Showing posts with label Dave Thul. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dave Thul. Show all posts

My Email Exchange With Dave Thul
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10:52 AM | Posted in
After writing an update yesterday about the continued questions regarding the email usage of Mr. Thul over at Foreign and Domestic I checked my email and found that he had emailed me directly. Mr. Thul consented to me publishing our exchange, so here it is in its entirety:

Sir-
I am working with the tech support guys at True North to figure out why my military email address is being tied to my posts at True North. As far as I have been able to see, it only appears at True North, and not Foreign and Domestic. I didn't respond to your comment the other day because I assumed you were exaggerating. My email address doesn't appear anywhere on my blog or profile at either site. My mistake, and I apologize.

Once I figure out what the problem is at True North, I will correct it and apologize in a post. I will also alert my chain of command about the situation. Feel free to contact me at this email address or thuljunior72@yahoo.com if you have any questions. Thanks,

Dave Thul

Mr. Thul,

I wish I had checked my email before posting my most recent update. However, if you are willing, I can add this exchange to that post or another post. As I have stated before, my problem is neither with your service nor with your attacks on Congressman Walz although I find the attacks without any merit. You have every right to say the things you say and write the things you write even though I disagree vehemently with them. You should also be commended for your service and honored at every turn for putting your life on the line for this country. I am concerned strictly with the use of the email address used to present these views. If you would, I do have a couple of questions:

1. You stated that you created the blog with the official military email address. Do you continue to use it when logging into blogger or have you transferred over to a different email address?

2. If you are still using your military email to log in, do you know if it is legally allowed to be used in the manner you are using it? For partisan political purposes?

3. Could you direct me to rule or regulation that allows you to use your official military email in this manner?

4. Do you find it at all inappropriate?

5. How would you have reacted to an official military email address being used to attack "conservative" veterans or a "conservative" President?

Thank You for your time and your service,

Eric Austin
aka Political Muse

Eric-
you can add to your post from my emails if you want. I thought your post was very fair in any case. The whole issue has been a bit of a misunderstanding, but I'll try to explain it as best I can. When I joined the local GOP in January, I changed several things on my blogger account because I added a blog for the BPOU. One was my posting name. Previously my posts were written 'by SSG Thul'. This was reviewed by the public affairs officer while I was in Iraq, and found to be in line with regulations. But when I added the GOP blog, I had to change the posting name to avoid having my rank appear on a political blog. Second, I changed my Google account to have a gmail sign in, vs the .mil one. I don't use the gmail account as of yet, I just needed to remove the sign in that showed a .mil address.

Using the screen shot of your Vienna program, the tech guy at True North was able to figure out that the RSS feed was displaying my .mil address. I don't use RSS so I don't understand it very well, but he said the email address was entered manually when the RSS was introduced at True North. The .mil address was the only email address I used in Iraq, and on active duty back here in the US. So that is what True North had on file when they set up the RSS.

So I hope you can understand why I had no idea what you were talking about when you said I was using my .mil address to post. In fact, before I read your post from April, I was pretty sure that Tommy was making the whole thing up. Again, my mistake.

I am writing an apology to post at both sites this morning, but you've been decent about this and I wanted to give you a heads up.

If you have any other questions, please let me know at david.thul@yahoo.com as I am trying to keep all blog and political related emails off my .mil address. There is no regulation that mandates this, I just want to keep well away from any other misunderstandings.

Thanks again for your patience and fairness,

Dave Thul

While this certainly doesn't settle what I believe to be baseless attacks on Congressman Walz, my part of this story appears to be settled. I will leave it to others with military experience to address any continued attacks on Congressman Walz. Hopefully, though, we can stop questioning the service of others simply because we disagree with them politically.
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Update On Dave Thul & His Military Email
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2:32 PM | Posted in ,
A couple of days ago I wrote about Mr. Thul and his apparent use or misuse of official military email. In that time a few items of note have surfaced that continue to leave my ultimate question unanswered or at least only partially answered: Is Mr. Thul allowed to use an official military email address to post to a blog when the purpose of that blog is of a politically partisan nature?

Before I begin, though, let me reiterate what I have said previously. The question is NOT whether Mr. Thul should be silenced from speaking his mind or from posting on a blog. Nor is the question meant to attack the service of a veteran who I can only assume served honorably. The question is whether or not it is acceptable to use a military email address to post partisan political attacks.

First, there was this interesting comment left by a "SGT Nate" on my previous post:

SGT Thul doesn't qualify under Section 888. Art. 88 of UCMJ because he is not a commissioned officer. However, being a non-commissioned officer, he should understand that to question one's superiors publicly is not allowable within a disciplined military. All concerns are to be taken up with that person off-line. I assume SGT Thul is a NG member, which means he can participate in political discourse in solely a civilian manner while not on orders. This being said, the display of a military web address is to assign a type of authority to the speaker and his sentiments that he does not have the right to assign. SGT Thul has a right to operate his blog (as long as he is not on state or federal active duty) but does not have the authority to list a .mil or .gov web address for contact about the content of his speech. I believe his unit commander and first sergeant would find his listing of the address as an action unbecoming of a non-commissioned officer.


This comment leads me into the response made by Mr. Thul:

Both claim that I am using my official Army email address to launch these 'attacks'. While it is true that I used my army.mil email to register this blog (I was in Iraq at the time and the army.mil email was simply the safest and most reliable email in a combat zone) it is also true that that information isn't available to the casual reader. In fact, if you look over this entire blog, including my profile, you wont see any Army email address. I have been blogging for 2 1/2 years now, including 12 months of active duty time. This issue has never come up before, nor have I ever been censored by the military in what I say. I do censor myself for OPSEC and military discipline, but I have never been told by the military that anything I have said on this blog was inappropriate.

And I have never been anything but respectful to elected officials when I agree or disagree with them. In contrast with so many bloggers and commenters who regularly use foul language and hurl insults at politicians they disagree with, you will more often than not find me addressing politicians by their titles. Just as I do when in uniform, I respect the rank even if not the man.


Two things that I would like to address in the above response:

1. If Mr. Thul began his blog while serving in Iraq, then does that make his use of an official military email address acceptable even now? It is somewhat interesting that the first postings from this blog (while Mr. Thul was on active duty in Iraq) not only contain light suggestions of invading Iran but also a post going after then Senator Hillary Clinton. Not knowing the protocol, I am asking these as legitimate questions. Is this acceptable use of an official military email?

2. There is the issue of his military address not being prominent to the "casual reader". Does the fact that the email is not listed on the blog make a difference? In his latest piece on this topic, Two Putt was able to pretty quickly find examples of the military email address on prominent display. I took a screen shot:

You will notice at the bottom of the image that the official military email address is displayed pretty prominently below the attack piece he wrote about Congressman Walz.

In the comment made above by "SGT Nate" there was the implication that it was improper for this military email address to be displayed. However, its display does only happen through the use of an rss reader or on a google blog search. Does this help the case of Mr. Thul? On the other hand, "SGT Nate" also mentioned that National Guard members were allowed to engage in political discourse "while not on orders" but it is clear that Mr. Thul has been engaging in political discourse even when on orders.

Finally, there is this image:

You will notice that Mr. Thul happens to run TWO blogs. Why is this important? Well, the only way that blogger would display both of these blogs on one profile is if the exact same email address was used to create both. That means that Mr. Thul is using his official military email to sign in to and post on his own blog as well as a blog titled "Steele County Republican Party". That brings up the question of whether this particular blog is the OFFICIAL blog of the Steele County Republican Party. If it is, does this make matters worse for Mr. Thul?

Again, I ask these questions because I feel as though there has not been a definitive answer as to whether Mr. Thul is using official military email improperly. Did the attacks on Congressman Walz precipitate these questions? Sure, because they brought Mr. Thul and his blog more attention. However, I would also like people to remember that I have been wondering about this issue ever since it revealed itself to me in April.
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Dave Thul & The Misuse Of Army Email
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6:26 PM | Posted in ,
Back in April, I noticed something that I found somewhat unusual. A contributor to True North and his own political blog, Foreign and Domestic, was using an official military email address to post to those sites.

I took some screen shots and wrote about whether or not this was an appropriate use of an official army email address. Since that time I had almost forgotten about the issue and given that no one really seemed all that concerned, I let it go. However, in the last couple of weeks this same blogger along with the new Brodkorb free team at Minnesota Democrats Exposed has begun going after Congressman Tim Walz and questioning his military record.



Not being a veteran myself, I will leave it to others who are veterans to defend the military record of Mr. Walz. What I would like to know, though, is how someone who is active in the military can legally utilize an official @us.army.mil email address to post partisan political commentary about the Commander-in-Chief as well as members of Congress? Is this not a misuse of military resources?

I went directly to the source, Mr. Thul, but he doesn't seem very eager to address my questions about the proper and improper use of military email. Mr. Thul tried to pin this back on myself for not addressing his post but as I told him, my inquiry into the use of military email resources dates all the way back to April of this year so his argument that it is just a way to avoid addressing his particular issue doesn't hold much water. You can click on the image to the left or click on the above link to see that Mr. Thul has yet to answer any of my questions.





After going to the source, I took to the internet to see if I could find some official statement by the military on the proper and improper use of military email. While I did not find exactly what I was looking for and would love to hear from people within the military as to whether this is an issue or if it is acceptable, I did find a couple of interesting references:

First, from the DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY I found a pdf regarding the use of email. From page 6 of that pdf I found this:


It clearly states that use "official email systems" for "political transmissions that advocate the election of a particular candidate" NOT permitted. Isn't Mr. Thul using his email for exactly the purpose which this document forbids? Now, this is a document that I found from Fort Hood so I suppose there is a chance that this regulation applies specifically to that base. Yet, it seems likely that these or similar regulations apply across the army establishment.

The other document I found from the Federal Voting Assistance Program site. The pdf (DoD Directive 1344.10) on this page outlines the dos and don'ts of political activity for members of the armed forces.

4.1.2.3. Allow or cause to be published partisan political articles, letters, or endorsements signed or written by the member that solicits votes for or against a partisan political party, candidate, or cause. This is distinguished from a letter to the editor as permitted under the conditions noted in subparagraph 4.1.1.6.

If Mr. Thul is on active duty and utilizing his military email account to "publish partisan political articles", is he violating these regulations?

As I said months ago, I respect the right of Mr. Thul to believe the things that he believes despite disagreeing vehemently with them. He has every right to write and express his opinion. What I want to know is whether or not he should be expressing these opinions through an email address provided to him by the military.

Given the tactics currently being used by Mr. Thul, would it be appropriate for myself or someone else to go to the Steele County Republican Party offices in order to get some answers. Or, perhaps if we went over to the place at which Mr. Thul is stationed to inquire about the proper use of military email.
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