Richard Grenell, the 'Republican strategist' behind the Bergdahl story

Big hat tip to Thom Hartmann for highlighting this last night. I'm ashamed for not suspecting within 0.000001 seconds that this whole thing was being orchestrated by one entity with a dog whistle. Apparently I am doomed to perpetual gullibility.

There are links galore for this story. I chose the BBC as the least partisan of the lot.

ETA: Despite my searching for "Richard Grenell" at DU, my search did not turn up this existing DU thread by DonViejo: The Bowe Bergdahl Story Is Right-Wing Crack. DonViejo explicitly names Richard Grenell. So hat tip to DonViejo too. But not to the search engine.

The 'Republican strategist' behind the Bergdahl story

3 June 2014 Last updated at 18:56 ET

By Anthony Zurcher
Editor, Echo Chambers

On Tuesday the New York Times published an article about the anger felt by several members of Sgt Bowe Bergdahl's Army unit over the circumstances of his disappearance and capture by Taliban forces. ... As reported in this blog on Monday, these soldiers and some other veterans felt that Mr Bergdahl had actually deserted his post, and the resulting search-and-rescue operation had put their lives in danger - and possibly resulted in the deaths of fellow troops. ... The Times story, while generally similar to pieces in other media outlets, contained a line that attracted particular interest:

"Yes, I'm angry," Joshua Cornelison, a former medic in Sgt Bergdahl's platoon, said in an interview on Monday arranged by Republican strategists.

....

So who were these "Republican strategists"? And was the fact that interviews with individuals critical of Mr Bergdahl's actions might have been offered to media outlets by partisan operatives - a "GOP-run dog-and-pony show", in the words of Gawker's Adam Weinstein - a relevant fact?

"What exactly is going on here?" writes MSNBC's Steve Benson. "The release of an American POW from his Taliban captors in Afghanistan has become a political operation in which Republican strategists direct reporters to specific sources?" ... It didn't take long for the media manhunt to find their quarry - former George W Bush administration official and Fox News commentator Richard Grenell.

Buzzfeed's Rosie Gray and Kate Nocera discovered that one of the soldiers quoted by the Times and others, Cody Full, had taken to Twitter to thank Mr Grenell yesterday for "helping get our platoon's story out" in a tweet.