Army: Obama e-mail slam 'incorrect'

SPRINGFIELD, Va., July 26 (UPI) -- A widely distributed e-mail by an Army officer, critical of Barack Obama's trip to Afghanistan, was "factually incorrect," a U.S. military official says.

The e-mail, signed by Capt. Jeffrey S. Porter of Bagram Airbase, a Utah Army National Guard member assigned to the 142nd Military Intelligence Battalion, described the July 19 visit to the base by the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, saying Obama "shunned the opportunity to talk to soldiers to thank them for their service" in favor of a photo op on a basketball court, Army Times reported.

Porter said soldiers get more thanks from NBA players or the cheerleaders for the Dallas Cowboys than from Obama.

"I just don't understand how anyone would want him to be our commander-in-chief," the captain wrote.

"These comments are inappropriate and factually incorrect," Bagram spokeswoman Lt. Col. Rumi Nielson-Green told the New York Daily News. She said Obama neither played basketball nor visited the recreation facility at Bagram, but did shake hands, speak and pose for photographs with troops.

Army Times e-mailed Porter to verify his authorship and request an interview but the newspaper said Porter replied by asking that the e-mail be deleted because "after checking my sources some of the information that was put out in my e-mail was wrong."