Colonel suspended for calling Bush "a joke"

[tocqueville]

No freedom of speech in this case

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The Air Force has suspended a colonel who wrote a letter in which he ridiculed President Bush for his response to terrorism, accusing chief executive of allowing the 9/11 attacks to happen and labeling him "a joke."

The letter from Lt. Col. Steve Butler was published May 26 in The Herald of Monterey County.

Butler apparently violated a military law that prohibits "contemptuous words" against the president and other political leaders.

"He did nothing to warn the American people because he needed this war on terrorism," Butler wrote. "His daddy had Saddam and he needed Osama. His presidency was going nowhere. ... This guy is a joke."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2002/06/05/colonel-suspended.htm

[Ezlivin]

1. Suspend/terminate truth-tellers, promote liars

That's the motto of this administration.

Sure, the Colonel should have been more circumspect, but damn.....

[MadMaddie]

2. Yup...lets keep suspending, retiring and kicking out

the experienced military personel....

In the article it's mentioned that it happened during the Clinton years also.....

[EstimatedProphet]

3. Mistake in the subject-Colonel, not General

[tocqueville]

7. oops, fixed

[shain from kane]

12. He should be promoted to General. n/t

[LA lady]

4. not new

As a person from a many-military family, there is a world of difference between a LTC and a General!

Also, this isn't new, it happened under Democratic Presidents, also.

[ToolTex]

10. He is still a Joke, LA Lady. Colonel, General, Old, or New.

A joke is a joke, no matter how cruel the joke may be.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

5. Unfortunately for him, that was the proper thing to do

as much as it galls me to say it. It's the same as if a buck private were to flip off a General. The UCMJ (Uniform Code of Military Justice) is very clear on the subject, and the brass is as bound to it as a shiny new recruit.

[leveymg]

6. He does deserve to be promoted for making that statement.

His thinking may be close to that of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. See, http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/3/17/172417/205

[leftofthedial]

8. in an unrelated story, the man responsible for mosque and parked car

security in Iraq was given the Presidential Medal of Perpetual and Glorious Heroic Freedom

[Solly Mack]

9. Article 88 of the UCMJ - contempt toward officials

“Any commissioned officer who uses contemptuous words against the President, the Vice President, Congress, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of a military department, the Secretary of Transportation, or the Governor or legislature of any State, Territory, Commonwealth, or possession in which he is on duty or present shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.”

In case anyone was wondering

[reichstag911]

14. Ultimately, however, their oaths are sworn...

...to protect and defend the Constitution, and they've all been issued illegal orders (which, according to the UCMJ, they have no obligation to obey) by this administration in violation of US treaty obligations, the supreme law of the land. They are going to have to decide eventually: the president or some equally corrupt successor, or the Constitution. I like the way this guy's leaning.

[Solly Mack]

16. I agree with the Col. in his assessment of Bush

- but I'm not an officer and I can't be held under article 88 - he can. That's the reality. It's ugly but that doesn't change the fact that just as easily as Bush will break a law, he will also use a law that serves his advantage. And I assure you, Article 88 is being stressed - strongly - these days within the military. Simply because so many are speaking out.

This officer is being held up as an example to all others who speak out.

[BrightKnight]

26. Could Bush be charged under Article 88?

He has made a lot of "contemptuous words" while acting as commander in chief.

[Solly Mack]

34. No. He does not fall under the UCMJ

Bush abuses the title of CinC. He places more emphasis on it than there practically exist - when Bush says "in his authority as CinC, it means - "I'm about to break the law and claim the authority to do so as CinC"

Bush must be charged under the Constitution(impeachment/conviction) and US CODE 18 & the 1996 War Crimes Act (and any other law we can throw at him)

[Double T]

11. Only YES MEN and WOMEN ALLOWED........

all reasonable, sane, responsible truth tellers need NOT APPLY!!!!!

[C_U_L8R]

13. They're gonna run out of people to fire soon.

EVERYONE thinks Bush is a joke....
and most are unafraid to say it

[kster]

15. He should go and

change that law so that he can continue to speak out. If * can do it why not him?

[Cha]

17. Thanks, Lt Colonel Steve Butler for

telling the truth even though it got you suspended!

People like you are going to be remembered as the Heroes of this Piece..and gargoyles like bush and dick are going down in history as mutant aliens.

[Peace Patriot]

18. The UCMJ is a bunch of paper, which, like the Constitution, has been

torn up by this junta. And we have yet to see the end of the consequences of THAT! They are enormous--including exposure of our soldiers and other government representatives to torture, with no international legal or moral sanctions by which to prevent it, or punish it; the demoralization and ruined careers of a whole generation of military lawyers who have sought to protect, and be guided by, the principles of the UCMJ; the advancement of toadies and yes-men; the contempt with which the U.S. is now held throughout the world, with far-reaching implications for US diplomacy and the well-being of US citizens at home and abroad, as well as the citizens of other countries who might need our assistance (if we had a decent gov't); the spreading of unlawfulness and contempt for the law; the use of soldiers as cannon fodder, the contempt for our soldiers expressed in so many ways including the "chickenhawk" Bushite political assaults on anyone with medals; the complete undermining of any basis of respect between the military and the president, so critical to maintaining civilian control. The list of consequences of Bush's violation of the UCMJ and his, Cheney's and Rumsfeld's contempt for military and international law is very long, and gravely serious.

Their tearing up of the Constitution is equally bad, for it not only is the law of the land that the military is sworn to uphold and protect, but it lays out the "balance of power" with regard to war and all other government action. That "balance of power" has been on tenuous enough grounds as it is, with the onset of nuclear weapons (power to destroy all life on earth) and the imperial presidency (untouchable sacred emperor). With regard to this, as well as to civil and human rights, and Congressional war, budget and lawmaking powers, the Bushites truly have just ripped the Constitution to pieces, with impunity--with virtually no consequences from a Diebold/ES&S elected (equally illegitimate) Congress. How long can military personnel or anyone else respect the law or chains of command? The trend is toward CHAOS, toward no rule of law at all. Our civilization hangs on a slender thread of consent. When you mess with that, you are threatening mayhem.

To me, the worst of it is NON-TRANSPARENT elections, with Bushite corporations gaining control of the tabulation of our votes, using 'TRADE SECRET,' PROPRIETARY programming code, with virtually no audit/recount controls, by means of the $4 billion "Help America Vote Act" electronic voting boondoggle, engineered by the two biggest crooks in Congress, Tom Delay and Bob Ney.

Because non-transparent elections mean that we cannot bring about democratic change. Non-transparent elections are not elections. They are tyranny.

To the military, since it is not a democratic organization, although it is sworn to supporting democracy, the UCMJ is the guiding document for humane and just behavior, and for the President of the United States to treat it--just as he treats elections--as something arbitrary and manipulable that the powerful can ignore or twist to their own will, is seriously destabilizing and threatening.

To call Bush a joke is about as mild as you could be. He has made the US government AND its military INTO a joke. He has treated WAR as a joke--with that infamous video of him looking under the oval office carpet for WMDs--incredible!

I would say that Lt. Col. Steve Butler deserves a medal--a Peoples' Medal. Perhaps we should call it the "Emperor's News Clothes" medal, for speaking the truth. And when we get our democracy back, we should award it to him.

----------------------------

Throw Diebold and ES&S election theft machines into 'Boston Harbor' NOW!

[rman]

19. A descendant of general Smedley Butler, perhaps?

Major General Smedley Darlington Butler, USMC

1881 - 1940

double recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor

"I spent 33 years and 4 months in active service as a member of our country's most agile military force--the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from second lieutenant to Major General. And during that period I spent most of my time being a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer for capitalism. I suspected I was part of a racket all the time. Now I am sure of it. Like all members of the military profession I never had an original thought until I left the service."

Smedley D. Butler (1935)

http://warisaracket.org/dedication.html
http://warisaracket.org/

[tocqueville]

37. it would be grandson then

Butler was married in 1905 to Ethel C. Peters, of Philadelphia. He had a daughter, Ethel Peters, and two sons, Smedley Darlington and Thomas Richard.<1>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smedley_D._Butler

his career is truly amazing

[RagingInMiami]

20. And the coup continues to gather steam

[FogerRox]

21. the Col. ROX

[BrightKnight]

22. He should run for office.

General Clark, Wes PAC or some other heavy hitter should have a talk with him.

[cassiepriam]

23. Is this a great dictatorship or what :(

[fooj]

24. Oh, but...but...He always listens to his military people...

Dontcha know?

Peace.

[ContraBass Black]

25. He violated an explicit rule.

[BlooInBloo]

27. He broke the law - what are you guys bitching about?

Hope he runs for office tho - I'd vote for him in a heartbeat!

[cynatnite]

28. There is no free speech in the military...

The military is apolitical and should remain so no matter how a person feels about the commander in chief.

Nobody has to like it...that's the way it is and has been for a hell of a long time.

[TexasLawyer]

29. The emperor has no clothes!!!

You're not supposed to notice this in the military. And if you do, you're not supposed to announce what you're observing.

Hurray for Lt.Col. Butler for noticing and announcing, And you know that for each officer brave enough to speak, there are many more who feel the same way.

[Tsiyu]

30. How is the truth contemptuous?

If we say ** is a cocaine-addled dry drunk who went AWOL during Viet Nam rather than serving his nation in time of war, this is the TRUTH. If we say he is a stupid fucking asswipe who should rot in hell, this also is the truth.

Seems to me a contemptuous comment would be a lie or a purposefully fabricated statement about that nitwit. Like, "I wish that cocksucker would choke on his silver spoon." We don't know for a fact that he sucks mens' organs, nor do we know if he only has one silver spoon or many.

I get the difference; it's the SPIRIT of the law, you see ;)

[Guaranteed]

31. And when military people said such things about Clinton?

Nothing, of course.

[tocqueville]

38. this is actually not true, to be fair

The only known Article 88 court-martial took place in the mid-1960s, according to the July 1999 edition of The Army Lawyer.

In that case, a second lieutenant dressed in civilian clothing during off-duty hours left Fort Bliss to take part in a demonstration against the Vietnam War in nearby El Paso. He carried a sign that read "Let's Have More Than a Choice Between Petty Ignorant Fascists in 1968" and "End Johnson's Fascist Aggression in Vietnam."

During the Clinton administration, several military officers were disciplined for bad-mouthing the president, according to the article in The Army Lawyer.

Among them was an Air Force general who was fined, reprimanded and forced into early retirement for referring to Clinton as "gay-loving," "womanizing," "draft-dodging" and "pot-smoking."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2002/06/05/colonel-suspended.htm

[Minnesota_Lib]

32. "....and other political leaders." Yeah, unless that political leader...

...is a Dem, then the offending officers get promoted. Freaking hypocrites.

[noamnety]

33. Under that rule

any military person who has spoken with contempt about any democratic member of congress - including Kerry during the campaign - should have been suspended. Did that happen?

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

39. It Means Congress As A Whole, Not An Individual Member Of Congress.

It refers to Congress as a body, a collective. It does not explicitly say 'member of congress' as it does for the other titles that are referenced to individuals. It only holds up when the contempt is made towards congress as a whole.

[many a good man]

35. Four year old story

He's the guy who remembered seeing one of the 911 hijackers in his classroom at the Defense Lanaguage Institute in Monterey. This is from June 2002:

A US Air Force officer in California recently accused President Bush of deliberately allowing the September 11 terror attacks to take place. The officer has been relieved of his command and faces further discipline. The controversy surrounding Lt. Col. Steve Butler’s letter to the editor, in which he affirmed that Bush did nothing to warn the American people because he “needed this war on terrorism,” received scant coverage in the media.

Universally ignored by the press, however, was that the officer was not merely expressing a personal opinion. He was in a position to have direct knowledge of contacts between the US military and some of the hijackers in the period before the terrorist attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center and damaged the Pentagon.

Lieutenant Colonel Butler, who wrote in a letter to the editor of the Monterey County Herald charging that “Bush knew about the impending attacks,” was vice chancellor for student affairs at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California—a US military facility that one or more of the hijackers reportedly attended during the 1990s.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/ISA206A.html

[Maraya1969]

36. Note to military: "Most of your people believe the way Col Butler does."

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

40. I Knew Something About This Sounded Awfully Familiar. Then I Saw The Date

in the link.

Did you know this was ancient news or was it an innocent oversight?