Clueless Robert Young Pelton used the picture below of Jack Idema in his book without permission. Being that Pelton doesn’t know or understand what exactly this picture represents, he allows his ghostwriter and Ed Artis to fill in the blanks regarding Idema. If Pelton is looking for some kind of validation for what he’s written, he’s not going to get it here. We have to look at the larger picture and content of the entire book, which seems to be taken from the point of view of someone who doesn’t think much of the military, and question that he would sneer at the kind of work Billy Waugh did for over 40 years, and Idema has done for over 25.
To me, this picture is the epitome of what the definition of a Green Beret is: they train and lead indigenous guerillas in enemy territory. And there he is, doing what he does. This is one of my favorite pictures of Idema, for that very reason. And if Pelton had bothered to delve deeper, he would have discovered that Idema has 27 years of experience in Counter terrorism operations, and is an expert in HUMINT, or human intelligence. But no, Pelton didn’t bother to find any of that out; instead he jumped on that clueless party of individuals like Cafasso, Artis, Tracy-Paul Warrington and others like Bob Morris, who should know better. But what’s funny to me is his choice of using this picture. First, because he didn’t bother to contact Polaris Images to do it properly, and second, because it refutes the entire chapter that’s in his book on Idema. If Idema is a fraud, then why show him in a picture leading an indigenous army in Afghanistan?
And now, I’m looking at the age and circumstances of Billy Waugh and I just have to wonder if it’s the same story as these individuals taking advantage of Robin Moore who has Parkinson’s disease. It seems to be a very similar scenario to me.
We’re not talking about just a few defamatory comments regarding Idema what Pelton wrote in this book about Idema is complete fiction . And for those thinking that the publisher made their buck off me, they didn’t. I bought this book used, and the sucker who originally paid the publisher for it got reimbursed. Where it really belongs is on a salvation army book table for 50 cents.
It turns out that Random House, Crown publisher’s parent company, was fully aware of the questionable nature of Joe Cafasso aka Gerry Blackwood, Robert C. Morris, William John Hagler, Ed Artis and other sources who were used to research and write Pelton’s what appears to be fictional characterization of “hired guns in the war on terror”. So how did this happen?
They not only used this photograph pictured above without permission, without licensing it from Polaris Images, but Random House had physical prima facie evidence of all the frauds used as sources in this book and went ahead with its publication, anyway. Random House and the world knew Cafasso had scammed people with a false military background, for starters. But they also knew Artis had fraudulently worn Silver Stars and Bronze Star awards for valor in combat (awards he admitted under oath he never received from the US Military), that it was Robert Morris who tried to rewrite the Hunt For Bin Laden, not Robin Moore, that Hagler was a convicted drug dealer, and all these people had been sued for illegal conduct.
Joseph Cafasso, William (”Bill”) Hagler, Robert C. Morris, Edward Artis and Tracy-Paul Warrington, engineered the total fabrication of Mariah Blake’s Columbia Journalism Review story called “Tin Soldier”, and Stacy Sullivan’s New York Magazine Article entitled “Operation Desert Fraud”. Each of these men were the sources for Sullivan and Blake’s articles, and then they worked together to falsify their identities and backgrounds and fabricate events for Pelton and Crown.
Pelton even had the audacity to mention this in his book on page 246:
“Idema didn’t know it, but his rash of threats, lawsuits, and betrayals had created a rapidly growning cabal of former friends who were bound and determined to shut him down. He no longer had to be unjustifiably paranoid about a conspiracy out to get him, since he had forced the situation. A private investigator he screwed out of 15 percent from the proceeds of a successful lawsuit*,
*William (”Bill”) Hagler is the ‘private investigator’ Pelton cites who claimed he was a detective-falsifying a story of how Idema owed him 15% of a mult-million dollar lawsuit, when in reality, Hagler testified under oath the amount was closer to $800,
a humanitarian he’d conned*,
*Artis is the ‘humanitarian’, representing Knightsbridge International, who claimed to be a Vatican Knight, a Green Beret, a Navy SEAL and he admitted under oath that all of this was false,
an author he’d destroyed*,
Do they really want the true story of how they threatened Robin Moore to come out? I mean how stupid are these people? Here is an elderly man, sick with Parkinson’s disease, who these people took advantage of in their rabid quest of destroying Idema and the Hunt for Bin Laden.
an army officer who’d been used*;
*Bob Morris claimed to be a Special Forces war hero, a Green Beret and Ranger who saw combat in Grenada (at least he actually was in the army) - all false;
the list goes on:
You bet it does, that’s one thing that Pelton got right.
*Cafasso claimed he was a Special Forces Colonel with three Silver Star medals-the Delta Force hero of Desert One;
*Blackwood was an identity fabricated by Cafasso (and Morris and Artis) and was supposed to be a Colonel who was working for the CIA and was on the White House staff-a hero who lost his men during a heated battle in Vietnam, despite the fact that Cafasso was only 12 years old at the time;
click here to see Blackwood’s ridiculous fictional resume in its entirety. That “Yankee White clearance” claim, all by itself should get Cafasso picked up by the Secret Service. The “Center Lane” reference is equally as comical; that was abandoned pretty quickly and only a handful of people was involved. Although both of those would probably have impressed the hell out of Kathryn Cramer, and obviously, Robert Young Pelton fell for it, too.
all developed a covert network to share documents and information designed to expose Ideman’s true nature. Several US government agencies, the military, and the media were also investigating Jack’s activities, through he was unaware of the gathering storm.”
*Tracy-Paul Warrington is another, who claimed to be the commander of a secret counter-terrorist team, but he had never met a terrorist, or been to Iraq or Afghanistan.
These were ALL fabrications for personal gain, fame, and profit, and while not all were acting as CROWN sources, they spent their time in Internet chat rooms writing lie after lie under false names and dozens of fake email addresses.
Apparently that rabid quest to pursue Idema is still very much present; as Pelton’s feverish haste to publish this book without dotting his i’s and crossing their t’s attests. The Wikipedia entry on Jack seems to have been written and edited by members of this group; and some of the comments here left by “Ghostwriter” (Cafasso) and “Mr Potato Head” (one part in Pelton’s book on Idema is entitled “Mr. Potatohead” on page 232) demonstrate to me that Pelton’s collaborators have been very active in burying any other point of view on Idema other than the fabricated lies they’d been spreading, resorting to threats and other underhanded tactics to keep it under wraps.
The Jack Idema section in Pelton’s book entitled “An Army of One” is completely fictional. The rest of the book’s content should be seriously questioned as well. If you’re going to propel one chapter packed with lies, then why would the rest be based on fact?
One lie binds them all.
In the back of the book, Pelton thanks all those who share his “devotion to the truth”. Laughable.
Well, I took Idema’s story on over a year ago, because I was disappointed in the lies of the media and young journalism students without a clue. I haven’t wavered, I haven’t taken my eye off the ball, and Cafasso and Pelton and the rest of the Stuporpatriots are totally busted. Let’s watch and see how long it is before they start turning on each other; from what I’ve been able to see, even though Artis has sent emails which easily refute what he’s saying now, his story is changing, and he’s beginning to claim that he was ‘conned’ by Cafasso. Comical! So their eating their own has already begun. Good luck, Joe Cafasso!
I couldn’t resist, knowing that Robert Young Pelton’s fan club has been trying to pull his pathetic attempt at writing about PMC’s out of the depths of failure, so I made a little trip to Amazon to see what the buzz was. Lo and behold, what did I find? At the top of the list, from some brilliant fellow in Peoria, Illinois by the name of Rusty Graham, a review:
After reading this book I’m not sure what he was trying to do? He really does not provide a day to day view of the contracters. He seems to globe trot through 20 years of PMC’s that point at how dangerous this industry is to the world. Yet all he provides is a few people that have given it a black eye. He has an entire chapter on a guy named Idema who is not even a PMC!!! Yet he uses him as a point to show how dangerous this industry is. One of the first few chapters goes into the authors version of how the evil Bush and his inner circle suckered america into this war. After a couple pages I just skipped this chapter cause I wanted to read about PMCs!!! He goes into detail to show that most PMCs are hired by people who’s only interest is for economic reasons. I guess he hasn’t studied US military history since the war of 1812? Cause just about every war the US has been in had roots in economics. Then when some Blackwater contracters and one marine are surrounded and engaging the enemy. Pelton focuses on the fact that a PMC was giving orders to a marine! How dangerous it is for a civilian to be ordering around military troops in a combat zone!!! ewwww aahhh… The order was for him to open fire cause the enemy was going to over run their building and kill them! hahahaa The best thing I can say about the author is he did travel around the world and interview a lot of people. He went to locations that are very dangerous. But if you want to read a book about PMCs then pick up A Bloody Business. Gives alot more detail and specifics of the industry and what these people do on a daily bases in Iraq. Unless you want an overview on how paid armed civilians in a combat zone is a threat to the world. Then read License to Kill.
It’s kind of interesting that Pelton makes a political statement in the book that is not only against PMC’s, but against the military. What it is even more astonishing is the statement that civilians should keep out of military affairs when the Secretary of Defense is a civilian, the President of the United States is a civilian, and is in fact, the Commander-In-Chief over all of the military.
But I guess we shouldn’t expect that Pelton would have much respect for the military, because in his view, journalists know better than the military does:
Here’s Bluto on Robert Young Pelton:
The history of IraqSlogger co-founder Robert Young Pelton (apparently, the “RYP” who has been commenting about IraqSlogger at various blogs) isn’t confidence-inspiring, either. In 2002 he told Salon that al Qaeda is a “bogeyman,” and that the 9/11 terrorists were really a “Mickey Mouse operation.”
And he also made this incredible statement:
And basically since the Vietnam War, the military realizes that the press is the enemy, because the press is actually faster and more intelligent than the military is. They can assess a military situation long before the military figures it out.
Pelton has found the reason why so many journalists go on to successful careers as generals. Not.
This is in two posts at Cao’s blog, but I thought I’d put them up as one here at TWA.
Said Cao @ 2:29 am | Permalink
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“the press is actually faster and more intelligent than the military is.”
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Not anymore. At least since the Vietnam war ended. And embedded journalists were invented. Invented!
Good case in point though is exemplified in the book/film ‘The Killing Fields’.
Comment by M — 6/6/2008 @ 4:31 am