Hey, Presto! Where did it go?
Last Friday NRO ran my article, “Questions for the Pentagon: Who Is Hesham Islam?” The article raised questions about some of the stories recounted in a glowing profile, dated Oct. 15, on the Defense Department web site, featuring a top Pentagon aide, Hesham Islam.
Instead of answering the questions, the Pentagon appears to have disappeared the profile.Today, the entire web page, complete with photo of Islam in his office and lavish praise from his boss, Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England, appears to have simply vanished from the DoD site. What was previously a link to the article (click on the second link listed here) is now a link to current news articles (no Hesham Islam), and the profile seems to have disappeared even from the October 15 archives.
As of this writing a cached version can still be found on Google. Lest it disappear from the face of the earth, here’s a copy of the original in pdf format, and here it is saved as a web page. This is an Armed Forces Press Service article which the Pentagon until recently appeared only too happy to publicize as DoD gospel.
What’s going on? I phoned the Pentagon to ask, following more than a week of trying to get answers prior to publishing the story last Friday about the mysteries surrounding this top aide, whom Gordon England, number two man at the Pentagon, described last year (that link has not yet disappeared) as his “personal close confidante.” No answers yet. Once again: Who’s running this show?
Note: The Administration seems to be having a busy month at the Memory Hole. Over at State, they’ve disappeared Jay Lefkowitz’s sterling speech on North Korea. Now, awkward questions still unanswered, flash! goes the neuralizer at the Pentagon (hat tip to Men in Black). Let’s try that one more time. Seriously, who’s running this show?
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21 Comments
1. BLOC:Wow!
Am I impressed!
When you latch onto something, you get results, even if those are nothing more than the rats scurrying for their holes!
Which is a huge message in and of itself.
Don’t let this one go, Claudia (silly me . . . as if . . .)
Jan 28, 2008 - 7:18 pm 2. robert ferrigno:Wonderful work. You’d almost think they were trying to hide something.
Jan 28, 2008 - 7:31 pm 3. Chuck Pelto:TO: Claudia Rosett
RE: The ‘Memory Hole’ Experience
“Now, awkward questions still unanswered, flash! goes the neuralizer at the Pentagon….” — Claudia Rosett
Actually….
….it think it more closely resembles the History Eraser Button vis-a-vis Ren and Stimpy…..
….zzzzZZZBANG!!!!
Regards,
Chuck(le)
[Will he resist pressing the bright, candy-colored button??!?!?!?
.....zzzzzZZZBANG!!!!]
P.S. I guess not….
Jan 28, 2008 - 7:34 pm 4. Rix:We have always been at war with EastAsia.
Jan 28, 2008 - 7:34 pm 5. bourne2y:Winston Smith.
It was Winston Smith.
Jan 28, 2008 - 8:05 pm 6. Eric Blair:The cinematic reference is apt, but it’s deneuralizer, not neuralizer.
Jan 28, 2008 - 8:19 pm 7. JAL:You, Ms. Rosett, are one of the reasons I still have hope for journalism.
Your persistance and keen nose for the real stories are refreshing, encouraging, and a challenge to the sloppy world of opinion and slanted journalism we now live in.
Bravo.
And we thank you.
Jan 28, 2008 - 8:31 pm 8. ZZMike:It’s so much easier nowadays than it was in the old Soviet Union, where they had to mess with their loose-leaf binder history books.
Google cache must surely be a National Security Issue.
Jan 28, 2008 - 8:32 pm 9. reliapundit:to defeat the jihadist enemy abroad, we must first defeat the leftists at home.
and their not just running the democrat party.
they are in key positions within the cia, state, and the pentagon.
plame. islam. and so on.
these institutions are teeming with them.
they do the hiring. aid their cronies - and stab the true patriots - like lefkowitz and coughlin - in the back.
GOD BLESS YOU CLAUDIA, FOR EXPOSING THEM.
with chicks like you, ultimately we can’t lose.
Jan 28, 2008 - 9:13 pm 10. Dan:Your saved web page version’s file extension has a typo in it, making it a pain to view.
Jan 28, 2008 - 10:48 pm 11. PD Quig:This is flat out frightening. Who is this England chap? And what kind of pictures does Mr. Islam have?
Jan 28, 2008 - 11:18 pm 12. Alan Zimmerman:This is so sad.
Where are we going and what are we doing.
This country could be in a spiral- downward.
Thank you for your reporting.
Where is MSM? Nowhere.
Jan 29, 2008 - 12:58 am 13. Dave:Funny thing is that on the saved web page the links to the high resolution images at the bottom still work.
Jan 29, 2008 - 7:28 am 14. Paul Green:This is why I always print out items of interest when doing research on the Internet.
“In the WOT [War On Terror], it is the non-kinetic phase of jihad that presents the greatest long-term challenge for the United States.”
– The Coughlin Thesis, p.221
Jan 29, 2008 - 12:23 pm 15. el Vaquero:Very disturbing but thank you Ms. Rossett for all your great work and the Blg Sphere for the virtual memory! Never ever trust a Leftist.
Jan 29, 2008 - 12:28 pm 16. Chip:Great work again. Imagine a world where a journalist other than Claudia Rosett goes after the important but non-MSM-narrative-endorsing stories. Here we have the loyal Muslims in the military just like you and me, and apple pie, story being put to the test and failing yet again. No grenades were rolled this time thankfully.
Jan 29, 2008 - 12:33 pm 17. Paul Green:Here’s the link at which Hesham Islam’s Naval Postgraduate School thesis may be accessed and printed, in case they take that down, too:
http://stinet.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA257328&Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf
Jan 29, 2008 - 12:50 pm 18. AV:Great work Claudia! Read this “sinking ship.” I wonder if the Pentagon machine has thought to investigate the obvious.
http://opinionminion.blogspot.com/
Jan 29, 2008 - 2:15 pm 19. epaminondas:Give those IDIOTS hell, Ms Rosett and “make’em like it”.
What really amazes me is that they ACTUALLY might have thought that if this went missing it would be a plus of some kind.
Get the cached version, copy it to Word people, and print it to pdf and then email it ad infinitum.
Jan 30, 2008 - 5:34 am 20. Rubicon:Ooohrah Ms. Rosett. This is real investigative journalism that the American public expects & looks for. Unfortunately today, only a few actually practice this craft, & among those Ms. Rosett, you are at the pinnacle of performance.
Feb 3, 2008 - 1:08 pm 21. Anonymous:The UN has been able to obfuscate & evade because no one at State or the administration holds them accountable for their criminal activities.
Actions like this proves our government does not even hold their own or themselves accountable. Stuff like this is why America is in the fine mess we are in today!
Keep at it Ms. Rosett, among average Americans, it is YOU who are the Pulitzer performer.
Pentagon Aide’s Invitations Contradicted U.S. Policy
At the urging of a subordinate, Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England scheduled at least two meetings with foreign emissaries in direct contradiction of U.S. policy at the time. The meetings date back to 2005. They involved a Lebanese ambassador
Feb 4, 2008 - 6:51 pm