Pentagon investigation clears McChrystal, aides

Pentagon investigators said they were unable to confirm the events as reported in the June 2010 article in Rolling Stone, and the inquiry’s final review challenged the accuracy of the profile of McChrystal, who was the top commander in Afghanistan.

The article, headlined “The Runaway General,’’ quoted people identified as senior aides to the general making disparaging statements about members of President Obama’s national security team.

The profile prompted a furious debate about whether the commander’s staff had used insubordinate language in discussing the nation’s civilian leadership, and whether McChrystal had tolerated or even fostered a climate of disrespect on his team.

One aide was quoted referring to Vice President Joe Biden using the phrase “bite me.’’ General James L. Jones, then the national security adviser, was labeled a “clown’’ by one aide, according to the article, and McChrystal was described as reacting with disdain upon receiving an e-mail from the late Richard C. Holbrooke, the special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The article did not directly quote McChrystal as saying anything overtly insubordinate.

The writer, Michael Hastings, and his editors have repeatedly defended the article’s accuracy. Eric Bates, the executive editor of Rolling Stone, said yesterday that he had not seen the Pentagon’s final inquiry but that the magazine stood by the article as factually correct.

“It’s accurate in every detail,’’ Bates said.

The inquiry, which the Defense Department’s top investigative body began last fall, disputed key incidents or comments as reported in the article.

“Not all of the events at issue occurred as reported in the article,’’ the review stated. “In some instances, we found no witness who acknowledged making or hearing the comments as reported.

“In other instances, we confirmed that the general substance of an incident at issue occurred, but not in the exact context described in the article.’’

There are significant gaps between what was reported by Rolling Stone and what was found by the inspector general, but for the military, the inspector general’s findings close the case on an episode that ended McChrystal’s career and threatened to rupture relations between the nation’s civilian leadership and the general officer corps.

After the profile was published, McChrystal was recalled by the president to Washington, where he accepted responsibility for all actions by his staff and resigned. He is now teaching at Yale and giving lectures.

The White House and McChrystal have taken steps recently to make amends.

While the inspector general’s report was made public only under a Freedom of Information Act request yesterday, it was completed earlier, on April 8. Four days later, on April 12, the White House announced that McChrystal was invited back to public service to help oversee a high-profile administration initiative in support of military families.

An administration spokesman said that the invitation to McChrystal to help guide the new program was extended before the White House knew the results of the Pentagon investigation.

This inspector general’s inquiry followed an initial investigation by the Army inspector general, which also cleared McChrystal and senior Army officers on his staff. But the Army inquiry left the implication that civilian aides and a Navy officer — none of whom were interviewed by the Army — might have been the sources of the comments.

The Pentagon inspector general’s team interviewed 15 people said to have been involved in the episodes cited by the magazine, reviewed testimony recorded by the Army, and in the end cleared the general and members of his military and civilian staff.

McChrystal declined to be interviewed for the Pentagon inquiry, stating that his testimony from the previous Army review would stand.

The Pentagon inspector general’s team had invited Hastings, the article’s author, to meet with investigators to provide his views. He declined, and pointed to previous statements and the article, according to the inquiry.

Bates provided some clarifying information in an e-mail, the investigative report stated.

Pentagon investigators found contradictory or inconclusive information on the statement disparaging the vice president, and “were unable to establish the exact words used or the speaker,’’ according to the final report.

McChrystal said the first time he was aware of the comment was when he read the article, according to the findings.