SURPRISE!! Rolling Stone comments weren't McChrystal's

According to the Army Times; and in fact, they say that Rolling Stone "lied" to the people who did give the comments in question (Wow.. media lying to make a splash!  Yet another "SURPRISE!")

The impolitic comments that torpedoed Gen. Stan McChrystal’s career were “almost all” made by his most junior staff — men who “make tea, keep the principal on time and carry bags” — who had no reason to believe their words would end up in print, according to a staff member who was on the trip to Europe during which the comments were made.

Two other sources familiar with the trip, including Air Force Lt. Col. Tadd Sholtis, McChrystal’s personal spokesman, said the quotes that appeared in a Rolling Stone article that got McChrystal in trouble were made in “off-the-record” settings.

All three sources also accused Rolling Stone of publicly misrepresenting its communications with McChrystal’s headquarters after the story had been reported but before it went to print. E-mails obtained by Army Times appear to support the McChrystal side’s version of events.

I've had my doubts about the claims that the comments were by McChrystal (and I'm sure there were a few who thought the same way), and that there was no way McChrystal would make the comments that were attributed to him about President Obama.


But even many on the right were ready to throw McChrystal to the wolves over the 'comments'.  But even the Army Times notes that "only a few of the quotes were attributed to McChrystal himself:".

Yes, I know that a commander is represented by the troops under him and these JG's got McChrystal in trouble, but I don't think the military is still taking too kindly Rolling Stone anymore.

 But although Hastings describes the personnel on the Paris trip as “the most powerful force shaping U.S. policy in Afghanistan,” the people he quoted in the article were mostly junior personnel who have no significant role in advising McChrystal, a source who was on the Paris trip told Army Times. “Almost all the offending quotes ... were, in fact, from conversations with the most junior people on the trip,” the source said.

 In other words, McChrystal got tossed because people who were NOT responsible for the policies of Afghanistan were taken from "off-the-record" to "being put on the record".   IN other words, Rolling Stone _lied_ and McChrystal got "fired" for it.   But unlike the despicable Rolling Stone author:

But McChrystal was not blaming his men for his downfall. Nor has he denied that any of the remarks was made. “He’s a military commander and he will take responsibility for anything that his men do, and that’s ultimately what he’s done,” the source said. “But keep in mind McChrystal did not make the offending remarks quoted in the article.”

No matter who uttered the quotes, by using them, Hastings violated ground rules that public affairs personnel had established with him, said a senior military official familiar with the trip.

All I have to say is that General, you definitely have my respect for standing up and taking one for your idiotic JG staff members... and I think they realize what they got sucker-punched with..

Members of McChrystal’s inner circle are also furious at what they perceive as Rolling Stone’s false account of events leading up to the publication of Hastings’ article.

In his June 22 appearance on “Morning Joe,” when asked if McChrystal’s staff had known “this was coming for some time,” Bates, the Rolling Stone editor, answered, “Yes.”

“We ran everything by them in our fact-checking process, as we always do, so I think they had a sense of what was coming, but this was all on the record and they spent a lot of time with our reporter, so I think they knew that they had said it.”

These comments infuriated those at ISAF headquarters in Kabul. Army Times obtained a copy of the questions that Rolling Stone’s fact-checker sent to ISAF headquarters, along with Boothby’s replies. None of the questions discusses the controversial aspects of the article, nor are any of the quotes that cost McChrystal his job included.

“We first learned about sensitive content in the article when reporters called who had received advance copies four days prior to actual newsstand deliver,” Sholtis said. Two days later, McChrystal was gone, leaving the men quoted anonymously in the article to rue their actions.

“Those guys are mortified now, because they privately are aware probably of who said what and of the ultimate consequences of those words,” said the source who was on the trip. “A number of us ... feel that we have let perhaps the greatest military mind of his generation down in a deeply, deeply personal way and that we have somehow even jeopardized the greater mission.”

If you're a reporter from the Rolling Stone (and we already know how far left leaning they are to start with), I'd be pretty damn sure I don't get caught downrange from rifle practice if I were you with any imbedded military reporting.