Army: Gen. Caldwell’s Accuser Had No Psy-Ops Training

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Wall Street Journal:

An Army officer who accused a top general in Afghanistan of using “psychological operations” against visiting lawmakers in an article in Rolling Stone magazine was not trained in the military specialty, Defense Department officials said.

The U.S. Army’s Special Operations Command announced Friday that their special warfare center has no record of training Lt. Col. Michael Holmes in “psychological operations.”

In an interview, Lt. Col. Holmes said he received training in information operations and how to use the psychological operation techniques but never claimed to have been trained as a psy-ops officer.

Psychological operations involve trying to influence foreign audiences. Unlike personnel trained in public affairs who are required to be truthful at all times, psy-ops and information operations officers are allowed to use deception.

The military command in Afghanistan announced Thursday it would investigate the charges made by Lt. Col. Holmes in the Rolling Stone article against Lt. Gen. William Caldwell, who oversees the training of the Afghan Security forces.

Although the senior officers in Afghanistan asked members of the military to refrain from discussing the case, officers speaking privately rallied to the defense of Gen. Caldwell on Friday.

Several officers said that almost immediately after taking command, Gen. Caldwell determined it was inappropriate for a training command to try engage in information operations or try to influence any audiences with deception or other psychological operations techniques.

Military officers said that following that decision, Lt. Col. Holmes was reassigned to a strategic communications team that was tasked, in part, prepare the command for visits by congressional delegations.

Col. Holmes said he was asked to prepare background briefings on how to persuade congressional delegations on the importance of the training mission. But asking an officer trained in information operations to do the job of a public affairs officer is improper and illegal, Lt. Col. Holmes said.

“What they wanted me to do is figure out what we had to say to a congressional delegation or think tank group to get them to agree with us,” he said. “Honestly this is pretty innocuous stuff. If I was a public affairs officer, it wouldn’t be that bad.”

Lt. Col. Holmes compared the request to asking a CIA officer to investigate a criminal in the U.S. It would be illegal for the intelligence officer to do tasks that are perfectly appropriate for a regular police officer.

But a military officer who served with Lt. Col. Holmes and under Gen. Caldwell said the accusation is baseless, and that the officer was specifically told not to use information operations techniques. The officer declined to allow his name to be used because the command in Afghanistan has asked people not to discuss the case.

“I don’t know of any regulation that would say someone trained in info ops or psy-ops couldn’t put together a briefing packet,” said the officer who served with Lt. Col. Holmes. “There wasn’t any subliminal messages here. It was just look at what issues a lawmaker was championing so we can get our message out.”

Lt. Col. Holmes said at least one order he had been given, on March 22, was illegal. But he acknowledged that last year the Department of Defense inspector general told him they had not found enough evidence to examine his allegations.
________

Sounds like a disgruntled desk jockey who wanted attention.