Comments on: Memo mystery solved: It’s real, says Iraqslogger

By: Seixon

Seixon — Mon, 28 May 2007 20:36:11 +0000

So that means…

1. The US Embassy refers to itself by a name (US Mission Iraq) in letterhead that it claims only the military uses for it.

2. The US Embassy uses a picture of a commercial figurine in their official letterhead, although official logos should be readily available.

3. A whole four people were involved in sending a simple email: “khanp”, “martinkm”, Mr. Butler, and Mrs. Muench.

4. A simple email was written in Microsoft Word, not exactly the best way to broadcast a message since it requires that the recipient has Word to view it, not to mention that a custom template was not in use for the document, which you’d expect.

5. The US military Public Affairs Officer in Baghdad, who claimed through a journalist friend of Larry Johnson that this memo was phony, was wrong(!).

I’m sorry, but I’m still leaning towards the memo being fake, but the contents being more or less (irrelevantly) accurate.

In the end, there was no food shortage, so what’s all the fuss about, other than Larry Johnson and his friends trying to drum up a scandal?

By: JohnJ

JohnJ — Mon, 28 May 2007 19:46:28 +0000

I don’t understand why people don’t believe this. It seems to me that the reason supplies are slowing down is because the Army had to start cutting costs due to a lack of funding. Why did they have a lack of funding? Because the Democrats wanted to hold troop supplies hostage. It seems pretty cut and dry to me. The Army wanted these funds by mid-April, so of course they’re having money troubles. It’s been well over a month. Why isn’t anyone pursuing this angle?

By: naliaka

naliaka — Mon, 28 May 2007 16:53:52 +0000

Under what authority does ANYONE from the State Department have to use unauthorized letterhead or memo-head for US Embassy business?
“Sloppy” doesn’t begin to describe the problem here. Embassies are supposed to keep a tight rein on their documentation, letterheads, watermarks, otherwise – internally or externally – no one is going to recognize a real from a fake and if people don’t think that’s a problem in foreign diplomatic circumstances, especially in a hot zone with spies, doubledealers and cheats, then they’d better wake up. And to borrow a copyrighted design from a corporation ???

By: Freelancer

Freelancer — Mon, 28 May 2007 16:36:48 +0000

In the face of good news coming from numerous areas in Iraq, a crisis had to be generated in order to maintain the “anti-war” momentum. Hence “leaked” stories like this one. It isn’t meant to create sympathy for the poor folks going without their normal menu, but to make U.S. handling of the simplest supply logistic look bad.

Still, it’s as close to supporting the troops as the left is likely to get for Memorial Day.

By: Pereiraville » Hummelgate?

Pereiraville » Hummelgate? — Mon, 28 May 2007 16:21:38 +0000

[...] [update] Apparently it’s real. Bummer. Seems some embassy types had to eat MRE’s. Gosh, I can only imagine how horrible that would be! [...]

By: IrishEyes

IrishEyes — Mon, 28 May 2007 15:13:10 +0000

So, State department personnel might have to resort to an MRE once a day, temporarily. What? No filet mignon? You’d think they were in a war zone or something. Breaks my heart.

Maybe they could ask at the French embassy for a meal or two, maybe some wine … oh, never mind.

By: William Teach

William Teach — Mon, 28 May 2007 14:52:19 +0000

This is terrible! The State department folks having to give their salad bars!

By: Tony737

Tony737 — Mon, 28 May 2007 14:39:18 +0000

Yeah, well I don’t believe it until Dan Rather says it.

OFF TOPIC: PRO- Democracy rallies in Caracus!

What? I thought only lefties protest?

Chavez takes over private TV station, Danny Glover unavailable for comment.

By: lowandslow

lowandslow — Mon, 28 May 2007 14:25:20 +0000

I’d still like to see another memo out of the embassy that would confirm this.