James Cartwright, Retired General, Targeted In Leak Probe: Reports

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WASHINGTON — A former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is under investigation for allegedly leaking classified information about a covert cyberattack on Iran's nuclear facilities, according to media reports.

Retired Marine Gen. James "Hoss" Cartwright has been told he is a target of the probe, NBC News and The Washington Post reported Thursday. A "target" is someone a prosecutor or grand jury has substantial evidence linking to a crime and who is likely to be charged.

The Justice Department referred questions to the U.S. attorney's office in Baltimore, where a spokeswoman, Marcia Murphy, declined to comment.

The investigation of the leak about the Iran cyberattack is one of a number of national security leak investigations that have been started by the Obama administration, including ones involving The Associated Press and Fox News.

In June 2012, the New York Times reported that Cartwright was a crucial player in the cyber operation called Olympic Games, started under President George W. Bush.

Bush reportedly advised President Barack Obama to preserve Olympic Games.

According to the Times, Obama ordered the cyberattacks sped up, and in 2010 an attack using a computer virus called Stuxnet temporarily disabled 1,000 centrifuges that the Iranians were using to enrich uranium.

Congressional leaders demanded a criminal probe into who leaked the information, and Obama said he had zero tolerance for such leaks. Republicans said senior administration officials had leaked the details to bolster the president's national security credentials during the 2012 campaign.

The Times said Cartwright was one of the crucial players who had to break the news to Obama and Vice President Joe Biden that Stuxnet at one point had escaped onto the Internet.

An element of the program accidentally became public in the summer of 2010 because of a programming error that allowed it to escape Iran's Natanz plant and sent it out on the Internet, the Times reported. After the worm escaped onto the Internet, top administration officials met to consider whether the program had been fatally compromised.

Obama asked if the program should continue, and after hearing the advice of top advisers, decided to proceed.

Cartwright, a four-star general, was cleared in February 2011 of misconduct involving a young aide. An anonymous accuser had claimed Cartwright acted inappropriately during a 2009 overseas trip on which the aide traveled as a military assistant. Several sources confirmed that the former aide was a young woman.

The Pentagon inspector general quickly cleared Cartwright of the most serious allegations, which involved claims that he may have had an improper physical relationship with the woman. The report did find that Cartwright mishandled an incident in which the aide, drunk and visibly upset, visited his Tbilisi, Georgia, hotel room alone and either passed out or fell asleep on a bench at the foot of his bed. Cartwright denied any impropriety and was later cleared of all wrongdoing.

Cartwright, once considered the leading candidate to become Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, resigned from the military in August 2011.

NBC said Cartwright did not respond to request for comment and that his attorney, former Obama White House counsel Greg Craig, said he had no comment.

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Afghanistan Reconstruction Inspector General Report Warns Of Major Waste In Aircraft Purchase

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WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon is spending more than three-quarters of a billion dollars to buy Russian-made helicopters and other aircraft for an Afghan aviation unit that lacks the troops and expertise to operate and maintain the equipment, a government watchdog warned.

The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction said in a report Friday these shortcomings mean the helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft destined for the Afghan Special Mission Wing "could be left sitting on runways in Afghanistan, rather than supporting critical missions, resulting in waste of U.S. funds." The report recommended putting the purchases on hold until the Afghans develop the capacity to support the aircraft.

The findings are sure to reverberate on Capitol Hill, where there is stiff opposition to the purchase of the Mi-17 helicopters from Rosoboronexport, the state-run Russian arms exporter that is a top weapons supplier to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The Pentagon announced June 17 that Rosoboronexport had been awarded a $554 million contract for 30 Mi-17s to be used by the Special Mission Wing, a move that came just days after the House approved a 2014 defense policy bill that included a prohibition on contracts with the Russian agency. The Senate Armed Services Committee included a similar ban in its version of the bill.

The defense policy bill for 2013 also barred the Pentagon from using funds from that fiscal year for contracts with Rosoboronexport. But the Pentagon said money from the 2012 fiscal year was being used for the Mi-17 acquisition, so the restriction does not apply.

A Defense Department spokesman said there was an "urgent, near-term need" to buy the wing the Mi-17s, a multimission aircraft designed to operate at high altitudes and uniquely suited for the wing.

"Careful consideration of all the information available to the department confirms that it would be in the public interest to procure the Mi-17s needed for the (wing) from Rosoboronexport," Army Lt. Col. Jim Gregory said in a statement.

In addition to the Mi-17s, the Pentagon is spending $218 million on 18 PC-12 cargo aircraft from the Sierra Nevada Corp. of Sparks, Nev., to allow the Special Mission Wing to perform counterterrorism and counternarcotics missions, the report said.

The special inspector general is recommending the purchase be suspended until the wing's staffing, recruiting and training problems are resolved. Chief among them is finalizing a memorandum of understanding between the Afghan interior and defense ministries that would give the military control of the wing. But the document remains unsigned due largely to the interior ministry's "resistance to surrendering authority" over the wing, according to the report.

Michael Dumont, the deputy assistant defense secretary for Afghanistan, Pakistan and Central Asia, said in comments included in the report that delaying the purchase of the aircraft until the agreement was signed "would unacceptably delay our efforts to develop the (wing) into a capable force."

The wing was to have 806 personnel by mid-2015, but as of late January had just 180, according to the report.

Filling out the wing's ranks won't be easy, the report said, due to challenges of finding Afghan recruits who are literate in their own language, competent in English and can pass the strict, 18- to 20-month U.S. vetting process that includes eliminating candidates who have ties to criminal or insurgent activities.

The flow of Afghan trainees from helicopter flight training at Fort Rucker, Ala., to more intense training in the Czech Republic "has been slow and uneven, ranging from a low of two up to eight trainees at a time," according to the special inspector general.

The report blamed a lack of steady funding for the training from the Defense Department, failed background checks for prospective pilots and flight engineers, and the Czech government's requirement that each Afghan trainee have a certificate signed by Afghan authorities.

Compensation, especially for mechanics, is another barrier to recruitment because Afghans with a basic command of English are in high demand and can get higher pay elsewhere, the report said.

Another key shortcoming is the dearth of pilots capable of flying at night, when most counterterrorism missions are conducted. As of late January, only seven of the 47 pilots assigned to the wing were fully mission qualified to fly with night vision goggles, the report said.

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Geraldo Rivera in Michael Hastings: Reporter "Hard to forget" ruined the career of General Stanley McChrystal

Then journalist Michael Hastings was killed in a car crash Monday, friends and admirers took to social networking sites to express their shock and pain at the loss of a talented and uncompromising reporter.

On Tuesday, host of Fox News Geraldo Rivera offered his own dubious version of sympathy.

Reporter Michael Hastings KI tragic car destroy condolences to familyBut hard to forget that you destroyed the career of 1 of our best fighting General

-Geraldo Rivera (@GeraldoRivera) on June 19, 2013

Rivera refers to the profile of stone rolling of the Polk Award-winning de Hastings of General Stanley McChrystal, who at that time was on his way to the United States and allied forces in Afghanistan.

Negative comments about the administration of Obama that led to the resignation of general McChrystal.

Rivera's comments met with a strong reaction on Twitter.

@geraldorivera oh, the general words & actions had nothing to do with it? Thank you for the record straight!

-Susie Madrak (@SusieMadrak) on June 19, 2013

do @geraldorivera remember when you gave us troop positions in TV Live?

-Christopher Brower (@cfbrower) on June 19, 2013

(Fox News pulled banks outside Iraq in 2003 under pressure from the armed forces since he shared details of movements of American troops in air.)

Rivera is not the only person suggesting that Hastings was undue damage to career of McChrystal. Wife of Hastings, Elise Jordan, wrote an email to The New York Times criticizing his obituary by her late husband, which brought the accuracy of its reports in question.

"I was shocked and saddened to read a misguided brash my last husband Michael Hastings Rolling Stone story"The Runaway General"in his obituary," Jordan wrote.

She went on to say that the fall of McChrystal was caused mainly by comments made on the tape.

I can personally verify that some of the comments have been made more devastating McChrystal, and many others of his colleagues in his presence were met with enthusiastic approval. Michael refused to give further evidence to investigators from the Pentagon, while it could directly attributed a series of insubordinate comments to other staff of the general, in part because he believed that it was not the role of a journalist to open their notebooks to the military, and in part because he felt that what is needed when it came to the war in Afghanistan is not a change in personnel, but in politics.

Read the rest of the letter of Jordan here.

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Bill Schuette, Attorney General of Michigan, sides with retirees in Detroit bankruptcy fight

Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette says it will join the Detroit bankruptcy on behalf of pensioners case. Photo AP.

LANSING, Mich. - Michigan attorney says it will join the Detroit bankruptcy on behalf of pensioners case.

According to a statement released Saturday by his Office, Bill Schuette will present an apparition in federal bankruptcy court on Monday.

Pension benefits are constitutionally protected in the State, and Schuette says that it will work to defend to "Michigan Seniors living on fixed incomes and anticipating a secure retirement after a lifetime of work."

Manager of emergency Detroit Kevyn Orr led to Detroit for Chapter 9 bankruptcy earlier this month with the blessing of the Governor Rick Snyder. It is the largest bankruptcy by a local government in the history of United States.

The State of pensions for employees is expected to be a key issue in the bankruptcy. Orr said that it could reduce the Pension along with other debts.

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