There is more to this story than the Senate playing politics.
You can read the full story at the link

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/powerful-admiral-punishes-suspected-whistleblowers-still-gets-promotion/2015/10/21/8a9e757e-7342-11e5-8248-98e0f5a2e830_story.htmlThe turmoil began in July 2011, three weeks after Losey took charge of the military’s Special Operations Command for Africa, headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany.Someone filed an anonymous complaint with the inspector general alleging that Losey had improperly sought a government-paid plane ticket for his adult daughter when his family relocated to Germany.In fact, Losey had paid for the plane ticket himself, and the complaint was soon dismissed. But enraged by what he saw as an act of disloyalty, the admiral became determined to find out who had reported him, according to the inspector general reports.Several staff members testified that Losey drew up a list of suspects and made it known there would be consequences. One unidentified witness said Losey vowed to “find out who did it” and would “cut the head off this snake and we’ll end this.”Losey’s mood soured even more a few weeks later. Another anonymous tipster filed an inspector-general complaint, alleging that the admiral had created a “toxic” atmosphere at headquarters.As a result, Losey became convinced that there was “a conspiracy to undermine his command,” according to the inspector general’s findings in the whistleblower ­cases.One witness testified that Losey told his staff to send a message to any malcontents: “If you continue to undermine my authority as a commander, I’m going to bury each one of them. I’m going to come after them, and I’m going to [make] it very unpleasant.”About the same time, Losey began cracking down on people whom he saw as potentially disloyal, according to the inspector general.He fired an officer who had been on his list of suspects, alleging that he had committed a handful of minor transgressions, such as using the admiral’s auto­pen without permission to sign routine paperwork.He got rid of Jones, his chief of staff, who was stripped of his title and moved into a basement office, and then moved again to an even more remote outpost at a military airfield.Later, Losey ordered an investigation into whether civilian staff members on his enemies list had committed time­keeping and ­attendance-sheet errors that affected their pay, according to the inspector general reports.At least three staff members faced discipline as a result, although their punishment for the time­keeping irregularities was ultimately overturned. Some staffers also received poor performance reviews, which affected their compensation and careers.The actions sent a chill through the command. Other staff members said it was clear Losey was targeting people he suspected of being ­snitches.“I don’t understand why Brian did what he did. He went hard over stupid on it,” said a senior military official who knew Losey well and served at the time with the U.S. Africa Command, the parent command for Losey’s group.“He was concerned about disloyalty. But as I had another commander tell me, loyalty goes both ways,” said the military official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the confidentiality of the investigations.In the end, it turned out that Losey had the wrong people on his list of suspects.Investigators determined that none of the people he retaliated against had filed the original complaint about his daughter’s plane ticket.


After conducting separate, years-long investigations that involved more than 100 witnesses and 300,000 pages of e-mails, the inspector general upheld complaints from three of the five staff members. In each of those cases, it recommended that the Navy take action against Losey for violating whistleblower-protection laws, the documents show.

Common Sense wrote:

There is more to this story than the Senate playing politics.
You can read the full story at the link

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/powerful-admiral-punishes-suspected-whistleblowers-still-gets-promotion/2015/10/21/8a9e757e-7342-11e5-8248-98e0f5a2e830_story.htmlThe turmoil began in July 2011, three weeks after Losey took charge of the military’s Special Operations Command for Africa, headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany.Someone filed an anonymous complaint with the inspector general alleging that Losey had improperly sought a government-paid plane ticket for his adult daughter when his family relocated to Germany.In fact, Losey had paid for the plane ticket himself, and the complaint was soon dismissed. But enraged by what he saw as an act of disloyalty, the admiral became determined to find out who had reported him, according to the inspector general reports.Several staff members testified that Losey drew up a list of suspects and made it known there would be consequences. One unidentified witness said Losey vowed to “find out who did it” and would “cut the head off this snake and we’ll end this.”Losey’s mood soured even more a few weeks later. Another anonymous tipster filed an inspector-general complaint, alleging that the admiral had created a “toxic” atmosphere at headquarters.As a result, Losey became convinced that there was “a conspiracy to undermine his command,” according to the inspector general’s findings in the whistleblower ­cases.One witness testified that Losey told his staff to send a message to any malcontents: “If you continue to undermine my authority as a commander, I’m going to bury each one of them. I’m going to come after them, and I’m going to [make] it very unpleasant.”About the same time, Losey began cracking down on people whom he saw as potentially disloyal, according to the inspector general.He fired an officer who had been on his list of suspects, alleging that he had committed a handful of minor transgressions, such as using the admiral’s auto­pen without permission to sign routine paperwork.He got rid of Jones, his chief of staff, who was stripped of his title and moved into a basement office, and then moved again to an even more remote outpost at a military airfield.Later, Losey ordered an investigation into whether civilian staff members on his enemies list had committed time­keeping and ­attendance-sheet errors that affected their pay, according to the inspector general reports.At least three staff members faced discipline as a result, although their punishment for the time­keeping irregularities was ultimately overturned. Some staffers also received poor performance reviews, which affected their compensation and careers.The actions sent a chill through the command. Other staff members said it was clear Losey was targeting people he suspected of being ­snitches.“I don’t understand why Brian did what he did. He went hard over stupid on it,” said a senior military official who knew Losey well and served at the time with the U.S. Africa Command, the parent command for Losey’s group.“He was concerned about disloyalty. But as I had another commander tell me, loyalty goes both ways,” said the military official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the confidentiality of the investigations.In the end, it turned out that Losey had the wrong people on his list of suspects.Investigators determined that none of the people he retaliated against had filed the original complaint about his daughter’s plane ticket.


After conducting separate, years-long investigations that involved more than 100 witnesses and 300,000 pages of e-mails, the inspector general upheld complaints from three of the five staff members. In each of those cases, it recommended that the Navy take action against Losey for violating whistleblower-protection laws, the documents show.

 


The article I posted covered the allegations by un-named whistleblowers. It also alleges that the people who opposed Losey for this promotion were unhappy that their relatively cushy positions would be coming to an end with his command and demanding style of leadership. That's just the way it is when you commit yourself to duty and service in elite fighting units; you depend on your brother and he depends on you. As the article clearly states: "SEAL culture is rough-and-tumble by tradition and by nature, reflecting an environment where people are assigned to do lethal work."

The only easy day was yesterday.

Without know what Losey the man is actually like, it kind of struck me strange that the act of "whistleblowing" was about a purported situation where Lousey got family on a flight that he actually had paid for so there was no infraction (at least according the the items posted here). That someone in his command would even thinks this deserves major attention makes you wonder just what their deal was with him to start with. 

I am not saying that what Losey did was correct, but having been in the military (and large business), I know that people in high positions want to surround themselves with people that they can work with and support them. Obviously something was amiss here that such a trivial item got flown up the flagpole so to speak in BOTH aspects of this matter. 



 

Last edited by tennyson (3/28/2016 11:57 am)