The Shame of Shamelessness: Guest Commentary by David G. “Bo” Bolgiano

The following was submitted to his usual outlet, the Wall Street Journal, by David “Bo” Bolgiano, who is fondly remembered in the special operations world as one of “our” staff judge advocates who put mission first, men next, and let the career chips fall where they may. 

The Journal, whose newsroom is “all in” for Hillary (after all, she’s the candidate of Goldman Sachs) even as the editorial page tries to split the baby, not only didn’t accept the op-ed, but they didn’t reject it, either. They didn’t even reply. For the act of lèse-majesté that this op-ed represents, they broke communication with an established contributor. As a private business, that is their prerogative, but it is ours to draw inferences from it. Having received the text of Bo’s submission from a mutual friend, we resolved to push it out to you. 

We haven’t got the reach of the Wall Street Journal, but we’ll use what we have to get Bo’s message out. It may help civilian readers understand why cleared military and government workers are so wound up about the Hillary’s Shadow Server imbroglio, and the failure of the FBI and DOJ to act with integrity and consistency in this case. -Ed.


The Shame of Shamelessness: No Standards for Insiders

by

David G. Bolgiano

I spent the majority of my career as a law enforcement officer and judge advocate for the military.  For most my 35 years of service, I held some of our Republic’s most secret clearance levels.  I also represented numerous officers, noncommissioned officer and special agents charged with mishandling classified information. Lately, I watched a selfless and top-tier Army lieutenant colonel’s career go up in smoke for the following offense: he self-reported that he had inadvertently taken home from the office some classified documents in his briefcase.  There was minimal chance that these documents fell into the wrong hands, and subsequent security assessments confirmed this.  Yet, the Army served this officer with a career-ending nonjudicial punishment under Article 15 of the UCMJ and removed his name from command and promotion lists.

Now comes Hillary Rodham Clinton, a woman who – without authority or need – builds her own private email server over which some of our Republic’s most sensitive information was discussed.  There is no doubt that foreign intelligence sources read her emails verbatim. And all FBI Director Jim Comey can come up with is a public scolding?  This sickens me to the core of my being.  It reinforces what Peggy Noonan wrote about in her brilliant Wall Street Journal article of February 25, 2016 “Trump and the Rise of the Unprotected” where she states inter alia:

There are the protected and the unprotected. The protected make public policy. The unprotected live in it. The unprotected are starting to push back, powerfully.

The protected are the accomplished, the secure, the successful—those who have power or access to it. They are protected from much of the roughness of the world. More to the point, they are protected from the world they have created. Again, they make public policy and have for some time.

It is clear that Clinton, Obama, Lynch (and now, sadly, Jim Comey) – everyone in the elite circles of D.C. regardless of party affiliation – live according to different rules than us outsiders.  Three or four FBI friends in the trenches, people I trust and respect tremendously, assured me that Comey was not one of those tarnished by power. His decision today belies that assurance in the most callous of terms.  

While assigned to DoD or DOJ, had my colleagues or I done 1/100th of what Clinton did, we would pay dearly. At a minimum, we would have been fired and never again given a security clearance.  In the soulless, shameless world of 21st Century America, Hillary Rodham Clinton gets a meaningless tongue lashing from a once upright man who sold his soul for God knows what price.

My circle of friends includes many who fought multiple tours of combat in defense of our Republic.  To a person, it saddens us deeply that those fights appear to be for naught.  For our Constitution is mocked when blue collar Soldiers get crushed while self-anointed elites skate on shamelessly.  When we, the unprotected, begin to realize that peaceable resolutions to such obvious wrongs are ignored, the result may not be peaceable at all.  In even plainer terms, do not expect proud and skilled warriors to stand by and watch the Constitution to which we swore an oath be trampled upon by treacherous thieves like Hillary Clinton.


In addition to its presence here on WeaponsMan.com, you can find the Bolgiano op-ed on:

  • LinkedIn Pulse.
  • Hunting Saracens (Bo’s occasionally updated, always worthwhile, blog).

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