Why Army Times Cannot be Trusted

Major Erik Burris, USA... railroaded into prison for telling the truth

WHY ARMY TIMES CANNOT BE TRUSTED
MILITARYCORRUPTION.COM CALLS OUT
“BOY WONDER” EDITOR TONY LOMBARDO FOR
SUCKING UP TO PENTAGON – CENSORSHIP
AND “POLITICAL CORRECTNESS” MAY HAVE
MOTIVATED TIMES EDITOR TO KILL 3400-WORD
STORY ON HOW BRASS RAILROADED A SENIOR
JAG – MAJ ERIK BURRIS – WHEN THEIR OWN
ARTICLE 32 INVESTIGATIVE OFFICER CALLED
ACCUSER’S ALLEGATIONS “UNTRUTHFUL,”
RECOMMENDED NOT GO TO COURT MARTIAL

© 2016 MilitaryCorruption.com

By MAJ Glenn MacDonald, USAR (Ret)
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

When dog bites man, its no news, but when man bites dog – that’s a story.

The point we’re making here is, the so-called “independent” Army TIMES, which costs you $3.75 at the PX check-out counter, isn’t worth the paper it is printed on – in our humble opinion. After you read this article, you may tend to agree.

Loyal readers of MilitaryCorruption.com – we get up to six million hits a month, worldwide – will recall we did two lengthy investigative stories last year on the terrible injustice done to MAJ Erik Burris, onetime chief JAG prosecutor at Fort Bragg.

A vindictive ex-wife accused him of rape, forcible sodomy, etc. despite lack of proof or the testimony of eyewitnesses. The charges weren’t filed until months after the couple separated.

So specious was the case, the Army’s own investigative officer at the major’s Article 32 hearing said the following: “My assessment is that Ms. Burris’ allegations . . . her statements to CID . . . were driven by a combination of motives. The evidence in the case file and testimony suggests she made untruthful and/or inconsistent claims . . . her display of emotion did not appear genuine . . . I am left with no other alternative but that Ms. Burris is fabricating her allegations.”

Right then and there, the Army should have tossed the case, but they did not. In today’s military, no senior commander would dare not prosecute such a “politically-sensitive” case. Members of Congress and man-hating feminists everywhere want ALL accused to be convicted, even if the evidence is not there to justify it.

Burris was consequently found “guilty” at court-martial and sent to prison for 20 years.

WE ENTER THE CASE

Here’s where we at MilitaryCorruption.com come in.

As a former Army public affairs officer and instructor, when I got a tip that not one reporter was present at Burris’ Article 32 hearing and subsequent six-day court-martial, I smelled a rat. It is rare indeed when the Army hammers a JAG chief prosecutor. What were they trying to hide? Why not have an Associated Press or at least Fayetteville OBSERVER reporter covering the proceedings? After all, what could be more politically correct than show-casing the Army obliterating Erik Burris?

Here’s why. They didn’t want it known that their own investigative officer not only recommended no court-martial for Burris, but pointedly questioned the credibility and “truthfulness” of the major’s accuser.

The more we learned about the Army’s real reason to nuke MAJ Burris, we recalled a famous case of military injustice in the French Army. A captain (and Jew) had been framed and railroaded into a prison cell at the infamous Devil’s Island penal colony. It took years, but thanks to the efforts of noted author Emile Zola and other prominent Frenchmen, Alfred Dreyfus got a new trial and was cleared. The officer was reinstated, promoted to major, and retired from the Army at the end of World War I as a lieutenant colonel.

ARMY SOUGHT REVENGE ON BURRIS

We maintain what happened to Burris here is the “American Dreyfus case.” Le MondeParis-Match and France-Soir, please note.

To find out the back story, we learned that MAJ Burris had greatly angered the Pentagon when he testified as a defense witness for an Army captain being prosecuted at Fort Bragg (see related stories box below). What enraged the brass hats the most, was Burris testified under oath that he – as chief JAG prosecutor – had been pressured to bring legal action against all accused, no matter what.

One would think such an established and once-respected publication as Army TIMES would be interested in printing the truth. We thought so. Therefore, MilitaryCorruption.comreached out to a contact at the newspaper and offered to provide them with a copy of the Article 32 investigative officer’s bombshell report.

Initially, we were hopeful they would investigate such an injustice. But the weeks dragged on, and despite their top reporter writing and completing a 3400-word article, “boy wonder” editor Tony Lombardo got cold feet.

In a number of telephone conversations in Sept. 2015, we told him it was more important the truth get out and justice be done, than MCC get any credit for help provided Army TIMES. “You don’t even have to mention us at all, if that’s what holding things up,” I told Lombardo.

He upped the ante, saying we would have to provide the TIMES with the court-martial transcript for the story to go forward. Despite serious difficulty, we met his demand. But that wasn’t enough for this “politically-correct” editor. Despite the fact one of his staff writers had invested the time and expense in putting together a lengthy feature article, Lombardo still wasn’t satisfied. Nothing was enough for him. The bulk of the work was completed. All the staff writer had to do was go over the court-martial and incorporate any new material in the final draft.

But Lombardo balked again. We provided him, on request, with Garlan Burris’s phone number. The major’s father pleaded with Lombardo to print the truth, but got blown off with the excuse that Army TIMES was “short-staffed” and didn’t have the ability to finish the article.

“He’s a damn liar,” Burris said. “That excuse won’t fly. The vast majority of the work (on the piece) was already done. He was just blowing smoke at me. I’m insulted to think he thought he could so easily BS me.”

As for myself, all I could feel was disgust that a man in the position of being able to expose such an injustice in the military mouthpiece of the mainstream media would fail to meet his obligation as a journalist.

“Without fear or favor” used to be the motto of the New York TIMES. When I asked Lombardo if he was being “politically-correct,” not wanting to agitate his Pentagon pals, he denied that having any influence on him. And yet, just reporting the sensational news that the Army’s own investigative officer in the Burris case recommended AGAINST court-martial, would be worth a headline in his newspaper. There is no justification, other than sucking up for brownie points, for what he has done.

It is the policy of MilitaryCorruption.com to always give those we criticize an opportunity to respond, uncensored on our pages. Therefore, we offer the hapless Lombardo a chance to explain to our readers, many of whom used to plunk down hard cash for his increasingly thin newspaper – it was recently announced the Tegna-owned publication would shrink to 26 instead of 52 weekly issues a year – why he made such a bone-headed decision.