Letters to the Editor: The Times is in the tank for Rick Caruso — no, Karen Bass is not to blame for Caruso’s disgrace. Why does the Times continue to publish his columns, even though he has been caught lying and omitting information for 15 years about his work as a Navy SEAL?
The Times’s claim that the Pentagon denied Caruso work because there was no work to be done is false. As late as 2003, Caruso told the Navy Times, “We don’t want to work on this as much as we want to be there. We’re going to wait until we know exactly what they want. If we don’t know what they’re going to want, we’re not going to do it.”
Caruso is not talking about the war on terror anymore but about Iraq when he says, “If you wanted to do a full-scale invasion of Iraq, then, yes, you could do it. They wouldn’t stop you. It’s not like you have to go in and say, ‘We need to make this country safe for democracy by getting rid of Saddam.’ “
This contradicts the Pentagon’s assertions.
The article by Caruso in the Navy Times contains the following misstatements and omissions of fact:
1) Caruso says there was no work to be done at the Naval Sea Systems Command in a war with Iraq, when in fact there was work to be done for Iraq.
2) Caruso says the Navy asked for more security from the Air Force and the Marines instead of more security from the Army, when in fact the Army was fully prepared for and asked for additional security measures before the war with Iraq.
3) Caruso says “if the Navy asked for more security” for Iraq, when in fact the Navy asked for security for a single base. The Army asked for and got security for all bases in the Gulf War.
4) Caruso says only 40 percent of the U.S. Navy’s warships are in international waters, when in fact all ships in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans are in international waters. The Navy is required to report to Congress on its international operations at all times. The Department of Defense and the Congress never asked the Navy to disclose the
