Leaked E-mail
The media is having a fine old time with a leaked e-mail in which a Major Jamie Loden, 3 Para, is critical of the RAF performance in Afghanistan.
The story features in the Observer; Sunday Times; and the New York Times. Ever ready to bash the military, BBC Radio and telelvision news are particularly enthusiastic about the story.
It is my understanding that it was a private e-mail, not intended for publication, written at a time of great stress. In it, the officer expressed views which he might not have done if he had known the document would be published. Somehow the press got hold of it and are using it embarrass the armed forces.
I will leave the military questions raised by the episode to those better qualified in the complexities of organising and executing air support (they are certainly not the journalists I've been reading). My intention here is ask the obvious questions that the msm will not: who leaked the e-mail and did they receive payment?
It is interesting that the military establishment is closing ranks, instead of using the epdisode to highlight the shortages of equipment in Afghanistan highlighted recently by Max Hastings.
Update 28.9.06
Major Loden has been talking to the Times.
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