Patrick McHenry, His Green Zone Video and the Deaths of a Colonel and 2 Troops

Submitted by lauraroslin on Wed, 04/09/2008 - 6:24pm.

On Saturday, March 22, Congressman Patrick McHenry insulted the troops by berating a guard working in the Green Zone.
On Friday, April 4th, McHenry endangered the troops by posting a video on his website that gave actual distances of how close rockets came to hitting the building that lawmakers were sleeping in.
On Sunday, April 6, a Colonel and two other troops were killed in the U.S. Embassy's fitness facility Sunday when a mortar round crashed into the building.

Pentagon tells lawmaker not to air Green Zone video again
By Lisa Zagaroli | McClatchy Newspapers
Posted on Tuesday, April 8, 2008 WASHINGTON — The Pentagon told a North Carolina lawmaker Tuesday that he couldn’t re-air a video he'd shot in Baghdad after accusations surfaced that he breached operational security in detailing enemy rocket attacks.

Rep. Patrick McHenry, a Republican, traveled to Iraq with other lawmakers for the first time on March 22. The video was the second incident stemming from that trip that has drawn unwanted attention to McHenry. Earlier, he was criticized for berating a guard in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone for not allowing him into a gym there because the congressman did not have the proper identification credential.

The new criticism stems from a video that was featured on his Web site last Friday. Shot in the Green Zone, it showed McHenry gesturing to a building behind him and saying that one of 11 rockets “hit just over my head.” Then he named two other places struck by the rockets.

A U.S. Colonel and Two Other GIs Were Killed in a Mortar Attack on the Green Zone on Sunday, While They Were Exercising in the Fitness Facility of the U.S. Embassy

Colonel is only the 9th of his rank to be killed in Iraq
By CHRISTOPHER LEONARD
(Published April 09, 2008)
ST. LOUIS — Family members are mourning an Army colonel who had worked at Redstone Arsenal in Alabama and who is only the ninth solider of his rank to have been killed in the Iraq war.

Col. Stephen Scott died Sunday during a mortar attack on facilities inside the protected Green Zone in Baghdad, which houses the U.S. Embassy....
Scott, a member of the Huntsville Track Club and an avid runner, was on a treadmill in the U.S. Embassy's fitness facility Sunday when a mortar round crashed into the building, killing him and two other soldiers, King said.

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It just gets sadder and sadder.

Submitted by James Protzman on Wed, 04/09/2008 - 6:26pm.

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Jerimee's picture

Help Daniel Johnson

Submitted by Jerimee on Wed, 04/09/2008 - 8:51pm.

Can yall help spread the word on Daniel Johnson on Daily Kos? DJ on DK if you will?

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/4/9/142151/7514/475/492780

Yall know we can get rid of McHenry. Word on the street is that some of the folks here helped get rid of Charles Taylor.

Daniel Johnson for Congress

Just cut and paste the text below to spread the love:

<a href="http://www.danieljohnson08.org/">Daniel Johnson for Congress</a>

- - - - -
McCain - The Third Bush Term

I tried.

Submitted by Linda on Thu, 04/10/2008 - 1:01pm.

It's like wading into a cesspool over there. I won't participate in anti-gay slurs just to get someone elected when the real story is that this man is a traitor.

Be the change you wish to see in the world. --Gandhi
Pointing at Naked Emperors

Jim Sheaves's picture

And we all know that...

Submitted by Jim Sheaves on Thu, 04/10/2008 - 12:06pm.

If it had been a Democrat that did what the little attack poodle did, the rethugs would be screaming bloody murder and be demanding not only his resignation, but for him to be charged with treason for giving information to the enemy. But since we all know that IOKIYAR, I doubt anything will ever come of it. The GOP outrage over Geraldo doing the same thing doesn't count since we all know that was just part of the 'liberal media' wanting the the 'tarrahists to win' (tm GWB/GOP).

Now that being said, DM at VeVoice writes this:

Here's an interesting question: Could Congressman McHenry be prosecuted for violating a portion of the Espionage Act (codified at 18 U.S.C. § 793)?

Section 793(d) states that "Whoever, lawfully having possession of, access to, control over, or being entrusted with any ... information relating to the national defense which information the possessor has reason to believe could be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of any foreign nation, willfully communicates, delivers, transmits or causes to be communicated, delivered, or transmitted ... the same to any person not entitled to receive it ... [shall be fined or imprisoned not more than 10 years.]"

What does all this mean? It looks to me like, within the meaning of the statute, McHenry had lawful access to national defense information (the location of the indirect fire impacts) and delivered that information to people not entitled to receive it. However, it's not clear that he acted with the requisite state of mind. A prosecutor would probably have to prove that McHenry knew the release of this information would be unlawful and didn't believe he was acting to advance U.S. interests. I suppose this would depend on a lot of things, particularly on whether or not McHenry was briefed by DoD at some point prior to the recording that this type of information was sensitive and on whether DoD was present at the recording and gave McHenry the green light to proceed.

http://www.vetvoice.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=981

Politicians are like diapers. They should be changed frequently, and for the same reasons.

Attack Poodle....that's it! You've nailed McHenry!

Submitted by Betsy Muse on Fri, 04/11/2008 - 7:24am.

That's the perfect description for Patrick McHenry. He's an attack poodle.

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