GOV/MIL Special Forces officer to talk at whistleblower hearing

H

Housecarl

On TB every waking moment
For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
http://www.armytimes.com/story/mili...pecial-forces-whistleblower-hearing/71001906/

Special Forces officer to talk at whistleblower hearing

By Kyle Jahner, Staff writer 1:56 p.m. EDT June 10, 2015

Lt. Col. Jason Amerine, a decorated Special Forces soldier, says the Army investigated him for reporting to Congress.

Now he has been called to testify at a Senate hearing on Thursday about whistleblowers and retaliation against them.

The U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs invited Amerine to speak at the hearing, "Blowing the Whistle on Retaliation: Accounts of Current and Former Federal Agency Whistleblowers," which will feature federal employees who have claimed retaliation from the government for exposing wrongful activities, according to Amerine's invitation, which was provided to Army Times.

The FBI formally complained to the Army in January that Amerine potentially disclosed classified information, according to a letter from the Army to the office of Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., that was provided to Army Times. The Army letter does not indicate a recipient of the alleged classified information.

Amerine said in a Facebook post he was being investigated for whistleblowing to Congress over "our completely dysfunctional system for recovering hostages." Amerine told Army Times that the Army told him he was being investigated for talking to Hunter.

Army spokesman Ben Garrett said by policy the Army does not confirm the names of people under investigation, citing investigation integrity and privacy of those involved. His statement also indicated the Army would not investigate a soldier just for talking to a member of Congress.

"I note that both the law and Army policy would prohibit initiating an investigation based solely on a Soldier's protected communications with Congress," read the statement from Garrett, who said he could not elaborate on it .

Amerine's Facebook post said the FBI complained to the Army that he told Hunter about the FBI's "failed efforts to recover Warren Weinstein, Caitlin Coleman and the child she bore in captivity."

Weinstein, an American aid worker captured by an al-Qaida affiliate in Pakistan in 2012, was killed in a CIA counterterrorism drone strike in January. Coleman was captured while pregnant in Afghanistan in 2012 by the Taliban, and is believed to remain in captivity with her husband and a child born in captivity.

Amerine was involved with the Army's efforts to rescue hostages over the last few years, according to Hunter, including Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the U.S. soldier held for nearly five years by the Taliban. In a May 28 letter to Army Secretary John McHugh provided to Army Times, Hunter called Amerine a "tremendous influence" in proposed and enacted hostage recovery process reforms. He condemned the "baseless and retaliatory investigation," which has delayed Amerine's planned retirement from the Army.

In the letter, Hunter said Amerine's efforts were not appreciated by the FBI, which is "loosely tasked with recovering Americans in captivity," and that the Army's investigation, started in January, had gone on far longer than warranted.

"A simple conversation with Amerine could have avoided an investigation and any delay in his retirement," Hunter said in the letter.

Amerine has extensive experience in Afghanistan, stretching back to when his team helped Hamid Karzai fight a guerrilla war against the then-ruling Taliban in 2001. He received a Bronze Star with Valor and a Purple Heart in 2002.

More recently, in 2012, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. John Campbell, tasked Amerine and his team — at this point working in the Pentagon — with looking into options regarding the recovery of Bergdahl. That included possible non-kinetic options such as prisoner trades, said Joe Kasper, Hunter's chief of staff. In addition, he asked Amerine to develop general options, considerations and policy suggestions regarding American hostage recovery in the region, according to Kasper.

When it comes to hostage recovery, the FBI, State Department, elements within the Defense Department and CIA can become involved, Kasper noted.

In late February 2014, then-Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel assigned former Navy SEAL and Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Mike Lumpkin to lead an effort to coordinate the Pentagon's hostage recovery activities and information with those of other government agencies. Hunter called Amerine the driving force behind the move in his letter to McHugh.

Hunter, in an April statement, complained about the hostage-recovery process, in particular citing the State Department- brokered five-for-one trade in which the U.S. released Taliban members for Bergdahl.

Amerine had developed, for example, one plan to try to trade Haji Bashir Noorzai, a prominent Taliban member in U.S. jail for drug trafficking, for seven hostages including Weinstein and Bergdahl. The State Department deal ultimately trumped the Pentagon efforts.

"Due to infighting and disagreements among lead organizations, Amerine and his team struggled to get attention beyond the walls of the Pentagon and were ultimately sidelined," Hunter's April statement said.
 
H

Housecarl

On TB every waking moment
For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...tages-held-overseas-failed-by-u-s-government/

Checkpoint

Special Forces officer: American hostages held overseas ‘failed’ by U.S. government

By Dan Lamothe June 11 at 10:37 AM
Comments

Washington’s effort to recover American hostages held overseas is “dysfunctional” and mired in failures hidden by bureaucracy, an Army Special Forces officer once involved in the Pentagon’s part of the mission told the Senate on Thursday during a hearing for whistleblowers.

Lt. Col. Jason Amerine testified that he started working on hostage policy at the Pentagon in early 2013. At some point, he became frustrated with the inaction to free Americans and said he took his concerns to Rep. Duncan D. Hunter (R.Calif.), a member of the House Armed Services Committee, after exhausting all other options. The Army, when it learned about his discussions on Capitol Hill, responded by removing him from his job, suspending his security clearance and launching a criminal investigation into his actions, Amerine said.

“My team had a difficult mission and I used all legal means available to recover the hostages,” Amerine said in prepared testimony. “You, the Congress, were my last resort. But now I am labelled a whistleblower, a term both radioactive and derogatory. I am before you because I did my duty, and you need to ensure all in uniform can go on doing their duty without fear of reprisal.”

Amerine testified before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee during a hearing called “Blowing the Whistle on Retaliation: Accounts of Current and Former Federal Agency Whistleblowers.” He first acknowledged facing an Army investigation and communicating his concerns about U.S. hostage policy to Hunter in a Facebook post on May 15.

The case pits one of the first heroes of the Afghanistan War against the Army. Amerine led a Special Forces team there in 2001, and was wounded by an errant American bomb on Dec. 5, 2001, that killed three other Special Forces soldiers. He later received the Bronze Star with “V” and the Purple Heart, and was labeled by the Army as a “Real Hero” in the 2006 version of its popular video game, “America’s Army.”

The Army Criminal Investigation Command (CID) has disputed that it is investigating Amerine as an act of reprisal, and declined to say whether the soldier is under investigation at all. A spokesman for CID, Chris Grey, declined to comment Thursday on Amerine’s testimony.

Amerine told the Senate that in 2013, his office at the Pentagon was asked to help recover Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the U.S. soldier held captive for five years overseas and charged earlier this year with desertion. He was later recovered May 31, 2014, in a controversial swap for five Taliban officials.

“We audited the recovery effort and determined that the reason the effort failed for four years was because our nation lacked an organization that can synchronize the efforts of all our government agencies to get our hostages home,” Amerine said. “We also realized that there were civilian hostages in Pakistan that nobody was trying to free so we added them to our mission.”

Amerine’s team worked to develop a viable trade for Bergdahl, bring the Taliban to the negotiating table and fix the inter-agency recovery efforts, he said. He “used all legal means” available to recover the hostages, and then went to Congress when he ran out of other options, he said. That prompted the FBI to complain that he was sharing classified information, he said. The Defense Department Inspector General later determined he did not, he added.

Amerine credited the Defense Department Inspector General with handling a reprisal complaint he filed well. The FBI has previously declined to comment on Amerine’s allegations.

Amerine credited Hunter with influencing the Pentagon to appoint Michael D. Lumpkin, a retired Navy SEAL and current deputy undersecretary of defense, as the Defense Department’s hostage recovery coordinator. Doing so allowed the Pentagon to respond quickly when a deal was struck to recover Bergdahl on May 31, 2014, in exchange for five Taliban officials, Amerine said.

But the other civilians held hostage — including Warren Weinstein, who was accidentally killed in a U.S. drone strike in January — were left behind, Amerine said. One of the options Amerine’s team developed would have swapped seven Westerners for one Taliban drug trafficker and warlord: Haji Bashir Noorzai, an Afghan drug lord with links to the Taliban. He was convicted of drug trafficking and sentenced to life in prison after being lured to the United States in 2005.

Amerine told the Senate that the trade developed would have freed Bergdahl, Weinstein, Canadian Colin Rutherford and a family of three: Canadian Joshua Boyle, his American wife Caitlan Coleman, and their child born in captivity. He declined to identify the seventh hostage.

It’s unclear how the Noorzai swap would have worked. Bergdahl was held by insurgents affiliated with the Taliban, while Weinstein was held captive by al Qaeda.

“We were the only effort trying to free the civilian hostages in Pakistan and the FBI succeeded in ending our efforts the day a U.S. drone strike killed Warren Weinstein,” Amerine said. “Am I right? Is the system broken? Layers upon layers of bureaucracy hid the extent of our failure from our leaders. I believe we all failed the commander in chief by not getting critical advice to him. I believe we all failed the secretary of defense, who likely never knew the extent of the inter-agency dysfunction that was our recovery effort.”

Hunter credited Amerine on the House floor last month with providing information that helped craft a congressional amendment that would require President Obama to appoint a specific federal official to oversee all hostage recovery efforts.

“Lieutenant Colonel Jason Amerine has worked with my office now for about two years on this amendment, and he is someone that really cares,” Hunter said. “He’s been working hostage stuff with about every government agency that there is, and he played a big role in getting this to where it’s at now.”

Amerine said he “failed” Weinstein and four other Western hostages still in captivity: Canadians Colin Rutherford and Joshua Boyle, American Caitlin Coleman, and a child that Boyle and Coleman had while in captivity. She was pregnant when she was taken hostage by the Taliban in 2012.

“We must not forget: Warren Weinstein is dead while Colin Rutherford, Josh Boyle, Caitlin Coleman, and her child remain hostages,” Amerine said. “Who’s fighting for them?”


Dan Lamothe covers national security for The Washington Post and anchors its military blog, Checkpoint.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top