BlackFive

Shocked, shocked I say. The dirty, nasty, patchouli-smelling, hippie freelancer for Rolling Stone violated the off the record rules to report any dirt he found. 

"Many of the sessions were off-the-record and intended to give [reporter Michael Hastings] a sense" of how McChrystal's team operated, according to a senior military official. The command's own review of events, the official said, gleaned "no evidence to suggest" that any of the "salacious political quotes" in the article were made during a series of on-the-record and background interviews Hastings conducted with McChrystal and others.

The official, one of many subject to a Pentagon advisory not to discuss the situation without authorization, spoke on condition of anonymity. He said he was motivated by what he described as untrue claims made by Rolling Stone.

Two others with direct knowledge of the command's dealings with Hastings offered similar accounts.

Well no sh*t, but I thought McChrystal was just an idiot for allowing this guy access at all? Well it seems it may have not been Stan the Man's idea at all, but forced on him by higher up the food chain. What an atrocious goat screw this is and regardless of the fact that Petraeus is now riding in to serve as a scapegoat if things go to Hell save the day, we have been hamstrung by a desire to deal with press who lie like rugs.

The really fun part is that every quote his drunk-ass aides gave up is actually true, they just embarrassed the Obama. And since he couldn't afford politically to look weak yet again, he decided it was kick ass time. Sad, just sad, because this never had a damn thing to do with competence or the ROE or anything other than the lameness of our civilian leaders of the war being aired in public.