Blogosphere and Social Media Report 3 – 9 April 2010 aA 2010 List of Blogs Mentioned in this Report

Blog Type Blog Name No. Top Posts 100*  Wired.com/Dangerroom 1 y Blackfive 3

Michael Yon 1

Small Wars Journal 8 Attackerman 1

Mudville Gazette 2

This Ain‘t Hell 1

Military Abu Muqawama 1

War Is Boring 2 Source: Outpost Attack Armchair Generalist 3

2 The Best Defense U.S. Army Spc. Greg R. Kenshalo

Bouhammer 3 fires an automatic grenade launcher during an attack on Combat Outpost The Line of Departure 2 Bar Alai in Kunar province,

DoDBuzz 1 , April 5, 2010. Multiple insurgents with automatic machine Huffington Post 9  guns opened fire about seven hours after a sniper also shot at the base. No Salon 4 members of Afghan or international Daily Kos 1  forces were injured during the attacks. Think Progress 1  Kenshalo is a rifleman with Troop C, Pajamas Media 1  3rd Squadron, 61st Cavalry Regiment. Political The Atlantic 5  (U.S. Army photo by U.S. Army Staff Weekly Standard 2 Sgt. Gary A. Witte) The Daily Beast 1 

Stripes Central 1

Mainstream  ABC News Political Punch 1 Media *These blogs were listed on the Technorati Top 100 Blogs list as of 17 Feb 2010. **Note: The Tier 1 blog memeorandum.com is not listed above.

Key Highlights

A total of 57 blog posts were sourced from 3 April - 9 April 2010, with the majority of blog posts falling within the Comments on News category and two blog posts falling within the News Generators category.

There were 51 balanced, two critical, and one supportive blog posts this week. Both critical entries came from the blog site Armchair Generalist. The first entry focused on a blogger who was critical of the Army‘s decision not to formally reprimand Lt. Gen. Benjamin Mixon. The second critical entry discussed Col. Robert M. Cassidy‘s book ―Counterinsurgency and the Global : Military Culture and Irregular Warfare,‖ in which he claimed that the Army has not effectively executed COIN operations in and Afghanistan. Additionally, there were two blog posts that mentioned blogger Thomas Ricks‘ dinner and interview with Gen. Casey in which he discussed various Army issues. Other blogosphere discussions included: the Wikileaks video revealing the 2007 U.S. Army helicopter attack on a group of Iraqi men (also reporters) and children; Don‟t Ask Don‟t Tell; the Special Ops‘ involvement in the death of three Afghan women; and Lt. Col. Terrence Lakin‟s refusal to deploy due to his issue with President Obama‘s birth certificate.

Executive Summary

Part 1: Blogosphere Overview

 Within the Top Issues, the most prolific topic, which attracted a significant amount of media attention this week, was the WikiLeaks video of an Army helicopter attacking several Iraqi men and children and killing a Reuters reporter in Iraq. Bloggers voiced various opinions on the issue, with prominent blog sites generating a significant number of comments from readers. One blogger from The Daily Kos stated: “Whether this story goes further will likely depend on how hard Reuters continues to push to have a new investigation. It seems pretty clear that the military hopes to ride this out without further investigation and without providing a substantive response” (Full WikiLeaks Video Released, U.S. Iraq Command Says "Case Closed," For Now).

 The second most visible issue this week was the alleged involvement of the Special Operations forces in the death of three Afghan women during a night raid in Gardez, Afghanistan in February 2010. The Huffington Post emerged as the coverage leader, posting four of the five blog posts on the subject. One Huffington Post blogger commented on Rear Adm. Greg Smith‘s remarks that no one will ever know how the women died: ―Someone please explain to me the cultural misunderstanding responsible for Smith's implication that women were killed by knife wounds when they were in fact killed by gunfire. These are not errors of cultural understanding. They are intentional lies meant to allow someone to escape responsibility for killing three women, two of them pregnant‖ (U.S. and Allied Forces: We Killed Those Pregnant Afghan Women After All). Additionally, another entry from this site generated 4,249 comments on the issue (U.S. Troops Killed Afghan Women, Then Dug Bullets Out Of Their Bodies To Cover It Up).

 Due to the high volume of coverage dedicated to the WikiLeaks video, the typically prominent issue of DADT did not receive as much attention in the blogosphere this week. One of the blog posts on the subject appeared in Armchair Generalist, with the blogger expressing his disapproval of the Army‘s decision not to reprimand Lt. Gen. Benjamin Mixon after he encouraged keeping the ban on openly gay military service: “I suppose one can flout military-political protocol and get away with it, if the White House feels generous and doesn't want to look like the traditional „Democratic hate on military‟ meme…It's a surprise to me. But hey, it's the 21st century and it's a Democratic administration. I suppose all things are possible” (LTG Mixon Gets Slap, No Resignation).

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Executive Summary

Part 2: Lines of Effort (LoE)

 The majority of blog posts fell within the Other Line of Effort (LoE), the result of blog discussions focusing on the released WikiLeaks video of an attack by an Army helicopter.

 The WikiLeaks video generated blog posts from the top-ranking blog site The Huffington Post, as well as from Blackfive, The Weekly Standard, Salon, Stripes Central, The Atlantic, Bouhammer, Danger Room, The Line of Departure, Small Wars Journal, Daily Kos, and Pajamas Media. A notable entry from The Huffington Post received 10,812 comments with regard to the issue (Wikileaks VIDEO Exposes 2007 'Collateral Murder' In Iraq).

 Also within the Other LoE, a blog entry from Small Wars Journal highlighted The Center for Military History‘s online book The US Army and Irregular Warfare, 1775-1777. The book contained articles that noted how often the U.S. Army has engaged in irregular operations despite the focus on conventional warfare (The U.S. Army And Irregular Warfare, Small Wars Journal).

 A notable entry within the Strategic Environment LoE discussed the two attacks on U.S. Army forces near the Pakistani border in eastern Afghanistan on the night of 28 March (World Politics Review: In Easter Afghanistan, Apparent Sniper Stalks U.S. Troops, War Is Boring).

 Another blog post within the Strategic Environment LoE highlighted an interview with Gen. Odierno. The Huffington Post stated: ―He has no illusions, and recommends that no one else have any, either. The situation remains volatile and unpredictable. He's an optimist about it, but his optimism is guarded. „Cautious optimism‟ is not just an empty phrase with him; he lives it” ( Blood And Baghdad Mud).

 Within the Conditions for Future LoE, a notable entry from DoD Buzz discussed the future of the Army‘s budget and potential areas for growth. ―The biggest future growth areas will be in networked communications and overhead surveillance, followed by repair, maintenance and training. The future requirements process will be driven more by combatant commanders than service bureaucracy, more joint and fewer overall contracts and programs‖ (Army Budget Share Will Grow).

 An entry within the Soldiers and Families LoE noted that the Social Security Administration is no longer considering combat-related military pay in determining whether spouses and children of servicemembers are eligible for Supplemental Security Income (Benefits Alert: SSI Excludes Combat- Related Pay, You Served).

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Comments on Blog Posts*

* Note: The content of the blog reports is provided in its original unedited form, as posted on the site.

 ―I love the U.S. military.... they are loathe to be integrated into multi-national fighting forces, but when atrocities like these are committed by American soldiers, suddenly the American soldiers are an "International" force. They try to cover-up by making their nationality "international". Such nonsense.They must realize that nobody believes anything the military says --if the Pentagon is moving its lips, you know it's lying. No one believes a word the military says after all the lies about WMD; Jessica Lynch; Pat Tillman; the endless lies about having NOT killed innocent people in wedding processions, at checkpoints, in town squares, etc.; lies about the massacre at Nemsour Square; Blackwater lies; lies about the number of deaths caused by covering Fallijah with white phosphorous that melted innocent people to death; lies about Saddam's "involvement" in 9-11 (that was a Bush cabinet lie); Colin Powell's U.N. lies; Condi's mushroom cloud lies; lies, lies, lies. It is an endless procession of lies.‖ Username: MikePatronSaintofTruth (U.S. And Allied Forces: We Killed Those Pregnant Afghan Women After All, The Huffington Post, 4/4).

 ―You make valid points that people should consider before coming out with outrageous statements like WikiLeaks.org did this week. You're spot on. War sucks and we're all human and unintentional mistakes are made quite often. Show me a man that's never made a mistake (be it this one caused loss of life during war) and I'll show you a liar.‖ Username: Steve Valley (When Context Is Collateral Damage, The Line of Departure, 4/7).

 "Even if one were to accept the claim that the U.S. Special Forces could not distinguish between women that they had killed and women who were already dead when the raid began, presumably it does not require advanced medical training to distinguish between a corpse which is "tied up" and "gagged" and one which is not. Either they were or "tied up" and "gagged" or they were not. If they were not, then the claim that they were was a lie, and some human being made up that story, and presumably that story was made up to obscure the fact that the women were killed by the U.S. Special Forces." Username: alexa07 (U.S. Military Still Lying About Special Forces Night Raid in Afghanistan, The Huffington Post, 4/9).

 ―What hurts me to my soul is how evil this is and how no one in the military will have the courage to see justice done in the matter. We have a military and political elite that either has an over inflated sense of themselves or an equal disdain for other people. And we wonder why some many people around the world hate us.‖ Username: BlueMan1 (Wikileaks Releases Video Of Slaughter In Iraq, Salon, 4/5).

 ―I found this video to be extremely upsetting. If I could believe that this sort of incident was an aberration, I might be able to accept it better. But on the same day that this video was released, the UK Times reported on an incident in which U.S. Special Forces killed 5 innocent civilians, then tried to cover up their actions. And this comes on the heels of General McChrystal's statement that "we have shot and killed an amazing number" of unarmed civilians. Through our illegal wars of aggression, our country has killed countless thousands of innocent people in Iraq, Afghanistan and . Chalking those lives up as "collateral damage" or the "fog of war" speaks volumes about our morality as a nation.‖ Username: leahbolger (Muckraking Startup Releases Controversial Footage, And Starts A Conversation, Stripes Central, 4/5).

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Social Media Weekly Snapshot

BuzzGraph shows a visual summary of „buzz‟ around the searched query - by listing words that appear frequently along with the search query. Association between different keywords is represented by connections between them, which can be bold, simple, or dashed - based on the strength of association. Strongly related words, which frequently appear together, have darker connections between them.

From 3 Apr to 9 Apr, the BuzzGraph of an Army-specific search term query yielded the results below, which were taken from an array of social media sites.

Various terms appeared most frequently in relation to the Army this week, including general terms associated with the Afghanistan war and the Iraq war, continuing the trend from previous weeks.

In line with Tier 1 blogs, the released WikiLeaks video of an attack by an Army helicopter in Iraq dominated the social media space, with the greater blogosphere posting most of the related commentary on the issue.

As shown in the Buzzgraph below, the term ‗WikiLeaks‘ and variations on the root words ‗insurgent‘ and ‗Iraq‘ were most strongly associated with the Army-specific search term query this week.

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News Generators

STRATEGIC ENVIRONMENT (2)

Casual Fridays Armchair Generalist, 4/9 Type: Military; Tone: Critical It's clear that Cassidy is a COINdanista, but at the same time, he's very clear - in an indirect way - that the US Army hasn't effectively executed COIN operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. I look at those four measures of effectiveness, and I can instantly identify four things that our government hasn't done well (particularly 2003-2007).

Under Cover Of The Night Michael Yon, 4/9 Type: Military; Tone: Balanced I had gone to great expense to be here with 5/2 Stryker Brigade Combat Team and promised to stay with them until they leave Afghanistan. Then suddenly a nameless feature decided to pull the plug.

Comments on News

CARE FOR WARRIORS

No items.

SOLDIERS AND FAMILIES (1)

Benefits Alert: SSI Excludes Combat-Related Pay War is Boring, 4/5 Type: Military; Tone: Balanced The Social Security Administration (SSI) is no longer considering combat-related military pay in determining whether spouses and children of Servicemembers are eligible for Supplemental Security Income (SSI).

RESTORE BALANCE

No items.

EQUIP AND TRAIN SOLDIERS

No items.

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CONDITIONS FOR FUTURE (2)

Nuclear Mondays Armchair Generalist, 4/5 Type: Military; Tone: Balanced n the April 2010 issue of Army Magazine, Gen. (retired) Fred Kroesen, a true and old Cold War warrior, wonders about the Quadrennial Defense Review's lack of mention of battlefield nuclear weapons.

Army Budget Share Will Grow DoDBuzz, 4/9 Type: Military; Tone: Balanced The ground forces will be the big winners in future years; the Army‘s slice of the budget pie will grow as mountains of equipment in need of repair and upgrades return from Iraq.

GOOD STEWARDS

No items.

STRATEGIC ENVIRONMENT (15)

The following blog posts discussed the issue of the three women killed in Afghanistan:

U.S. Admits Role In 3 Women's Deaths (Repost from ) The Daily Beast, 4/5 Type: Political; Tone: Balanced Two of the women were pregnant, and one had six other children; they were attending what survivors describe as a celebration of the homeowner‘s grandson‘s birth. Special Operations attacks are blamed for many civilian casualties, which Gen. Stanley McChrystal has been working to limit in Afghanistan, with some success.

U.S. And Allied Forces: We Killed Those Pregnant Afghan Women After All The Huffington Post, 4/5, Type: Political; Tone: Balanced; Comments: 151 These are not errors of cultural understanding. They are intentional lies meant to allow someone to escape responsibility for killing three women, two of them pregnant. Smith was lying before when describing the bodies or repeating lies he was told.

U.S. Troops Killed Afghan Women, Then Dug Bullets Out Of Their Bodies To Cover It Up The Huffington Post, 4/5 Type: Political; Tone: Balanced; Comments: 4,249 The admission immediately raised questions about what really happened during the Feb. 12 operation -- and what falsehoods followed -- including a new report that Special Operations forces dug bullets out of the bodies of the women to hide the true nature of their deaths.

Will We Fund The Evil We Deplore? The Huffington Post, 4/7 Type: Political; Tone: Balanced We really ask a lot of our young service people out on the checkpoints because there's danger, they're asked to make very rapid decisions in often very unclear situations.

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U.S. Military Still Lying About Special Forces Night Raid In Afghanistan The Huffington Post, 4/9 Type: Political; Tone: Balanced Jerome Starkey had reported in the Times of London that Afghan investigators said U.S. Special Forces soldiers dug bullets out of their victims' bodies. But U.S. Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, General McChrystal's spokesman, said no forensic evidence or eyewitness testimony had been presented to support that account, the LAT says.

The image above shows a 5 Apr 10 screen grab from Memeorandum at 1930hrs.

The following blog posts discussed the surge in Iraq:

Just Admit It: The Surge Worked Abu Muqawama, 4/6 Type: Military; Tone: Supportive But there can be no denying that a space has indeed been created for a more or less peaceful political process to take place. Acts of heinous violence still take place in Baghdad, but so too does a relatively peaceful political process.

"The Surge Worked" The Atlantic, 4/7 Type: Political; Tone: Balanced No one denies the decline in violence, and the luck and military skill that it took. But the entire point of reducing the violence was to create a space for political reconciliation, which would be the proof of the surge's success, and which would allow the US to leave without a regional and sectarian bloodbath. Such proof does not exist.

Other:

This Is Not Good For Our Efforts In Afghanistan Bouhammer, 4/5 Type: Military; Tone: Balanced Well it seems that NATO is coming clean on a raid that happened in Gardez back in February. It is not good for NATO and there is no doubt our enemies will use this in their propaganda and media campaign.

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A Relationship Going Bad, Quickly Bouhammer, 4/5 Type: Military; Tone: Balanced I just wrote a little while ago about the alleged cover up by US Special Operation Forces that dealt with three women being killed in February, and now this. Any hint of a cover-up could embolden Karzai at a time when he‘s trying to flex his independence and portray Western governments as detrimental to his country.

Baghdad Blood And Baghdad Mud (Or, Whither Iraq) The Huffington Post, 4/5 Type: Political; Tone: Balanced; Comments: 151 The commanding U.S. General, Ray Odierno, emphasizes this in an interview. In his blunt, direct, soft-spoken way he says it will be three, five, maybe ten years before we know whether it was win, lose or draw in Iraq.

The Azimuth: COIN Edition Small Wars Journal, 4/7 Type: Military; Tone: Balanced The Army National Guard Training Division (NGB-ART) is pleased to link The Azimuth "training message" with that of the U.S. Army / USMC Counterinsurgency (COIN) Center, U.S. Army Combined Arms Center (CAC) at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas to communicate new and emerging information in the conduct of COIN.

The US Army‟s Shift To Irregular Warfare Small Wars Journal, 4/7 Type: Military; Tone: Balanced Part of today‘s challenges within the US Army are the ongoing debates of whether future conflict will require us to continue to develop more robust COIN and irregular warfare capabilities or to maintain our edge in conventional warfare expertise.

Getting Behind The Fraud In Afghanistan The Huffington Post, 4/8 Type: Political; Tone: Balanced The current war, the latest endeavor in the "graveyard of empires," has claimed far more Afghan lives than those of the invaders. As U.S. Afghan commander Stanley McChrystal told The New York Times, "We have shot an astounding number of people."

WORLD POLITICS REVIEW: IN EASTERN AFGHANISTAN, APPARENT SNIPER STALKS U.S. TROOPS War is Boring, 4/8 Type: Military; Tone: Balanced Gunfire and rockets erupted on both sides of the American patrol the night of March 28 in Kunar province, along the Pakistani border in eastern Afghanistan. The ambush was one of at least two apparently coordinated attacks that struck U.S. Army forces operating from two small bases in the province‘s main river valley.

The Burdens Of War Small Wars Journal, 4/9 Type: Military; Tone: Balanced Regardless of one‘s opinion of the management and progress of the war on terrorism, and contrary to the view of Yingling, the all-volunteer force has been an amazing success.

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OTHER (37)

The following blog posts discussed the WikiLeaks video:

WIKILEAKS OR AGITPROP Blackfive, 4/5 Type: Military; Tone: Balanced I think the idea behind Wikileaks has merit. If you're a whistleblower, and are troubled by something you see, but afraid of facing consequences for pushing it out there, it could be a useful outlet.

Collateral Murder' In Baghdad Anything But The Weekly Standard, 4/5 Type: Political; Tone: Balanced It would be nice to know what happened before Wikileaks decided to begin the video. The U.S. military claimed the Iraqis were killed after a gun battle with U.S. and Iraqi security forces.

Wikileaks Releases Video Of Slaughter In Iraq Salon, 4/5 Type: Political; Tone: Balanced; Comments: 330 Those two stories came together perfectly when WikiLeaks today released a video of the U.S. military, from an Apache helicopter, slaughtering civilians in Iraq in 2007 -- including a Reuters photojournalist and his driver -- and then killing and wounding several Iraqis who, minutes later, showed up at the scene to carry away the dead and wounded (including two of their children).

Muckraking Startup Releases Controversial Iraq War Footage, And Starts A Conversation Stripes Central, 4/5 Type: Military; Tone: Balanced A relatively unknown website has posted a previously classified video of a 2007 U.S. Army helicopter attack on a group of Iraqi men and children that also killed a 22-year old Reuters news agency photographer and his driver.

Wikileaks VIDEO Exposes 2007 'Collateral Murder' In Iraq The Huffington Post, 4/6 Type: Political; Tone: Balanced; Comments: 10,812 Reuters released this statement from David Schlesinger, editor-in-chief of Reuters news: "The deaths of Namir Noor-Eldeen and Saeed Chmagh three years ago were tragic and emblematic of the extreme dangers that exist in covering war zones.

Baghdad Blood And Baghdad Mud The Huffington Post, 4/6 Type: Political; Tone: Balanced After talking with Odierno, other U.S. officials and a wide variety of sources of various nationalities on this trip, what comes clear is this: The end of the American era in Iraq has begun. But it's only a beginning. The way ahead figures to be long, messy and filled with potential peril.

WikiLeaks Reax The Atlantic, 4/6 Type: Political; Tone: Balanced There is nothing in that video that is inconsistent with the military‘s report. What you see is the air weapons team engaging armed men. Second, note how empty the streets are in the video.

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Iraq Slaughter Not An Aberration Salon, 4/6, Comments: 426 Type: Political; Tone: Balanced Shining light on what our government and military do is so critical precisely because it forces people to see what is really being done and prevents myth and propaganda from distorting those realities.

The Lies Of The Pentagon, Ctd The Atlantic, 4/6 Type: Political; Tone: Balanced I'm currently deployed to a region in southeast Baghdad, near where this incident took place, and the Rules of Engagement that dictate the use of lethal force state 51% certainty that the individual represent a threat to you or another US Soldier. (To my knowledge, it always has been.)

The Lies Of The Pentagon, Ctd The Atlantic, 4/6 Type: Political; Tone: Balanced I was a member of a unit that killed one and wounded two Americans during Operation Desert Storm. Nothing has awakened the feelings I had that night in 1991 ever, until I watched that video of the Apache attack on the journalists.

The Wikileaks Video Blackfive, 4/6 Type: Military; Tone: Balanced War is dangerous, and stupidity can be terminal. If you hang around with insurgents, or go charging towards a firefight in an unmarked vehicle, you can pay the price.

Open Letter To Centcom Pao Blackfive, 4/6 Type: Military; Tone: Balanced I'd like to say a few words about this whole Wikileaks thing. You know, the thing where they've put up a 17 minute video called "Collateral Murder" that makes American soldiers look like, well, bad guys. How the heck did that happen?

Dissents Of The Day The Atlantic, 4/6 Type: Political; Tone: Balanced Of course, what happened is horrible. But the video makes it quite clear that the soldiers in that helicopter didn't realize what they were doing.

U.S. Military Releases Redacted Records On 2007 Apache Attack, Questions Linger Danger Room, 4/7 Type: Military; Tone: Balanced Other questions remain about the rules of engagement, and the remedial action the military might have taken to prevent such incidents in the future. A section on ―recommendations‖ in the air cavalry investigation is blacked out.

War Porn (Part Two) Mudville Gazette, 4/7 Type: Military; Tone: Balanced Mary Mapes, on the other hand, knew if she could get her fingers on some samples of those "home-spun" prison porn pix she'd have a hit. And when the Army moved forward to prosecute, she scored - selected snaps made their way from one of the accused soldiers to her.

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Follow-Up Points On The Wikileaks Video Salon, 4/7 Type: Political; Tone: Balanced; Comments: 150 McChrystal's comments were reported in The New York Times and yet barely caused a ripple. Why? Because this is what war is; it's what we do when we invade and occupy other countries.

Military Investigation Matches What Is Seen On Baghdad Strike Tape The Weekly Standard, 4/7 Type: Political; Tone: Balanced The U.S. Army investigated this incident after it occurred and cleared the Apache crews of wrongdoing. And if you read the investigation and watch the tape, you'll see the findings of the investigation are consistent with what you see on the video.

Is Wikileaks A Security Threat? Small Wars Journal, 4/7 Type: Military; Tone: Balanced A 2008 report by the U.S. Army suggests that WikiLeaks, which on Tuesday published a video that shows U.S. forces apparently killing two Iraqi journalists, could be a threat to national security. The website has released sensitive information in the past, the report notes.

War Is UGLY, That Is Why So Few Of Us Are Willing To Do It Bouhammer, 4/7 Type: Military; Tone: Balanced So here is my opinion, without re-hashing too much of CDR Salamander. If you watch the video there is without a doubt there are weapons being carried by some of the insurgents. There is also no doubt that the pilots did not willy-nilly shoot at these people, they confirmed PID (Positive Identity), and they did this several time.

When Context Is Wiki Collateral Damage The Line of Departure, 4/7 Type: Military; Tone: Balanced The website released a cockpit video Monday from a 2007 engagement in Iraq, in which an Apache helicopter crew fires on a group of unidentified men, and then a passer-by driving a van who attempts to rescue the wounded.

Upon Further Review Collateral Murder The Line Of Departure, 4/8 Type: Military; Tone: Balanced Since then I have obtained and read the Army‘s 15–6 investigation, which concludes the Reuters cameraman and the driver ―were in the company of armed insurgents who had been firing on Bravo company…‖. The investigation, which you can read here in its entirety, says two RPGs and one AK-47 assault rifle were found at the scene.

Full WikiLeaks Video Released, U.S. Iraq Command Says "Case Closed," For Now Daily Kos, 4/8 Type: Political; Tone: Balanced; Comments: 101 Whether this story goes further will likely depend on how hard Reuters continues to push to have a new investigation. It seems pretty clear that the military hopes to ride this out without further investigation and without providing a substantive response.

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Shame On Wikileaks: Framing Lawful Engagement As Anti-American Propaganda (Part Two) Pajamas Media, 4/8 Type: Political; Tone: Balanced WikiLeaks whitewashed the presence of weapons clearly shown by gun camera footage and ignored the confirmation in military investigations of the incident that the militant‘s weapons displayed in the footage were recovered at the scene.

War Porn (Part Three - For The Children) Mudville Gazette, 4/8 Type: Military; Tone: Balanced One of their own, Army nurse Capt. Maria Ortiz, was killed in July by indirect fire from a mortar attack in the International Zone as she was walking back to the hospital from one of the area's gyms with fellow Army nurse Maj. Stephen Williams. She was the first military nurse to die in combat in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Leaked US Army Video Leaves Iraqi Public Angry The Huffington Post, 4/8 Type: Political; Tone: Balanced After a string of high profile incidents which call into question the combat ethics of US forces in Iraq, one reader of Egyptian independent daily Al-Shorouq bemoans the lack of accountability in the US Army, while also taking an opportunity to pay his respects to the two Arab Reuters journalists killed in the incident.

Salon Radio: Spc. Josh Stieber On Wikileaks Video Salon, 4/9 Type: Political; Tone: Balanced; Comments: 202 Josh Stieber is a former solider in the U.S. Army deployed to Iraq in 2007 and 2008, achieving the rank of Specialist. While deployed in Baghdad, he was in the very same Company -- Bravo Company 2-16 -- as the infantry ground soldiers involved in the Apache helicopter attack depicted on the video released by WikiLeaks earlier this week.

The image above shows a 5 Apr 10 screen grab from Memeorandum at 1900hrs.

The following blog posts discussed DADT:

LTG Mixon Gets Slap, No Resignation (Mentions Lt. Gen. Mixon) Armchair Generalist, 4/5 Type: Military; Tone: Critical The commander of the Army in the Pacific [LTG Benjamin Mixon] won't be formally reprimanded after urging troops to lobby to keep the ban on openly gay military service. President Obama

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supports lifting the ban, and an active attempt to keep it in place could be considered insubordination

Gibbs: Obama Would Agree It‟s „Odd‟ That The Doj Cited Powell‟s Old Views To Defend DADT In Court Think Progress, 4/6 Type: Political; Tone: Balanced Late last month, the Department of Justice filed a brief in federal court in California defending the ban on gay men and women serving openly in the military.

White House Suggests Justice Department Brief Upholding 'Don‟t Ask,Don‟t Tell' Was 'Odd' ABC News Political Punch, 4/6 Type: Political; Tone: Balanced White House press secretary Robert Gibbs Tuesday suggested a Justice Department brief upholding the ―don‘t ask,don‘t tell‖ ban on gays and lesbians serving openly in the military was ―odd,‖ given that it used 17-year-old language from Gen. Colin Powell (ret.) that the former Joint Chiefs Chairman says he no longer believes.

The following blog posts discussed Gen. Casey‟s comments on the strategy in Iraq and Afghanistan:

My Dinner With Gen. George Casey: Girding For A Long War, And More The Best Defense, 4/6 Type: Military; Tone: Balanced I went but didn't expect much because in my experience Casey has been pretty cautious, even dull, in his public comments. But I guess as he sees the end of his term approaching he is loosening up a bit, because I found the conversation surprisingly forthright.

Tom Ricks: Interview With Petraeus, Dinner With Casey Small Wars Journal, 4/6 Type: Military; Tone: Balanced He thinks future warfare will resemble the fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon in 2006, in which "a non-state actor has the instruments of state power." That means, he said, that the organizing principle for training and educating the force must be "versatility."

Other:

The U.S. Army And Irregular Warfare Small Wars Journal, 4/3 Type: Military; Tone: Balanced This book contains selected papers from the 2007 Conference of Army Historians. The fifteen papers selected for this publication are not only the best of those presented, but they also examine irregular warfare in a wide and diverse range of circumstances and eras.

The Best Defense Interview: Petraeus On Not Running For President, Pirates, President Obama & „The Blind Side‟ The Best Defense, 4/5 Type: Military; Tone: Balanced Americans are, I think, up to speed on the situations in Afghanistan and Iraq and, to a lesser degree perhaps, with respect to .

Brig. Gen. MacFarland Is Going To Ft. Leavenworth Attackerman, 4/5 Type: Military; Tone: Balanced That would be this guy, who as a brigade commander in Ramadi in 2006 had the good sense to partner with the nascent Sunni turn against al-Qaeda in Iraq. Not a bad thing to place him at the Army‘s intellectual center. 14

David Petraeus For President: Run General, Run Small Wars Journal, 4/5 Type: Military; Tone: Balanced Within those ranks, no one stands out like General , head of United States Central Command, leader of 230,000 troops and commander of United States forces in two wars.

LTC Decides To End His Career And Refuse Deployment This Ain't Hell, 4/7 Type: Military; Tone: Balanced Shades of Stefan Cook, the Army Times reports that Army flight surgeon Lt. Col. Terrence Lakin has announced that he‘d rather be a political tool than an Army officer by refusing to deploy because the President won‘t show Lakin his birth certificate.

Uncut: Lessons Learned From Six And A Half Years In Afghanistan Small Wars Journal, 4/9 Type: Military; Tone: Balanced As I depart, I would like to thank the thousands of fellow members of the Coalition with whom I‘ve had the pleasure to serve these past 6 ½ years. I‘d also like to pass on a few things for you to consider… for what it‘s worth. If you like the observations, make them your own.

*Note: Links to blogs below are not included in the total blog count for this report.

The following blog posts have minor mentions of the Army, reposts of news releases, and/or contain blogs not included within the Tier 1 Blog List:

http://www.mudvillegazette.com/033533.html http://blogs.stripes.com/blogs/stripes-central/morning-reading-april-5-haiti-health-risk-and- days-top-links http://www.dodbuzz.com/2010/04/05/af-needs-coin-plane-rand/#axzz0kLRQxk8O http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tom-engelhardt/believe-it-or-not-2010-im_b_527299.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/laura-flanders/grittv-the-f-word-impossi_b_528706.html http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/2010/04/the-toyota-horde/ http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MGFkYWIzZGM3YTY3NTE1Y2FkMjdkM2QwNz Q5ZGZkNmM http://www.huffingtonpost.com/clint-van-winkle/yellow-ribbon-stickers-th_b_529661.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/azeem-ibrahim/obama-must-tell-it-like-i_b_529620.html http://attackerman.firedoglake.com/2010/04/09/killing-a-pregnant-woman-means-never- having-to-say-youre-sorry/ http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=Nzg2MDM0MzEzNzI5YmQ3NDMzMmEyMjdlY2I wZDFlMTI http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/04/britains-culture-warriors-deploy-to-afghanistan/ http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/04/05/afghanistan/index.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sen-ernest-frederick-hollings/afghanistan----not- necess_b_525251.html http://kitup.military.com/2010/04/bulletproof-tshirts-in-the-works.html#axzz0kclKLdyg http://thisainthell.us/blog/?p=18369 http://thisainthell.us/blog/?p=18358 http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2010/04/the-lies-of-the-pentagon.html http://thisainthell.us/blog/?p=18385 http://www.warisboring.com/?p=4812

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http://thisainthell.us/blog/?p=18415 http://www.warisboring.com/?p=4779 http://www.blackfive.net/main/2010/04/outpost-attack.html http://www.blackfive.net/main/2010/04/nuclear-posture-review-roundtable.html http://www.vamortgagecenter.com/blog/2010/04/07/cob-adder-jdc-to-be-last-jdc-in-iraq/ http://www.vamortgagecenter.com/blog/2010/04/07/treatment-study-for-severe-debilitating- ptsd/ http://armchairgeneralist.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/04/colbert-on-dadt.html http://www.warisboring.com/?p=4711 http://www.vamortgagecenter.com/blog/2010/04/05/with-you-all-the-way-dvd-for-children- dealing-with-deployment/ http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2010/04/yes-theyll-ditch-petraeus.html http://www.warisboring.com/?p=4867 http://armchairgeneralist.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/04/unoriginal-concepts-waste-of- money.html http://attackerman.firedoglake.com/2010/04/05/impressive-attempts-at-avoiding- newsmaking/

The following blog posts are additional WikiLeak entries:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-reidy/wikileaks-video-shows-fog_b_528325.html http://thinkprogress.org/2010/04/05/military-cover-up-2007/ http://hotair.com/archives/2010/04/05/video-collateral-murder-or-the-risks-of-war-zones/ http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2010/04/05/wikileaks_gun_camera_footage/i ndex.html http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/04/whistleblower-report-leaked-video-shows-us- coverup/ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/08/reuters-spikes-story-on-p_n_530564.html http://www.blackfive.net/main/2010/04/mountainrunner-on-wikileaks-conspiracy.html http://mountainrunner.us/2010/04/wikileaks.html http://thisainthell.us/blog/?p=18461 http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/shame-on-wikileaks-framing-lawful-engagement-as-anti- american-propaganda-part-one/?singlepage=true http://www.huffingtonpost.com/barrett-brown/wikileaks-blows-whistle-o_b_525066.html http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/4/6/125237/2328 http://weeklystandard.com/blogs/wikileaks-edits-out-21-minutes-baghdad-strike-video http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/04/06/myths/index.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alexia-parks/endgame-wikileaks-video-r_b_526918.html http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/4/5/161243/1820 http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/04/06/is_this_the_future_of_journalism

Bloggers‟ Roundtables

No items.

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Army Strong Stories

A View From “The Other Schiffer”, Maj. Emily Schiffer, 4/8 One of the comments to Emily‘s original post asks: what is family life like in the Army? Here are my thoughts as her ―partner in crime‖ (spouse). I apologize for its length, but there is much to say. My name is Tom Schiffer, and my career tracks Emily‘s almost identically. I was commissioned as a Field Artillery officer, and then transitioned to the JAG Corps at the same time as Emily. We both went to law school, moved several times to multiple states, and we‘ve each deployed twice. So how does this lifestyle—dual military couple—square with raising a family? Our first challenge was determining when would be the best time to start a family. As with most dual career couples, we determined there simply was no perfect time. After I returned from a deployment to Kuwait and Emily returned from a deployment to Bosnia, we decided the time was right to start a family. A little over a year from the time Emily returned, our first daughter Annie was born in the Spring of 1998. Three months later, we headed off to law school […].

Report Overview

The weekly blog report includes an overview of Army-related blog reports from the highest-ranked blog sites, based on rankings from Technorati, suggestions from the OCPA Media Analysis team, and blogs found through extensive research. Additionally, a comprehensive search is conducted through Google Blogs to obtain the most relevant blog entries. Relevant blog entries are divided into two categories: News Generators, i.e., blog entries of spontaneous origin that may or may not lead to other discussions, and Comments on News, i.e., blog entries written in response to particular events and/or media announcements. The report also includes notable comments from readers of various blog posts, followed by links to the full text of the blog.

The blogs contained in this report are analyzed according to the tone of the blog entry: Critical, Supportive, and Balanced. If a blog has received a significant amount of attention, whereby users have made a significant number of comments and/or views on a specific blog post, this is documented within the report as well.

Entries from Bloggers‘ Roundtables and the Army Strong Stories blog are also provided at the end of the report.

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