Posts tagged obama
DEJA VU! Another Dead Diplomat, Another Obama WH Story Change
Apr 12th
RELATED STORY: Read the NTEB Archives on the BENGHAZI COVERUP
The State Department has acknowledged that five Americans killed in Afghanistan, including 25-year-old diplomat Anne Smedinghoff, were on foot when they were caught in the blast of a suicide bomber, and not in an armored vehicle as officials told bereaved relatives earlier this week.
Shades of Benghazi: State Department changes story on Afghanistan blast that killed diplomat
The deaths of U.S. diplomatic personnel — and the State Department’s changing account of how they died — raise echoes for some of the security failures in Benghazi, Libya, where Islamist extremists killed four Americans in assaults on the U.S. diplomatic compound Sept. 11.
“The question about Benghazi I always wanted an answer to was whether it was a one-off or whether there were systemic problems with the way the State Department was doing risk management for high-risk posts,” said James Carafano, a scholar at the Heritage Foundation think tank. “We never found that out.
“Obviously, in a war zone, you can’t have zero risk and you can’t have zero casualties. But now, is this [incident] a one-off as well?” Mr. Carafano said.
The five Americans killed Saturday were Ms. Smedinghoff of River Forest, Ill.; Army Staff Sgt. Christopher M. Ward, 24, of Oak Ridge, Tenn.; Army Spc. Wilbel A. Robles-Santa, 25, of Juncos, Puerto Rico; Army Spc. Delfin M. Santos Jr., 24, of San Jose, Calif.; and a civilian defense contractor who has not been named.
They were members of a provincial reconstruction team delivering U.S.-donated books to a school in Qalat. Such teams are civilian-military partnerships designed to get U.S. personnel into the field to administer aid projects.
The governor of Zabol province, Mohammad Ashraf Nasery, the apparent target of the attack, was in an armored car and was not hurt in the blast, although three of his bodyguards were injured, according to reports over the weekend.
State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said early reports from the ground were unclear.
“Part of the initial confusion came about because there were reports in the media about the local governor and his convoy,” Mr. Ventrell said of the changing State Department account of the attack. “Some of our initial reporting also indicated that, and that’s why we weren’t able to clarify right away. So our initial read on it was different.”
Ms. Smedinghoff is the first U.S. diplomat to die in Afghanistan in 11 years of U.S.-led war and counterinsurgency, and the incident is the worst this year in terms of U.S. casualties.
Questions about the incident are likely to multiply in coming days, as more details about the attack are revealed. A witness reported Thursday that the provincial reconstruction team was lost, which is why the personnel were caught in the blast.
Ahmad Zia Abed, a reporter for Shamshad TV, told McClatchy News that about a dozen people, including media and diplomatic workers, plus their military escorts, were on the team.
When they arrived to deliver the schoolbooks, a man at the gate said they had the wrong building. They retraced their steps to the American base and were caught in the blast as they reached it, according to McClatchy.
Mr. Ventrell declined to comment about reports that the team was lost before being caught in the blast.
“In terms of all the rest of what happened that day, it’s still under investigation, so I don’t have a lot of other details to provide,” Mr. Ventrell said. source – Washington Times
Obama Recruits Newtown Shooting Families To Fight 2nd Amendment
Apr 12th
The behavior coming out of Washington these days gets stranger and stranger. Take, for example, today’s story about the families of the students killed in Newtown who have all now started political careers as lobbyists against the Second Amendment. The speed in which President Obama has latched onto them and pulled them into the inner-sanctum of Washington politics will make you dizzy. It’s almost as if, mind you I say almost, but it’s almost as if this was the plan all along. Now, at this point we need to interject that we take no stand on the Newtown Shooting conpsiracy theory, other than to say they raise some interesting and heretofore unaswered questions. But we’ll let you decide that one for yourself.
But something is indeed rotten in Denmark…and Washington.
From Politico: When a lobbyist for families of Newtown shooting victims called the office of Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) to set up a meeting, the first response was a standard D.C. offer. They could get a meeting with her staff, and a quick and simple “hello” from Collins herself, they were told.
Following a campaign-style gun-control rally in Connecticut, during which he referred to Republican plans to filibuster gun-control in the Senate as a “political stunt,” O scooped up as many families of Newtown shooting victims as he could find and loaded them onto Air Force One for a trip to Washington D.C. – where they were expected to lobby lawmakers in an effort to help push O’s gun-control proposal through Congress. source – Constitution Club
The families’ answer: not good enough. According to their lobbyists, the families have a rule against staff-only meetings: They won’t do them. They insist on sitting down with the senators themselves.
That rule is just one of the ways that the Newtown families, political novices just a few months ago, are proving to be savvy, effective advocates as they promote the gun legislation that has finally begun to move through the Senate. The families are well-educated, and many are well-off. They have been polished and sharp on TV. They’re mostly non-political, but quite accomplished in their own fields. With access to money and media, they’re using persistence, visibility — and, most all, their unique moral authority — to help prod Senate action. They also have their own lobbyists — several of them, in fact.
They don’t try to sound like wonks or pundits or operatives. They just tell their heart-breaking stories, weaving in a demand for action that is respectful but forceful. As a result, senators respond to them as bereaved parents, not advocates.
“These are smart, articulate people, who don’t have a scintilla of Washington about them,” said Matt Bennett of the centrist Democratic group Third Way, which has been helping the families navigate D.C. “But they virtually cannot be denied a meeting. There are not many groups of people that can get a meeting with any senator they want, whenever they want.”
What started as a support group is now a lobbying force unlike any other to descend on Capitol Hill. The family members typically begin their pitch to senators softly, telling the story of the child that they lost. They gently say they could not have imagined themselves in this position, but they’re doing it to honor the memory of their children. They say they’re supporters of the Second Amendment, and just want to have a conversation.
But there’s nothing subtle about the way some of them conclude their visits: by leaving behind a color card with a photo of their slain relative. Nicole Hockley, who introduced President Barack Obama in Hartford this week, hands senators a card with three photos of her son Dylan, who was 6 when he was gunned down. One frame shows him grinning, in a Superman shirt.
“Dylan Hockley, 3/8/06 – 12/14/12,” the card says. “Honor his life. Stand with us for change. NOW IS THE TIME.” source – Politico
7 Months On Obama Simply Ignores Benghazi 9/11/12 Muslim Terror Attack
Apr 11th
Is it not inconcievable to you that a Muslim terror attack, on the 11th anniversary of 9/11, that resulted in the death of four Americans, would not only go uninvestigated but also unpunished as well? That is exactly what the Obama White House is doing. President Obama and then-Secretary Of State Hillary Clinton allowed a Muslim terror attack against the US Consulate in Libya to occur unchallenged, whil they watched it in real-time on White House satellite feeds. Then Obama started firing staff to perpetuate the coverup.
RELATED STORY: Obama At UN: ‘The Future Must Not Belong To Those Who Slander The Prophet Of Islam’
Seven months after the fact and the Obama White House has nothing to say about the slaughter of 4 Americans on 9/11/12? What does that say about us, as Americans, when we allow this type of impeachable behavior from our leaders?
From Daily Caller: A group of former special forces and intelligence veterans released a new video commemorating the seven month mark of the Sept. 11, 2011 attack on the U.S. Embassy in Benghazi, Libya on Thursday.
7 months later and no one is held responsible. There has been no counter-attack. Nothing.
The video, “Benghazi: Unaware, Unresponsive, Unaccountable,” is a project of the non-partisan Special Operations OPSEC Education Fund, Inc that took President Barack Obama to task last year for taking too much credit for the killing of Osama bin Laden.
OPSEC’s video walks through the events of the day and reiterates the contention that there remain unanswered questions about the attacks in Benghazi that left four Americans dead, including the ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens.
CLICK HERE to watch video…
“The public has been stonewalled,” the narrator in the video charges. “It’s time to create a select congressional committee to investigate Benghazi. The American public deserves answers,” he continues, directing viewers to visit OPSEC’s website and tell Congress to support a select committee to investigate.
In January, Virginia Republican Rep. Frank Wolf introduced legislation to create a committee to investigate the attacks.
“All of this points to the critical need for a House select committee to comprehensively investigate the attack and the administration’s response,” Wolf said in a January statement. “The loss of four American lives and the strategic consequences of this deadly attack on a U.S. consulate merit a full investigation to ensure that the Obama administration is taking all necessary actions to identify the terrorists responsible and bring them to justice.”
The video is set to be distributed to over a thousand military blogs and websites, according to a representative for OPSEC. source – Daily Caller
Obama-Backed Syrian Rebels Are Actually Al-Qaeda Soldiers
Apr 11th
Obama is currently funding the Syrian rebels
After the carnage unfolded at the U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, a potential gun running scheme to arm Libyan and perhaps even Syrian rebels was uncovered. The troubling aspect of arming said rebels is the fact that, according to some intelligence experts, those rebels are actually al-Qaeda.
Now, al-Qaeda in Iraq has acknowledged for the first time on Tuesday that al-Nusra Front, the rebel faction fighting President Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria, is indeed part of its network.
What’s more, the militant jihadist group said it is fighting to establish an Islamic state in the country.
The remarks, made by Iraqi al-Qaeda leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and published in Al Aribya have finally confirmed longheld suspicions that the two groups are one in the same.
“It’s now time to declare in front of the people of the Levant and [the] world that the al-Nusra Front is but an extension of the Islamic State in Iraq and part of it,” the SITE Monitoring Service quoted Baghdadi as saying in a speech released on jihadist forums Monday.
The two groups will now reportedly merge and be called the “Islamic State in Iraq” and the “Levant.”
The Syrian rebels aren’t the only ones who could receive support from al Qaeda. Baghdadi said that al Qaeda would furnish support to other jihadists “on the condition that the country and its citizens be governed according to the rules dictated by Allah.”
Al-Nusra Front was labeled a “terrorist” group by Washington back in December over its suspected affiliation to al-Qaeda in Iraq. Back then, U.S. State Department dubbed al-Nursa as simply a “new alias” for al-Qaeda in Iraq, saying it was “an attempt by AQI to hijack the struggles of the Syrian people for its own malign purposes.”
Al Aribya also notes that jihadist forums online reveal that hundreds of radicals have traversed from Iraq into Syria to lead the charge against Assad’s regime. source – The Blaze
POLL: One In Four Americans Think Obama May Be The Antichrist
Apr 4th
About one in four Americans suspect that President Barack Obama might be the antichrist, more than a third believe that global warming is a hoax and more than half suspect that a secretive global elite is trying to set up a New World Order, according to a poll released on Tuesday.
The survey, which was conducted by Public Policy Polling, asked a sample of American voters about a number of conspiracy theories, phrasing the questions in eye-catching language that will have the country’s educators banging their heads on their desks.
The study revealed that 13% of respondents thought Obama was “the antichrist”, while another 13% were “not sure” – and so were at least appeared to be open to the possibility that he might be. Some 73% of people were able to say outright that they did not think Obama was “the antichrist”.
The survey also showed that 37% of Americans thought that global warming was a hoax, while 12% were not sure and a slim majority – 51% – agreed with the overwhelming majority view of the scientific establishment and thought that it was not.
The survey also revealed that 28% of people believed in a sinister global New World Order conspiracy, aimed at ruling the whole world through authoritarian government. Another 25% were “not sure” and only a minority of American voters – 46% – thought such a conspiracy theory was not true. source – Guardian UK
Obama Supports UN Gun Treaty That Hobbles 2nd Amendment
Apr 2nd
The United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday signed off on a sweeping, first-of-its-kind treaty to regulate the international arms trade, brushing aside worries from U.S. gun rights advocates that the pact could lead to a national firearms registry and disrupt the American gun market.
The long-debated U.N. Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) requires countries to regulate and control the export of weaponry such as battle tanks, combat vehicles and aircraft and attack helicopters, as well as parts and ammunition for such weapons. It also provides that signatories will not violate arms embargoes, international treaties regarding illicit trafficking, or sell weaponry to countries for genocide, crimes against humanity or other war crimes.
With the Obama administration supporting the final treaty draft, the General Assembly vote was 154 to 3, with 23 abstentions. Iran, Syria and North Korea voted against it.
American gun rights activists, though, insist the treaty is riddled with loopholes and is unworkable in part because it includes “small arms and light weapons” in its list of weaponry subject to international regulations. They do not trust U.N. assertions that the pact is meant to regulate only cross-border trade and would have no impact on domestic U.S. laws and markets.
Critics of the treaty were heartened by the U.S. Senate’s resistance to ratifying the document, assuming President Obama sent it to the chamber for ratification. In its budget debate late last month, the Senate approved a non-binding amendment opposing the treaty offered by Sen. James M. Inhofe, Oklahoma Republican, with eight Democrats joining all 45 Republicans backing the amendment.
“The U.S. Senate is united in strong opposition to a treaty that puts us on level ground with dictatorships who abuse human rights and arm terrorists, but there is real concern that the Administration feels pressured to sign a treaty that violates our Constitutional rights,” Mr. Moran said. “Given the apparent support of the Obama Administration for the ATT, members of the U.S. Senate must continue to make clear that any treaty that violates our Second Amendment freedoms will be an absolute nonstarter for ratification.”
Mr. Inhofe likewise said Mr. Obama should take the Senate vote seriously.
source – Washington Times
Why Are All The SEAL Team 6 Soldiers That ‘Killed Bin Laden’ Dying?
Mar 30th
When President Obama ordered the “raid” on Osama Bin Laden’s compound last year, it has triggered one unexplained event after another. Not the least of which is the fact that all the members of SEAL Team 6 have been dying in mysterious, unexplained ‘accidents’. But before you try to answer that question, do YOU know what happened on December 26, 2001?
FLASHBACK STORY: 25 members of SEAL Team 6 Die In Helicopter Crash August 6 2011
From NBC News: A Navy SEAL from the elite SEAL TEAM 6 was killed and another SEAL injured Thursday night during a parachute training accident in Marana, Arizona, the military said. Details of the accident are not immediately available.
Why are all the members of SEAL Team 6 who ‘killed Bin Laden” mysteriously dying in “accidents”? Might be a good question to ask the Commander-in-chief, hmmm….
One SEAL was pronounced dead on arrival at the University of Arizona Hospital. The second remains hospitalized in stable condition.
Members of SEAL TEAM 6 carried out the raid that killed Osama Bin Laden. All SEAL teams receive extensive parachute training, which is often required for hostage rescue or anti-terrorist operations. The names of the two SEALS involved in the fatal training mishap have not been released pending notification of next of kin. source – NBC News
