Louisiana Voice

Without getting into an overall critique of the Trump administration (I am already on record as to my feelings about him, so no need to repeat myself), I nevertheless feel compelled to address an issue that has arisen in recent days.

The Trump Justice Department, at his direction, is exploring the possibility of PARDONING military personnel convicted of war crimes in the Mideast, including SEAL Chief Edward Gallagher, Green Beret Major Matthew Golsteyn, a former Blackwater contractor and others.

Trump took up the matter supposedly after FAUX NEWS host ROGER HEGSETH repeatedly urged him to take the action.

No doubt such a move would get the approval of National Security Adviser John Bolton.

Setting policy on the advice of news reporters (and that includes ALL pundits whose job it is to report news, not make it) is bad enough, but this proposed action is ill-advised on so many levels that even U.S. military veterans are DISGUSTED by the very thought.

A former platoon leader in Iraq has also weighed in on the debate in a WASHINGTON POST story. And please, even if you agree with Trump about the Post, try to put those feelings aside and think about what is considered acceptable and unacceptable in the manner in which civilians are to be treated in wartime. This is an issue that transcends—should transcend—politics.

To issue pardons would send the wrong message about what this country stands for.

We are not Nazi Germany.

We are not Japanese soldiers slaughtering American GIs on the Bataan peninsula.

We’re better than that. At least, we’re supposed to be.

There’s another reason for opposing this insane line of action:

To uphold the heroics and to honor the memory of Hugh Thompson.

Born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1943, Hugh Thompson was the Army warrant officer who flew helicopters in Vietnam.

After the war, he settled in Lafayette, Louisiana, and flew ‘copters for Petroleum Helicopters, Inc. (PHI). He died of cancer in January 2006 in the VA Hospital in Pineville.

If you read nothing else in your life, read THIS ACCOUNT of The Forgotten Hero of My Lai and then decide for yourself if pardons are a good idea for war criminals.

If you don’t recognize his name, perhaps you’ll remember the name of LT. WILLIAM CALLEY.

The two men crossed paths on March 16, 1968, in what has become one of the darkest chapters of an ill-advised war that had no victors, only survivors.

Thompson happened upon the mass slaughter of Vietnamese civilians by Charlie Company of the U.S. Army’s 1^st Platoon. He landed his helicopter and the following exchange took place between him and platoon commander Calley:

Thompson: What’s going on here, Lieutenant?

Calley: This is my business.

Thompson: What is this?

Who are these people?

Calley: Just following orders.

Thompson: Orders?

Whose orders?

Calley: Just following…

Thompson: But these are human beings, unarmed civilians, sir.

Calley: Look Thompson, this is my show. I’m in charge here. It ain’t your concern.

Thompson: Yeah, great job.

Calley: You better get back in that chopper and mind your own business.

Thompson: You ain’t heard the last of this!

Thompson subsequently left but returned and set his helicopter down between fleeing Vietnamese civilians and the pursuing Americans. He instructed his door gunners Specialists Lawrence Colburn and Glenn Andreotta to train their M-60 machine guns on the Americans and to cover him. “If these bastards open up on me or these people, you open up on them.”

His actions not only save the lives of 11 civilians at the scene, but when he reported the incident upon his return to base, his commander ordered Charlie Company to “knock off the killing.” His actions saved the lives of hundreds more Vietnamese.

So, was Thompson recognized as a war hero?

Nope. He was pilloried by members of the House Armed Services Committee, especially so by committee Chairman Mendel Rivers (D-S.C.), who actually proclaimed that Thompson was the only soldier at My Lai who should be punished and then attempted to have him court martialed. All the committee was interested in was covering up a massacre by American troops.

As Thompson told Calley, great job. Rep. Rivers and your fellow committee members

Thompson began receiving hate mail, death threats and mutilated animals on his doorstep.

It wasn’t until precisely 30 years later that Thompson, Andreotta and Colburn were awarded the Soldier’s Medal (Andreotta posthumously), the Army’s highest award for bravery not involving direct contact with the enemy. “It was the ability to do the right thing even at the risk of their personal safety that guided these soldiers to do what they did,” then-Major General Michael Ackerman said at the 1998 ceremony.

Calley, for his part, was eventually charged with the premeditated MURDER of 109 Vietnamese civilians. As it turned out, he was the ONLY ONE found guilty of murdering 22 civilians and sentenced to life imprisonment, a sentence that was reduced first to 20 years and then to 10 by the Secretary of the Army. He was paroled by Nixon in 1974 after serving only about three years.

Incredibly, he was considered by much of the public as a scapegoat in the entire affair.

Incredibly, National Security Adviser BOLTON for years has campaigned to convince other countries to sign the Article 98 agreements which says that the countries would not cooperate with the world court in the prosecution of American military personnel at the expense of American foreign aid if they did cooperate.

The Nazis would’ve loved to have had Bolton as their advocate at the NUREMBERG TRIALS.

And just so you know, Bolton, the quintessential war-monger who is constantly rattling swords, like Trump, was in reality, a DRAFT-DODGER during the Vietnam War, even writing in his Yale 25^th reunion book, “I confess I had no desire to die in a Southeast Asian rice paddy. I considered the war in Vietnam already lost.” So, to him, it’s okay to send others to die for his political ambitions so long as he doesn’t have to answer the bell himself.

That would qualify him as a chicken hawk.

But I digress. To pardon these war criminals would be to dishonor the courage of Hugh Thompson and his two gunners, Lawrence Colburn and Glenn Andreotta.

They deserve better.

In the immortal words of Pogo: “We have met the enemy and he is us.”

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When the State of Louisiana VOIDED A FLOOD-RECOVERY CONTRACT with Hunt Guillot and Associates (HGA) earlier this month because of a conflict of interest, it wasn’t the Ruston firm’s first brush with state ethics laws.

Paula Tregre, the state’s chief procurement officer whose office oversees the bid review process, voided the $10 million federal-funded contract after finding what she described as several flaws in the contract award. One of those “flaws” was HGA’s intention to use a subcontractor with a couple of employees who had “obvious” conflicts of interest.

One of those employees, Stacy Bonnaffons, served as a contract employee with Restore Louisiana, the state’s disaster recovery agency established to help victims of widespread 2016 flooding in Louisiana.

Tregre said Bonnaffons, listed by HGA as one of its “three most relevant key staff,” appeared to have supervisory authority over one of the bid evaluators.

Bonnaffons, Tregre said, performed contract work and served at one point as interim chief of staff to the Office of Community Development, which Tregre said gave her internal access to information about the Restore Louisiana program and was involved in revising plans that “became integral components” of the bid solicitation for the contract which was ultimately awarded to HGA.

Following the awarding of the contract, a formal protest was filed by losing bidder Hammerman and Gainer (HGI).

Besides its headquarters in Ruston, HGA also has offices in Shreveport, Lake Charles, Baton Rouge and New Orleans.

Questions about the company’s cozy relationship with the state first surfaced way back in 2011 when the Louisiana Board of Ethics gave a thumbs-up on HGA partner JAY GUILLOT to serve on the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) from the 5^th District while the firm simultaneously held $17 million in state contracts.

LouisianaVoice initiated an inquiry with the ethics board on Nov. 2, 2011, as to the legality of Guillot’s serving on a state board while his firm held the contract with the Office of Community Development (OCD) for recovery efforts from Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Ike, and Gustav.

That’s when it was first learned that one must have some type of official capacity to have an inquiry recognized by the ethics board.

The board ruled that LouisianaVoice “HAD NO LEGAL STANDING” to request a ruling.

Translation: Louisiana taxpayers are insignificant and powerless to hold public officials and state contractors accountable to state ethics laws. Those laws are only for contractors and elected and appointed officials, thank you very much.

That’s when the damage Bobby Jindal’s “gold standard” of ethics had done to the state really came into sharp focus.

But that wasn’t the end of the HGA ethics questions.

Three years later, LouisianaVoice revealed that HGA had received $1.58 million for work for the RECOVERY SCHOOL DISTRICT AND 12 INDIVIDUAL PARISH SCHOOL BOARDS.

The Department of Education has responsibility for the oversight of RSD and cannot be considered separate entities for purposes of say, a lawsuit against the RSD. At the same time, BESE is the governing authority over DOE, thereby creating a straight line of authority between BESE and the RSD as well as the dozen school boards for whom HGA also performed work.

Section 1113 of The Louisiana Code of Governmental Ethics prohibits public servants and their family members from entering into certain transaction. That section says:

• “No elected official or public employee or member of such public servant’s immediate family, or legal entity in which he has a controlling interest shall bid on or enter into any contract, subcontract, or other transaction that is under the supervision or jurisdiction of the public servant’s agency.”

As might be expected when there is so much money to be made off the suffering of Louisiana citizens, HGA has appealed the action. The firm’s legal counsel, Loretta Mince, said Tregre had “no authority” to ignore an April ruling by the ethics board which she said cleared Bonnaffons and another subcontractor employee to perform the contract work.

Mince said Bonnaffons had no input into “drafting specifications, working on the invitation for bids or exercising any influence on the evaluators.”

Because Bonnaffons does not have a controlling interest in HGA, the matter is likely to evolve into a protracted legal battle.

That appeal goes to Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne and his decision, whichever way he rules, is likely to make its way into the courts.

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