Home > Another Prominent Military Figure Denounces NeoCons, Iraq, War on Terror

Another Prominent Military Figure Denounces NeoCons, Iraq, War on Terror

by Open-Publishing - Wednesday 29 March 2006
19 comments

Wars and conflicts International USA

Delta Force founder joins ranks who say there is no real threat to the US and war is based on lies

Steve Watson / Infowars | March 27 2006

http://www.infowars.com/articles/us...

Retired Command Sergeant Major Eric Haney, founding member of the military’s elite covert counter-terrorist unit, Delta force, has stated publicly for the record that he sees the war in Iraq as an "Utter debacle" based on intentions by the Bush administration that were "not what they stated" and that "there is no real threat to the U.S. in the world".

Haney made the comments in an exclusive interview with David Kronke for the LA Daily News published yesterday.

After Haney retired from the military his book "Inside Delta Force" became the basis for the hit CBS drama "The Unit," where he now assumes technical adviser and executive producer duties.

When questioned on Iraq Haney responded with the following:

Utter debacle. But it had to be from the very first. The reasons were wrong. The reasons of this administration for taking this nation to war were not what they stated. (Army Gen.) Tommy Franks was brow-beaten and ... pursued warfare that he knew strategically was wrong in the long term. That’s why he retired immediately afterward. His own staff could tell him what was going to happen afterward.

We have fomented civil war in Iraq. We have probably fomented internecine war in the Muslim world between the Shias and the Sunnis, and I think Bush may well have started the third world war, all for their own personal policies.

We’d better take it seriously when the founder member of one of the most elite military forces in the world says Bush has fomented a third world war for personal gain.

Haney also described the climate of fear and repression that the NeoCons have brought down upon America and its people, and the rapid shift into authoritarian governance after 9/11:

For the first thing, our credibility is utterly zero. So we destroyed whatever credibility we had. ... And I say "we," because the American public went along with this. They voted for a second Bush administration out of fear, so fear is what they’re going to have from now on... this administration has worked overtime to divert the American public’s attention from [Iraq]. Their lies are coming home to roost now, and it’s gonna fall apart.

On the subject of torture Haney denounced the policies put in place by the NeoCons, and purposefully singled out Dick Cheney as the driving force behind torture. Haney suggested that the only reason torture has become policy is because Cheney LIKES it:

That’s Cheney’s pursuit. The only reason anyone tortures is because they like to do it. It’s about vengeance, it’s about revenge, or it’s about cover-up. You don’t gain intelligence that way. Everyone in the world knows that. It’s worse than small-minded, and look what it does. I’ve argued this on Bill O’Reilly and other Fox News shows. I ask, who would you want to pay to be a torturer? Do you want someone that the American public pays to torture? He’s an employee of yours. It’s worse than ridiculous. It’s criminal; it’s utterly criminal.

We have exhaustively documented the sick twisted logic behind the policy of torture and how it is being used not as a way to gather intelligence but purely as a fear based psyop, a mass conditioning technique to goad the American public into conformity and acceptance of their criminal government’s actions. Haney’s comments suggest exactly this.

Anyone who does not go along with the policy of torture is promptly removed from their positions and replaced, as was Brig. Gen. Rick Baccus, who refused to go along with the outright torture at Guantanamo Bay, and often stood in the way of tougher interrogation techniques before being reassigned.

Baccus is another prominent military figure who has since spoken out against such policies, stating that "Those people are the ones who need to be publicly charged. I don’t know how high it needs to go."

Another military figure who has denounced the NeoCons is the former General at Abu Ghraib, Janis Karpinski, who says she was deliberately kept out of the loop and scapegoated in the torture scandal in order to protect higher ups.

Back to Eric Haney, who even went as far as saying that although the US armed forces are now completely consumed, there is no real threat to America. Once again another credible figure who has previous high ranking connections inside the Pentagon and with the administration is touting the fact that the perceived threat to the US post 9/11is a complete fraud:

Our military is completely consumed, so were there a real threat - thankfully, there is no real threat to the U.S. in the world, but were there one, we couldn’t confront it. Right now, that may not be a bad thing, because that keeps Bush from trying something with Iran or with Venezuela.

Haney’s comments tie in with revelations from earlier this month when a Zogby poll indicated that 72% of troops in Iraq want out. It seems that the vast majority of US and British forces are now against the war.

We have seen senior officers quitting in disgust at the lack of government respect and protection for their men, RAF officers facing jail time for refusing to engage in "illegal" actions, and SAS professionals walking away denouncing the war as illegal and the actions of US troops as "sub-human".

The London Independent last week reported that the number of British soldiers going Awol has trebled since the invasion of Iraq.

What more will it take for this madness to end? The people are against the war, the troops are against the war, senior military officials are against the war.

Haney’s closing comments reiterate the shift in majority opinion and the awakening of many to the truth of the Neoconservative criminality that we have been relentlessly subjected to in recent years:

... ultimately I believe in the good and the decency of the American people, and they’re starting to see what’s happening and the lies that have been told. We’re seeing this current house of cards start to flutter away. The American people come around. They always do.

Founder of Delta Force: "There is no real threat to the US in the world"
"Bush has formented world war three" "Americans voted for a second Bush administration out of fear, so fear is what they’re going to have from now on."

David Kronke / LA Daily News | March 26 2006

– http://www.dailynews.com/ontv/ci_3641046

Eric Haney, a retired command sergeant major of the U.S. Army, was a founding member of Delta Force, the military’s elite covert counter-terrorist unit. He culled his experiences for "Inside Delta Force" (Delta; $14), a memoir rich with harrowing stories, though in an interview, Haney declines with a shrug to estimate the number of times he was almost killed. (Perhaps the most high-profile incident that almost claimed his life was the 1980 failed rescue of the hostages in Iran.) Today, he’s doing nothing nearly as dangerous: He serves as an executive producer and technical adviser for "The Unit," CBS’ new hit drama based on his book, developed by playwright David Mamet. Even up against "American Idol," "The Unit" shows muscle, drawing 18 million viewers in its first two airings.

Since he has devoted his life to protecting his country in some of the world’s most dangerous hot spots, you might assume Haney is sympathetic to the Bush administration’s current plight in Iraq (the laudatory cover blurb on his book comes from none other than Fox’s News’ Bill O’Reilly). But he’s also someone with close ties to the Pentagon, so he’s privy to information denied the rest of us.

We recently spoke to Haney, an amiable, soft-spoken Southern gentleman, on the set of "The Unit."

Q: What’s your assessment of the war in Iraq?

A: Utter debacle. But it had to be from the very first. The reasons were wrong. The reasons of this administration for taking this nation to war were not what they stated. (Army Gen.) Tommy Franks was brow-beaten and ... pursued warfare that he knew strategically was wrong in the long term. That’s why he retired immediately afterward. His own staff could tell him what was going to happen afterward.

We have fomented civil war in Iraq. We have probably fomented internecine war in the Muslim world between the Shias and the Sunnis, and I think Bush may well have started the third world war, all for their own personal policies.

Q: What is the cost to our country?

A: For the first thing, our credibility is utterly zero. So we destroyed whatever credibility we had. ... And I say "we," because the American public went along with this. They voted for a second Bush administration out of fear, so fear is what they’re going to have from now on.

Our military is completely consumed, so were there a real threat - thankfully, there is no real threat to the U.S. in the world, but were there one, we couldn’t confront it. Right now, that may not be a bad thing, because that keeps Bush from trying something with Iran or with Venezuela.

The harm that has been done is irreparable. There are more than 2,000 American kids that have been killed. Tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis have been killed ñ which no one in the U.S. really cares about those people, do they? I never hear anybody lament that fact. It has been

a horror, and this administration has worked overtime to divert the American public’s attention from it. Their lies are coming home to roost now, and it’s gonna fall apart. But somebody’s gonna have to clear up the aftermath and the harm that it’s done just to what America stands for. It may be two or three generations in repairing.

Q: What do you make of the torture debate? Cheney ...

A: (Interrupting) That’s Cheney’s pursuit. The only reason anyone tortures is because they like to do it. It’s about vengeance, it’s about revenge, or it’s about cover-up. You don’t gain intelligence that way. Everyone in the world knows that. It’s worse than small-minded, and look what it does.

I’ve argued this on Bill O’Reilly and other Fox News shows. I ask, who would you want to pay to be a torturer? Do you want someone that the American public pays to torture? He’s an employee of yours. It’s worse than ridiculous. It’s criminal; it’s utterly criminal. This administration has been masters of diverting attention away from real issues and debating the silly. Debating what constitutes torture: Mistreatment of helpless people in your power is torture, period. And (I’m saying this as) a man who has been involved in the most pointed of our activities. I know it, and all of my mates know it. You don’t do it. It’s an act of cowardice. I hear apologists for torture say, "Well, they do it to us." Which is a ludicrous argument. ... The Saddam Husseins of the world are not our teachers. Christ almighty, we wrote a Constitution saying what’s legal and what we believed in. Now we’re going to throw it away.

Q: As someone who repeatedly put your life on the line, did some of the most hair-raising things to protect your country, and to see your country behave this way, that must be ...

A: It’s pretty galling. But ultimately I believe in the good and the decency of the American people, and they’re starting to see what’s happening and the lies that have been told. We’re seeing this current house of cards start to flutter away. The American people come around. They always do.

Forum posts

  • BFD.

    Forget the Iraqis for an instant and think about the millions of documents dating back some 8.000 year being lost due the wickedness that the U.S. has unleashed in Iraq. Think about the priceless artifacts of the cradle of civilizatioin being looted and destroyed because of America.

    Along with the destruction of the Iraqi National Library campus went unique and priceless documents — one was the document appointing the Muslim Prophet Muhammad as governor by the tribes of Yatrib. It had his seal and signature. Surely, I repeat, unique and priceless.

    Does a America care of the loss??

    Do you realize the loss of the knowledge of the origin of ambulatory care that originated with the peoples of Uruk (previous name of present day Iraq.) Do you know that the doctors of that time were doing catarac surgery; that they invented instruments that our present-day ones are based on; that there was a chief surgeon to oversee the practicing doctors. That there was a board exam that a doctor had to pass in order to legally practice medicine. Do you know they had ways of assaying high blood sugar and had treatments for it.

    Do you know that the 24 hour day and the 365 day year were dicovered, along with degrees and minutes and seconds by the old Iraqis. That they invented the clock and knew many thousands of years before that the earth was round and that it orbited the sun. That the Iraqis had computed the circumfrence of the earth to within 6 meters. (Yet, the european shamelessly claim such things being theirs — of discovery from a few hundred years ago.)

    So now we have the Sargent Major saying some worthless and useless military-civilian words about the war... What about the loss of recorded time?

    • Noting this policy: :"caution : we will erase messages with caractere defamatory, abusive, xenophobe, sexist, the threats, politic and commercial advertising..."
      Does this mean if we don’t agree with your liberal garbage, our message won’t be posted?? Darn, I bet it does! Prove me wrong, please....

    • I assume that by "liberal garbage" you mean bemoaning the loss of valuable parts of the history of the world. If that is the case, then you have placed yourself squarely in the camp of the Philistines: people who do not (and do not want to) appreciate history, literature and art.

    • Thousands of our (U.S.) people die and people like this care more about some ripped papers..........disgusting.

    • Actually, Ancient Father Abraham, Prophet, Seer and Revelator was taught the mysteries of the Universe, Mathematics, Astronomy and all planetary time, motion, revolutions, and seasons of the planets. He was shown the Galaxies and Solar Systems that make up the innumerable peopled planets. More than the number of the sands of the sea shore, revealed to him by this worlds Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Father Abraham taught the Egyptians the mysteries of the Heavens and the miracles of advanced medicine and health care.

      Mohammad composed his writings and philosophies of man obtained from the Church of Rome. The Church, who’s culture he was raised around. Mohammad was an actor during the Great Apostasy from the true and living Church of Jesus Christ. The Church of Rome is the Son of Perdition prophesied by the Apostle Paul.

      The Church of Rome ushered in the Dark Ages. Islams Mohammad wrote a book according to his own interpretation, the philosophy and sophistries of man then in place during the Dark Ages. Hence Islam has not produced any significant advances of civilization since the 6th century A.D. Islam only knows how to kill, murder, rape, pillage and destroy that which enlightened Gentile and Jew has built up since the age of enlightenment and reformation.

  • Haney is a liar. He was not a founding member of Delta. He has done alot so I don’t know why he wants to add to his record with made up facts.

    Keith Messinger
    ex SF

  • Hello, My name is Buck Yancey:

    I am a life-member of the Special Operations Association. When I was a junior army officer I served a combat tour during 1968-69 as a member of the 281st Assault Helicopter Company (Delta Air), the aviation unit which flew the Delta Force’s combat missions in Vietnam. I was not a Green Beret. I do not know CSM Haney, or his history in the Special Forces. However, I have been reading on the SOA net where some of the special forces members who actually were founding members of the Delta Force have been telling us that Haney did not take part in the founding of the Delta Force in Vietnam as he claims. For this reason I believe that this man ought to be vetted before he is listened to or believed.

    Sincerely,
    Buck Yancey, Bandit-23

    • Delta Force was not founded in Vietnam, Project Delta was. Delta Force was founded in 1977 by Colonel Beckwith. Eric Haney joined the unit shortly after it was formed (he was a member in the early stages, but was not involved in the inception of the unit). Please make sure you differentiate Project Delta from Delta Force, they are NOT the same.

  • Please - Preview the Facts before printing such BS concerning Haney, for he is a liar, and all of Fort Bragg, NC, and SFOD-D know this fact

    (John Kerry, are you there???)

    For those of you who may be unaware of the fact that Haney is a lying phony, he joined the Delta Force 13 months after Charlie Beckwith founded it. I had the good fortune of being there when Beckwith did so and happened to be on the same orders with Beckwith and Chuck Odorizzi when the unit began (more than a year before Haney was assigned). Haney was never a sergeant major in Delta, much less the Command Sergeant Major of Delta. I find it difficult to understand why a man who qualified for and served with the Delta Force would feel the need to falsely embellish his record by making false claims about what should be an enviable accomplishment. Unfortunately, as you will discover if you go to the URLs below,

    a blog calling itself "antiwar.com" and a foreign dispatch, dateline Paris, France, have picked up on the phony story. The real shame for those of us who have dabbled in or made careers of journalism is that no one has responded to the many emails, letters, or phone calls that we have sent, pointing out the facts about Haney and his lies. This includes Fox News (including my old friends Bill Cowan & Kelly McCann and other "experts" with whom I have been associated) CNN (including Dave Grange, who nevertheless remains one of my few heroes), Joe Galloway, who is probably the finest print war reporter since Ernie Pyle... with the possible exception of Mark Bowden (BLACK HAWK DOWN), and Dave Martin at CBS News, and many other so called journalists, such as and the "Friends" and Bill O’Reilly at Fox. Only Richard Lardner of the Tampa Tribune and Matt Paust of the Newport News Daily Press have seen fit to dig deeper into this story, instead of trumpeting the bovine excrement being issued about Haney’s "exploits". And we have yet to see their actual stories on the subject.
    The real shame is not that Haney is a liar and a phony; the real shame is that the traffic his lies and exaggerations get are an affront to and a diminishment of the men who actually did what he can only fantasize about having done; none moreso than the actual Command Sergeants Major of Delta, to include such superb American Soldiers as the original Delta CSM, the late Bill Grimes; and Dave Cheney, Don Simmons, Bob Little, Mel Wick, Roger George, Dick Davis, Iggy Balderas, Jody Nacy, and the dozens of other Command Sergeants Major of Delta and her subordinate squadrons, among whom Eric Haney is NOT included.
    Perhaps that failure will be rectified; perhaps not. In the end, I suppose that it makes little difference (except in what little remains of the credibility of the American media) because WE know; Grimes and Shumate and Beckwith and Shughart and Martin and Gordon and all the others... THEY know, and those of us who will follow them shortly know, too.
    Oppressors Beware
    And God bless America. And God damn her enemies.
    Burruss

  • From:
    To: LHBurruss@aol.com
    Subject: Haney joins others as another phony, anti-American liar
    Sent: Wednesday, March 29, 2006 9:18 PM
    (John Kerry, are you there???)

    For those of you who may be unaware of the fact that Haney is a lying phony, he joined the Delta Force 13 months after Charlie Beckwith founded it. I had the good fortune of being there when Beckwith did so and happened to be on the same orders with Beckwith and Chuck Odorizzi when the unit began (more than a year before Haney was assigned). Haney was never a sergeant major in Delta, much less the Command Sergeant Major of Delta. I find it difficult to understand why a man who qualified for and served with the Delta Force would feel the need to falsely embellish his record by making false claims about what should be an enviable accomplishment. Unfortunately, as you will discover if you go to the URLs below,

    • Sir,
      From the moment Haney claimed to be with Delta Force I said he was a liar! Many people told me he was the real deal, but I have been chasing Navy SEAL imposters for many years and said no matter what I hear ...... my gut tells me differently. I always said, "There is something in his eyes that give him away"!
      Captain Norm Olson is a good friend and he gave me the news on Haney.
      Finally, I am vindicated.
      I, also, knew Charlie Beckwith when I was the Navy Advison at JFK Center. He was preparing to retire and it was after "Desert Storm", but I believe Haney would not be safe if Charlie were still alive.
      A personal thanks for vetting Haney and keeping my imposter busting credentials intact.

      Ty Zellers BMCS (SEAL), USN Ret.
      Former Senior Investigator, Naval Special Warfare Archives.

  • Eric Haney is one of the biggest Bull Shit artists of the special operations community.He is not a founding member of SFOD-Delta as were Walt Shumate and Charlie Beckworth. Both passed onRight up there with Marcenko and David Hackworth.
    You so called journalists need to start checking out you facts with such sources available as Special Operations Association and the Special Forces Association. Here is what one of the more renouned members of this community and a Retired Col.LH"Bucky"Buress had to say
    John Kerry, are you there???)

    For those of you who may be unaware of the fact that Haney is a lying phony, he joined the Delta Force 13 months after Charlie Beckwith founded it. I had the good fortune of being there when Beckwith did so and happened to be on the same orders with Beckwith and Chuck Odorizzi when the unit began (more than a year before Haney was assigned). Haney was never a sergeant major in Delta, much less the Command Sergeant Major of Delta. I find it difficult to understand why a man who qualified for and served with the Delta Force would feel the need to falsely embellish his record by making false claims about what should be an enviable accomplishment. Unfortunately, as you will discover if you go to the URLs below,
    You so called Dan Rather’s of the world need to be a little more investigative before going to your blogs

  • Eric was never a CSM in any Delta organization. He is an imposter. Eric joined Delta about a year after it’s founding. Someone should ask Eric if he is member in good standing of the Special Forces Association or the Special Operations Association. If not, ask him why? Check it out!

    SGM J.E. Vasquez, USA (Retired)

    • Dear SGM J.E. Vasquez

      Thank you for your service sir.

      But please get the facts straight. CSM Haney has never made the representation that he served in 1st SFOD-D in a SGM or CSM capacity. In fact in his book he represents that this was the reason that he left 1st SFOD-D in 1986. He has however been identified by the US Army Center of Military History at Ft Carlisle Pennsylvania, as being the CSM of the 193rd Infantry Brigade in Panama during operation just cause.

      As for the representations that he was a founding member of 1st SFOD-D, CSM Haney writes became a member of Delta prior to it becoming an operational Unit. He passed selection in late 1978, and commenced OTC in early 1979.

      Delta passed its final validation operational readiness exercise on November 2-3 1979, and this is from COL Charlie Beckwith’s book.

      Can you please elaborate as to why CSM Haney has a bad reputation within the SF community, and why it has taken so long for all of this to emerge?

      Once again sir, thank you for your service.

      Dan

  • I do not know Mr. Haney or the inner workings of Delta Force. It appears to me that he had decided he will attempt to take the road that Oliver Stone did and utilize his experiences (both real and imagined) to embellish what sounds like an impressive record. So to him I give the same message I sent to Sharon Stoned, Comrade Fonda, Barbra Streisand, Rob Reiner and all the others in Hollywood and on Broadway, KEEP YOUR PRIMARY JOBS and STICK TO THEM!!! The fabrications didn’t work for Kerry, nor will they work for you.
    Ken Delfino
    Seahorse 64; TF-116
    SFA (Associate Member)

  • Where did you get the information that CSM Haney was a founding member of Delta.........better check your sources!

  • I was in the 5th SFG in 1965 and 1967, and spent six months in a 5 x7 box in Long Binh before being shipped for R & R at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas for a life term, convicted by a top secret general court-martial for premeditated murder.

    I had been the S-3 of Project Omega and worked for Pappy Lamar. I coordinated some programs with Project Delta in 1967 and worked with their S3 as well as the SOG element at Kontum. I ended up as the Case Officer for Project Cherry, a CIA directed op fronted by MI officers posing as SF Civil Action troops.

    I knew and served with Joe Hodgson, Frank Battalotti, Jerry Shriver, Ken Carpenter, Snake Hoskins, Eugene Major, Bob Beckman, Jeff Raker, Jeff Kent and others, now gone.

    Never heard of Eric Haney. Must have been before my time. Or after.

    http://johnmccarthy90066.tripod.com/id359.html
    http://johnmccarthy90066.tripod.com/id686.html

    http://www.geocities.com/larryjodaniel/17.html

    http://johnmccarthy90066.tripod.com/id120.html

    http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/hall/Mac.html

    When Jimmy Dean was running the SOA some of this information was available on the SOA site.
    You will have to ask the current Honcho WTF happened to the site info. Exposing the treason of the Criminally Insane Anonymous might have something to do with that.

    I look forward to your response. But read the material so you dont look like an old lady bitching about things you don’t know about.

    Bests,
    John