Michael Yon Online » Censorship Threat from US Army Public Affairs

Censorship Threat from US Army Public Affairs

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28 September 2011

A US Army Captain named Carbone barged into my tent and physically assaulted me. The interesting backstory is studded with ill-discipline inside the 443rd Civil Affairs Battalion here in Afghanistan. The 443rd might need some intervention from general officer level. In any case, that ill-discipline manifested when Captain Chris "AbulMajed" Carbone (his Facebook name) verbally threatened and physically assaulted me. This happened yesterday. Today the Army threatened to end my embed. They then ended it. And now have restarted it again. (All this in less than 36 hours).

Email from Army:

[To] Michael Yon
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: FOUO

Michael,

I've got to be frank with you, and let you know that your embed is tenuous as of now. This issue with CPT Carbone and SFC Coleman is bringing a lot of negative attention not only to you, but also to RC-South from ISAF Joint Command. LTC Connolly, the new RC-South PAO, has only been in office for ~10 days, and has already gotten two calls from his higher HQs about your postings. While we certainly do not condone any unprofessional conduct by TF Spartan Soldiers, we feel that this whole issue is drawing negative attention to the command.

Therefore, Michael, I'm asking you to please consider removing the FB posts about CPT Carbone, SFC Coleman, and MSG Grisham. These are incidents that should be dealt with among the four of you, and not to a worldwide audience. Your readers do not need to read about personal conflicts. That being said, I am not downplaying the seriousness of any of these allegations against the aforementioned Soldiers, and we will continue putting a "full court press" into investigating these incidents. We take these allegations extremely seriously, as well as the reputations of our Soldiers and task forces.

I will speak with MAJ Casiano about the next course of action here, but want you to understand where this may lead. Please let me know if you have any questions.

v/r,
CPT Sandell