A post from…somebody

UPDATE: So upon further investigation, I have been unable to find this post genuinely originating from Dan Rather. Furthermore, the guy on Facebook who originally posted it took it down after I wrote him and asked him where he had gotten it from. He too, it turned out, had gotten it from Facebook, so at this point I have zero idea who wrote it (although Dan Rather seems unlikely.)

However enough of this has been verified as being true that, screw it, I’m going to leave it up and you can judge for yourselves. The only thing we don’t have absolutely nailed down is whether they abandoned Johnson or not. The military says they didn’t. But they also told the widow she couldn’t have an open casket ceremony, which seems to insinuate some stuff. As I said, judge for yourselves:

“While everyone is so busy talking about Trump’s handling of his call to the widow of the soldier killed in Niger, you’re all missing the important part of that story — the part about what happened that night in Niger.

Here’s what we know so far:

These soldiers went to a meeting in an area near the border with Mali. This is a well known hot spot for ISIS activity.

Our soldiers were not backed up by US Military air support. No, they were backed up by the French, who were not authorized to intervene or even fire a shot.

Our soldiers did not have armored vehicles. They traveled in pickup trucks.

Our soldiers were given faulty intel that said “it was unlikely that they would meet any hostile forces.” Of course, they walked into an ISIS ambush. It was chaotic and they took three casualties.

It took the French 30 minutes to arrive. When they did, they were not authorized to help. So, a dozen of our Green Berets fought a battle with more than 50 ISIS fighters, without help, for 30 minutes.

Finally, a rescue helicopter arrived, but it was not a US military helicopter. No, we apparently outsourced that job to “private contractors.” So, these contractors landed and loaded the remaining troops, the injured and the dead.

Here’s where this gets really bad ….

Because they were not military, they never did a head count. That is how Sgt. La David Johnson was left behind.

That’s right …. they left him behind.

According to the Pentagon, his locator beacon was activated on the battlefield, which indicates that he was alive when they left him there.

They recovered his body 48 hours later, but are refusing to say where. According to his widow, she was told that she could not have an open casket funeral. This indicates that he was mutilated after being left behind on the battlefield.

This is what led to the nonsense we’re obsessing over. This is the real story. As usual, you’re allowing it to be about Trump’s distraction.

The Trump Pentagon gave these men bad intel, no support, outsourced rescue people and then tried for more than a week to pretend it never happened.

In that time, Trump spoke on many occasions and never mentioned it. He tweeted attacks on many but never mentioned these men.

Only after pressure from the media has he bothered to even acknowledge these men and their service.”

Since I was one of the ones who fell for the distraction, I felt I should share this.

PAD

64 comments on “A post from…somebody

    1. I have literally heard virtually nothing about Niger compared to all the iditos screaming about Benghazi….

      1. How is this even remotely comparable
        to the treason exhibited by Hillary
        and Obama in Benghazi? These soldiers
        had conducted joint patrols in this area 29 times before this without any
        contact with enemy. Nobody saw this coming, they never complained or worried about lack of support that was ignored, as in Benghazi. This kind of stuff HAPPENS when you are engaged in trying to stop a NEW ISIS front being created in Afreaka. Nice try, Trump-derangement people, but no cigar

      2. I love when Trump and the Trumpheads do this. In order to excuse any dûmbášš thing, any lie, any screw up, their reaction is always to point to Obama and Clinton and say, “But they did it too! Or worse!”
        .
        The fact that 28 months of investigations into Benghazi produced nothing never fazes them.
        .
        The fact that years of shouting that Obama wasn’t born in the US never fazes them.
        .
        The fact that their entire philosophy makes NO sense never fazes them. And it really doesn’t make sense. Because if you hate someone as much as Trump hates Obama and Clinton, your objective should be to try and be superior to them. To do things better than they did. To present them as the bar that you should be easily able to clear. But no. Trump and his supporters always, ALWAYS try to gain support by making (typically false) claims about stuff that Obama and Clinton did in order to excuse their own idiocies. Every time. It’s their reflex. Trump gets criticized, so quickly, try to deflect by bringing up Obama and Clinton. The best were the ones who claimed that Obama did nothing to help the survivors of Hurricane Katrina, apparently forgetting that Bush was the President at the time.
        .
        What did Trump’s military do or not do? It’s a good question. And I am looking forward to the GOP senate conducting exactly no investigations into it even though, if it were Hillary in the Oval Office, they would already be convening hearings. Because as much as Flake and Corker and McCain may criticize him, the GOP is going to continue to do nothing that would vaguely challenge this idiot.
        .
        PAD

      3. “How is this even remotely comparable
        to the treason exhibited by Hillary
        and Obama in Benghazi?”

        .
        “You’re a imbecilic libtard like all the rest. Benghazi is a TRUE SCANDAL”
        ………………….
        The broken record of the reality denying Cult of Trump. Well, or the Cult of Tea, because, let’s be honest, the devolution of the Republican party under the fact, truth, reality, and intellect & intelligence denying Tea Party influence was likely more responsible for Trump being their chosen one than anything else in the last 20 years.
        .
        Multiple Republican led hearings and investigations into Benghazi ending by debunking every insane claim and talking point the Republican voter base cherished and clung to like a drowning man clinging to a life preserver, but the conservative voter base continued to deny reality and keep regurgitating the cherished lies they preferred to reality.
        .
        That’s why nothing will be done about Trump or his idiocies. It’s not the knee-jerk responses of saying Obama did it or Hillary did it. It’s the total and complete denial of reality by the Cult of Trump.
        .
        I have a cousin who wrote seven or so paragraphs on a post of mine on Facebook today. The post was a link to a news item where the Trump administration was once again caught lying about something; this time it even involved doctored photos. His entire long dissertation was exactly the same type of hogwash he kept writing up all of last year. Trump lies aren’t lies, and even if they are lies, they’re good lies because Trump lies for the good of the country and what’s best for us all because he’s so good, wonderful, selfless, and sacrifices so much for love of country.
        .
        My cousin and Rich are perfect examples of the Trump Cult. Donald Trump could get driven to their homes, walk into their house at dinner time, climb up onto their dinner table, drop his pants, and piss and šhìŧ all over their food and they would rationalize it. Rich would talk about Michelle Obama and school lunches while my cousin would launch into a ten paragraph explanation of Trump’s greatness and self sacrifice in suffering the pain and discomfort of holding everything in on the journey to selflessly stop him from eating wrong since he’s been slacking on getting around to that eating better and losing weight thing. Sure, he would say, it seems vulgar and crass, but you have to understand how much Trump loves us and loves the country and what he’s sacrificing for all of us and the country.
        .
        And they will be like that until the day Trump dies and beyond. And the Republicans that aren’t quitting know that. And the insane šhìŧbágš lining up to primary Republicans who aren’t insane know this. Trump performed better in areas he won than some of the Republicans on the ballots. They’re afraid that if they show any spine when it comes to Trump, the voters like Rich and my cousin will primary them for insane šhìŧbágš like Roy Moore who will out crazy Trump. Not that they’re worried about crazy people taking over the party, they’re just scared of losing their positions of power.

      4. NONE of the following facts were ever debunked:
        the embassy made multiple requests for extra security: FACT. Hillary lied to the American public
        and the families that the attack was over a anti-Islamic video, and she admitted as much to the Egyptian president: FACT. The military was told to suspend rescue operations during the attack: FACT.
        You have nothing at this level of either incompetence at best or mendaciousness at worst in the Trump admin. If you do, let’s have it.
        And… nothing.

      5. And by the way, conservatives don’t give a F@%K about most of the Republican party. They’re RINOs.
        Real conservatives are taking over the party
        All over the world, conservative nationalists are winning Babis in Czech Republic, Orban in Hungary,
        Kurz in Austria. Here in America, Democrats are nothing but LOSERS! Repubs/conservatives hold more state legislatures, governorships, and of course House of Reps and Senate since 1920s. Democrats are trash on the ash heap of history. Americans are waking up. You are nothing but out-of-touch losers that America hates. See, these are facts, not just
        inane, immature liberal name-calling

      6. Do you understand that you don’t get to describe Democrats as “name-calling” in a post where you describe Democrats as trash, losers, inane and immature? Do you understand that Democrats aspire to be better than the best of you whereas you aspire to be worse than the worst of us?
        .
        Not sure why I’m asking. The answer is evident.
        .
        PAD

    2. Tell us, specifically, what the military under Trump
      did wrong, or under the circumstance (29 previous joint patrols with no contact) could have done better. What malfeasance, incompetence, criminal foreknowledge, recklessness or disregard is the administration guilty of. You can’t name one thing
      because all you have is your Trump-derangement syndrome. You’re a imbecilic libtard like all the rest. Benghazi is a TRUE SCANDAL because the administration REPEATEDLY ignored requests for help
      and then lied afterward to the families and the American people about what caused the debacle. You liberals would be funny if you weren’t so pathetic.

      1. It’s skilled propaganda writing.
        .
        While Sgt. Johnson’s supervising NCO and commanding officer spoke for the record, every single quotation thereafter is “anonymous” — the battlefield account, the claim that another member of his squad shot Sgt. Johnson, the alleged letter to his wife calling Donald Trump a racist not mentioned in any other reporting and unable to be seen, all would appear to be just made up.
        .
        Quoting from the Military Times and New York Times and the fact that the piece is written calmly without the usual troll name-calling gives the piece false credibility for the fiction which follows, and the rhyming name with and similar serif title font to the Wall Street Journal add to the feeling of credibility for casual readers likely to quote the text in Facebook and similar social media.
        .
        On top of that, Sgt. Johnson was the only black soldier in the four dead.
        .
        Again, this is skilled propaganda written and published by professionals.
        .
        The Associated Press debunked it here: https://apnews.com/9ff3625d310b479ab7f7a3239c1c8b34

  1. So … can you possibly give me a citation for this quote? I reposted it on Facebook (not from you but from a friend who had posted it without attribution) and I’m getting lots of pushback, both on the truth of it as well as whether Rather actually said it. I’d like to be able to at least confirm that he said it, if not be able to prove what was said.

    Thx!

      1. Hey, Peter David, you STILL HAVEN’T
        listed ONE THING that Trump did wrong
        in the Niger incident. I SPECIFICALL LISTED 3 things Obama/Clinton did wrong in the Benghazi scandal: ignored multiple requests for aid, ordered the military to stand down during an unfolding crisis, lied to families and the American people afterward. Are you going to get around to leveling any specific charges, or are just going to continue to blow hot air, hmm?

      2. ” ordered the military to stand down during an unfolding crisis”
        .
        And Rich resorts to lying like his idol Trump.
        .
        The infamous “stand down” order that neither Obama nor Hillary gave, but that every fûçkwìŧ who voted for Trump still thinks was a real thing despite multiple Republican led investigations proving that to be a talking point lie.
        .
        The alternate reality bubble is strong with this one.

      3. He is the commander-in-chief. It’s his military,
        his administration. Trump’s military hasn’t done anything so incompetent. “The buck stops here.” Remember when a actual responsible president said THAT, not a “community organizer”?

  2. It was posted on Facebook by a gentleman named David Artavia, an associate editor with Advocate magazine, who attributed it to Rather. I had no particular reason to doubt him although I can’t find it on Rather’s Facebook page either.
    .
    PAD

  3. Why did the other Green Berets let the helicopter leave without Johnson. That is just not done. It makes me question this story.

  4. Dear Peter,

    Just went to The Advocate Magazine, and there’s no mention of Dan Rather anywhere. Please either produce the link to the quote itself or remove this post. If you can’t verify it, it isn’t real, and shouldn’t be posted anywhere that someone who wants to be taken seriously should post.

      1. “However enough of this has been verified as being true that, screw it, I’m going to leave it up and you can judge for yourselves”

        This is a flawed approach, Peter. There are so many 100% verified articles out there explaining what happened. If you want your page to be a place where people go for accurate information, why would you leave something up that’s not 100% true?

  5. According to his widow, she was told that she could not have an open casket funeral.
    .
    Why do they get to dictate how a wife conducts a funeral for her husband?

    1. Take time to see the movie from HBO Taking Chance, based on a true story. The young man took a head shot during battle and it was advised that the remains were not suitable for viewing. I wonder if this could be why the widow was not allowed to see her husband.

      1. That might well be. Perhaps congress should hold a hearing for a month or two or twenty-eight to determine all the specifics of this slaughter and why the soldiers were apparently not prepared for it. Which we all know they would if Hillary Clinton were the president so that she could be blamed for it.
        .
        PAD

    2. Quasi quoting SF author and Viet Nam veteran David Drake

      …or your tank runs over a mine made from two 200 pound bombs and your family gets a sealed casket containing 15o pounds of sandbags and instructions not to open it.

  6. ““This might wind up to be Mr. Trump’s Benghazi,” said Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-Florida) during a CNN interview in which she questioned the administration’s competence
    https://www.snopes.com/was-niger-attack-worse-than-benghazi/
    .
    No it won’t.
    .
    Because while Republicans are so morally bankrupt and and vile that they’ll hold, what was it, nine? investigations into something they KNOW is false, the Democrats don’t have the will or decency to to make this something someone has to answer for even if they were to KNOW it is true.

    1. Out of curiosity, exactly how would you propose the Democrats “make this something someone has to answer for” when they DON’T HAVE A MAJORITY TO BRING IT UP ANYWHERE?

      In order for ANY committee to hold ANY hearings, it has to start from the MAJORITY party. The minority members can go to the press all they want but NOTHING will be achieved if the majority doesn’t want to hear it.

      Hey. The Dems could hold their own independent hearings out of committee but nothing would happen as a result. For ANYTHING to make it to the Senate or House floor for a vote, it has to GO THROUGH THE APPROPRIATE APPROVED COMMITTEE. Remember when Sen Warren wanted to read Mrs King’s letter about Jeff Sessions? McConnell invoked a rule (one that had been conveniently ignored on other occasions), forcing Warren to read that letter OUTSIDE THE SENATE CHAMBERS. Oh, the media covered it and it got a lot of talk, but Sessions still got confirmed as Attorney General by a 52-47 vote. Of course, it’s unlikely she would’ve stopped Sessions’ confirmation even if she had read the letter on the Senate floor. (And, the Senate Judiciary Committee vote to send the nomination to the full Senate was an 11-9 party line vote.)

      1. 95% of the media is wacky, Trump-hating leftists. There’s no need for Republicans to open an investigation.
        The rapid left-wing press will do that with no urging whatsoever.

      2. Nothing but a bunch of unhinged Trump-derangement Syndrome leftists clutching their pearls over nothing. The communistsp on this site will never answer questions posed to them; always spinning away. Here’s the question you’ll never answer (try to focus): What is the Trump administration’s fault in the Niger case? There’s plenty of fault to be found in the Obama/Hillary Benghazi fiasco–
        Why were military assets told to stand down during the firefight in Benghazi? Why did Hillary LIE about the cause of the attack? Why were repeated requests from the ambassador for extra security ignored by Hillary’s State Dept? So tell me how President Trump is in ANY WAY likewiseculpable in the Niger incident as Obongo/Clinton were in Benghazi. You’ll never specifically answer my question because YOU CAN’T!

      3. Obongo?
        .
        Ðámņ, Dan (X-Ray? Ben Bradley? Whatever, a dime a dozen idiot trolls), you must be sweating and panicking as much as trump this morning.
        .
        Regurgitating talking points debunked by fact check sites and Republican led investigations and throwing around nae like Obongo?
        .
        I know, I know… Monday morning brought two indictments connected to the Trump campaign and a third person pleading guilty to lying to the FBI when answering questions about campaign contacts with Russians.
        .
        And this is just the beginning.
        .
        Take a deep breath. Breathe into a bag if necessary. It’s not going to get better for the Trumpster Trash any time soon.

      4. By the way…
        .
        Anyone notice that Dan’s post read exactly like Rich’s posts, that Dan seems to be continuing Rich’s comments, and that both of them link to the same type of dead website link?
        .
        Rich/Dan, if you’re going to create puppets to back your comments and make it seem like you’re not just a lone loonie, it helps to not be this stupid with it.

  7. I was a Ranger and Green Beret for twenty-four years. Please don’t endorse this article. PLEASE. There is some false and misleading information coming from this supposed Dan Rather piece. A couple of things: 1) This was a JCET (Joint Combined Exercise Training) mission. Within a JCET, a Special Forces A-Team or ODA (Operational Detachment Alpha) can perform FID (Foreign Internal Defense) Missions. Those missions are designed to lead, train, assist, and advise a host nation’s military and paramilitary units. There are approximately 800 SF/SOF operators in theatre. This was NOT a combat mission. 2) Armored vehicles are NOT a primary asset for SOF troops in a non combat theatre. The use of military vehicles, in certain circumstances, may even be a hindrance or compromise. Nothing abnormal. 3) Close Air Support is not a regular asset for this type of mission, although the coordination of local or foreign nation air assets may be implemented. Contract aviation assets are far from uncommon and are used significantly in these missions. Nothing abnormal. 4) The SF team in question did not receive bad intel. They were ambushed through an unfortunate collusion between the village elder they were working with and the ISIS fighters that attacked the team. 5) The SF team waited one hour after the initial engagement to request a QRF (Quick Reaction Force) response. This played out to be a deadly decision.Their reasons are unknown at this time. As a general rule, if you feel that you can return fire and gain fire superiority, you wouldn’t initially request a QRF package. 6) What makes special forces missions so dangerous is that we are inserted into austere environments where there’s a potential for anything. Our A teams require a level of knowledge, resilience, planning, and vigilance in the most unconventional of settings. It is not a job for everyone. A risk benefit analysis will always have an inherent risk for SF teams. 7) Sgt La David Johnson was NOT a Green Beret. He was a support team member functioning as Wheeled Vehicle Mechanic and Driver. There is absolutely NO information available for the press corps concerning his actions or his postmortem location at this time, Only speculation. To say he was left behind is irresponsible and the current timeline does not support him being callously left behind. The fact checkers are now saying that Dan Rather has no affiliation with this piece. Whoever did write this is using supposition, and conjecture to paint his or her own narrative of what happened. This is bad journalism and disrespectful to those men and women have served or died in AFRICOM. ~SN

    1. No disrespect intended, but onscreen this mass of text with no breaks is virtually impossible to read.
      .
      Important rule:

      Mister Paragraph is your friend

      1. Mike Weber, thbn copy and paste Mr. Benzschawel’s comment into you favorite text editor or word processor, and make your own line breaks/carriage returns because what he wrote is perfectly understandable, with a high certainty of probability
        .
        Some things don’t ring true, even though you don’t have the evidence to see.
        .
        Some things do ring true, even though you don’t have the evidence to see.

        This is the latter.

    1. For the third time? Seriously? Three times people put up the same Snopes reference? People, please READ what other people say before you chime in.
      .
      PAD

  8. The earliest source I’ve seen on social media not attributing it to someone else is by a guy named Bob Lamb (profile photo is that of Muhammad Ali) on Facebook on October 18th.
    .
    Don’t know that it’s his, but it predates most search results that get hits for passages from the piece.

    1. Muhammad Ali is popular for FB fake profile photos. He was used on one which made a brazen public 419 fraud comment to a Sir Richard Branson post the day before yesterday as I write this.

      (He owns this land north of Paris, see, a perfect location for a theme park or hotel/recreation complex or megamall, or any combination of these; he’ll manage it, all SRB has to do is put up the money and sit back….)

      1. I mistyped, it was a comment to Sir Richard Branson, not to a Sir Richard Branson, as if there were several from which to choose.

      2. I’m going to stop commenting now, as I just tripped over my fingers again. My apology.

  9. Your house, your call. But I will say that looking at the ramblings of a nutcase who cites the rise of extremists, bigots, and racists as his example of real Republicans and people who aren’t insane áššhølëš as RINOs lost its comedy value for me some time ago now.

  10. Consider this notice to all Hillary bashers and Trump idiots: If your postings get hung up to be moderated, I’m done okaying them. They’re going straight into the trash. Twenty eight months of investigations into her proved nothing and I’m fed up with you quoting ancient disproven claims that you read off right wing “news” sites. It’s over. Find someone else’s website for your stupidity.
    .
    PAD

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