldiers Once...And Young, rode with and reported on the division, where he favorably compared McCaffrey with Hal Moore
Hal Moore
Harold Gregory "Hal" Moore, Jr. is a retired lieutenant general in the United States Army and author. Moore is a recipient of the Distinguished Service Cross, which is the second highest military decoration of the United States Army, and was the first of his West Point class to be promoted to...
.
General McCaffrey's peacetime assignments included tours as an instructor at the U.S. Military Academy from 1972–75, Assistant Commandant at the U.S. Army Infantry School; Deputy U.S. Representative to NATO; Assistant Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff
Joint Chiefs of Staff
The Joint Chiefs of Staff is a body of senior uniformed leaders in the United States Department of Defense who advise the Secretary of Defense, the Homeland Security Council, the National Security Council and the President on military matters...
(JCS); Director of Strategic Plans and Policy, JCS.
General McCaffrey's last command in the Army was that of the United States Southern Command
United States Southern Command
The United States Southern Command , located in Miami, Florida, is one of nine Unified Combatant Commands in the United States Department of Defense. It is responsible for providing contingency planning and operations in Central and South America, the Caribbean The United States Southern Command...
(SOUTHCOM), the unified command responsible for U.S. military activities in Central and South America. He commanded SOUTHCOM, whose headquarters were then in the Republic of Panama
Panama
Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...
, from 1994 to 1996. Besides managing military personnel, as part of his duties in Panama, McCaffrey supported humanitarian operations for over 10,000 Cuban refugees in 1996. It was also during his last military position that he created the first Human Rights Council and Human Rights Code of Conduct for U.S. Military Joint Command.
McCaffrey was the youngest General in the Army at the time of his retirement.
ONDCP Director
Barry McCaffrey was Director of the Office of National Drug Control PolicyOffice of National Drug Control Policy
The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy , a former cabinet level component of the Executive Office of the President of the United States, was established in 1989 by the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988...
(ONDCP) under President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
from 1996 to 2001. As Drug Czar
Drug Czar
Drug Czar is an informal name for the person who directs drug-control policies in the United States, following the U.S. use of the 'czar' term. The 'drug czar' title was first published in a 1982 news story by United Press International which reported that “Senators... voted 62–34 to establish a...
, McCaffrey was instrumental in negotiating a deal to place anti-drug messages in prime time television shows without acknowledging that these messages were paid for by his Office. This created quite a scandal when it was revealed in Salon.com
Salon.com
Salon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online liberal magazine, with content updated each weekday. Salon was founded by David Talbot and launched on November 20, 1995. It was the internet's first online-only commercial publication. The magazine focuses on U.S...
.
Paying for embedded anti-drug messages in television shows
In 2000, the Federal Communications CommissionFederal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
, in response to a complaint by the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, sent inquiries to five major television networks about ONDCP's practice of offering millions of additional advertising dollars to networks that embedded anti-drug messages in their programming. The House Committee on Government Reform's Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources held hearings on the matter on July 11, 2000. In December of that year, the FCC ruled that the networks should have identified the Office of National Drug Control Policy as the sponsor of the television programs.
Government as scriptwriter
In the spring of 1998, the ONDCP began to develop an accounting system to decide which network shows would be valued and for how much. Receiving advance copies of scripts, they assigned financial value to each show's anti-drug message. Then they would suggest ways that the networks could increase the payments they would get. The WBThe WB Television Network
The WB Television Network is a former television network in the United States that was launched on January 11, 1995 as a joint venture between Warner Bros. and Tribune Broadcasting. On January 24, 2006, CBS Corporation and Warner Bros...
network's senior vice president for broadcast standards Rick Mater admitted, "The White House did view scripts. They did sign off on them – they read scripts, yes."
Running the campaign for the ONDCP was Alan Levitt, who estimated that between 1998 and 2000 the networks received nearly $25 million in benefits.
One example was with Warner Brothers' show, Smart Guy
Smart Guy
Smart Guy is an American sitcom created by Danny Kallis. The series ran on The WB for three seasons from April 2, 1997 to May 16, 1999.-Premise:The show centers on the misadventures of boy genius T.J...
. The original script portrayed two young people using drugs at a party. Originally depicted as cool and popular, after input from the drug office, "We showed that they were losers and put them [hidden away to indulge in shamed secrecy] in a utility room. That was not in the original script."
Other shows including ER
ER (TV series)
ER is an American medical drama television series created by novelist Michael Crichton that aired on NBC from September 19, 1994 to April 2, 2009. It was produced by Constant c Productions and Amblin Entertainment, in association with Warner Bros. Television...
, Beverly Hills, 90210
Beverly Hills, 90210
Beverly Hills, 90210 is an American drama series that originally aired from October 4, 1990 to May 17, 2000 on Fox and was produced by Spelling Television in the United States, and subsequently on various networks around the world. It is the first series in the Beverly Hills, 90210 franchise...
, Chicago Hope
Chicago Hope
Chicago Hope is an American medical drama series created by David E. Kelley that ran from September 18, 1994, to May 5, 2000. It takes place in a fictional private charity hospital.-Premise:The show stars Mandy Patinkin as Dr...
, The Drew Carey Show
The Drew Carey Show
The Drew Carey Show is an American sitcom that aired on ABC from 1995 to 2004. The show was set in Cleveland, Ohio, and revolved around the retail office and home life of "everyman" Drew Carey, a fictionalized version of the actor....
and 7th Heaven
7th Heaven
7th Heaven is an American family drama television series, created and produced by Brenda Hampton. The series premiered on August 26, 1996, on the WB, the first time that the network aired Monday night programming, and was originally broadcast from August 26, 1996 to May 13, 2007...
also put anti-drug messages into their stories.
Related Government Accountability Office Opinion on Covert Propraganda
In 2005, the Government Accountability OfficeGovernment Accountability Office
The Government Accountability Office is the audit, evaluation, and investigative arm of the United States Congress. It is located in the legislative branch of the United States government.-History:...
found that the ONDCP had violated domestic propaganda and publicity prohibitions by preparing prepackaged news stories that did not disclose to television viewers that the government had produced them and had illegally spent appropriations to develop, produce and distribute the covert propaganda. Due to a three year statute of limitations the GAO opinion (B-303495)
was limited to fiscal years 2002, 2003 and 2004 however its detailed analysis of the core legal issues involved is applicable to the McCaffrey era ONDCP propaganda scandal.
Appropriation acts had stated, "No part of any appropriation contained in this or any other Act shall be used for publicity or propaganda purposes within the United States not heretofore authorized by the Congress." (Congress had imposed this same prohibition, using identical language, on the use of all appropriations for publicity or propaganda purposes annually since 1951.)
21 U.S.C. 1802(a)(1)(H), does not relieve ONDCP of the need to comply with the publicity or propaganda prohibitions.
One of the activities banned under the publicity or propaganda prohibition involves what is referred to as covert propaganda.
The critical element of covert propaganda is the concealment of the agency's role in sponsoring the materials. (citing B229257, June 10, 1988).
Use of appropriated funds in violation of the publicity or propaganda prohibition also constitutes a violation of the Antideficiency Act, 31 U.S.C. 1341(a).
Account of the incident from The General's War
In The General's War, authors Michael R. Gordon (New York Times) and Bernard Trainor (U.S. Marine CorpsUnited States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for providing power projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to deliver combined-arms task forces rapidly. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...
, retired), note that the U.S. Army's objective in the western desert of Iraq was to degrade Saddam Hussein's military capability by destroying the Republican Guard, especially its equipment, while the Marine Corps forces liberated Kuwait
Kuwait
The State of Kuwait is a sovereign Arab state situated in the north-east of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south at Khafji, and Iraq to the north at Basra. It lies on the north-western shore of the Persian Gulf. The name Kuwait is derived from the...
. The VII Corps and XVIII Corps of the army were about to heavily engage the Republican Guard when a ceasefire was declared at the behest of Bush administration officials.
After the cease fire was declared, McCaffrey ordered his unit, the 24th Infantry Division, to push forward to a point where it would be in between the retreating Iraqi forces, who were coming up from the south, and the northern direction they were headed. He did so without explicit orders from his superiors. This put the division in position to make contact with retreating Iraqi forces.
McCaffrey claims his division received fire from an Iraqi. Units of the 24th Infantry Division, under McCaffrey's direction, returned fire in under the doctrine of self-defense, according to the book. The Iraqi forces engaged were destroyed.
New Yorker article
According to an article written by Seymour HershSeymour Hersh
Seymour Myron Hersh is an American Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist and author based in Washington, D.C. He is a regular contributor to The New Yorker magazine on military and security matters...
published in 2000 The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
, General McCaffrey committed war crimes during the Gulf War
Gulf War
The Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...
by having troops under his command kill retreating Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
is after a ceasefire
Ceasefire
A ceasefire is a temporary stoppage of a war in which each side agrees with the other to suspend aggressive actions. Ceasefires may be declared as part of a formal treaty, but they have also been called as part of an informal understanding between opposing forces...
had been declared. Hersh's article "quotes senior officers decrying the lack of discipline and proportionality in the McCaffrey-ordered attack." One colonel told Hersh that it "made no sense for a defeated army to invite their own death. ... It came across as shooting fish in a barrel. Everyone was incredulous."http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2000/05/15/hersh/
These charges had been made by Army personnel after the war and an Army investigation had cleared McCaffrey of any wrongdoing. Hersh dismissed the findings of the investigation, writing that "few soldiers report crimes, because they don't want to jeopardize their Army careers."
Hersh describes his interview with Private First Class Charles Sheehan-Miles
Charles Sheehan-Miles
Charles Sheehan-Miles is an American veterans advocate and writer.He grew up in Atlanta, Georgia and served in the U.S. Army in the 1991 Persian Gulf War...
, who later published a novel about his experience in the Gulf:
- When I asked Sheehan-Miles why he fired, he replied, "At that point, we were shooting everything. Guys in the company told me later that some were civilians. It wasn't like they came at us with a gun. It was that they were there – 'in the wrong place at the wrong time.'" Although Sheehan-Miles is unsure whether he and his fellow-tankers were ever actually fired upon during the war, he is sure that there was no significant enemy fire. "We took some incoming once, but it was friendly fire," he said. "The folks we fought never had a chance." He came away from Iraq convinced that he and his fellow-soldiers were, as another tanker put it, part of "the biggest firing squad in history."
McCaffrey's and Powell's rebuttals to allegations of misconduct
McCaffrey denied the charges that on three occasions, General McCaffrey or his men of the 24th infantry division either fired on enemy soldiers who had surrendered in an "unprovoked attack", or "went too far" in responding to a non-existent threat. He attacked what he called Hersh's "revisionist history" of the Gulf War. BBC reported that "General McCaffrey said an army investigation had previously cleared him of any blame and he accused the New Yorker of maligning young soldiers.... White House spokesman Joe Lockhart said President Bill Clinton felt the charges were unsubstantiated."According to Georgie Anne Geyer
Georgie Anne Geyer
Georgie Anne Geyer is an American journalist and columnist for the Universal Press Syndicate. Her columns focus on foreign affairs issues and appear in approximately 120 newspapers in North and South America. She is the author of several books, including a biography of Fidel Castro.Geyer was born...
of the Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
from May 2000, Hersh’s accusations were disputed by a number of military personnel, who later claimed to have been misquoted by the journalist. She argues that this may have been Hersh’s misguided attempt to break another My Lai story, and that he "could not possibly like a man such as McCaffrey, who is so temperamentally and philosophically different from him…” Finally, she suggests that Hersh may also have been motivated to attack the general for McCaffrey’s role as the drug czar.http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/access/53912132.html?dids=53912132:53912132&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=May+19%2C+2000&author=Georgie+Anne+Geyer%2C+Universal+Press+Syndicate&pub=Chicago+Tribune&edition=&startpage=23&desc=SEYMOUR+HERSH%27S+GULF+WAR+MISCONCEPTIONS
Lt. Gen. Steven Arnold, interviewed by Hersh for the controversial article, was one of the officers who later claimed to have been misquoted. He wrote the editor of The New Yorker saying "I know that my brief comments in the article were not depicted in an entirely accurate manner and were taken out of context…. When the Iraqi forces fired on elements of the 24th Infantry Division, they were clearly committing a hostile act. I regret having granted an interview with Mr. Hersh. The tone and thrust of the article places me in a position of not trusting or respecting General Barry McCaffrey, and nothing could be further from the truth."http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/wsj/access/53954284.html?dids=53954284:53954284&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=May+22%2C+2000&author=By+Barry+R.+McCaffrey&type=8_1984&desc=The+New+Yorker%27s+Revisionist+History
Similar criticism came from Gen. Colin Powell
Colin Powell
Colin Luther Powell is an American statesman and a retired four-star general in the United States Army. He was the 65th United States Secretary of State, serving under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2005. He was the first African American to serve in that position. During his military...
, former Secretary of State
United States Secretary of State
The United States Secretary of State is the head of the United States Department of State, concerned with foreign affairs. The Secretary is a member of the Cabinet and the highest-ranking cabinet secretary both in line of succession and order of precedence...
and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is by law the highest ranking military officer in the United States Armed Forces, and is the principal military adviser to the President of the United States, the National Security Council, the Homeland Security Council and the Secretary of Defense...
during the Iraq War, who described the Hersh article as "attempted character assassination on General McCaffrey," in an interview with Sam Donaldson
Sam Donaldson
Samuel Andrew "Sam" Donaldson, Jr. is a reporter and news anchor, serving with ABC News from 1967 to the present, best known as the network's White House Correspondent and as a panelist and later co-anchor of the network's Sunday Program "This Week."-Early life and career:Donaldson was born in El...
for the TV show This Week
This Week (ABC TV series)
This Week is ABC's Sunday morning political affairs program.The Sunday morning talk show has aired on Sunday mornings on ABC since 1981; the program is initially aired at 9:00 AM ET, although many stations air the program later, especially those in other time zones...
, in May 2000.
ABC investigation of misconduct allegations
ABC News followed up on Hersh's report in June 2000, interviewing six soldiers from the platoon of scouts under the command of Gen. McCaffrey. All six confirmed Hersh's report, telling ABC News that they witnessed the attack. Two of the scouts, Edward Walker and David Collatt, claim to have witnessed the attack from 200 yards (182.9 m) away.ABC interviewed Major General John LeMoyne, who oversaw the Army investigation into the charges against McCaffrey. LeMoyne denies the incident occurred: "Nobody was killed. None, zero. Soldiers—the Iraqi soldiers were never shot at, ever, at that point. None of us, hundreds and hundreds of us ever saw a body. None of us."
ABC reviewed LeMoyne's investigation and found it "flawed and incomplete. The Army failed to interview the aide Le Moyne told investigators he immediately sent to the area. It failed to interview many of the Scouts, and it failed to interview all the Bradley crews. While the Army did conclude there was firing, it failed to establish which Bradleys were firing. The Bradley crew members who did submit statements denied any knowledge of the incident and denied shooting at anything. Further, the Army failed to establish why there was firing at all in an area known to hold the prisoners. To this day, Battalion Commander Charles Ware does not have a clear explanation."
Comments on detainee abuse
McCaffrey has harshly criticized American treatment of detainees during the War on TerrorWar on Terror
The War on Terror is a term commonly applied to an international military campaign led by the United States and the United Kingdom with the support of other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation as well as non-NATO countries...
. According to McCaffrey: "We should never, as a policy, maltreat people under our control, detainees. We torture
Torture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...
d people unmercifully. We probably murdered dozens of them during the course of that, both the armed forces and the C.I.A." He "supports an investigation of the government lawyers who knowingly advocated illegal torture, and he specifically cited Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
's White House counsel and attorney general
Alberto Gonzales
Alberto R. Gonzales was the 80th Attorney General of the United States. Gonzales was appointed to the post in February 2005 by President George W. Bush. Gonzales was the first Hispanic Attorney General in U.S. history and the highest-ranking Hispanic government official ever...
in the same discussion, emphasizing that 'we better find out how we went so wrong.'"
Comments on Iraq War
In June 2005, he surveyed Iraq on behalf of U.S. Central Command and wrote an optimistic report afterwards.http://www.foreign.senate.gov/testimony/2005/McCaffreyTestimony050718.pdf In it, he says the U.S. senior military leadership team is superb and predicts the insurgency will reach its peak from January-to-September 2006, allowing for U.S. force withdrawals in the late summer of 2006. A year later, however, after visiting Iraq again, his assessment was grim: "Iraq is abject misery... I think it's a terribly dangerous place for diplomats and journalists and contractors and Iraqi mothers. Trying to go about daily life in that city is a real nightmare for these poor people." He called Abu GhraibAbu Ghraib
The city of Abu Ghraib in the Baghdad Governorate of Iraq is located just west of Baghdad's city center, or northwest of Baghdad International Airport. It has a population of 189,000. The old road to Jordan passes through Abu Ghraib...
"the biggest mistake that happened so far." In an official memorandum, McCaffrey nevertheless expressed optimism about the operation's longer term future:
"The situation is perilous, uncertain, and extreme – but far from hopeless. The U.S. Armed Forces are a rock. This is the most competent and brilliantly led military in a tactical and operational sense that we have ever fielded... There is no reason why the U.S. cannot achieve our objectives in Iraq. Our aim must be to create a viable federal state under the rule of law which does not: enslave its own people, threaten its neighbors, or produce weapons of mass destruction. This is a ten year task. We should be able to draw down most of our combat forces in 3–5 years. We have few alternatives to the current US strategy which is painfully but gradually succeeding. This is now a race against time. Do we have the political will, do we have the military power, will we spend the resources required to achieve our aims?"His assessment noted several negative areas as well as very positive areas in the struggle for democracy in the country.
McCaffrey returned a third time in March, 2007, and followed the visit with a third memorandum.http://www.newt.org/forum/topic.asp?fi=20000001&catId=30000001&ti=400002094 The grimness of the 2006 assessment was repeated, additionally asserting a concern about the effect of the continuing war on the readiness of the small-sized U.S. military. He tempered his optimism about the future saying: "There are encouraging signs that the peace and participation message does resonate with many of the more moderate Sunni and Shia warring factions."
Controversial military analysis
In April 2008, the New York Times published a front page report by David BarstowDavid Barstow
-Life:Born in Boston, he received a bachelor's degree from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism in 1986. Barstow has worked for The New York Times since 1999, and has been an investigative reporter there since 2002.He worked for The St...
confirming that military analysts hired by ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
, CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
and NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
to present observations about the conduct of the war in Iraq had undisclosed ties to the Pentagon and/or military contractors. Former Army Major General John Batiste
John Batiste
Major General John Batiste is a retired officer of the United States Army.John Batiste was commissioned as an infantry officer from West Point and served in five US Army heavy divisions over the next 31 years...
told National Public Radio that there was "a very deliberate attempt on the part of the administration to shape public opinion" about the war. One of the participants, Robert S. Bevelacqua, a retired Special Forces
United States Army Special Forces
The United States Army Special Forces, also known as the Green Berets because of their distinctive service headgear, are a special operations force tasked with six primary missions: unconventional warfare, foreign internal defense, special reconnaissance, direct action, hostage rescue, and...
soldier and former Fox News analyst, said of the program, "It was them saying, 'We need to stick our hands up your back and move your mouth for you'." And Kenneth Allard, a former NBC military analyst, called the campaign "a coherent, active policy," and lamented, "I felt we’d been hosed."
McCaffrey was "at the heart of the scandal" detailed by Barstow. In late Nov 2008, the New York Times published another front page article by Barstow, this time specifically profiling General McCaffrey. It detailed his free movement between roles as a paid advocate for defense companies, media analyst and a retired officer. An earlier report with some of the same information had appeared in The Nation
The Nation
The Nation is the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States. The periodical, devoted to politics and culture, is self-described as "the flagship of the left." Founded on July 6, 1865, It is published by The Nation Company, L.P., at 33 Irving Place, New York City.The Nation...
in April, 2003 but was not widely picked up. McCaffrey and his consulting firm BR McCaffrey Associates, LLC responded to the Times piece, stating that he is "absolutely committed to objective, non-partisan public commentary". The response highlighted his military record, as well as his history of criticizing the execution of the Iraq War and specifically Rumsfeld
Donald Rumsfeld
Donald Henry Rumsfeld is an American politician and businessman. Rumsfeld served as the 13th Secretary of Defense from 1975 to 1977 under President Gerald Ford, and as the 21st Secretary of Defense from 2001 to 2006 under President George W. Bush. He is both the youngest and the oldest person to...
. It was later revealed that there had been "extensive collaboration between NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
and McCaffrey to formulate a coordinated response to David Barstow's story."
Further reading
- Daniel Forbes, "Gulf War Crimes?" Salon.com (May 15, 2000).
- BBC News Report, "General Hits at Gulf 'Insults'" news.BBC.co.uk (May 16, 2000).
- Georgie Anne Geyer, "Seymour Hersh's Gulf War Misconceptions," Chicago Tribune (May 19, 2000) p. 23.
- George Stephanopoulos (Reporter) and Sam Donaldson and Cokie Roberts (Anchors), "General Colin Powell Discusses His Group America's Promise," This WeekThis Week (ABC TV series)This Week is ABC's Sunday morning political affairs program.The Sunday morning talk show has aired on Sunday mornings on ABC since 1981; the program is initially aired at 9:00 AM ET, although many stations air the program later, especially those in other time zones...
from ABC News (May 21, 2000) Transcript. - Seymour Hersh, "Overwhelming Force: What Happened in the Final Days of the Gulf War?" The New Yorker (May 22, 2000).
- Barry R. McCaffrey, "The New Yorker's Revisionist History," Wall Street Journal (May 22, 2000).
- Jackie Judd (Reporter) and Peter Jennings (Anchor), "Investigation into Killing of Unarmed Iraqi Soldiers," ABC World News Tonight (June 15, 2000). Transcript.
- After Action Reports, "B.R. McCaffrey Associates," mccaffreyassociates.com (December 2003 to Present).
- Barry R. McCaffrey, "After Action Report – Visit Iraq and Kuwait March 9–16, 2007," Internal Memorandum, United States Military Academy, (March 26, 2007).
External links
- Biography at the National Infantry Foundation website
- McCaffrey Associates, General McCaffrey's company