"Fat Leonard" by
@craigmwhitlock
is the full, sometimes stranger-than-fiction story of a world-class con man who blackmailed and bamboozled the US Navy for years.
More:
New: Documents show former boss of National Security Agency received $700,000 contract from Saudi Prince MBS cybercollege after Khashoggi slaying. Pentagon had fought to keep $$ a secret. w/
@FOIANate
NEW: Meet the retired US generals who work as high-dollar consultants for the Saudi crown prince - and how the US govt tried to keep it a secret. A 2-year Post investigation by
@FOIANate
and me. 1/x
Wow - retired 4-star admiral Robert Burke arrested today on federal bribery charges for alleged actions while he commanded all
@USNavy
forces in Europe between 2020-2022.
Hard to overstate what a colossal embarrassment this debacle is for Justice Dept, US Marshals and a federal judge who approved Fat Leonard's dodgy home detention. How do you lose track of a 350-lb felon who has cancer and can barely walk? 1/x
Marine Gen Jim Jones - Obama's natsec adviser - started working for the Crown Prince in 2017. A year later, after MBS ordered the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, Jones EXPANDED his work for the Saudis. 2/x
NEW in our 'Foreign Servants' expose: A retired four-star general warned the Air Force that it could kiss goodbye its supply routes to Afghanistan if it didn't allow him to take a dodgy consulting gig that paid $5,000 per day. w/
@FOIANate
1/x
To obtain documents exposing this, The Post had to due the Army, the Air Force, the Navy, the Marines and the State Department under FOIA. It took >2 years. 7/7
Retired Army Gen. Keith Alexander - the former boss of the NSA -- cut a deal with the Saudis to help build the Prince Mohammed College of Cyber Security. Amazingly, the State Department approved it two months after Khashoggi's murder. 4/x
Pentagon: "On the evening of January 1, Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III was admitted to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for complications following a recent elective medical procedure. He is recovering well and is expecting to resume his full duties today."
"When the late former Post managing editor Eugene Patterson was publisher of the St. Petersburg Times, he insisted the newspaper report his arrest for driving under the influence of alcohol on the front page."
The Washington Post's publisher pushed his executive editor hard to kill a damning story about him. It wasn't the first time - he did the same to me.
My piece for NPR
They were among 500+ retired U.S. military personnel who have taken jobs since 2015 working for foreign governments, most known for political repression and human-rights abuses. 6/x
He made the last flight out of Kabul -- only to be gunned down on Capitol Hill while trying to provide for his family. Heartbreaking story about the funeral of Nasratullah Ahmad Yar
@SusanSvrluga
Retired 4-star Air Force Gen Chuck Wald, who worked for Jones and MBS: “We asked ourselves, are we basically turning a blind eye toward immorality? Or supporting a legitimate government?” In the end, they decided to stay. 5/x
More important digging by
@GlennKesslerWP
into
@SenTuberville
and how he has falsified his father's WW2 record. No, Charles Tuberville didn't earn 5 Bronze Stars. No, he didn't join the Army at age 16. No, he wasn't a tank commander.
New from
@FOIANate
and me:
Before he ran the Pentagon, Mattis secrely worked for the UAE as a military adviser on the war in Yemen, new documents obtained by a
@washingtonpost
#FOIA
lawsuit show. 1/x
Read the full report here, no paywall:
Oh - almost forgot. When Leonard pleaded guilty to bribing scores of US Navy officers, he also promised to pay back $35 million that he defrauded from Uncle Sam. He paid $5 million up front, but still owes $30 million. So he may have gotten away with that too.
When NCIS arrested Fat Leonard nine years ago in San Diego, the Justice Department argued against giving him bail. They predicted he would flee across the border to Tijuana and hop a flight or boat back to Malaysia. So they envisioned exactly what happened today. 3/x
Terrific expose by
@jocwapo
on how Alex Jones has been transferring his fortune to his personal trainer, his father and his sister while Sandy Hook families try to collect $1.5 billion in damages.
Amazingly, Leonard talked the feds into secretly letting him out on bail 4 years ago. Even crazier, they let him pay for his own round-the-clock security. The Post broke that story here => 2/x
TODAY in Foreign Servants: How the United Arab Emirates outsourced much of its military to retired U.S. troops working as contractors and consultants, including retired Marine General Jim Mattis. 1/x
Mattis kept the public in the dark about his foreign consulting, omitting it from ethics disclosure forms. He reported it confidentially to the Senate Armed Services Cmte, though multiple senators say they were never told.
Gift link here:
An investigative expose of the biggest corruption scandal in US military history - guaranteed to make you howl, scream, laugh and snort your coffee. Coming 5/14
"Fat Leonard: How One Man Bribed, Bilked, and Seduced the U.S. Navy" by
@CraigMWhitlock
Preorder now via
@BNBuzz
and save 25% when you join the B&N Rewards program. B&N Premium members get 35% off.
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Using FOIA, it took us six years to pry loose documents about the case. The Air Force kept insisting it couldn't find any records - until The Post sued in federal court. Then 400 pages suddenly appeared. 2/2
Dutch Foreign Ministry publishes withering assessment of NATO mission in Afghanistan between 2015-2021. Allies knew the war was going terribly but persisted with "a collective wishful thinking" they could turn things around.
Leonard is nothing if not clever. He could easily be on a flight over the Pacific now, if he hasn't already landed back in Malaysia, where US extradition would be difficult. 4/4
"White House officials warned the Modi government this month that The Post was close to publishing an investigation that would reveal new details about the case. It did so without notifying the Post."
Free link:
Terrific, methodical reporting on the extreme reluctance by Main Justice and FBI to investigate Trump and his supporters over Jan. 6 revolt. via
@CarolLeonnig
@byaaroncdavis
The pizza seller of Bakhmut - $1 oblong pies from a microwave sustain soldiers and stray animals. Only snack stand left in the demolished city. Great profile by
@Tmgneff
and Natalie Yermak.
Incredibly excited to announce that my book on the Fat Leonard scandal is coming to fruition and will publish next year. Many more revelations to come. Big thanks to my agent
@FletcherChristy
@fletcherco
A spokesman for Mattis said he worked for the UAE for free. But documents obtained by
@washingtonpost
show that Mattis wrote, in his own hand, "I will be compensated," including $100K for giving a single speech in Abu Dhabi.
Gift link here:
Leaking classified info in the olden days: Ellsberg's 13-year-old son, Robert, helped run the Xerox machine and his pre-teen daughter, Mary, snipped the words "top secret" off the documents. Ellsberg obit via
@harrisondsmith
and Patricia Sullivan.
NEW: Washington Post publisher William Lewis holds stake in start-up that is now doing business with the Post. WaPo leadership says the deal conforms with conflict-of-interest policy.
With
@jocwapo
and
@jonswaine
Free link:
Really impressive deep-dive here on Ukraine's stalemate. CIA was pessimistic from the start that the counteroffensive would work, but gung-ho US military derided the spooks as a bunch of "Eeyores." Same dynamic played out in Afghanistan for 20 years.
For-profit companies raking in millions by helping vets apply for disability benefits, despite laws forbidding firms from cashing in. Outstanding reporting by
@Reinlwapo
No paywall
A Post investigation 22 years ago (!) documented how this Prince George's police officer had been repeatedly investigated for lying, excessive force, shooting an unarmed man and the death of a prisoner. Yet he remained on the force til now.
@DavidSFallis
Former Pr. George’s County police lieutenant Edward Scott Finn was sentenced to 16 months in federal prison this week. He had pleaded guilty to failing to report more than $1.3 million in income from his private security business.
Amazed Dostum, worst of the Afghan warlords, is still alive given all his drinking, torturing and backstabbing. US military saved his life by medevacing him to Germany in 2004 when he was dying of liver disease from too much booze.
Afghanistan’s most notorious and elusive warlord has dodged assassin's bullets and survived poisoning.
He speaks to Rolling Stone from exile, plotting his revenge against the Taliban and addressing the charge that he ordered brutal crimes.
Tommy Tuberville promised to give "every dime" he earned as a senator to veterans, but his vet charity is a hot mess. Smart reporting by
@GlennKesslerWP
The scandal that never ends: "Fat Leonard" cut his ankle monitor and dissappeared Sunday, just weeks before he was to be sentenced in Navy bribery scandal via
@gregmoran
,
@kristinadavis
Nice scoop by
@John_Hudson
on US intelligence report about systematic meddling by the UAE in American politics. Washington belatedly taking notice - evidence has been piling up for a while.
They've helped turn the UAE armed forces into the most powerful military in the Arab world. But they've also enabled the UAE to intervene in civil wars in Yemen and Libya, to disastrous effect. Nobody in Congress is paying attention. 6/6
The Pentagon and State Department kept it all quiet. The Post had to sue to get the documents for Mattis - and 280 other retired US troops working as contractors or consultants in the UAE. 3/x
Army suspends retired Lt. Gen. Gary Volesky from contract to provide “enlightened” advice as senior mentor after he mocked Jill Biden on Twitter. Via
@tvandenbrook
Leave it to the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs to publish a tough, honest, unsparing and public assessment of what went wrong in Afghanistan. The Pentagon and State Department would never do this.
NEW: Besides all the bribery and corruption, the Fat Leonard scandal was a counterintelligence disaster. Ten Navy officers admitted leaking military secrets to the Malaysian con man, who turned out to be a master of espionage.
Free link
Another retired US military officer working for the UAE is Steve Toumajan, who was a lieutenant colonel in the US Army. Today, he's "General Steve" - a two-star general in Abu Dhabi. 4/x
No. 1 'New York Times' bestselling author
@CraigMWhitlock
takes readers into one of the biggest public corruption scandals in American history, revealing how a charming naval contractor bribed and blackmailed his way through the US Navy.
More:
Great sleuthing by
@AP
to expose how Justice Sonia Sotomayor and her staff relentlessly lobbied libraries and universities to buy thousands of copies of her books in exchange for public appearances.
@BrianSlodysko
@etuckerAP
After Mattis retired from the Marine Corps, he worked (unpaid, he says) as a military advisor to the UAE. Then, after he resigned as US Secretary of Defense, he went back to Abu Dhabi again. 2/x
Youngkin and Leonsis are banking on hordes of people to pay $731 a night to stay at a hotel near National Airport and $75 to park underground for a few hours.
Hundreds of other retired US troops work in Abu Dhabi as aircraft mechanics, instructor pilots, drone operators, missile defense experts, artillery trainers, radar specialists, cybersecurity advisors - you name it. And they get paid $$$$. 5/x
RIP Robert Toth, fearless LATimes correspondent who infuriated the Kremlin and was arrested by the KGB. Also my father-in-law. Will miss him very much. 1/
Very excited that after spending almost 20 years in a barn, my '66 VW Beetle is getting the full restoration treatment from Cookers V-Dubs in western Maryland.
More details on today's arrest of the former vice chief of naval operations on federal bribery charges.
Admiral Burke's attorney tells
@hsu_spencer
that the timing of the charges is "odd" given Justice Dept's bungling of Fat Leonard-related prosecutions.
Two Good Samaritans furiously gave CPR to a man they found facedown and bleeding on a DC sidewalk. They kept going when the 911 call center put them on hold. Only later did they learn they had saved the life of the Marines' top general.
Via
@DanLamothe
SCOOP: American spies detected new construction at a suspected Chinese military facility in the United Arab Emirates in December — 1 year after the oil-rich ally announced it was halting the project due to U.S. concerns, per leaked docs
Starbucks loved Lexi Rizzo, a 25-year-old Buffalo barista, until she dared to organize a union. Then the company tried to crush her. Gripping narrative by
@GregJaffe
"His tongue waggles, he talks fast," said a farmer whose puppies were allegedly stolen by George Santos. "Smooth talker is how I'm going to describe it." More on the Amish dognappings. via
@jocwapo
@emmersbrown
@shaynajacobs
Dutch report also finds "no evidence that the
self-reliance or professionalism of the Afghan armed forces and police improved structurally" during those 6 years, despite frequent public assurances of "progress" by NATO commanders.
"We don’t invade poor countries to make them rich. We don’t invade authoritarian countries to make them democratic. We invade violent countries to make them peaceful and we clearly failed in Afghanistan," Dobbins said in the Afghanistan Papers.
"The US...wanted to show positive results for reasons related to domestic politics. They had invested over two trillion dollars in Afghanistan, and wanted to show it was not in vain."
Contrary to official narratives about bin Laden and al-Zawahiri hiding in caves, both were living in houses in big cities. Really curious to know when Z moved to Kabul and his whereabouts for past decade.
Navy SEAL running for US Senate seat in Montana keeps tying himself in knots with contradictory explanations for how he got shot in the arm. Great digging by
@lizcgoodwin
[no paywall]
@EmmaMAshford
At least the generals are finally admitting the US failed in Afghanistan - instead of gaslighting everybody with the "we're making progress" talking points
Grateful for this rave review of "Fat Leonard" in
@starsandstripes
"Seeing the breadth and depth of the scandal laid out in a well-documented, well-written fashion is breathtaking," writes
@rhreid
Fat Leonard was supposed to be under house arrest in San Diego, but the feds let him live in a $7,000-per month mansion with servants and an English bulldog named Puteri. Great reporting by
@jocwapo
This profile of Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, his upbringing in segregated Little Rock and his record of never hiring a Black coach is something to behold. By Hall of Famers David Maraniss and Sally Jenkins.