From Rajiv Chandrasekaran, the Washington Post:  A spokesman for [Lt. Gen. William] Caldwell, Lt. Col. Shawn Stroud, said the general is not commenting on the allegations because of the ongoing investigation. But Stroud said the training command "categorically denies the assertion that the command used an information operations cell to influence distinguished visitors."  

Although the Rolling Stone piece claims that [Lt. Col. Michael D.] Holmes specializes in psychological operations, the Army said it has no record of training Holmes in "psychological operations." Holmes said in his interview with The Post that he learned psychological operations techniques as part of his information operations training but he said he never claimed that he was psychological operations officer.

"It’s stretching to say that we’re the Jedi-mind-tricks guys," he said. …

[I]ndependent specialists in military law said Holmes’s position as an information operations officer, regardless of whether he was formally reassigned, does not mean he cannot be asked to perform other legal tasks. "If you’re being asked to chip in and help someone else, that’s a lawful order," said Jeffrey Addicott, who was as an Army lawyer for 20 years and now is a law professor at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio.

That is the same conclusion the top lawyer for Caldwell’s command reached.

"LTC Holmes is not being asked to conduct ‘intelligence gathering’ or ‘info ops’ on anyone," Maj. Tami Mitchell, the command’s military justice chief, wrote in a March 30 e-mail after Holmes complained.  (photo: Ali Abbas/AFP/Getty)

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