Top-level A&M official resigns amid questions over credentials [Violated Stolen Valor Act]

The Eagle newspaper, Bryan-College Station, texas ^ | June 19, 2010 | VIMAL PATEL

[summer]

"Dr" Alex Kemos

Texas A&M's No. 3 administrator presented himself as a warrior-scholar: A former Navy SEAL with a doctorate from Tufts University.

But records obtained by The Eagle indicate Alexander Kemos never was part of the elite fighting force, and Texas A&M officials confirmed Friday that he doesn't have a doctorate or even a master's degree, which was a posted requirement for the $300,000-a-year position that serves as the top adviser to Texas A&M President R. Bowen Loftin. ...

[summer]

BTW, I only meant to post that once.

[summer]

If you look this fake up on zabasearch.com, you’ll find he lives in Kennebunkport, home of GH Bush.

If you know anything about Texas A&M, and I will guess you do, you know it is the home of the GW Bush Library.

So, I would say: there is one direct connection since he was a featured speaker at a conference hosted by then President Bush, and two indirect connections, in light of the particular university and his place of residence.

[summer]

Oh, that is the best part, what you mention. He had a whole paragraph of such fiction on his resume. I will find it and post it for you. Really. Just disgusting what this guy did.

[summer]

Here is the part that makes me just want to scream, the fake mentoring of real students at a public university -- this has to be a violation of these kids' civil rights.

The excerpt below is from this article:

Lies catch up to Kemos

...However, at Texas A&M -- known for its military history and its reverence toward veterans -- Kemos mentored prospective SEALs, told detailed stories about his supposed exploits during his time with the elite fighting unit, and in April even spoke at a dinner for cadets about ethical dilemmas he faced while he was a SEAL, students said in interviews with The Eagle.

"These people are my heroes, my role models. That's what I want to be, and he just lied about it -- that's what made me the angriest," said Jeff Legg, who graduated from Texas A&M in December and is now in Coronado, Calif., training to be a SEAL. "I know people make mistakes, but this was one well-thought-out mistake."

Legg had met with Kemos and requested a letter of recommendation from him for SEAL training. Kemos agreed but kept delaying, and never sent the letter, Legg said.

"He said he was being considered for a job to go back as a captain or some B.S. like that," Legg said. "So he couldn't write a letter because it would be bias or something like that. He sounded credible at the time."

Adam Unger, the commanding officer for student group SEAL Platoon within the Corps of Cadets, was upset at Kemos, he said. But most of all, he said, he found the situation funny.

That's because he thought of Michael Johnson, who has graduated but was a member of the platoon last year. Johnson was playfully brushed off by the group because of a belief he disclosed to them following a brief interaction with Kemos: The guy was faking.

"He was trying too hard and using terminology from books," Unger said, explaining Johnson's views. Johnson, who is currently in Navy boot camp north of Chicago, could not be reached for this story.

The conviction became a running joke among the platoon, but no one ever thought to alert anyone, Unger said. Officials have not said how Loftin found out about questions regarding Kemos. The Eagle had been looking into Kemos' background weeks before his resignation and was preparing a story, but the newspaper had not alerted Texas A&M officials as of June 17, the day Loftin said he confronted Kemos.

[summer]

Here is the fiction on his resume (linked below the article I posted on the original newspaper web site) -- lots of fake details for someone who has no military background:

--------------

1/1982 ‐ 5/1987 

Naval Special Warfare Group Two, Little Creek, VA  United  States  Navy  SEAL  Team  Two  Platoon  Leader  and  Operations  Officer. 

Graduate  of  BUD/S  Class  93.  Organize  and  execute  small  unit  operations  in  support  of  Naval  Special  Warfare  missions  and  imperatives.  Deployments  in 

Middle East and North Africa; including United Nations Forces in Lebanon (1983‐ 1984).    Selected  for  Arabic  Language  Training  at  Defense  Language  Institute  Foreign Language Center (DLIFLC), Monterey California.
   ----------

BTW, the last time I looked, the Stolen Valor guys' web site had this Kemos listed as a "secured target."

From StolenValor.com --

Top-level A&M official resigns amid questions over credentials

Alexander Kemos
" ...Alexander Kemos never was part of the elite fighting force, and Texas A&M officials confirmed Friday that he doesn't have a doctorate or even a master's degree, which was a posted requirement for the $300,000-a-year position..."
Update July 1, 2010:
Loftin details Kemos betrayal
Source: http://www.theeagle.com/am/Kemos-resigns-amid-scandal
Date added: July 01, 2010

These Stolen Valor guys' included another thread, "Loftin Details Kemos Betrayal" which concerns the TAMU president's blathering story trying to distance himself from this fraud, but his story doesn't hold water. I think maybe the Stolen Valor guys believe he is guilty, too, and I would agree with them 100% if they included that thread on their site because they want to go after both Kemos and Loftin, the TAMU president.

But I also believe: this university president did not, all by his little lonesome self, go out there to find a fraud with two fake degrees and some fake Navy SEAL experience to hire. Oh no. I think this conspiracy, if that is indeed what it is, is a whole lot bigger and involved a lot more.

And it is just so odious. So heinous to do that to students and to disrespect both the students, the faculty, the university, and, of course, all the brave men and women who do serve in the military, and the brave men who are indeed Navy SEALS.
Prison time for all those fakes in this conspiracy. All of the ones who engineered this fake's entry into TAMU and collected $300,000 in taxpayer money, too. Just heinous.

Thank you for letting me scream about this to you. A fraud is a fraud is a fraud. Jail time for the little people means jail time for him, too, is my opinion. I am glad others here agree.

[Molon Labbie]

Well, maybe the FBI will go after him as well.

[summer]

Re what you wrote: “A Superior Court judge in Los Angeles lost his job and was disbarred b/c of fake academic and military claims.”

I hate to say this, but it does not surprise me. It is very difficult to get people to do their jobs, like check credentials. “Oh, he’s a JUDGE, no need to check anything” is what they think. But I think differently, after seeing this kind of cr*p for the past 25 years.

Jeb Bush claims he has a 4-year degree from a university in Texas that he managed to get in only 2-1/2 years. While I have no doubt some people can in fact do work in a short time span, I would not be surprised to discover if 1-1/2 years of required coursework is omitted from his degree, and they just gave it to him anyway, because he got his girlfriend pregnant at the time and then married her. Something like that. And maybe that is why he knew he could never pursue an advanced degree; because then the fraud would be discovered.

I don’t know if that is what happened; I’m just saying: it would not surprise me in the least if in fact that was true.

So your claim does not surprise me either, re the judge.

What is so disappointing is that people are out there who do work very hard for their degrees, who do believe it is a stepping stone, but, in this country: fraud has replaced honest, hard work as the stepping stone, and it just happens too often.

That needs to stop. It is a waste of the real talent in this country, to keep such talented people down, down, down because you found a fraud you can control and you own the media and/or law enforcement as well.

It is a shame. Really a shame. And people who participate in that kind of white collar crime need to go to jail for very long periods of time. Even if they are judges, former governors, and dare I say it, and yes I will, former presidents. It is a terrible thing to do to honest hardworking citizens of this country, to deny opportunity because you need to have your fake in there instead of a qualified person.

Obviously, that judge is compromised. Who knows why he makes the rulings he does; he needs to keep his secret first and foremost.

Obviously, that TAMU administrator is compromised, and he fired people, too.

How would you like to lose your job because a fake fired you?

Not good what is happening with respect to this kind of fraud. Not good at all.

We need to toughen up laws and sentence people to jail who violate The Stolen Valor Act and fraudulently haul off with hundreds of thousands or millions in taxpayer loot.

Hope someone who cares about the military, honest taxpayers and students is reading this and waking up.

[summer]

RE: the FBI going after this creep Kemos

Hopefully, yes. Maybe that will happen.

[summer]

RE: the FBI going after this creep Kemos

Hopefully, yes. Maybe that will happen.

[summer]

And BTW there is already jail time in that Stolen Valor Act federal law; and if ever a case deserved prosecution, I would say this case, re Kemos, is such a case. Violating not only that law, but the public trust, firing people, hauling out taxpayer money, and telling lies to students.

Just horrible. Really terrible. On so many levels.

[summer]

Thanks again for letting me vent and scream about this matter. I appreciate it.

[Man50D]

He can join Richard Blumenthal’s club.

[summer]

Or move to Pakistan -- Alex Kemos, BS in Fake, will fit right in:

Fake degree scandal roils Pakistani politics - AP via statesman.com June 29, 2010 -- Excerpt:

ISLAMABAD — Scores of Pakistani lawmakers may lose their seats for allegedly lying about their academic credentials, a growing scandal that adds to the woes of the U.S.-backed leadership as it struggles with Islamist militancy and a weak economy.

What began as accusations against a handful of lawmakers has mushroomed into formal legal challenges against up to 160 elected officials — more than 10 percent of the country's federal and provincial legislators. Many are said to have claimed fake degrees to meet a previous requirement for holding office.

The Supreme Court has ordered the Elections Commission to vet the credentials of nearly all of the some 1,100 federal and provincial lawmakers. If enough lawmakers are found ineligible, there are rumblings that a midterm election may be needed.

The scandal has drawn some frustrated reactions from lawmakers besieged by an aggressive media.

"A degree is a degree! Whether fake or genuine, it's a degree! It makes no difference!" Baluchistan province chief minister Nawab Aslam Raisani, who claims a master's in political science, shouted at a gaggle of reporters Tuesday....

[uscabjd]

The judge lied on his application to the governor.

Jeb Bush graduated from UT as a Phi Beta Kappa. He’s been in politics for over 12 yrs - I’m sure his background has been checked and re-checked. There is no reason to believe it is fake.

[summer]

He’s been in politics for over 12 yrs - I’m sure his background has been checked and re-checked

---

It would not surprise me if no reporter has ever thought to ask to see his college transcript.

After he graduated - and he graduated in only 2-1/2 years so I doubt any distinction such as what you mention exists - he “proved” his degree in Latin American Studies by: working in Latin America, with money (at a bank).

So, I bet you: no one ever thought to check his transcripts out because of the fact he had the above job right out of college.

Again, it would not surprise me if his degree is missing 1-1/2 years of required coursework.

And, again — I don’t that to be true, but it would not surprise me now, at all, if it was true.

In any event, what happen with this 3rd highest ranking administrator at Texas A&M University, being a fake, who admitted it, is still, as you put it, “stunning.”

I agree. I am amazed he was outed as a fake SEAL and is no longer employed there. Other fakes last much longer, ripping off the taxpayer and telling lies to students. Though Kemos’ lies were very brazen, and, frankly, downright cruel in my view.

[MEG33]

Source please for your speculations.

[MEG33]

I think a bunch of Navy Seals need to teach him a lesson before he is jailed..
It is astounding that he was such a fake and just now discovered..but then he isn’t the first con man.

A school janitor would seem to get more scrutiny than the biggest frauds.

[summer]

If you mean speculations on Jeb Bush not actually completing the coursework required for his 4-year degree, that source is my own analysis, based on the fact he worked out of the country immediately upon graduating in a bank — so, it would seem: yes, he did complete the course requirements since a bank accepted his degree though the bank was in Latin American.

But now, it seems to me: his father got him that job, and so, unlike others who get their girlfriend pregnant while in college — if indeed that is what happened, and I certainly don’t know if it did — Jeb Bush did not have to drop out. He simply cut short his college career, maybe his father got the college to hand him a degree despite not having done the coursework, and off Jeb Bush goes to Latin American courtesy of his father, to work in a bank, since: his degree is in Latin American Studies. So, now:

it doesn’t look like he dropped out, or had to drop out; it looks like: he was just such a genius he finished in only 2-1/2 years instead of 4.

But is that really what happened? That is my speculation, a question. Which scenario is what actually happened?

And my only answer is this: I would not be surprised, now, if he was missing 1-1/2 years of coursework in his degree; I don’t know if he is or not; I would just not be surprised, now, is my point.

[summer]

Re: “A school janitor would seem to get more scrutiny than the biggest frauds”

I agree.

[MEG33]

I was referring to your insinuating HWBush knew this joker was a fraud..He served in the Navy in WW2 and I speculate he would never knowingly support a fake Navy Seal nor would GW.
Too much innuendo and speculation going on..IMO.
I thought it was a distraction from the main horror of this man’s fakery.
Just happy he is exposed..tar and feathers at the Seal training facility would please me greatly..
I have no idea why Jeb’s degree info got mixed up in all this..