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SEALs slam Obama for exploiting them for campaign purposes

by Mojambo ( 196 Comments › )
Filed under Al Qaeda, Anti-Jihad, Barack Obama, Elections 2012, Islamists, Pakistan at May 1st, 2012 - 5:00 pm

This whole attempt to spike the ball a year after the bin Laden killing is absolutely disgraceful. Obama trying to come across as a National Security hawk is laughable when you consider that it was the Bush era policies of , Guantanamo Bay, water boarding and phone monitoring that ultimately lead to the bin Laden killing.

by Toby Harnden

Serving and former US Navy SEALs have slammed President Barack Obama for taking the credit for killing Osama bin Laden and accused him of using Special Forces operators as ‘ammunition’ for his re-election campaign.

The SEALs spoke out to MailOnline after the Obama campaign released an ad entitled ‘One Chance’.

In it President Bill Clinton is featured saying that Mr Obama took ‘the harder and the more honourable path’ in ordering that bin Laden be killed. The words ‘Which path would Mitt Romney have taken?’ are then displayed.

Besides the ad, the White House is marking the first anniversary of the SEAL Team Six raid that killed bin Laden inside his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan with a series of briefings and an NBC interview in the Situation Room designed to highlight the ‘gutsy call’ made by the President.

Mr Obama used a news conference today to trumpet his personal role and imply that his Republican opponent Mr Romney, who in 2008 expressed reservations about the wisdom of sending troops into Pakistan, would have let bin Laden live.

‘I said that I’d go after bin Laden if we had a clear shot at him, and I did,’ Mr Obama said. ‘If there are others who have said one thing and now suggest they’d do something else, then I’d go ahead and let them explain it.’

Ryan Zinke, a former Commander in the US Navy who spent 23 years as a SEAL and led a SEAL Team 6 assault unit, said: ‘The decision was a no brainer. I applaud him for making it but I would not overly pat myself on the back for making the right call.

‘I think every president would have done the same. He is justified in saying it was his decision but the preparation, the sacrifice – it was a broader team effort.’

[………]

Mr Obama has faced criticism even from allies about his decision to make a campaign ad about the bin Laden raid. Arianna Huffington, an outspoken liberal who runs the left-leaning Huffington Post website, roundly condemned it.

She told CBS: ‘We should celebrate the fact that they did such a great job. It’s one thing to have an NBC special from the Situation Room… all that to me is perfectly legitimate, but to turn it into a campaign ad is one of the most despicable things you can do.’

Campaigning in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Mr Romney responded to a shouted question by a reporter by saying: ‘Even Jimmy Carter would have given that order.’

A serving SEAL Team member said: ‘Obama wasn’t in the field, at risk, carrying a gun. As president, at every turn he should be thanking the guys who put their lives on the line to do this. He does so in his official speeches because he speechwriters are smart.

[………]’

Chris Kyle, a former SEAL sniper with 160 confirmed and another 95 unconfirmed kills to his credit, said: ‘The operation itself was great and the nation felt immense pride. It was great that we did it.

‘But bin Laden was just a figurehead. The war on terror continues. Taking him out didn’t really change anything as far as the war on terror is concerned and using it as a political attack is a cheap shot.

[………]

Senior military figures have said that Admiral William McRaven, a former SEAL who was then head of Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) made the decision to take bin Laden out. Tactical decisions were delegated even further down the chain of command.

Mr Kyle added: ‘He’s trying to say that Romney wouldn’t have made the same call? Anyone who is patriotic to this country would have made that exact call, Democrat or Republican. Obama is taking more credit than he is due but it’s going to get him some pretty good mileage.’

A former intelligence official who was serving in the US government when bin Laden was killed said that the Obama administration knew about the al-Qaeda leader’s whereabouts in October 2010 but delayed taking action and risked letting him escape.

[……..]

Brandon Webb, a former SEAL who spent 13 years on active duty and served in Iraq and Afghanistan, said: ‘Bush should get partial credit for putting the system in place.

‘Obama inherited a very robust package with regards to special ops and the intelligence community. But Obama deserves credit because he got bin Laden – you can’t take that away from him.

‘My friends that work in Special Operations Command (SOCOM) that have been on video teleconferences with Obama on these kill or capture situations say that Obama has no issue whatsoever with making decisions and typically it’s kill. He’s hitting the kill button every time. I have a lot of respect for him for that.’

But he said that many SEALs were dismayed about the amount of publicity the Obama administration had generated about SEAL Team Six, the very existence of which is highly classified.

‘The majority of the SEALs I know are really proud of the operation but it does become “OK, enough is enough – we’re ready to get back to work and step out of the limelight.” They don’t want to be continuously paraded around a global audience like a show dog.

[………]

It was ‘stretching a little much’ for Mr Obama to suggest only he would have made the decision. ‘I personally I don’t think Romney would have any problem making tough decisions. He got a very accomplished record of making decision as a business professional.

‘He may not have charisma but he clearly has leadership skills. I don’t think he’d have any problem taking that decision.’

Clint Bruce, who gave up the chance of an NFL career to serve as a SEAL officer before retiring as a lieutenant after nine years, said: ‘We were extremely surprised and discouraged by the publicity because it compromises the ability of those guys to operate.

‘It’s a waste of time to speculate about who would and wouldn’t have made that decision. It was a symphony of opportunity and intelligence that allowed this administration to give the green light. We want to acknowledge that they made that decision.

‘Politicians should let the public know where they stand on national security but not in the play-by-play, detailed way that has been done recently. The intricacies of national security should not become part of stump speeches.’

Read the rest – SEALs slam Obama for using them as ammunition in bid to take credit for bin Laden killing during election campaign.

Tags: Toby Harnden
Posted in Al Qaeda, Anti-Jihad, Barack Obama, Elections 2012, Islamists, Pakistan | 196 Comments »

Texas execution signals Rick Perry is ready to run for president

by Mojambo ( 206 Comments › )
Filed under Barack Obama, Crime, Elections 2012, George W. Bush, Mexico, Republican Party at July 10th, 2011 - 2:50 pm

I love Rick Perry telling George W. Bush, Barack Obama, the Mexican Government and the United Nations to go pound salt up their keisters. You don’t want to be executed, do not commit murder in Texas.
By the way what is the latest with the Newt Gingrich campaign? Ha Ha Ha

by Toby Harnden

If you’re looking for a sign that Governor Rick Perry of Texas is about to run for President of the United States then the execution of one Humberto Leal Garcia is probably it.

By all appearances, Perry didn’t give a damn about the opposition of the Obama administration, the United Nations and the Mexican government. Leal was a Mexican citizen – the reason for the furore – and the Texas governor refused even to take a telephone call from the Mexican ambassador as the death chamber was being readied.

Perry declined to issue a 30-day stay of execution after the Supreme Court voted by the slimmest possible margin of 5 to 4 not to spare the condemned man and Leal duly went to meet his maker an hour after the country’s highest court had ruled.

On the face of it, Perry had every reason to give Leal, who had spent 16 years on death row, another month to live. He could have called the bluff of some of his critics and also presented himself as a potential-be commander-in-chief with a view not only beyond Texas but also stretching farther than American shores.

President Barack Obama had argued that executing Leal would endanger American citizens abroad. This was because Leal, an illegal immigrant who entered the US as a toddler, had not been given the opportunity to have access to Mexican consular officials, a right enshrined in the Vienna Convention.

[……]

There is every indication that Perry will run for president. He has visited major donors in California, begun to assemble a staff and made calls to power brokers in the first-voting state of Iowa. Sarah Palin is rumoured to be preparing to endorse him.

If he does run, we’ll hear a lot about the Texas death penalty, just as we did with Bush in 2000. There will be much outrage expressed among elites, especially in Britain, but until death penalty opponents can come up with a case in which it can be proved an innocent person was executed then the venting will matter little.

What Perry will be able to concentrate on will be his record of job creation – 1.1 million new jobs in Texas during the decade he has been governor – and contrast it with Obama’s feat of increasing national unemployment from 7.3 percent to 9.2 percent thus far.

If Perry’s opponents want to try to change the subject to the death penalty, then that would probably suit the rugged, cowboy-booted Texan just fine.

Read the rest – American Way: Texas execution signals that Rick Perry is poised to run for president

Tags: Bill Clinton, Rick Perry, Toby Harnden
Posted in Barack Obama, Crime, Elections 2012, George W. Bush, Mexico, Republican Party | 206 Comments »

Hey at least he’ll always have an aging Beatle!

by Mojambo ( 85 Comments › )
Filed under Barack Obama, UK at June 6th, 2010 - 6:00 pm

Transatlantic dissonance – I love that description!

Hey Paulie two quick questions

1. Is this what happens after 50 years of living in the shadow of John Lennon?

2. Has it ever occurred to you that if you yourself ever visited a library and did some research on prenuptial agreements you might not have had to fork over $48 million to gold digger Heather Mills (whom every body including your daughter Stella but you – knew was in it strictly for the money)?

by Toby Harnden

Well, at least he’s still got Sir Paul McCartney. At the White House last week, the 67-year-old crooner was gushing in much the same manner as his own groupies did at Shea Stadium in 1965. “I’m a big fan, he’s a great guy,” McCartney told American critics of President Barack Obama. “So lay off him, he’s doing great.”

Later, McCartney serenaded the First Lady with a rendition of Michelle and, receiving a prize from the Library of Congress, took a cheap shot at President George W Bush that was as unfunny as it was unoriginal. “After the last eight years, it’s great to have a president who knows what a library is.” Bush. Doesn’t read books. Stupid. Geddit?

The problem for the President is that even if the former Beatle does speak for billions, the overwhelming majority of those are overseas. Polls show that around 10 per cent of those who voted for Obama in 2008 now disapprove of his performance and the heavy turnout of young people and black voters among the 69 million who back him will not be repeated again.

[…]

Perhaps their biggest problem is that it was not just McCartney’s dyed hair and 1960s songs that seemed so retro. His adulation of Obama struck the wrong chord because few outside the White House bubble are in that place any more. It is now permissible – even fashionable – to have a go at the man once hailed as the Messiah.

McCartney’s banalities were an example of a transatlantic dissonance that is all too apparent these days. Whereas Europe is stuck in November 2008 and still hopelessly in love with Obama, Americans have got over the historic symbolism of it all and are now moving on as they live with the reality.

That reality has now begun to dawn on some of Obama’s natural constituency – Hollywood and the Left. The “no drama Obama” demeanour that served him so well on the campaign trail is now becoming a liability.

Read the rest here: Obama loses the Left: suddenly it’s cool, to bash Barack

Update -Kyle Smith points out the obvious – that ever since Obama became POTUS – the”special” has gone out of the special U.K.-USA relationship. The British – who were some of Obama’s biggest cheer leaders overseas in 2008, have found out that it was a one-way love affair.

by Kyle Smith

Thanks in large part to a deadly debacle at sea, things are getting shockingly tense between the US and a critical ally.

Israel? Yes. But also Britain.

President Obama’s drill-sergeant policy toward BP — yell more, maybe they’ll shoot straighter — has started to annoy British writers who say Obama’s attacks on BP do more harm than good.

“This crisis has injected an animus into transatlantic relations unseen since the days of George III,” said Telegraph columnist (and former BP exec) George Trefgarne.

Daily Mail columnist Stephen Glover said Obama harbored “anti-British prejudice” dating all the way back to Obama’s allegation in “Dreams from My Father” that his grandfather was tortured by the British army during the Mau-Mau uprising in Kenya.

Obama “resembles a judge who, having sentenced a penitent offender, demands again and again that he be brought up from the cells to receive another dressing down for the same crime,” wrote Glover, adding, “It is pretty clear that Mr. Obama does not much like anything that is British.”

Immediately after taking office, Obama insulted Churchill (a bust of whom he returned to Britain), the Queen (by giving her an iPod loaded with his speeches) and then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown (whom he dismissed after a 30-minute chat, giving him a bunch of DVDs that won’t even work in the UK).

Last year a State Department official told Britain’s Daily Telegraph, “There’s nothing special about Britain. You’re just the same as the other 190 countries in the world. You shouldn’t expect special treatment.” Meanwhile, new Prime Minister David Cameron keeps saying the UK’s friendship with the US will henceforth “be solid but not slavish.”

When Cameron moved into 10 Downing Street (no doubt admiring his freshly returned Churchill bust), it was as if the transatlantic Facebook status went from “In a special relationship” to “It’s complicated.”

BP has said from the beginning that it will bear the cost of the Gulf spill. It will also face huge civil suits. Obama doesn’t need to act in order for BP to be punished.

Nevertheless, to make the boss look like he’s in charge, his administration keeps threatening BP with thuggish language (“We will keep our boot on their neck”) and made public a criminal probe — something the Justice Department doesn’t normally do until it actually files charges.