Lewd-pic Air Force officer may have wings clipped
AN AIR FORCE OFFICER who served on the presidential security detail is accused of being the cockiest guy in the U.S. military.
Second Lt. Travis Burch faces a possible court-martial in Texas for urging servicemembers to send him photos of their genitals from interesting locations around the world.
Burch was the chief member of a secret club known by the code name “Whiskey Delta Tango” that reveled in sharing photos of their junk while trotting around the globe, military investigators say.
The best of the bunch were rewarded with commemorative Tshirts, patches and coins featuring the symbol of a rooster.
The group of 84 people, consisting of 58 active military members and known to its users by a vulgar term, was formed in 2012.
It “was comprised of members who when going someplace deemed ‘cool’ or coming up with a ‘funny’ idea would take a picture of their penis with something related to the location or object in the picture,” according to the investigation file.
Defense lawyer Jeremiah Sullivan III launched a full-frontal attack on the probe, saying no crime was committed and the case was built around what was done privately in a “jovial, joking spirit” among consenting adults.
“The Air Force has spent well over a year investigating this case all over the globe,” Sullivan said.
“This was a completely private group that is now embarrassed by Air Force investigators. They’re now being publicly shamed for lawfully and voluntarily sharing their penis pictures. It's a private matter.”
No place was apparently off-limits to the freewheeling members of Burch’s fraternal club.
Burch told an unidentified person that his final explicit selfie was taken at the vice president’s residence while assigned to the security detail, according to the partly-censored investigation document.
Sullivan confirmed Burch was part of the presidential security detail while stationed at Joint Base Andrews from 2014 to 2016.
But the defense lawyer insisted that Burch never took a photo of his penis outside the home occupied by then-Vice President Joe Biden. “There were never photos taken at the White House or the Vice President’s house,” he said. “We know that for a fact.” Burch had a seemingly unquenchable appetite for amassing the photos of male genitals, compiling so many that they had to be stored on an external hard drive. Investigators discovered the hard drive hidden in a hollowed-out book in Burch’s quarters. They also found coins and other prizes that were bestowed upon members for completing a series of different poses and other acts. Burch had told a friend that he would go into “hibernation” or pass the torch to someone else when he entered officer training school, the investigation report says. But two months after his March 2016 commissioning, he texted an airman in Belgium saying he was going through “withdrawal” and wanted the man to send a racy video.
Investigators say Burch also used the images as blackmail.
One of the charges alleges he threatened to share a photo of one member touching Burch’s penis if the man didn’t send more images.
Burch’s lawyer denied the charge and said the photos were all taken consensually without any threats.
The exhibitionist airman was charged earlier this month with conduct unbecoming an officer and gentleman. He’s awaiting a hearing to determine if he should be tried by court-martial.
It was not clear what penalty Burch could face.
Experts said the charges suggest the military wants to make an example out of Burch.
“In this case the commander must view this behavior as seriously undermining the good order of his unit and wants to throw the book at the defendant,” said attorney Dwight Stirling, former chief prosecutor of the California National Guard.
“It really suggests that the commander is trying to send a message not just about one case, but the culture of the unit.” A FORMER top Vatican diplomat was jailed Saturday for his alleged Christmas season downloads of child pornography while visiting a Canadian church, officials said.
Msgr. Carlo Capella’s arrest came eight months after his recall to the Vatican from a diplomatic post in Washington.
He was put inside a cell at the barracks of the Vatican police force, according to a Vatican press release.
Police in Windsor, Ontario, accused Capella of accessing the repugnant images from a social networking site during his holiday visit to an unidentified local church.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police reported the incidents occurred between Dec. 24-27, 2016. Capella was also cited for distributing the downloaded pornography, officials said.
The State Department informed the Vatican last August of the allegations, citing a “possible violation of laws related to child pornography” by one of its Washington-based diplomats.
Capella was immediately ordered back to the Vatican, and the Canadian police issued a nationwide warrant for his arrest the next month.
The Saturday arrest “comes at the end of an investigation on the part of the Vatican’s promoter of justice,” read the Vatican statement.
Capella, 51, was a highranking member of the Vatican diplomatic corps, serving on the Italy desk at the Secratariat of State before his post at the Vatican Embassy in Washington last year.
At the time of his removal from Washington, he was the No. 4 man at the embassy. He was ordained as a priest in 1993 in Milan.
While some in Canada had urged his return to face criminal charges there, Capella will more likely stand trial at the Vatican city-state criminal tribunal.