June 15, 2006

by Jerry Gordon

You have probably read about the former Pentagon military analyst, Marc Garlasco who was given great credibility by the mainstream press over his allegations about who or what caused the death of eight hapless Palestinians on the Gaza beach last week. Yesterday’s New York Times had another front page article by Messrs. Steven Erlanger and Ian Fisher of their Jerusalem Bureau in which Garlasco is given virtually equal standing to the IDF investigating team whose spokesperson said that “chances are close to zero” that an IDF 155MM round caused the deaths among the picnicking Ghalia family leaving unfortunate 12 year old Hulda bereft screaming for her father.

So there was Garlasco part of the purported Human Rights Watch (HRW) “investigating team” as its senior military analyst in full glory in front of the media stating that he was “certain it was caused by a 155MM round,” the IDF forensic, operational damage assessment and intelligence information to the contrary.

After all if you read the HRW news releases, they had done what they deemed the requisite GPS studies and besides, “they were there in Gaza and the IDF wasn’t” so as their headline bleated the IDF “Artillery Strike Probably Killed Palestinian Family.”

Judy Klinghoffer in her posting on Tuesday on her History News Network weblog addressed Garlasco’s previous work on the Haditha episode in Iraq and likened him to the role of U.N. Rep.Ter-Larsen during the infamous Jerin “massacre” allegations-subsequently denied by a UN investigation.

Honest reporting in its report entitled “Unbiased Advice” posted today takes Garlasco to task for his Rafah Gaza reports on Housing destruction by the IDF during its campaign to uncover smuggling tunnels under the border with Egypt, prior to the unilateral withdrawal of last summer.

Yesterday, before I did my weekly stint on Alan Nathan’s Battlle Line World Debate on Radio America I played out a hunch and spoke with a close friend and military intelligence buddy, whose name for the moment will not be disclosed. Later on-air I told the Battle Line World Debate listener audience what I had found out about Garlasco from my discussions with my friend. You can go to the Radio America Battle Line website and hear my archived ex cathedra remarks about the Gaza beach killings and Garlasco’s lack of credibility as a technically qualified expert.

I knew that my buddy had been involved with doing targeting in the preparation for the bigh push at the outbreak of hostilities in Iraq. I had looked at Marc Garlasco’s resume on line at Mother Jones radio and noted his Irag related stint.

As it turned out my MILINT buddy worked with Garlasco on pre-war Iraq targeting effort at DIA.

He noted that Marc had bolted when the war began and the rest became history as Garlasco became the purported senior military analyst for Human Rights Watch with his housing destruction reports in Gaza and such.

My buddy pointed out to me that Garlasco is not technically qualified to point to a depression in the sand on Gaza beach and state uncategorically that it was caused by an Israeli 155 MM round. Why? he had no scientific training required to do bomb damage assessment-typically a USAF intel function.

That information and more might take Garlasco and the miscreants at the NYTimes Jerusalem Bureau, their foreign editor and editorial pooh bahs in New York and the BBC/CNN/Reuters news hounds down a peg!!

It makes Garlasco, incredible, doesn’t it?