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 Greetings! You are reading an article from The Mudville Gazette. To reach the front page, with all the latest news and views, click the logo above or "main" below. Thanks for stopping by! March 23, 2009 Appeal for Redress: AstroturfingBy GreyhawkAnother Mudville anniversary blast from the past - this exposure of an "astroturf" campaign actually first appeared at MilBlogs in October, 2006 at the time of the roll out of the campaign. This version - unchanged from the original - first appeared here at Mudville in February, 2007, as CBS television's "60 Minutes" program prepared to launch an "in-depth" infomercial on behalf of the effort. But in her "Reporters Notebook" video (at the link) Lara Logan describes Appeal for redress: "It's basically a grass roots movement amongst active duty, serving members of the U.S. military." And "We were very careful to look thoroughly at the group, and to look into their military backgrounds, and to make sure that this wasn't... people with something hidden in their past or some reason that wasn't the stated reason to be involved in this." Wrong in every way - and either the most pathetic attempt ever at "investigative journalism" or absolute willing participation in an effort to hoodwink the American public, no other explanations are available. The first "launch" of Appeal for Redress was timed in an effort to have some impact on the U.S. elections of 2006; the 60 Minutes boost was planned in conjunction with the beginning of "surge" operations in Iraq. As an effort to draw signatures from American service members Appeal for Redress was an abysmal failure - it's appeal to them was as near zero as it could possibly be. But its real purpose was to make Americans believe that such a "grassroots" effort was indeed underway, and exceptionally popular. (After all, 60 Minutes wouldn't give it valuable air time if it was actually a bogus failure, would they?) But if they achieved any success in that (mis)direction, it didn't translate into defeating "the surge." It's worth noting that while this story is now over two years old, similar efforts are ongoing today. With that introductory note complete, here's our story...
*****
This post originally appeared at MilBlogs in October, 2006. While some of the information uncovered herein has since made it's way into smaller media outlets, most major mainstream media sources are still reporting this effort as a "grass roots" campaign. Nothing could be further from the truth. *****
Astroturfing (via Wikipedia): In politics and advertising, the term astroturfing describes formal public relations (PR) campaigns which seek to create the impression of being a spontaneous, grassroots behavior. Hence the reference to the "AstroTurf" (artificial grass) is a metaphor to indicate "fake grassroots" support. And that's what's occurring with the "Appeal for Redress" web site. The missing piece of the puzzle was actually available from the start: Yesterday, a company that does public relations for the liberal activist political action committee MoveOn.org, Fenton Communications, organized a conference call for reporters and three active-duty soldiers to unveil the soldiers' anti-war group Appeal for Redress. That's from the October 26 New York Sun - kudos to the only reporters in the crowd who had the guts to tell the truth about this. As of this writing, over 200 newspapers have carried the story; The Boston Globe, al-Jazeera, The Washington Post, ABC News, Reuters, The (UK) Guardian... but none of the stories acknowledge the orchestration of the event by Fenton Communications. Instead, virtually all of them detail the "grass roots" effort of the troops. Even without the Sun story, the mere fact that this appeared simultaneously in multiple "big media" outlets is evidence enough of such a campaign. In the pre-internet days this wouldn't be so obvious, but in these days of instant global communication the life cycle of such a story should hardly exceed 24 hours (and wouldn't have in the past without active media participation). But if you're among the few tech savvy and information hungry people interested in not taking such slickly-packaged information at face value, here are the facts about "Appeal for Redress" in order of discovery here. The site is registered to J.E. Glick, of 803 North Main Street, Goshen, Indiana. A quick check of online white pages reveals that's the address of The Fourth Freedom Forum. (You can also read about the group here). This would seem to confirm the point in the Sun story quoted above: A staff member at Fenton Communications who requested anonymity said his company was approached last week by a longtime peace activist and former director of the anti-nuclear proliferation front known as SANE/Freeze, David Cortright, to publicize Appeal for Redress. Mr. Cortright is now president of an Indiana-based nonprofit group, the Fourth Freedom Forum And Jennifer Glick (J.E. Glick), actual "owner" of the Appeal for Redress web site, is listed in the Fourth Freedom Forum contact page as Director, Information Services. The Fourth Freedom Forum's opposition to war pre-dates Iraq and Afghanistan. They are a well funded, very professional organization. But the group is not listed among the sponsoring organizations on the Appeal for Redress web page. (Those groups are Iraq Veterans Against the War, Military Families Speak Out, and Veterans For Peace.) It would seem the Fourth Freedom Forum wants to hide it's activities behind some groups and individuals seen as more credible to this particular cause. (I think "front groups" is the usual term.) But it was easy to find the real owners of the "Redress" web page (I originally noted the failure to do so on the part of one of the reporters who carried this propaganda to "the next level" - but have since come to believe that among journalists this was actually common knowledge that they saw fit not to include in their stories), so the "staff member at Fenton Communications who requested anonymity" (ironically, given the breathless press accounts, the only actual whistleblower in this story) may or may not have needed to be so concerned about being revealed. (Update: registration of the site has been changed. Fourth Freedom is working quickly to camouflage their involvement in this project.) Back to the growing number of groups and individuals behind this campaign in a moment. But first, a look at the activist career of Jonathan Hutto, the "front man" of this organization. In the initial media coverage of this story he was described as "a Navy seaman based in Norfolk, Va., who set up the Web site a month ago." But that's a humble description of a well-traveled man. The full truth - while easy to discover - is a bit more complex. Initially I speculated that he had been "recruited" after the publication of his letter to the socialist propaganda e-newsletter "GI Special" on 26 September, 2006. The origin of the "Redress" web site project - "about a month ago", according to the news coverage - would fit this time frame. (Background on that publication here - and read that link for a profile of "GI Specials" creator, Thomas Barton, yet another of the "fellow travelers" on the periphery of this story.) But I may have been wrong on that "induction." Independent research by Robin Boyd at Newsbusters reveals additional facts:
Let's put all that in an easier to follow chronology: 1999-2004: Hutto works for "non-profit organizations", including Amnesty International. 2001: In his capacity as an Amnesty International spokesperson he appears as a speaker in an event touted as a "Militant Labor Forum" by the "socialist newsweekly" The Militant. 2002: Hutto has risen to the position of Amnesty International's Membership Program Coordinator for the Mid-Atlantic Region (seen here - with megaphone - "rallying the troops"). When his university considered honoring President Bush he wrote a letter opposing the decision.  2004: Hutto joins the Navy, and serves as a Mass Communications Specialist and Photographer aboard the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt. Summer, 2006: He is recognized as the Theodore Roosevelt's outstanding "Blue Jacket of the Quarter (BJOQ)"
September 26, 2006: Hutto contributes an article in a socialist newsletter aimed at "the troops" detailing the racism and discrimination he suffered at the hands of the Navy. October 26, 2006: Fenton Communications holds a media teleconference to announce the launch of the "Appeal for Redress" web site. News stories that follow describe Hutto simply as "a Navy seaman based in Norfolk, Va., who set up the Web site a month ago." It would appear that among his other accomplishments, Hutto is very skilled at web page design. Now let's get back to our look at the growing number of groups and individuals involved in this month-old effort begun by "a Navy seaman based in Norfolk, Va." A review thus far: 1. Fenton Communications, a "public relations" group whose lengthy client list includes Fourth Freedom, Military Families Speak Out, and MoveOn.org. They are also the group that coordinated the instant media buzz over Cindy Sheehan: TrueMajority -- an antiwar group founded by Ben Cohen, one of the creators of Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream -- hired Fenton Communications, a Washington public relations firm that has worked intermittently with Sheehan over the past year to coordinate media coverage. TrueMajority and Ben and Jerry's are also Fenton clients, by the way. 2. Fourth Freedom Forum, (another of Fenton's clients), is the actual "owner" of the Appeal for Redress web site. According to the NY Sun, it was David Cortright, president of the Fourth Freedom Forum (and author), who approached Fenton to represent Appeal for Redress. 3, 4, 5 - The groups actually listed as sponsoring organizations on the web page: Iraq Veterans Against the War, Military Families Speak Out, and Veterans For Peace. Of those, only Military Families Speak out is a listed Fenton client. Now back to the Sun for more (hyperlinks added): Still, the counsel retained by Appeal for Redress, J.E. McNeil, runs the Center for Conscience and War, an organization whose mission is to defend the rights of conscientious objectors. That's a pretty powerful "grass roots" team so far. Actually, it's nothing of the sort. But if you pick up one of the 200-odd newspapers with an article written by one of the reporters invited by Fenton Communications to help launch this project, you'll read that it is just that, a "grass roots" project started by a " Navy seaman based in Norfolk, Va." Nothing will be said about who provided the story, the countless groups behind them, or the countless groups behind those groups. And if you visit other web sites and forums, you'll see posts directing people to "tell their friends in the military about this great site launched by active duty military guys." If you are in the military, it's likely you'll soon get a chain email telling you the same. This is all part of the organized "astroturfing" process. If, on the other hand, you are reading this post, you may wonder what you can do to counter that. The answer is simple, though perhaps not easy. Join a very real "grass roots" campaign. We have no lawyers, we have no slick professional PR firms, we certainly don't have the kind of big bucks available to this crowd - and we definitely don't have a thundering herd of reporters ready to write whatever we tell them to. In short, we are a real grass roots community. And here's what we need to do. For the record - I'm all for my fellow troops speaking their minds, but I'm not in favor of them being duped by Socialist organizations hiding behind false fronts - "astroturfing". And that's what's going on with the web site called "Appeal for Redress". If you want to fight back, spread the word to as many people as you can, via forums, email, or phoning the editor of your local paper - especially if they've already carried the initial press release disguised as news. Tell them what's happening, and give them this link: http://www.mudvillegazette.com/milblogs/2006/10/27/#006854 which will bring them right to this entry page. And keep coming back - we'll keep doing our best to expose anyone who would attempt to use our fellow troops with deceptive tactics like these. 2007-02-25 14:07:16 Posted by Greyhawk / March 23, 2009 12:45 PM | Permalink 35 Comments |
November 26, 2010America@war [Greyhawk]
I think anyone who's ever pondered the "comment" option - once only available on blogs and bulletin boards, now ubiquitous on almost any web site - will appreciate this:
The so-called faculty of writing is not so much a faculty of writing as it is a faculty of thinking. When a man says, "I have an idea but I can't express it"; that man hasn't an idea but merely a vague feeling. If a man has a feeling of that kind, and will sit down for a half an hour and persistently try to put into writing what he feels, the probabilities are at least 90 percent that he will either be able to record it, or else realize that he has no idea at all. In either case, he will do himself a benefit. That's wisdom from the past, captured for posterity at the US Naval Institute, shared via the web on the institute's 137th anniversary. From their about page:
"The Naval Institute has three core activities," among them, History and Preservation: The Naval Institute also has recently introduced Americans at War, a living history of Americans at war in their own words and from their own experiences. These 90-second vignettes convey powerful stories of inspiration, pride, and patriotism. Take a look at the collection, and you'll see it's not limited to accounts from those who served on ships at sea, members of the other branches are well-represented. I'm fortunate to have met USNI's Mary Ripley, she's responsible for the institute's oral history program (and she's the daughter of the late John Ripley, whose story is told here). She also deserves much credit for their blog. ("We're not the Navy nor any government agency. Blog and comment freely.") We met at a milblog conference - Mary knew (and I would come to realize) that milbloggers are the 21st-century version of exactly what the US Naval Institute is all about. Once that light bulb came on in my head, I mentioned a vague idea for a project to her - milblogs as the 21st century oral history that they are. "Put that in writing," she said (of course - see first paragraph above!) - and here's part of the result. Shortly after the first tent was pitched by the American military in Iraq a wire was connected to a computer therein, and the internet was available to a generation of Americans at war - many of whom had grown up online. From that point on, at any given moment, somewhere in Iraq a Soldier, Sailor, Airman or Marine was at a keyboard sharing the events of his or her day with the folks back home. While most would simply fire off an email, others took advantage of the (then) relatively new online blogging platforms to post their thoughts and experiences for the entire world to see. The milblog was born - and from that moment to this stories detailing everything from the most mundane aspects of camp life to intense combat action (often described within hours of the event) have been available on the web... And et cetera - but since you're reading this on a milblog, you probably knew that. And you know that milblogs aren't just blogs written by troops at war, that many friends, family members, and supporters likewise documented their story of America at war online in near-real time, as those stories developed. The diversity in membership of that group is broad, the one thing we all have in common is the impulse to make sense of the seemingly senseless, and communicate the tale - for each of us that impulse was strong enough to overcome whatever barriers prevent the vast majority of people from doing the same. Everyone at some point has some vague idea they believe should be shared - we were the people who, from some combination of internal and external urging, found and spent those many half hours persistently trying to write it down. But where will all that be in another 137 years? Or five or ten, for that matter. That's something I've asked myself since at least 2004 - when I wrote this:
Membership in the ghost battalion has grown in the years since, and an ever growing majority of those abandoned-but-still-standing sites are vanishing. Have you checked out Lt Smash's site lately? How about Sgt Hook's? If you're a long-time milblog reader you know the first widely-read milblog from Operation Iraq Freedom and the first widely-read milblog from Afghanistan are both gone from the web. If you're a relative newcomer to this world you may never even have heard of them - or the dozens upon dozens of others who carried forth the standard they set down. If you have a vague notion that something should be done about that, (a notion I've heard expressed more than once...) then you and I and the good folks at the US Naval Institute are in agreement. Preserving the history documented by the milbloggers is just one of the goals of the milblog project, the once-vague idea that we're now making real. And it's a big idea, if I say so myself - too big to explain in one simple blog post, so stand by for more. Likewise, it's too big a task to be accomplished by just one person. So if you're a milblogger (and exactly what is a milblogger? is a topic for much further discussion on its own) I'm asking for your help. All I'll really need is just a little bit (maybe just one or two of those half hours...) of your time, and your willingness to tell the tale. We've already made history, it's time to save it. (More to follow...) Posted 4:02 PM | Permalink |
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The Mudville Gazette is the on-line voice of an American warrior and his wife who stands by him. They prefer to see peaceful change render force of arms unnecessary. Until that day they stand fast with those who struggle for freedom, strike for reason, and pray for a better tomorrow.
 
 
 Furthermore, I will occasionally use satire or parody herein. The bottom line: it's my house. I like having visitors to my house. I hope you are entertained. I fight for your right to free speech, and am thrilled when you exercise said rights here. Comments and e-mails are welcome, but all such communication is to be assumed to be 1)the original work of any who initiate said communication and 2)the property of the Mudville Gazette, with free use granted thereto for publication in electronic or written form. If you do NOT wish to have your message posted, write "CONFIDENTIAL" in the subject line of your email. Original content copyright © 2003 - 2011 by Greyhawk. Fair, not-for-profit use of said material by others is encouraged, as long as acknowledgement and credit is given, to include the url of the original source post. Other arrangements can be made as needed. Contact: greyhawk at mudvillegazette dot com  Tending Distant Far from hearth and home, watching What tales we'll tell When things grim Some distant sunset, vision fading Saluting fallen friends whose names - Greyhawk, Baghdad, December 2004 |
Active duty military now have another option. They can sign my Appeal For Redress - http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/ar96892/index.html
Explanation here - http://www.antimedia.us/posts/1168355539.shtml
Greyhawk,
While I often disagree with you, on this issue I think you've "hit it out of the park." These groups are actively manipulating naive servicemembers. The list is long ... the guys encouraged to desert to Canada, Ehren Watada and now these sailors. A bunch of 60s radical "retreads" are selling these kids false bill of goods.
They must be exposed.
The only disagreement I have is youyr lumping of Amnesty International in with kooks like NION and the ISO.
Great article but did you know that none of the links you use to refer to Hutto actually work? I imagine someone other than those who agree with you are reading your article as well.
Great job Greyhawk! Just the other day I was over at Daily Kos (because I like to get my blood pressure stirred up) and responded to a post by some moron spouting the "Appeal for Redress" petition as the greatest thing since sliced bread, calling it "highly significant" and "an historic event." I simply disagreed with his opinion and went on to say that even if the 1000 names were verifiable service members (highly unlikely), compared to the total number of US military forces serving in Iraq, the percentage was extremely small (around 0.003 percent). That percentage was around 0.0006 percent compare to all US forces (active and reserve). I went on to say that in any other statistical poll, research, survey, election, etc....these numbers would most likely be thrown out as insignificant or irrelevent. Well, obviously this did not sit well with the poster (I think the simple math hurt his head) and he promptly gave me a troll rating and insulted me. It totally made my day!
Excellent work, though we shouldn't be surprised. This is a rather incestuous bunch.
IRR - you are correct - Amnesty is not associated with this "Appeal" program at all, nor are they involved in any similar activities (to my knowledge).
Hutto's appearance at various rallies where he is touted as "Jonathan Hutto, Amnesty International" may not accurately reflect Amnesty's level of indorsement of those appearances, any more than his current activities suggest any endorsement by the Navy.
Excellent investgative work. The old 60's Marxist radicals and draft dodgers are all afraid they're gonna die and be proven wrong. LOL They are nothing but cowards and always will be.
RVN 1971-'72 11B
1st Cav Div (AM)
3rd Bde (sep)
B 2/5th Cav & D 1/12th Cav
someone should kick their asses -they deserve respect for serving but an ass kicking for siding with the enemy.
The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk/Virginia Beach's newspaper) did an article about this Hutto guy back in November.
http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.cfm?story=113852&ran=233183
Here is a more general article from October. He's quoted as saying he's NOT anti-war. Oh please!(rolling eyes):
http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.cfm?story=113221&ran=130691
The most recent article:
http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.cfm?story=117628&ran=40921
Feel free to go to thoses links and leave comments at the bottom of the page.
This "Grassroots" thing is amusing. Makes me think back to the so-called "Radio Free North America" tapes I listened to in a survival school. Very amusing, but very ignorable.
I wish that Hutto person worked for me. He would not have time to do his agitating.
By the way, WTF is a "Grassroot'? Is it something that occurs when you spill pot seeds on the windowsill dirt?
It's just another pathetic attempt to re-inflate the "Winter Soldier" balloon, cracked and patched and leaking as it is... the anti-warriors are trying to fight the last anti-war, but one.
Kinda sad, how they keep expecting to find all these disaffected draftees. I suspect a lot of the people that signed their petition are along the lines of "I.P. Freely" and "Seymour Butts."
Johnny OMA writes:
Just wondering if you're unable to perform simple math or just lying. One thousand is over 0.6 percent of 150,000. You were off by a factor of 200.
Socialist Liberals - Brainwashing the Gullible Masses Since 1864.
(Hint: The founding date of the International Workingmen's Association (IWA), sometimes called the First International)
Rule #1 about the media: reporters don't mind getting rolled as long as the story is juicy enough or agrees with their viewpoint
During WWI, the various communist parties assigned folks to join the army (fighting the Germans) to organize and encourage their fellow soldiers to desert.
Michigander:
My calculator says that 1,000 is .0066 of 150,000, not .6
Kenno,
Yes, but .0066 is .66 %.
Ooooooh, 0.6%. Sorry, "over" 0.6%. That just changes the whole argument, doesn't it? That leaves only that small 99.4% fragment that feels differently. Changes everything.
Thanks for keeping us all informed, Greyhawk.
Kenno,
You do know what a percent is, don't you??
inmypajamas writes:
It's a major leap to say that everyone who didn't sign the petition is opposed to it.
By that logic, one could claim that sign only four servicemen have signed this petition, (and one of them is retired), hence all the remaining serviceman oppose this petitions, some 99.999+ percent.
That would be incorrect manipulation of numbers. Just as your 99.4% is.
The Army Times had a poll that's relevant. Here's a story that reported the results:
On that Army Times Poll - a good point. I can also tell you their grounds for disapproval. Most troops in Iraq last year felt their hands were tied because they couldn't do what they felt needed to be done - specifically, going after Sadr's goons. Instead they were patrolling and waiting to be attacked so they could fight back. Since most of those attacks were with IEDs (the bad guys knew better than to actually attack in force) there was no one to respond to.
You can see why they'd be frustrated, to say the least, with policies that forced this (in)action upon them - GIs have little patience in these situations.
One thing you must remember - no one is more "anti-war" than the soldier. But given a job to do, the tools to do it (which requires the support of politicians and "regular folks" back home) we'll get 'er done.
THe jury is still out on whether the new strategy will change this - the President said "restrictions" would be lifted when he announced the surge. You can bet he heard an earful about those "restrictions" from commanders in the field, and that's why you heard it in the surge speech. Early signs are that this is the case, but the real drama is yet to come.
Fenton practically invented "astroturfing". You might try a google search on fenton and Alar. You might remember the Alar apple scare where Fenton built a grassroots network of "concerned environmentalist" groups nationwide practically overnight. The finale was a 60 minutes piece on the dangers of Alar on apples. Nevermind that not a single person had ever been harmed.
THANK YOU for shining light on this. I tried over a year ago to point out how Fenton Communications was orchestrating all of these antiwar groups/individuals and how people such as Dana Priest of the Washington Post had connections with many of these groups (Dana Priest through her husband connected to the Wilson/Plame issue and a Fenton client).
Fenton Communications has been the driving force. One of their tactics is simple ... hijack an event, cause a spectacle, and become the focus to get the message out ... such as when Larry Johnson heckled Rumsfeld at a press conference (VIPS ... Fenton client) or when Sheehan disrupted a Democratic press conference. The idea is to steal the media eye and use it to get the message out.
Nobody seemed to believe me then and I didn't have the time/resources to flesh it out though AJ Strata over at his blog and the Sweetness and Light blog exposed a bunch of that stuff.
These individual groups are coordinated via Fenton to provide a certain synergy and to ensure they don't work at cross purposes. For all intents and purposes, they are the same group.
The link I am providing in the details section is to an old blog I don't post to anymore but has some things I discovered a long time ago.
It is really great to see more light being shined on this and others reaching similar conclusions independently.
An article I wrote that parallels this one in May 2006:
http://crufty.blogspot.com/2006/05/trouble-with-media.html
Guess my son is the anti-Hutto. His actions speak louder than other's words
http://oldscout.townhall.com/Default.aspx
Are you aware that this group and Hutto will the subject of a piece airing on "60 Minutes" tonight? Tonight being 25 Feb 2007 and trust me they ain't debunking them.
I've been wondering for a couple of years how long it would be before we saw this sort of thing. It's not something new to the Socialists....put in a sleeper, wake them up, then let the fun begin.
thx for exposing this crap. it's the primary MO of MoveOn and George Soros - highly recommend "The Shadow Party" for those interested in learning more
Charlatans all, they don't give a damn for the troops or the USA, they want Iraq to fail.
absurd thought -
God of the Universe says
don't support the troops
deny them any more help
call their mission a failure
.
"Hopes to earn his Surface Warfare pin" ? Christ, anyone can earn a surface warfare pin. 2 years and not a petty officer tells me he ain't working at being one. Secondly, he isn't involved in much. He is the DCPO? Damage control Petty officer? Not a huge job. Important non the less but not overly mentally challenging. My guess, he is a lousy bitching sailor who is endured by his leading PO(petty officer).
I'm not sure that I buy the math argument presented here at all. The numerator is 1000, but since the group is defined as "active duty service members", the denominator should be all active duty service members, broadly defined. That is a long way from 150,000 which is the small fraction of the whole currently serving in Iraq. It may even be larger if the names on the petition include veterans who are no longer serving. Throw in the reserves and the denominator is well into the millions, shrinking the number on the petition into a vanishingly small fraction of a percent.
And that of course, is assuming that the signers are actually in any way verified. Frankly, I doubt it. I have seen quite a few petitions using weasel words allowing signatures by 'family members' or 'supporters' in the small print, but packaged as "petitions by the military".
An outstanding job by Mudville Gazette which I will do my best to promote. Thank you.
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Domain Name: LIGHTSKY.COM
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2116 W. Wilden Ave, Suite C
Goshen, IN 46528
US
574.534.6654
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Hochstetler, Ryan ryanho@Lightsky.com
2116 W. Wilden Ave, Suite C
Goshen, IN 46528
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574.534.6654
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Record expires on 12-06-2007
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Who's says you can't make money being a leftist...
seascape-rentals-destin-florida.info/html/interior.html
Welcome to Seascape
Golf and Beach Villa 5-C . . .
Now available for your Destin, Florida beach and golf vacation
We hope you find this information helpful.
For more information about our condominium, or Seascape Resort in general,
contact the Seascape Resort office at info@seascape-resort.com
or call (800) 874-9106 and dial 0 for the front desk. Or email us directly at sglickgolf@verizon.net; phone 574-533-5901.
Use this link to book your Florida Gulf Coast vacation through Seascape now! (Select Rental Unit "Golf Course 5-C")
Best,
Steve and Jennifer Glick
Goshen, Indiana
Unit address is:
Golf Course Villa 5-C
Seascape Resort
100 Seascape Drive,
Destin, Florida, 32550
It sounds to me from the chronology that this guy joined the Navy with the specific intent of getting credibility to later "expose" the same people he was hanging out with before. I think it would be reasonable to presume such intent.
an alternative:
http://www.appealforcourage.org/Default.aspx
You should consider doing a soft redirect from http://www.mudvillegazette.com/redress or something. It would be easier to remember and spread.