Lt. Col. Jason Amerine testified on Capitol Hill Thursday today that the Army revoked his security clearance, escorted him from the Pentagon, and launched a five-month, ongoing criminal investigation in response to his efforts to inform Congress about what he sees as problems with the government's problematic hostage recovery process.

Amerine told the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs that Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., had brought Amerine's team and the FBI together to discuss hostage recovery issues late last year. The decorated Green Beret said the FBI responded in January with a formal complaint to the Army that he allegedly disclosed classified information.

The Army Criminal Investigation Command investigation has now delayed his planned June 1 retirement, he said at the hearing for federal whistleblowers claiming retaliation.

The Army said in a statement last week that it does not comment on active investigations. The email from spokesman Lt. Col. Ben Garrett added that "both the law and Army policy would prohibit initiating an investigation based solely on a Soldier's protected communications with Congress."

Amerine said the information he shared was confirmed by the Defense Department Inspector General to be unclassified.

"Before the FBI complaint even hit, I notified my chain of command that this was coming, and they told me 'yeah, you did nothing wrong.' And then someone more senior, for reasons unknown to me, demanded that this be more thoroughly investigated," Amerine testified. said. "Ok, that's fine, but in five months no one has spoken to me about what actually occurred."

Amerine chosedid not to identify the Pentagon official.

Amerine said he was removed from the Pentagon on Jan. 15, one day after a CIA drone strike killed Warren Weinstein – . Weinstein was one of the hostages Amerine and his team had been working to free. The Taliban still is holding American tourist Caitlin Coleman, her Canadian husband, Josh Boyle, and their child born in captivity. Canadian tourist Colin Rutherford also remains a Taliban hostage.

Amerine cited their situations at the onset of his testimony as the reason he wanted the problems discussed.

"(A)fter I made protected disclosures to Congress, the Army suspended my clearance, removed me from my job, and sought to court-martial me," Amerine testified. "I am before you because I did my duty and you need to ensure all in uniform can go on doing their duty without fear of reprisal."

Amerine had been working from the Pentagon on a proposal designed to give up one Taliban member to ultimately free seven hostages, including Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl – an American soldier held by the Haqqani Network for nearly five years. Ultimately the State Department determined its five Taliban-for-Bergdahl deal was the "only viable option," he said, exemplifying the "inter-agency dysfunction that was our recovery effort." The deal freed Bergdahl in May 2014.

The FBI – one such agency active in hostage recovery efforts – filed a complaint against Amerine for talking to Hunter, Amerine said. Amerine said the FBI told Hunter that "we have to put him in his place," and suggested the FBI didn't necessarily intend for it to go this far.

"(To the FBI) the thought was it was a shot across the bow. Well, they did that with a criminal allegation. So they kind of underestimated the effect of telling the Army that I'm leaking secret information," Amerine told tothe committee.

Despite the investigation, Amerine said he was glad the actions against him resulted in exposure of to the problems with hostage recovery efforts.

"On the positive side, the calamity allowed me to share with you the broader dysfunction I was dealing with," said Amerine, who has a long history in Afghanstan, including stretching back to helping Hamid Karzai fight the then-ruling Taliban back in 2001.

The recipient of a Bronze Star with Valor and Purple Heart recipient said his team worked along toward three key efforts. lines of effort. One was to address inter-agency coordination issues, which he said his team proved unequipped to do. He said his team accomplished the other two goals: It developed trade options and got the Taliban to the table – before the State Department overruled it by pushing its deal through.

Amerine testified said his plan to get Bergdahl back involved releasing Taliban affiliate Haji Bashir Noorzai, who is in jail in the U.S. for leading a heroin-trafficking ring in Afghanistan and Pakistan. (He was allegedly lured to the U.S. under false promises from contractors that he would not be arrested, according to the New York Times.)

Amerine said that all options were painful but this one was "less painful" – calling Noorzai "just another warlord."

At the hearing, Amerine also mentioned the alleged failed attempt to pay a ransom for Bergdahl only to have the money stolen, an accusation Hunter has also levied against the Pentagon.

"There is a great deal of evidence that it occurred," Amerine said.

Hunter in 2014 claimedsaid Joint Special Operations Command had led the botched effort, which ended with an intermediary taking the money and running with it, and that the Pentagon repeatedly denied any attempt at a ransom had ever occurred.

Others testifying included Senior Special Agent Taylor Johnson of Homeland Security Investigations, former Social Security Administration employee Micheal Keegan, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer Jose Ducos-Bello, and Thomas Devine, legal director and whistleblower expert for the nonprofit Government Accountability Project.

"The animal instinct is to destroy anything that threatens it," said Devine, whose nonprofit organization works to protect whistleblowers. "Organizations behave the same way."

Share:
In Other News
Load More