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Axe Gets Roped into Assault Ship Conspiracy Theory

Two weeks ago an editor at The Nicaraguan Post, an English-language paper, wrote me to ask if he could reprint one of my DANGER ROOM posts about the USS Kearsarge assault ship’s humanitarian mission to Latin America. "Sure," I said. Always happy to help out. A few days later I was back in the States, […]

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Two weeks ago an editor at The Nicaraguan Post, an English-language paper, wrote me to ask if he could reprint one of my DANGER ROOM posts about the USS Kearsarge assault ship's humanitarian mission to Latin America. "Sure," I said. Always happy to help out. A few days later I was back in the States, and The Nicaraguan Post was just about the last thing on my mind.

Then Paul McLeary, from Ares, stumbled upon a copy of the paper while en route to join Kearsarge as she departs Nicaragua. Tacked onto the end of my story was this delightfulness (pdf!), courtesy of NicPo's hacks: "Panama, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago are the other nations that will soon feel intimidated by the warship before it returns to its base in Virginia."

Nicaraguan sources told Prensa Latina that if Washington wants to send medical missions to Nicaragua they should use hospital ships instead of a 225 meter-long ship of the 4th Fleet. It is not the first time this ship is moved to Latin American countries under the same pretext.

I shouldn't have been surprised at the paper's unwelcome additions to my story. Kearsarge's medical mission -- part of Secretary of Defense Robert Gates' new emphasis on winning hearts and minds with "soft power" -- is controversial even in those countries that stand to benefit most. As Kearsarge approached the Nicaraguan coast a couple weeks back, headlines in the regional press were all about Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega's accusations that Kearsarge is just a front for American spies.

The conspiracy theories got so bad that Commodore Frank Ponds banned Kearsarge crew from ever using the word "troops" to describe themselves. Such overtly military terms sent the wrong message, Ponds said.

(Photo: me)

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