Yes this is real. It’s also no big deal. There are convoy delays all the time.

It’s not really a military document, KBR does the food and they use this funny format for IZ-wide messages. I’d never noticed they used a figurine for the eagle, that’s pretty funny.

This is simply the IZ media guys navel-gazing. They don’t get out much.
LT Nichols

Don’t memos that specify a classification status usually include that information in both the header and the footer?

Slublog on May 26, 2007 at 6:57 PM

Yes, in accordance with CMS/EKMS standards, any electronically transmitted document identifying its classification (including UNCLASSIFIED) must do so on the top AND bottom of every page, in all caps. Umm, Mazztek, are you sure about Times New Roman? I’m thinking Courier. But this memo isn’t military, if it’s aimed at embassy staff, so I’m not sure that’s a salient point anyway.

As to this being a crisis, if the embassy has stocks of non-perishable foodstuffs PLUS MREs, it’s a long, long way from a crisis. MREs aren’t gourmet (ok, a few selections aren’t quite fit for dogfood), but they are edible. Nobody is on the road to starvation because a truck isn’t on time.

A lot can change in 20 years, but that doesn’t look like any military document I’ve ever seen.

Tuning Spork on May 26, 2007 at 5:20 PM

Yah, it’s not full of typos, grammatical errors, and ostentatiousness.

In the Air Force there is a reg saying that official email cannot have graphics and fancy stuff – one of the more ignored regs out there.

Same in the Army… only the official Army seal or nothing… and, in the units I have served recently, it is has not been ignored…

All official communications have strict guidelines about graphics and such, and no way would that figurine be allowed on official communications.

Instead of rice pilaf with turkey or fish — Monday night’s main entree, according to embassy spokesman Dan Sreebny, who said he topped it off with two cookies — the staff would have to make do with military Meals Ready to Eat, freeze-dried concoctions with prescribed amounts of starch and protein, capable of withstanding parachute drops and remaining edible for three years after packaging.

Translation: Even though there was a supposed delay warning issued on Monday, the embassy was having normal meals, but COULD (according to my spiffy memo) have to resort to MREs soon.

“We’ve run out of some things,” Sreebny said. “I miss my yogurt in the morning and my fresh-cut melon.”

Again, this could be talking about any time frame. This year. The past year. This week. This month. No way to know.

Asked about the convoy problems, Col. Steven A. Boylan, spokesman for Gen. David H. Petraeus, the U.S. military commander in Iraq, cited bad weather in Kuwait and along the routes north. “Visibility was very poor and [it] would not have been safe to drive,” Boylan said in an e-mail.

Again, the time frame is not in the quote, could be talking about any time, about anything.

“This has happened before, in terms of convoys,” Sreebny said, although “this one may be a little bit longer than in the past. Then the food comes and we all gorge ourselves on apples and oranges and bananas again.”

What has happened? The convoy is longer this time? Huh? Meaning they are getting more food delivered this time than before, or…?

In an e-mail update last night, Sreebny reported that the looming crisis was at least partially averted. “Some trucks have arrived at our embassy and are being unloaded even as I write.”

At the end of the article, basically stating that the entire article was worthless because there is no issue with the food supply at all.

Again, why is this article being written, other than to give readers the impression that there are food problems in Iraq, when there really aren’t?

To me it looks like DeYoung never had the document authenticated, but quote-shopped people in Iraq to “mesh” with the document.

It meshes awfully well, though. The embassy spokesman admits to most of the basic facts of the memo.

To me it looks like DeYoung never had the document authenticated, but quote-shopped people in Iraq to “mesh” with the document.

On May 23rd:

Johnson posted the PDF on his blog at 10:22am EST.

DeYoung posted the article on WaPo at 5:23pm EST.

Iraqslogger’s Christina Davidson posted a pic of the PDF and a short article at 5:24pm EST.

In other words, Johnson got the PDF from his friend Patrick Lang before WaPo even posted their story on it…

And lookie, lookie, I found a previous story where Christina Davidson relied on Mr. Lang.

So the Iraqslogger -> Lang -> Johnson connection is established. Now, did Karen DeYoung also rely on Lang or Johnson?

There is a standard military letter format for all correspondance, both internal and external. Weather it’s internal or not, it is still entered into record, and must follow the proper format.

There was no header.
The date is in the wrong format. Should be 20070521 or 070521.
It used arial, not Times New Roman, the only font allowed to be used on government documents.

Specualtion: Food for embassies are “usualy” bought locally, anyway, so why would they need a convoy?

http://www.youtube.com/comment_servlet?all_comments&v=fxPkq8TCOJ8&fromurl=/watch%3Fv%3DfxPkq8TCOJ8

if you hurry, you can watch her two identities chat to one another until the comment i called her out on drops of the bottom of the view page comments.

So when do they try to top a bogus document with a picture of a NASCAR collectible plate?

Ace of Spades unravels the mystery behind another “fake but accurate” memo making the rounds….

I’m with JAMES…the purpose of this leak/phony leak would be?

Like AP said, go to Ace

Some brave soul in the U.S. military sent Pat Lang a memo issued Monday that shows the U.S. ability to support its troops is collapsing and very vulnerable to disruption.

We don’t have enough convoys to give our troops three hot meals a day. We want them to step up the patrolling. We want them to search 24-7 for missing soldiers. But, by God, they don’t deserve three hot meals a day.

Excuse my rudeness, but that is f[censored] up. Way to go General Petraeus.