Joseph A. Cafasso

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Joseph Anthony Cafasso, Jr. (born August 2, 1956) is a former Fox News consultant on military and counterterrorism issues. His association with the network ended in March 2002, shortly after allegations surfaced that he grossly misled them about his military record. He claimed to have been a retired lieutenant colonel in the Special Forces, a veteran of the Vietnam War, a recipient of the Silver Star, and a participant in Operation Eagle Claw. However, his official military record indicated that he served only 44 days in the U.S. Army from May to June 1976, being honorably discharged at the rank of private first class.^[1]

Cafasso appeared briefly in Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism, the 2004 documentary film that made the argument that Fox News had a right-wing bias. In it he delivers a short comment on decision-making at the network, comparing it to what he calls the "Christian fundamentalist movement."^[2] In an interview published in the companion book to the film, Cafasso hinted at seeing evidence of "right-wing religious extremism" at the network, and claimed that Fox vice president and Washington, D.C. bureau chief Kim Hume once asked him whether he was "an angel."^[3]

Previous to his employment with Fox News, Cafasso had worked for the Pat Buchanan 2000 presidential campaign, fundraising and running petition drives. He also became involved with a humanitarian organization led by Serbian-American activist David Vuich that was seeking to help people in Yugoslavia in the aftermath of the 1999 NATO bombing campaign.^[1]

In the late 1990s, Cafasso became involved with events following the crash of TWA Flight 800 through his association with the Associated Retired Aviation Professionals, an organization that was conducting its own independent investigation into the cause of the crash. (The group had been spearheading a campaign to prove that the airplane was shot down by a missle; it submitted its findings in July 1998 in a document known informally as the "Donaldson Report", named after ARAP founder Cmdr. William S. Donaldson.)^[4] In November of that year, Cafasso published an article about the investigation under the byline "legislative director" of the ARAP.^[5] Some time thereafter, members of the group began questioning Cafasso's military background and according Donaldson, Cafasso would not produce his official record when requested to do so. As a result, Donaldson disassociated his organization from Cafasso.^[1]

Cafasso was raised in Carteret, New Jersey, graduating from Carteret High School.

[edit] External links

• Cafasso's email communication with VeriSEAL, an organization that verifies special operations backgrounds, and had questioned his military record claims; also includes republished text of the NYT article cited above.
• Editorial discussing the phenomenon of false military claims, from Defense Watch, May 1, 2002, mentions Cafasso.
• Article from October 24, 2004 issue of LA Weekly examining military imposters and efforts to discredit them cites Cafasso as an example.

[edit] References