Major General David R.E. Hale is only days or weeks away from being
the first retired Army general to face an Article 32 hearing and a
court-martial say sources close to the case.
Hale, the former deputy inspector general of the Army, was allowed to
retire last February by Army Chief of Staff General Dennis Reimer in the
middle of an investigation of charges brought against him by Donnamaria
Carpino, the wife of an Army colonel who served under Hale in Turkey.
Carpino’s charges were substantiated by a scathing Department of
Defense inspector general’s report issued by Defense investigator
Eleanor Hill. And in response to the report, Army Vice Chief of Staff
General William Crouch ordered a criminal probe of Hale’s alleged
misconduct.
At a meeting last week with agents from the Army’s Criminal
Investigation Command, Donnamaria Carpino signed a document declaring
she would not discuss the compromise of classified materials in the case
of Major General Hale. One of Carpino’s charges claimed Hale, while
serving as a NATO commander in Turkey, used classified documents from
the Israeli “black program” to intimidate and control her in what she
claims was a coerced sexual relationship. This was first reported by
WorldNetDaily in April of this year.
Last January, Ms. Carpino called the office of the Secretary of the
Army with a set of stunning charges against Hale. The decision by Reimer
allowing Hale to quickly and quietly retire ignited a firestorm of
criticism of both Reimer and the process which gave
the general the authority to waive normal retirement procedures.
General Reimer’s hasty approval of Hale’s retirement has already
produced negative consequences for the Army’s top officer and for the
chiefs of the military’s other branches. Secretary of Defense William
Cohen has stripped all chiefs of service branches
of the authority to waive normal retirement procedures for flag and
general officers. This means there will never again be a general
officer retirement request made on a Friday and approved the following
Monday, as was done for Hale by the Army
chief of staff. Additionally, during a Department of Defense news
briefing on July 7, it was revealed that Reimer has requested or was
told to ask for an early retirement.
Ken Bacon, the Pentagon’s senior spokesman, was asked, “Does that mean
that Secretary Cohen supports Reimer’s decision to pull out and he’ll
retire early?”
Bacon’s response was, “Well, Secretary Cohen wants to see all the
facts in this but, as I expressed earlier, his actions, Gen. Riemer’s
actions, are not under review here. What’s under review are the Army
procedures for dealing with retirement requests by
general officers.” The indication being the Secretary of Defense might
not hold up Reimer’s early retirement as result of Reimer’s approval of
Hale’s questionable retirement.
In exchange for her promise to not divulge details of classified
documents shown to her by General Hale while Hale was the deputy
commander of NATO’s LandSouthEast Command in Izmir, Turkey, Special
Agent Mark O’Malley promised a thorough and honest investigation of her
charges against Hale. The Criminal Investigation Command criminal probe
of Major General Hale was ordered by Army Vice Chief of Staff General
William Crouch on June 3 and resulted from the findings of a Department
of Defense Inspector General report which revealed Hale to be something
less than an officer and a gentleman.
The report states Hale committed adultery, had “improper sexual
relationships” with the wives of four subordinate officers, including
the wife of his aide-de-camp. Hale lied to Army Chief of Staff Reimer
about his conduct and he lied to the deputy Defense investigator whom he
told he wasn’t married while he was he was stationed in Turkey. Hale
even lied to his own troops about his marital status. The report states
he also engaged in
travel voucher fraud.
Carpino and her husband claim the Defense’s Office of Program
Integrity refused to look at other examples of even more serious fraud
and other crimes, and failed to pursue numerous leads they provided. The
charges made against Hale are similar to the kind
of misconduct that frequently lands junior ranking officers and enlisted
soldiers behind bars.
While the Defense Office of Program Integrity, whose sole mission is
to investigate senior leader misconduct, may have failed to take a hard
look at the charges made by Carpino, the CIC is leaving no stone
unturned. Some witnesses in the Hale matter
have the distinct impression they were being bullied into making false
statements or were so intimidated that they refused to give any
testimony at all to the CIC investigators. However, Carpino is
optimistic the investigation of Hale by the CIC won’t
result in a cover-up. In a telephone interview Carpino stated, “At this
time they (agents of the Army’s CIC) appear to be conducting a competent
investigation of my charges and other charges they have uncovered.”
When asked about the classified information reveal to her by General
Hale, Carpino stated, “I cannot discuss anything concerning classified
information because I was asked and agreed to sign an official document
saying I would not discuss anything of a classified nature.”
Carpino’s attorney, Fred Arquilla of Springfield, Virginia, confirmed
a Standard Form 189, Classified Information Nondisclosure Agreement, was
signed in his office in the
afternoon of the 12th of August. When asked about the two pages of the
Inspector General’s report which were completely blacked out, Arquilla
stated he “believed they were about classified materials” compromised by
Hale.
Arquilla, a retired Army colonel who served in the JAG Corps, also
stated, “I think General Hale will be prosecuted.” However, Arquilla
said he believed Hale would not be recalled to active duty, as the
Secretary of Defense stated he would do if warranted. Arquilla thinks
Hale will be court-martialed from his retired status. The Army has never
court-martialed a retired general officer, but the Navy has and the Army
is reportedly
considering whether it should follow the Navy’s example of not recalling
Hale to active duty. Arquilla’s observation was, “Why (give Hale) full
pay and allowances during a court-martial?”
While Ms. Carpino now refuses to discuss her knowledge of the
documents shown to her by General Hale, she did report to WorldNetDaily
in March of this year a rough description of the documents and the
circumstances in which Hale attempted to use
them to control her in what she maintains was a coerced sexual
relationship.
Calls to the public affairs office of the Secretary of the Army for
comment concerning the nondisclosure agreement signed by Carpino were
not immediately returned.
Class action scams
John Stossel