Sunday, November 18, 2012

Current Events - November 18, 2012










Benghazi And Petraeus: Too Many Obvious Questions And Too Many Non-AnswersBy Col. Tom Snodgrass (Ret.), Right Side News

The Questions


1. Why was security for the U.S. mission in Benghazi so totally inadequate after the U.S. ambassador repeatedly requested that it be increased and improved following recurrent jihadist attacks against Western diplomatic and Red Cross activities in the area and because of the well-known and growing presence of al Qaeda-affiliated terror groups?


2. What was the mission of the two U.S. Benghazi installations, and why was Ambassador Chris Stevens in such a dangerous place with so little personal security? Are the reports true that guns were being run to al Qaeda in Syria using these installations as a transit point?

3. Was the U.S. Benghazi mission a secret CIA detention center and were there jihadist prisoners being held there as Paula Broadwell stated in a public speech she gave on Oct. 26 at a University of Denver alumni symposium?

4. How soon after the attack on the U.S. mission began did the State Department, the CIA, the Pentagon, and the White House Situation Room each know that the attack was a planned jihadist operation?

5. President Barack Obama stated at his Nov. 14 press conference, “I can can (sic) tell you that immediately upon finding out that our folks were in danger that my orders to my national security team were do whatever we need to do to make sure they’re safe.” Exactly when was that order issued?

6. Who was the president’s rescue order transmitted to, and when and what actions did they initiate to implement it?

7. Who made the decision not to execute the president’s rescue order and why?

8. When was it reported to the president that his rescue order had been countermanded, and what orders did he issue subsequently?

9. When did the president meet with his national security team to review his failed operation and to consider follow-on security actions to protect the remaining U.S. personnel in Libya?

10. Why was there such a huge contradiction between the information contained in real time video feeds from the U.S. mission in Benghazi and from a U.S. reconnaissance drone that that left no doubt about the planned nature of the attack on Sep. 11, as well as CIA Director David Petraeus’ own CIA Libya Station Chief’s same day report that the Benghazi assault had been a terrorist attack, and Petraeus’ briefing to congress on Sep. 14 that the Benghazi attack was the result of spontaneous, violent mob reaction to the anti-Muhammad trailer, "The Innocence of Muslims?"

11. Why was there such a huge contradiction between the information in Capital Hill briefings given by representatives of the FBI and National Counterterrorism Center on Sep. 13 that it had been an al Qaeda or al Qaeda-affiliated attack and Director Petraeus’ Sep. 14 congressional briefing falsely attributing Benghazi attack motivation to the Internet anti-Muhammad video?

12. Why was there such a huge contradiction between the assertion presented Sep. 16 by U.S. UN Ambassador Susan Rice on five network, Sunday morning, talk shows that the Benghazi attack was spontaneous, flash mob reaction to the anti-Islam video and the FBI and National Counterterrorism Center intelligence briefings to congress on Sep. 13 that al Qaeda or an al Qaeda affiliate conducted the assault?

13. Who prepared the false information that the Benghazi attack was in reaction to this anti-Muhammad Internet video trailer and gave it to Ambassador Susan Rice to mislead the American people on the five network shows? The CIA? The White House? A conspiracy of the CIA and White House?

14. At the president’s Nov. 14 press conference Mr. Obama addressed his administration’s misleading of the U.S. public on network television by stating, “…she [Ambassador Rice] made an appearance at the request of the White House in which she gave her best understanding of the intelligence that had been provided to her… But for them [senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham] to go after the U.N. ambassador who had nothing to do with Benghazi? And was simply making a presentation based on intelligence that she had received?” The president’s admission that he selected a representative who knew nothing of the Benghazi attack to present his administration’s version of event begs the question, Why?!

15. Why did the White House Press Secretary, Jay Carney, on Sep. 18 say, "Our belief, based on the information we have, is it was the video that caused the unrest in Cairo, and the video and the unrest in Cairo that helped -- that precipitated some of the unrest in Benghazi and elsewhere" and "I would point you to what Ambassador Rice said and others have said about what we know thus far about the video and its influence on the protests that occurred in Cairo, in Benghazi and elsewhere" when the real time video feeds from Benghazi, the report of the CIA Libya Station Chief, and the FBI and National Counterterrorism Center Sep. 13 Capital Hill briefings had established that the assault was in fact a terrorist attack and not a spontaneous mob reaction to the video?

16. In view of all of the foregoing that indicated the attack was in the words of Jay Carney on Sep. 20 -- "It is, I think, self-evident that what happened in Benghazi was a terrorist attack." -- why did President Obama mislead the nation from the Rose Garden on Sep. 12 about the motivation of the attack by saying, "We reject all efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others….", since it was “self-evident” that the attack was a terrorist, not a mob attack?

17. On Sep. 19 Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Matthew Olsen, told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, "They were killed in the course of a terrorist attack on our embassy. ... At this point, what I would say is that a number of different elements appear to have been involved in the attack, including individuals connected to militant groups that are prevalent in eastern Libya, particularly the Benghazi area, as well we are looking at indications that individuals involved in the attack may have had connections to al Qaeda or al Qaeda affiliates, in particular al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb." On Sep. 21 Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, "What happened in Benghazi was a terrorist attack,…" On Sep. 23 CNN released excerpts from Ambassador Stevens’ journal, which their reporter found in the ruins of the U.S. mission, wherein he wrote that he worried about what he called the security threats in Benghazi and a rise in Islamic extremism. And yet, on Sep. 25 President Obama addressed the United Nations General Assembly about the Benghazi attack and misled the entire world by stating, "There is no video that justifies an attack on an embassy." Why would the president blame the motivation for the attack on the anti-Islam video with all the contradictory evidence that he had access to by this date, two weeks after the attack?!

18. Fox News reported that on the day of the attack, Sep. 11, three e-mails from Libya to the Executive White House Office of the President, the Pentagon, the Director of National Intelligence, the FBI, and multiple recipients in the State Department made an initial report of the attack, updated situation an hour later, and then followed-up with a report that Ansar al Shari’a [Partisans of Strict Islamic Law] claimed responsibility for the attack on FaceBook and Twitter. Why were these e-mails disregarded by the president in his Sep. 12 Rose Garden comments and in his Sep. 25 UN address?

19. On Sep. 20 it was reported that President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton made ads disavowing the video, costing the U.S. taxpayers $70,000, that were run on Pakistani TV. In view of all the evidence to the contrary above, the question is, why would they promote and prolong a false narrative, which needlessly provoked Muslims against the U.S.?!

20. On Oct. 26 Fox News reported that a source in the Benghazi CIA annex says the rescue team was repeatedly told to "stand down" before disobeying orders and heroically rescuing the survivors at the U.S. mission, although their actions ultimately led to the deaths of these two CIA and ex-SEAL rescuers. Why were the “stand down” orders issued?

21. On Nov. 8 CIA Director David Petraeus allegedly resigned because of the sex scandal swirling around him, and it is further alleged this was the first time that President Obama learned of the sex scandal even though the FBI had been investigating Petraeus for five months and Attorney General Eric Holder was well aware of the investigation. Why was the president not informed that his Director of Central Intelligence was a potential security risk?!

22. Was CIA Director Petraeus pressured by the Obama administration to mislead congress and the American people on Sep. 14 with his false briefing that blamed the motivation for the Benghazi attack on the anti-Islam video, instead of on the Islamic terrorism, which Obama claimed to have already suppressed?

http://www.rightsidenews.info/2012111817410/us/homeland-security/government-by-deceit-government-by-cynicism.html?utm_source=Right+Side+News&utm_campaign=3b4f304851-daily-rss-newsletter&utm_medium=email


Two Cheers for Spain’s Anti-Tax “Carrot Rebellion” 

But the Spanish are beginning to get into the swing of things, perhaps because they are increasingly upset by the plethora of tax hikes imposed by the supposedly right-of-center government in Madrid. A new tax revolt on the Iberian Peninsula:

"When the Spanish government hiked sales tax on theater tickets this past summer, Quim Marcé thought his theater was doomed. With one in four local residents unemployed, Marcé knew that even a modest hike in ticket prices might leave the 300-seat Bescanó municipal theater empty."

So what did he do to protect the theater from fiscal destruction?


“We said, ‘This is the end of our theater, and many others.’ But then the next morning, I thought, we’ve got to do something, so that we don’t pay this 21 percent, and we pay something more fair,” says Marcé in Spanish. …He…suddenly had an idea: Instead of selling tickets to his shows, he’d sell carrots. “We sell one carrot, which costs 13 euros [$16] -– very expensive for a carrot. But then we give away admission to our shows for free,” he explains in Spanish. “So we end up paying 4 percent tax on the carrot, rather than 21 percent, which is the government’s new tax rate for theater tickets.” Classified as a staple, carrots are taxed at a much lower rate and were spared new tax hikes that went into effect here on September 1."

Very clever. Senor Marcé is getting lots of praise for his clever approach, though it’s unclear whether the ravenous tax bureaucrats will come up with some sort of ruling to squash the tax revolt.


http://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/2012/11/18/two-cheers-for-spains-anti-tax-carrot-rebellion/

5 Signs Of Societal Degeneration In America

By John Hawkins

It's true that the "good old days" weren't always good, but we should also remember that our belief that we're completely superior to previous generations of Americans doesn't even remotely square with reality. It's fine to pat ourselves on the back for being wealthier, more educated and considerably less racist than we used to be, but we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that those less educated, backward people in their antiquated clothes were head and shoulders better than we are in a myriad of other ways. We should remember that the real problem isn't having a problem; it's having a problem and not even realizing that we have a problem. We have a problem and most Americans don't realize it.

1) Dependency: Our ancestors were some of the most independent people on earth. They spent months traveling across an unforgiving landscape, fought off Indians, built their own houses, ate the food they grew and carved out a life for themselves. Today, a large number of Americans are claiming that they're incapable of paying for their own birth control. There are 47 million Americans on food stamps, which is an all-time high. That's more than 1 out of every 7 Americans. Since 2008 more Americans have gone onto Social Security disability than the net number of jobs that have been created in that same time period. Within the living memory of some Americans there was no Social Security or Medicare in this country; yet we've gone from 16 workers for each retiree in 1950 to 3.3 today to an estimated 2 workers per retiree in 2025. If the money that workers paid into the system had been set aside to pay for their Golden Years, that wouldn't be so bad, but unfortunately that hasn't been done. Everything paid into the system has already been spent, which means that retirees are going to spend their Golden Years completely dependent on younger workers who'll have to pay an unthinkably high tax rate to cover the bills we’re leaving them today while they also fund the medical care and retirement of their much wealthier grandparents.

2) Debt: We've come a long way since the early days of the American republic when Thomas Jefferson had ferocious debates with Congress about whether we could afford to build a four-ship Navy to defend American shipping from the Barbary pirates. Today, even the almost half a billion dollars a year in corporate welfare that we give to PBS is considered to be a budgetary necessity in D.C. Additionally, we have a 16 trillion dollar debt that we're adding more than a trillion to every year. Despite the fact that members of both parties agree that this is "unsustainable," the most serious plan put forward to deal with it that could conceivably pass Congress (Paul Ryan's plan) wouldn't balance the budget for another 28 years and NOBODY seems to think that we can pay off the debt we already owe. By 2020, the United States is on track to need 19% of the world's GDP to fund our debt. It's frightening enough to think that we could be that dependent on other nations just to continue to function, but it's even more terrifying to realize that Washington politicians have no intent of stopping there. They intend to keep the pedal all the way down to the floorboard until we run right off a cliff into hyperinflation or default.

3) Decay In Entertainment: During WWII, when we had troops in the field, Hollywood made movies portraying them as heroes fighting for a just cause. Today, Hollywood undermines the war effort and talks about the troops like unstable drones. Actors openly encourage hatred against the country where they became rich and famous. Fifty years ago, Hollywood was much more culturally conservative and concerned about the moral values that television and movies promoted. Today, Hollywood generates a cultural sewer so rank that you'd have to go back to some of the more perverse Roman emperors to find anything comparable -- and that's before you even consider the habitual rudeness, stupidity, and ever present pornography of the Internet. You can’t expect a generation of kids who grew up without dads, never went to church, and spent their formative years watching Jersey Shore, Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, and anti-American garbage like Machete to produce an overabundance of model citizens.

4) Politics: As a society, we moved from expecting politicians to be better than the rest of us to expecting them to be more degenerate than the rest of us. Ted Kennedy left a woman to die in a tidal pool and was reelected. Marion Barry was reelected after being caught smoking crack. Barack Obama is the first President to be elected after admitting he used cocaine. Barney Frank had a prostitution ring run out of his apartment. Just this last election cycle, Jesse Jackson, Jr. was reelected from the Mayo Clinic. Because of the partisan leans of states and gerrymandering, for a majority of politicians, they have lifetime appointments and elections are mere formalities. Additionally, because of the corruption in Congress and the big money to be made off government decisions, serving in Congress has become a distressingly lucrative job. In 2010, the average net worth of a senator was 13.1 million dollars and the average member of the House was worth 5.9 million dollars. It's ironic that we hear so much negative talk about the "1 percent" from politicians in Congress because most of them are in the 1 percent and the majority of them got there through connections, corruption, and by handing out favors instead of earning it. If the people get the government they deserve, what does the quality of the representatives we have in Washington say about our people?

5) Marriage: Between 1890-1950 black Americans had higher marriage rates than white Americans. Since then, we’ve seen the unconscionable slaughter of more than 50 million innocent children since Roe v. Wade, an explosion of out-of-wedlock births and a deterioration of marriage. In 1900 the divorce rate in America was 8.1% while in recent years, it has hovered between 40%-50%. Additionally, the illegitimacy rate has gone up 300% just since 1970. Today, amongst under 30 women, 73% of black children, 53% of Latinos, and 29% of white children are born out-of-wedlock. Marriage in America is going through a Great-Depression-style crisis and there is nothing on the horizon that seems likely to lift us out of the tailspin. 

http://townhall.com/columnists/johnhawkins/2012/11/17/5_signs_of_societal_degeneration_in_america/page/full/

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