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| Home Front: Politix |
| E-mail sparks investigation of Army civilians |
| 2008-02-02 |
| An unknown number of Army civilian employees will be investigated in connection with the unlawful distribution of a chain e-mail that makes false accusations about Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. The e-mail appears to have originated at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, and was sent out by civilian individuals to potentially thousands of people who work for Army Medical Command, including soldiers. In response, the Army sent a memorandum Jan. 16 through the Medical Information Technology Center to an unspecified number of soldiers in Army Medical Command warning against using government computers to distribute the e-mail. The email accuses Obama of concealing that he is a radical Muslim, that he disrespects the American flag and that he was sworn into office with his hand on the Koran. The Army memorandum, which was first reported in the Boston Globe, stated: “Currently there is an e-mail floating around with the Subject line: ‘Who is Barack Obama.’ Like virtually all chain e-mails, this one is false.” The investigation into the actions of the Army civilians will be conducted by the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, an independent federal investigative and prosecutorial agency that looks into allegations of illegal practices among federal employees and protects the merits of others, such as whistle-blowers. “We are going to be opening cases,” said OSC spokesman Jim Mitchell, who could not speculate on the number of people who will be investigated because of the possibility that it may have been distributed to thousands of people. “My own feeling is that this is the tip of the iceberg.” The e-mail thread obtained by Army Times shows that the message began to circulate outside the government and reached an AMEDD employee before going out to a wide distribution list in that department. “New technologies make it easier for you to do stupid things on government time, on government computers by federal employees to other federal employees,” Mitchell said, explaining that the chain e-mail sent by civilians at AMEDD is a violation of the Hatch Act, which restricts partisan political activity of federal employees. |
| Posted by:ryuge |
| #1 An unknown number of Army civilian employees Mossberg shotgun broken firing pin syndrone. It won't work and you can't fire it. Yawn. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2008-02-02 09:19 |