Allen West's Military Record Attacked In New Ad: 'Faced 11 Years In Prison'

[Tommy_Carcetti]

Source: Huffington Post

WASHINGTON -- The gloves are officially off in the race between Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) and his Democratic challenger, Patrick Murphy.

Less than a week after West's campaign released a brutal ad featuring Murphy's mugshot from a 2003 arrest for disorderly intoxication, Murphy's campaign hit back on Tuesday with an ad highlighting West's illegal actions in the military that ultimately led to him being relieved of his command.

"You need the facts about Allen West in 2003," says the narrator in the Murphy ad, which begins by showing a clip of West's ad from last week.

"West was criminally charged with violating the Uniform Code of Military Justice, found guilty of three counts of aggravated assault and relieved of his command. The final Army report: West 'performed illegal acts ... merited court martial ... faced 11 years in prison,'" continues the narrator. "Allen West. He just isn't who he says he is."



Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/02/allen-west-military-attack-ad_n_1932571.html?utm_hp_ref=elections-2012

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Glad to know that Patrick Murphy's not afraid of taking this disgusting bully on.

[FlaGranny]

1. West sure asked for that one.

Most of his ads have been "nice, fuzzy, I'm a good guy" ads where he sounds like a reasonable person that you'd consider voting for if you didn't really know him. When he came out with the Murphy mugshot ad, he really blew it. Good on Murphy.

[blm]

3. That's exactly the way I see it - West brought this on himself.

.

[pennylane100]

2. Well that was certainly long overdue.

[tularetom]

4. I'm impressed with Murphy but you gotta realize

a lot of people who support West would think of what he did in Iraq (that got him kicked out of the Army) as a good thing.

So I don't think this ad will convince any members of the lunatic fringe to vote for Murphy.

Hopefully there are a few folks who are undecided that weren't aware of what a loon this creep is.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

6. Yeah I know that.

People have defended West for what he did, claim he's a hero, claims the incident resulted in actionable intelligence (it didn't), said Hamoodi (the Iraqi police officer) was a "terrorist", etc.

I've even heard some pretty crazy exaggerations where people swear Allen West tortured Hamoodi after terrorists had captured a soldier and that West's actions resulted in the rescue of said soldier. Talk about your tall tales.

Nothing's going to convince the extreme right that Allen West is a very, very bad man who has no business as a Congressional representative. But there are a fair amount of independents who can be educated as to the man's true nature, and hopefully this will not fall on deaf ears.

[bjobotts]

33. You just don't put this man in a position of power

[AAO]

18. NOTHING will change the crazy people from voting for him

But the non-crazy low information voter just might think about it...

West is a major douchebag.

[Kelvin Mace]

20. Agreed

And if you are going to run this kind of ad, the politically smart thing to do is let an outside PAC do the dirty work.

[KansDem]

5. Comments from the Huffingtonpost site

9 minutes ago ( 1:02 PM) I'm glad I didn't serve under West in 'Nam. He would have been "fragged" for sure!

5 minutes ago ( 1:06 PM) I'm surprised he wasn't fragged, to be honest.
Time to show this man the curb.

5 minutes ago ( 1:06 PM) I have a funny feeling he would have been a casualty of friendly fire. From close range.

10 minutes ago ( 1:01 PM) Obviously there is more to his Army record than the one incident. If you are not good enough for the Army you certainly are not good for America, as he has proven time and again.

10 minutes ago ( 1:00 PM) West is now crying about attack ads he started, he is truly a man of the people (those in prison or low information voters), show some backbone West, quit!

11 minutes ago ( 1:00 PM) Makes one wonder how many problems an enlisted person would've had finding a job if he/she had been drummed out of the military.

and more...

[James48]

7. As a retired military officer

I have a great deal of trouble explaining to my non-veteran right-wing friends that I think West is a dirtbag who dishonored MY United States Army, and deserved to be in jail, not Congress.


I still believe that in my heart.

He does not uphold Army Values.

He is scum.

[Lochloosa]

10. True words! And thank you for service.

[Berlum]

11. The Army is honorable in so many instances

When a-holes like West get into the act and bring a crapload of dishonor upon the Army and other services with their behavior, it is an absolutely rotten Republican disgrace -- and cannot be tolerated.

[CRK7376]

38. As an Active Duty officer,

I couldn't have said it better! And he's wearing Airborne wings and what looks like USMC jump wings on his lapel everyday. Glad I never jumped with this clown or had to JMPI him...

[otohara]

8. West Blows

Gawd please let this insufferable POS lose.

[ck4829]

9. West was found guilty, weren't the charges against Murphy dropped?

I think that they were.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

14. Most likely for first time alcohol related offenders.....

....Murphy probably recieved deferred prosecution, meaning that it does not count as a conviction.

Just my guess, though.

[white cloud]

16. I beleive he got

a general discharge. This means he also lost his commision?

[Atman]

17. No, he got a dishonorable discharge.

I did several anti-West ads during the last election cycle. I know his bio. He is a scumbag.

[Kelvin Mace]

21. According to the news sources I am reading

He retired with commission and retirement pay intact:

Following a military hearing, West was fined $5,000 over two months, according to West's civillian attorney, Neal Puckett.

the punishment does not affect West's eligibility for retirement and pension, Puckett said in a statement.

West, 42, will be assigned to the rear detachment of the 4th Infantry Division awaiting the processing of his retirement request, the statement said.

http://web.archive.org/web/20071211102752/http:/www.cnn.com/2003/US/12/12/sprj.nirq.west.ruling/index.html

[Missycim]

22. He got a Honorable discharge

however that sucks lets know the facts.

[James48]

24. He did not get a dishonorable discharge.

As far as I can tell, he was allowed to retire, if he accepted the guilty finding of the article 15 non-judicial punishment proceeding.

He was found guilty of three counts of aggravated assault, and relieved of his command. The final Army report, West “performed illegal acts…merited court martial…faced 11 years in prison.” In fact he then retired and started collecting a pension.

Although in my opinion he deserved to get a dishonorable discharge and jail time, all records I can find say he was not dishonorably discharged.

It is a shame. I wish I had served as his presiding officer- I would have thrown the book at him.

He is scum and does not uphold the honor of a U.S. Army Officer.

[Kelvin Mace]

25. Not according to CNN

see my post below. He agreed to retire and paid a $5,000 fine after being found guilty of assault in an Article 15 hearing.

[Iliyah]

13. Hey, right wingers love people like West, I mean

in their eyes he is a hero.

[bill1100]

15. He deserves it

This is called swiftboating with facts...

[Kelvin Mace]

19. According to news accounts

West was fined $5,000 in an Article 15 hearing for assault and allowed to retire with full benefits.

While I can see the reason for bringing this up, even in this manner, it is sinking to West's level and debases Murphy.

Why do we want to become that which we hate?

[w4rma]

26. Sinking to West's level? What the heck is wrong with you, Kelvin?

How are West's dangerous and unstable actions, of which he pleaded guilty for, which he had to because there were numerous witnesses, out of bounds for a campaign? They aren't out of bounds, and if I had been running Murphy's campaign, I would have attacked him right off the bat with this, rather than waiting for West to attack first.

[Kelvin Mace]

32. Charged versus convicted

He plead guilty and was convicted of assault. Even in military courts there is the presumption of innocence.

I detest West, and frankly believe he got off with a wrist slap. But either we respect the law and the truth, or we don't. "He started it" and "Everybody does it" are hardly the defenses one expects outside grade school.

In any case, it was politically stupid to do this with his own campaign. If we are going to be just as unethical as the other side, let's try and do it intelligently.

[Bohunk68]

28. It's called fighting fire with fire.

Sorry, but nice guys finish last, as the old saying goes. West deserves to be kicked in the gutter.

[Kelvin Mace]

31. Excuse it any way you wish

It will never be "right".

[Bohunk68]

35. Your "rightness"

plus $4.12 locally, will get you a gallon of gas. Sooner or later, you will have to ask yourself how "right" do you want to be? While it may be satisfying for you, will your "rightness" help others to be satisfied?

[Kelvin Mace]

36. How "right" I want to be

is to be able to look myself in the mirror and know I have not lowered myself to the level of my enemies.

"Other people" must look after their own conscience, not mine, nor I theirs. If you are at peace with this kind of tactic, why does my view bother you?

In my opinion, once a person crosses a line of decency, other lines get easier to cross. Pretty soon, they find themselves in Washington behaving just like the other pols, justifying all sorts of individual and "short term" evil in the name of the "greater good".

It is sad to see that the cost of being an ethical person has fallen, in your eyes, to $4.12. And yes, while you can justify with all manner of pragmatic arguments why West invited this type of response and why it is appropriate, that still doesn't make it ethical.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

37. Here's why the West torture incident matters and is 100% fair game:

It epitomizes the man's true character. It shows that even back in 2003, the man was a powderkeg with extremely poor judgment. It shows that the man has little respect for the basic rights of his fellow human being and will do anything or say anything regardless of the actual truth in the situation.

The Army had military intelligence officers that could have handled the Yahya Hamoodi situation. Mr. West instead chose to take it upon himself to commandeer the situation. He oversaw his men beating a detainnee. He told Mr. Hamoodi that he was going to kill him. He then shoved the man's head into a bucket and fired a gun next to his ear, which he admits was done in anger. Not surprisingly, the information that Mr. Hamoodi blurted out in fear for his life was bogus, as is often the case in situations involving torture.

Is Brave Sir Allen ashamed of this shameful incident? Does he express remorse for unquestionably causing an innocent man great emotional distress? No. He is unapologetic. He feeds on the notion perpetuated by others that he is some sort of war hero for what he did. Even though you know it eats at him constantly that he was forced to hastily retire and cut his military career short. You have to know the man is burning with rage because of that fact.

So are we surprised that the behavior of Allen West the Lieutenant Colonel foreshadowed the behavior of Allen West the Congressman? Well, we shouldn't be.

Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz offers a very mild and indirect critique of West in a floor speech where she alludes (without mentioning his name) he supports the Ryan Medicare plan despite having such a large senior population in his district. His response is to send an unhinged, virtiolic email to Representative Wasserman Schultz where he calls her "vile," "disgusting" and "not a lady." He also chooses to to copy the entire house leadership on this ridiculous rant.

The fact that he has never met Representative Keith Ellison does not prohibit him from calling him the "antithesis of the principles on which this nation was founded." And it's pretty obvious why he sends this low blow--for no reason other than the man's religion was different from his own, and he somehow feels threatened by it.

He claims that people with "Co-Exist" bumper stickers "want to give away this country." He claims that people with Obama bumper stickers "represent a threat to the gene pool." Anyone who dares to disagree with Brave Sir Allen cannot only be disagreed with; they must be ridiculed, hated and called every name in the book.

He claims that 80 of his fellow colleagues are card carrying members of the Communist Party. What facts does he have to support this shocking position? No facts. He doesn't need facts to say things. All he needs to do is shove their heads in the proverbial bucket, shoot off his gun, and if turns out he was wrong, no apologies--he's just being a patriot.

When someone shows you who they really are, believe them. And Allen West told us who he was back on that fateful day in 2003.

[Kelvin Mace]

39. I do not disagree with you

that West's reported behavior is relevant.

But here's the rub: He wasn't convicted of any major crime beyond assault. For that he was fined $5000 and allowed to retire from the military with full pay and benefits.

Now you and I may not like that, but those are the facts, and once we begin to say that allegations trump facts we are in a lot of trouble. Was it a miscarriage of justice? In my (and apparently your) opinion, yes it was. But the key point is "opinion", not finding of fact. I have brought up this point with folks before when they insisted it was OK to describe Oliver North as a "convicted felon". Since North's conviction was overturned, the description was inaccurate and misleading. No matter how much I BELIEVE North guilty, the fact his conviction was overturned cannot be ignored.

The other issues you bring up are factual, provable incidents, and we are within our rights to bring them up and impeach West's character with them. But to make a commercial which goes after him based on allegation while never mentioning exoneration (as much as we believe the exoneration undeserved) is simply wrong.

Doing the right thing is hard, because there are so many easy ways to justify doing the wrong thing. Which is why so many people do it.

I do not claim moral superiority to anyone here, I just explain why I think it is wrong and point out that any time you do something you would condemn others for doing you are doing wrong by your own definition.

If you truthfully accuse your opponent of lying about you, this does not give you license to lie about him, nor make your lying ethically/morally right.

(Please note I am using "you" in the context of example, second person plural, I am not talking about you personally, second person singular).

[Tommy_Carcetti]

40. I understand what you are getting at.....

.....but West was not complete exonerated. Yes, pressure from right wing congressmen who wanted to turn West into some sort of patriotic martyr (which to an extent was successful, at least amongst their base) resulted in the Army ultimately not pursuing a court martial.

But West was not unscathed--he recieved an Article 15, a significant fine, a loss of his command, and some rather strong words of rebuke from the Army. And you can bet your bottom dollar that West would not have retired when he did but-for this incident, and you also have to wonder if there was any pressure placed on West to retire in exchange for the Army's relative mercy in the situation.

But it's not like an incident of mistaken identity or the Army found West's actions to be justified. In their words, West "disobeyed laws, ignored orders . . . and mortgaged future discipline in his unit. Without discipline, there is no trust, no cohesion, and no higher purpose for which we fight."

So to me, even though West got off with a slap on the wrist, those are still words that give us the justification to impeach West on his actions in Iraq. What he did--mock execution--qualified under most definitions as torture, and he should be held accountable for those actions, court martial or no court martial.

[Kelvin Mace]

41. The the ad

should have concentrated on the Article 15 hearing, not the Article 32.

What he did is torture to you and me, but he was never convicted of it, and too many people out there are willing to claim it is not torture (including current administration).

When we accuse someone of doing something wrong, then we do the same thing, we are by our own definition, WRONG.

We cannot have one set of rules for other people, and one for ourselves.

[JI7]

23. Patrick Murphy was a teenager and Allen West was in his 40s

[whathehell]

27. But according to him, Debbie Wasserman Schultz

is not a "lady". .

[SemperEadem]

29. Then there is the sex letter

he allegedly sent his wife from Iraq:

http://gossipextra.com/2012/09/27/allen-west-wife-porn-star-1867/

http://www.salon.com/2012/10/01/weird_news_allen_wests_domineering_sex_letter/

Florida-based reporter Jose Lambiet published lines from a personal letter West sent to his wife, Dr. Angela West, from Iraq in 2003. In the missive, obtained by Gossip Extra, West tells his wife that she is to perform sex acts that are “standard and non-negotiable” on his return.

“I do not want to hear ‘no’ or ‘we’ll see about that.’ I want my fantasies to be with you. God has authorized you and you only as my partner for intimacy and that is what I want,” West wrote, asking his wife whether she was committed to being his “porn star” and wearing only “two-piece swim suits” on vacation.

can't wait for the legs on this one to sprout.

[SILVER__FOX52]

34. This idiot West is the symptom of a diseased political system........

He would never have been allowed anywhere near a Congressional Seat 30 years ago. The guys is a loose canon and in my Opinion a hate monger er. He's a clown.........West the Clown.