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Revision as of 21:05, 8 August 2009

Commander Jeffrey D. Gordon is an officer in the United States Navy.

Commander Gordon's most recent appointment is to serve as a Pentagon spokesman. Gordon, a career officer, joined the secretary's office under Donald Rumsfeld. Documents relating to the Rumsfeld's promotion of Jeffrey Gordon have not been made available to the public despite repeated requests. It is not clear, for example, what qualifications and experience prompted the promotion, however, since 2005 Gordon has frequently served as a spokesman for issues related to the extrajudicial detention of captives seized during the "global war on terror", in the Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba..

Gordon was responsible for justifying an explanation for the DoD prohibition for military personnel using social networking services like myspace, or to use sites like youtube.

On October 2 2007 Gordon went on record offering an explanation as to why so often captives, who have been cleared for release, have continued to be held in Guantanamo.

“All detainees at Guantanamo are considered a threat to the United States — to include those transferred yesterday. As a condition of repatriation, nations accepting detainees must take steps to prevent the return to terrorism, as well as providing credible assurances of humane treatment.”

Gordon makes a Sexual harrassment complaint

On July 25 2009 Howard Kurtz, writing in the Washington Post, described a letter Gordon had written to a senior editor at the Miami Herald. The letter claimed Miami Herald reporter Carol Rosenberg had made crude jokes at his expense that implied he was a gay man. He complained that the jokes were not "light-hearted", but "were delivered with harsh invective." Kurtz noted that Gordon is scheduled to retire from the Navy soon, and he speculated that this "may help explain the unusually harsh nature of his complaint." Reputable sources have characterized this episode as a "tempest in a teapot," and "silly." Stacey Sullivan, of Human Rights Watch, characterized the affair as thus in a letter to the editor of the Miami Herald, "Navy spokesman Jeffrey Gordon's sexual harassment complaint against Ms. Rosenberg and his allegation that Ms. Rosenberg has "abused worse than the detainees have been abused" defies reality.

On July 15, Rosenberg wrote in the Miami Herald, referring to Gordon's administrative functions regarding visiting families of 9-11 victims as, "The idea was floated (of creating a photo opportunmity) but not formally offered to the visiting media, said Pentagon spokesman Jeffrey Gordon, who added he would not have permitted the victims to be used in that manner, even had the journalists accepted the offer."

Rosenberg's excellent relationship with the US Military on Guantanamo is cited in the recent bestselling book The Least Worst Place: Guantanamo's First 100 Days by Karen J. Greenberg published recently by the Oxford University Press. Greenberg details collective appreciation by the military on Guantanamo toward Ms. Rosenberg's reportage and personality. Rosenberg, who graduated from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1982, reported from the Middle East and from Washington in the 1980s and 1990s. Now based in Miami, she has been a Knight journalism fellow at Stanford University and has appeared on PBS's NewsHour. A significant amount of Rosenberg's coverage focuses on the terrorism trials and suicides at Guantanamo. She has written about a prisoner so afraid of returning to his native Tajikistan that he asked to stay at the prison in Cuba. She has written about how bottled water at Guantanamo is kept chilled in an almost two ton shipping refrigerator meant for the dead. She has also written about one general attacking another general as "abusive, bullying, unprofessional" in a dispute over trial tactics at the war court.

On August 3 2009 the Miami Herald wrote the Pentagon to inform them their internal inquiry could not find anyone to corroborate the most serious of Gordon's claims. As Howard Kurtz noted, the Miami Herald did acknowledge that Rosenberg had employed profanity. They are going to continue assigning her to cover Guantanamo.

The Miami Herald quoted an email from Gordon's superior, Colonel David Lapan, where he characterized Gordon's complaint as "a private matter":

"From the beginning, we have considered this a personnel matter, and it's unfortunate that it has become a news story."

References

1. ^ "Pentagon Told to Release Gitmo Transcripts". Washington Post. February 24, 2006. Retrieved 2007-05-15. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
2. Washington Post, Evidence Of Innocence Rejected at Guantanamo, December 5, 2007
3. David Morgan (May 14, 2007). "U.S. divulges new details on released Gitmo inmates". Reuters. Retrieved 2007-05-15. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
4. David Rose (June 18, 2006). "How US Hid the Suicide Secrets of Guantanamo". The Guardian. Retrieved 2007-05-15. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
5. Michael Melia (April 25, 2007). "Murder Charge for Detainee". Associated Press. Retrieved 2007-05-15. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
6. "U.S. Military Busy Delivering Relief Aid to Disaster Victims". US Embassy, London, United Kingdom. 18 October 2005. Retrieved 2007-05-15. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
7. "Media access to Guantanamo blocked altogether". USA Today. June 6 2006. Retrieved 2007-06-01. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
8. "Defense seeks to move Guantanamo trials to U.S., citing lack of access to base". USA Today. June 14 2006. Retrieved 2007-06-01. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
9. "Access denied: Pentagon blocks websites". Brisbane Times. May 15 2007. Retrieved 2007-05-31. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
10. "Eight detainees transferred from Guantanamo Bay". The China Post. 2007-10-02. Archived from the original on 2009-08-07. Retrieved 2009-08-07.
11. Howard Kurtz (2009-07-25). "Military and Media Clash In Complaint: Navy Spokesman Alleges Abuse by Miami Reporter". Washington Post. Retrieved 2009-07-25.
12. ^ Jack Dolan (2009-08-03). "Review clears Herald reporter". Miami Herald. Archived from the original on 2009-08-04. Retrieved 2009-08-04.
13. Howard Kurtz (2009-08-04). "Miami Herald Finds No Evidence That Reporter Sexually Harassed Navy Spokesman". Washington Post. Archived from the original on 2009-08-04. Retrieved 2009-08-04.

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