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| Unsuccessful intrigue? One friend in high places vs. the rest of the DoD |
| 2008-01-11 |
| From the Washington Times Inside the Ring gossip columnist. The reporter is having great fun stirring the pot. This article should be commented as if it were a mixed martial arts fight, but I'm not quite sure how to do that. So I've just bolded the names of those lining up against the deputy defense secretary, poor man. Note also the reporter's choice of adjectives and the services the various people mentioned belong to. Some Pentagon and military leaders, along with lots of working-level officials, are quietly rallying to support ousted Joint Staff counterterrorism analyst Stephen Coughlin. Pentagon officials said a number of generals and admirals who share Mr. Coughlin's well-reasoned assessment of the Islamic law underpinnings of Islamist terror are voicing support for the lawyer and former military intelligence official. Mr. Coughlin was fired last month as a Joint Staff contractor after his confrontation with Hasham Islam, a special assistant to Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England. Mr. Islam, a Muslim, referred to Mr. Coughlin as a "Christian zealot with a pen" during the meeting several weeks ago. Critics of Mr. Coughlin are spreading word — falsely — that he is being let go because he talked out of school to the press. One official suggested the action was due to budget cuts. But defense and military officials supportive of Mr. Coughlin said the real reason is that critics, like Mr. Islam want him sidelined because they oppose his hard-to-refute views on the relationship between Islamic law and Islamist jihad doctrine. Those views have triggered a harsh debate challenging the widespread and politically correct view of Islam as a religion of peace hijacked by extremists. "Steve Coughlin is the most knowledgeable person in the U.S. government on Islamic law," said retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerney. "The secretary of defense should ensure that he stays at DOD." Another booster is Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Samuel Helland, commanding general of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Corps, who said in November that Mr. Coughlin's briefing for Marines bound for Iraq "hit the mark in explaining how jihadists use the Koran to justify their actions." Army Lt. Col. Joseph C. Myers, commandant's Army adviser at the Air Force Air Command and Staff College in Alabama, said in a letter posted on the Internet that the Joint Staff is losing its only Islamic law scholar if the firing stands. Col. Myers said Mr. Coughlin should continue to educate the military for the war on terrorism. "If we don't understand the war and the enemy we are engaged against, we remain vulnerable and we cannot win," he stated. Unlike during the Cold War, when Soviet war-fighting doctrine dominated his education at West Point, "can anyone show me where the equivalent of the Soviet threat doctrine series for the global war on terror is published?" he asked. "It has not been done." Col. Myers said the military is fighting a war that "from doctrinal perspective, we fundamentally do not understand." Mr. Myers also stated that U.S. counterintelligence failures should lead people to "wonder and question the extent we are in fact penetrated in government and academia by foreign agents of influence, the Muslim Brotherhood, Islamists and those who truly in essence do not share our social compact." The firing of Joint Staff counterterrorism analyst Stephen Coughlin also is having a negative impact throughout the U.S. intelligence and counterterrorism community. Analysts are watching closely to see if the firing of the Islamic law specialist over his views of the Islamist law basis for extremism will be allowed to stand and thus hamper the production of honest intelligence analysis of terrorist threats throughout the 16-agency community. "The analyst now sees two threats to their work: the enemy and the uninformed policy-maker," said one analyst. |
| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #5 ION, TOPIX > BLOOMBERG - CHINA, USA MAKE PLANS FOR [military]INTERVENTION IN CASE OF NORTH KOREAN COLLAPSE. Not just CHINA anymore, but USA-SOKORS as well - EOY 2007 US Army making contingency plans, to include for SOKOR OCCUPATION OF NORTH KOREA, ESPEC AS PER ANTICIPATED REFUGEE FLOWS + FOOD, etc. MULTILATERAL APPROACH [US-CHINA-Intern] PREFERRED. BUSAN ILBO OP-ED > THE COMING NORTH KOREAN COLLAPSE - SERIOUS RISKS FOR ASIA? You-know-what will likely hit the fan, from NOKOR as a de facto new "GAZA STRIP/PALEOS" in Asia = UNO-UNSC HEADACHE, to US-CHINA KOREAN WAR 2 scenario. YEAR 2010 OR EARLIER [read - now]. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2008-01-11 23:24 |
| #4 Mr. Islam, a Muslim This alone is worth the price of admission. |
| Posted by: Excalibur 2008-01-11 18:31 |
| #3 I suspect that there is more to the story than meets the eye. Coughlin might have had a tendency to color his briefings with inappropriate dialogue, which is a nice way of saying that he is either obnoxious, abrasive, annoying, or kooky. These are far more likely to get you fired. I have met plenty of civilian experts in the military who were quite intelligent, but would let their guard slip every now and then and start ranting about UFOs or whatever. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2008-01-11 18:05 |
| #2 This reminds me of the smoker who read that smoking was bad for his health..... ... so he quit reading! |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2008-01-11 16:26 |
| #1 If I were Stephen Coughlin, I would write a book and go on to a successful carreer as a public speaker. There. he can make more money and deliver his knowledge to the people who can actually make a difference. Those people being The People. |
| Posted by: Mike N. 2008-01-11 14:26 |