Could the story about Army deploying Psy-Ops be another prank?

Michael Hastings of Rolling Stone reports that The U.S. Army illegally ordered a team of soldiers specializing in "psychological operations" to manipulate visiting American senators into providing more troops and funding for the war.  In the beginning and as a former U.S. Marine, I had a very hard time believing that this would happen in a military of today.  One of the major reason, I now have to rethink my initial position is based on the comment quoted in this article from Lt. Colonel Michael Holmes, the man in charge of mission completion.  "My job in Psy-ops is to play with people’s heads, to get the enemy to behave the way we want them to behave," says Lt. Colonel Michael Holmes, the leader of the IO unit, who received an official reprimand after bucking orders. "I’m prohibited from doing that to our own people. When you ask me to try to use these skills on senators and congressman, you’re crossing a line."

The one line in the previous statement was learning that Holmes “received an official reprimand after bucking orders”.  As a former military member, officers who refuse to carry out any orders given to him by superiors will indeed receive an official reprimand, while enlisted members receive court martial and sometimes dishonorable discharges.  Because of this Lt. Colonel getting this reprimand means to me that something may really have happened.  Now it could be something totally different than what is reported in this article.  We may never know for sure until a through investigation has been completed, but the signs are clearly there.

Regardless of whether it is true or not, it should be top on the list of military commanders to get to the bottom of it.  It was recently just reported on MSNBC’s Jansing & Co that General Petraeus has ordered an investigation to begin and that is a good thing.  If this is true, then it is my hope that this officer does not just get a slap on the hand.