Craig Whitlock via The Washington Post
* * *
For more than two years, the Navy’s intelligence chief
has been stuck with a major handicap: He’s not allowed to know any secrets.
* ONLY IN OBAMA'S AMERIKA...
* NOPE! THAT'S UNFAIR! IN BUSH'S TOO...
* AND CLINTON'S...
(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD IN ABSOLUTE DISGUST*)
Vice Adm. Ted “Twig” Branch has been barred from reading,
seeing or hearing classified information since November 2013, when the Navy
learned from the Justice Department that his name had surfaced in a giant
corruption investigation involving a foreign defense contractor and scores of
Navy personnel.
Worried that Branch was on the verge of being indicted,
Navy leaders suspended his access to classified materials. They did the same to
one of his deputies, Rear Adm. Bruce F. Loveless, the Navy’s director of
intelligence operations.
* BUT... LEFT THEM IN PLACE...
(*HEADACHE*)
More than 800 days later, neither Branch nor Loveless has
been charged.
But neither has been cleared, either.
Their access to classified information remains blocked.
(*CHEST PAINS*)
Although the Navy transferred Loveless to a slightly less
sensitive post, it kept Branch in charge of its intelligence division.
* YOU'RE READING WHAT I'M READING, FOLKS - RIGHT?
That has resulted in an awkward arrangement, akin to
sending a warship into battle with its skipper stuck onshore.
Branch can’t meet with other senior U.S. intelligence
leaders to discuss sensitive operations, or hear updates from his staff about
secret missions or projects. It can be a chore just to set foot in colleagues’
offices; in keeping with regulations, they must conduct a sweep beforehand to
make sure any classified documents are locked up.
Some critics have questioned how smart it is for the Navy
to retain an intelligence chief with such limitations, for so long, especially
at a time when the Pentagon is confronted by crises in the Middle East, the South
China Sea, the Korean Peninsula and other hotspots.
* YA THINK...?!?!
“I have never heard of anything as asinine, bizarre or
stupid in all my years,” Norman Polmar, a naval analyst and historian, said in
an interview.
* HEY! WHO WANTS TO TALK ABOUT MEGYN KELLY?
(*SNORT*)
In an op-ed in Navy Times last fall, Polmar urged Navy
leaders to replace Branch and Loveless for the sake of national security. He
cited complaints from several unnamed Navy officers that “intelligence
management is being hampered at a moment of great turmoil.”
* GUTLESS BASTARDS...
It's a touchy subject for Navy brass, who have struggled
to replace Branch. Twice in the past 14 months, they have taken steps to
nominate a new intelligence chief — who must be confirmed by the Senate — but
haven’t followed through. There’s no indication that a successor will be in
place anytime soon.
* FOLKS... SERIOUSLY... HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I WARNED YOU
THAT OUR TOP MILITARY LEADERSHIP IS TOTALLY INCOMPETENT?
In a statement, Rear Adm. Dawn Cutler, the Navy’s chief
spokeswoman...
* WHY DOES THE NAVY HAVE A CHIEF SPOKESWOMAN? AND WHY
SHOULD THAT SPOKESWOMAN BE AN ADMIRAL?
* SERIOUSLY, FOLKS... AND WE'RE GONNA BEAT THE CHINESE IF
IT COMES DOWN TO IT? THE RUSSIANS? SERIOUSLY...?
...said the Justice Department’s ongoing investigation of
Branch and Loveless “has not impacted the Navy’s ability to manage operations.”
* CLEARLY CUTLER IS A FOOL.
She said the two still perform managerial duties while
their civilian and military deputies handle the classified aspects of their
jobs.
(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)
Branch and Loveless declined interview requests placed
through the Navy.
In addition to serving as chief of Navy intelligence,
Branch holds the title of the Navy’s chief information officer, oversees the
Navy’s 55,000-member Information Dominance Corps and is in charge of many
cybersecurity programs.
Privately, some Navy leaders acknowledged that dealing
with the fallout from the Justice Department’s investigation has been a
nightmare, and that they never anticipated the case would drag on so long.
“We had the understanding that this was going to resolve
itself pretty quickly,” said a senior Navy official, who spoke on the condition
of anonymity to avoid antagonizing federal prosecutors. “We have no actionable
information on Admiral Branch, good, bad or otherwise. All we know is that he’s
wrapped up in this somehow.”
* THE NAVY IS RUN BY INCOMPETENTS... THE JUSTICE
DEPARTMENT IS RUN BY INCOMPETENTS...
* SO... WHO ARE YOU PICKING FOR THE SUPERBOWL?
“Until these things resolve themselves, we’re kind of
frozen,” the senior official added. “Is it optimum? No, it’s not optimum. But
it’s where we are.”
Branch has long been a star in the Navy’s officer corps.
A fighter pilot by training, he has flown combat missions over Grenada,
Lebanon, the Balkans and Iraq. He’s perhaps best known for his leading role in
a 10-part PBS documentary, “Carrier,” an inside account of life aboard the
world’s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Nimitz, which he commanded in 2005.
In July 2013, he was promoted to become a three-star
admiral and director of naval intelligence. But he would soon become hamstrung
in the job.
* HAMSTRUNG... BUT NOT REMOVED... MEANING THE JOB ITSELF
GETS HAMSTRUNG!
About the same time, the Naval Criminal Investigative
Service and the Justice Department were intensifying an investigation of Glenn
Defense Marine Asia, a Singapore-based firm that had resupplied U.S. Navy
vessels at Asian ports for a quarter century. The company’s chief executive,
Leonard Glenn Francis, was lured to the United States in a sting operation and
was arrested at a San Diego hotel. A large and charismatic man known as “Fat Leonard,”
he was charged with running a bribery scheme and defrauding the Navy of more
than $20 million.
Several Navy officials were arrested, including a senior
NCIS agent who confessed to feeding inside information to Francis for years.
* GEEZUS...
As the case unfolded in federal court, prosecutors
described in astonishing detail how Francis had bribed Navy officers with
prostitutes, cash-stuffed envelopes, lavish hotel stays, spa treatments, and
epicurean dinners featuring champagne, Cuban cigars, Kobe beef and Spanish
suckling pigs. In exchange, prosecutors said, some Navy officials provided
Francis with classified information and steered Navy vessels to ports he
controlled so he could overcharge the U.S. government for fuel, food, water and
other supplies.
(*PURSED LIPS*)
The investigation escalated quickly as federal agents
traced Francis’s interactions with hundreds of Navy personnel over the previous
decade.
On Nov. 8, 2013, late on a Friday night, the Navy
announced that Branch and Loveless had been swept up in the case.
The Navy gave no details about what they were alleged to
have done.
Although the Navy said there was no evidence that either
admiral had compromised military secrets, it suspended their access to
classified material, saying the move was “prudent given the sensitive nature of
their current duties.”
* Er... WOULDN'T COMMON SENSE DICTATE THAT THEY BE
REASSIGNED TO DUTIES NOT REQUIRING THE HIGHEST SECURITY CLEARANCES...?!?!
(RHETORICAL QUESTION!)
Little information about their predicament has surfaced
since then.
One year later, Branch issued a statement to the Navy
Times in which he said investigators were examining work performed by Glenn
Defense Marine Asia while he served as the commander of the Nimitz. He didn’t
elaborate, but said he looked forward to the end of the inquiry “so that I can
resume in full my service to the Navy and the country.”
* INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY... AND HE MAY WELL BE
INNOCENT... BUT IF THEY'RE GONNA SUSPEND HIS HIGH LEVEL SECURITY CLEARANCES
THEN HE SHOULDN'T BE IN A JOB WHERE SUCH CLEARANCES ARE NEEDED!
Justice Department officials declined to answer questions
about their scrutiny of Branch or to discuss why the inquiry has taken so long.
* WE KNOW THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT IS TOTALLY POLITICIZED.
“This remains an active, ongoing investigation that
covers conduct that spans more than a decade and involves a massive amount of
evidence, multiple countries, tens of millions of dollars in fraud, and
millions of dollars in bribes and gifts to scores of U.S. Navy officials,” Laura
Duffy, the U.S. attorney in San Diego, said in a statement.
A source close to the investigation said more than 100
Navy personnel and other people remain under investigation for potential
criminal, financial or ethical violations.
“The sheer number of people involved here is
extraordinary,” the source said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because
the case is ongoing.
* IS OBAMA "CULLING" THE MILITARY?
A second source close to the investigation said that Branch
met Francis 16 years ago, when Branch was the executive officer of the aircraft
carrier USS John C. Stennis, and that the pair stayed in regular contact. The
source said Francis has also known Loveless for many years, dating to his
deployments in Asia as an intelligence officer aboard the aircraft carrier USS
Kitty Hawk and as intelligence chief for the Navy’s 7th Fleet, based in Japan.
Although it is against federal ethics regulations to
accept gifts from contractors, the Justice Department is focusing on Navy
personnel who in turn did Francis’s bidding by sharing inside information or
enabling him to overcharge the government.
“Some guys were just having a good time on Leonard’s
dime,” the second source close to the investigation said. “Other guys were
passing on classified information.”
Prosecutors have suggested that more arrests are likely.
Seven defendants, including Francis, have pleaded guilty
so far in federal court.
Federal corruption charges also are pending against a
Navy commander and a senior Pentagon civilian.
In addition, a former Navy contracting official living in
Singapore was arrested there last month.
The extent of the scandal has been deeply humiliating for
the Navy. Last week, at the sentencing of an enlisted sailor who forked over
military secrets in exchange for cash and electronic gadgets, Rear Adm.
Jonathan A. Yuen, the chief of the Navy Supply Corps, said he was mortified by
the revelations in court.
“I do not have the words to express the depth of the
betrayal,” Yuen testified. “No amount of money is worth betraying our nation,
our Navy or our shipmates.”
In addition to those facing criminal prosecution by the
Justice Department, the Navy has been investigating an unspecified number of
people suspected of violating military regulations. In February, for instance,
the Navy officially censured three admirals for dining at “extravagant”
banquets and accepting other gifts from Francis when they were assigned to the
USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier strike group a decade ago.
With Loveless’s status in limbo, the Navy transferred him
to another position in December 2014.
As the corporate director for information dominance, he
still works for Navy intelligence. But he deals primarily with issues that
don’t require a security clearance, such as personnel and training, officials
said.
* "INFORMATION DOMINANCE," HUH? (AND JUST OUT
OF CURIOSITY... DO WE HAVE "INFORMATION DOMINANCE?")
(*SMIRK*)
The Navy has twice taken steps to replace Branch as well,
but for reasons that remain unclear, hasn’t gone through with it.
(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)
In November 2014, the Navy prepared a nomination package
for Rear Adm. Elizabeth Train to become the service’s intelligence head. But
her promotion was put on hold after someone filed a complaint against her with
the Navy inspector general.
* "SOMEONE..."
Details of the complaint couldn’t be learned...
* AND... WHY NOT...?!?!
...but Pentagon officials said Train was cleared of
wrongdoing by the inspector general. Her nomination was finally sent to the
Senate Armed Services Committee in September. Nothing has happened since.
Pentagon officials said that her nomination has been placed on the back burner
and that she’s not scheduled for promotion until July, although they declined
to explain why.
(*SNORT*)
* FOLKS... YOU DO UNDERSTAND... "SNORTS"
ASIDE... NONE OF THIS IS "FUNNY."
Such a delay could work in Branch’s favor. If he remains
in his current job until July, he will have enough service time to qualify to
retire as a vice admiral. If forced to leave before then, it’s more likely that
he would have to retire at a lower rank as a two-star admiral, with a smaller
pension.
The senior Navy official disputed that Branch’s rank and
retirement eligibility was influencing the timetable to replace him. “That has
not been a factor whatsoever,” the official said.
Even if Branch were cleared of wrongdoing by the Justice
Department and the Navy tomorrow, he would face a much longer wait to regain
access to military secrets.
* FOLKS... INCOMPETENCE... CORRUPTION... AMERIKA 2016...
Pentagon officials said his security clearance would have
to be restored by a separate arm of the bureaucracy — the Defense Department’s
Central Adjudication Facility — in a process that usually takes months.
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