Monday, October 29, 2007

WHO AUTHORED MEAN DEMEANING E-MAILS SENT TO BLOGGER GLENN GREENWALD?

I like to direct my readers to Glenn Greenwald at Salon. com. Glenn has received several e-mails from Col. Steven Boylan, public relations aid to General Petraeus in Baghdad. The bizarre element to this exchange of e-mails is that Col. Boylan seems to say that he did not send them and that they are forged fakes.

Writes Greenwald:

"There are only two possibilities, both of which are self-evidently newsworthy. Either:
(1) Col. Boylan sent me that first polemical, blatantly politicized email and then falsely denied having sent it, or,
(2) someone has the extraordinary ability to fabricate emails which have every appearance -- even to advanced computer experts -- of being authored by and sent from the computers of some of our highest-ranking military officials in Iraq (or, worse, to obtain direct access to their Centcomm computers), a possibility about which Col. Boylan expressed total indifference and then refused to address.If someone really is able to replicate emails from high-ranking military officials in Iraq, think about what a serious breach that is. Can the fabricators also send emails to commanders in the field or to political decision-makers in Washington?"

From comparing the e-mail addresses and route information on the "Boylan e-mails," they seem to be the same as that originating from e-mails that Boylan does admit to have sent. After reading the e-mails sent to Greenwald, perhaps one explanation of Boylan's reluctance to accept authorship is that they are full of mean put-downs and irrational non-sequiturs. It is one think to argue a point with legitimate argument, another to personally disparage the person with whom you argue.

Read the "Boylan e-mails" and then come to your own decision about Boylan's style and modus operandi. I think you will agree with me that the author of the "Boylan e-mails" sent to Greenwald is most comfortable when he can disparage and demean.

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