Censorship 2012 – Facebook & Politics

Is there anyone else that is a bit mildly torqued that censorship in America seems to only apply to those who go against the “common collective” these days?

Now to be fair, it’s not just Facebook. We seem to be inundated with PC Police which has almost become a cottage industry in this country. If you are in step with the current political leanings, the world is your oyster; go against the grain, and you are quickly shunned, or in the case of SpecialOperationsSpeaks, subjected to a cyber timeout.

And what was it that caused such a drastic action?

Did they call for the violent overthrow of the government? No.

Did they poke fun at former Facebook CFO Eduardo Saverin for renouncing his citizenship to save tax money? No.

Did they ridicule Mark Zuckerberg's wife? No.

No, their crime was to post that little photo above on their Facebook page!

I know, horror of horrors! You see, they had the unmitigated gall of making a statement that went against the popular belief of President Obama. This resulted in the photo being removed because, and I quote, “we removed the following content you posted or were the admin of because it violates Facebook’s Statement of Right and Responsibilities”

Huh? Seriously? Is this the first page they have ever looked at?

When the photo got uploaded back on their Facebook page, that’s when the Zuckerberg hammer dropped from on high resulting in a twenty-four hour time out.

Let that be a lesson to all of you who believe that you have a silly 1^st Amendment right. You do, just as long as you say the right things.

The truth of the matter is the photo makes a valid point. The president was all over the news that Team VI got bin Laden. Benghazi, not so much.  Hell, even the crickets have been silenced.

The President is the Commander in Chief and he is ultimately responsible. The other day someone was commenting that personnel decisions are not something that the president would get involved in so it was wrong to point the finger at him. That is correct. On any given day that the decision is made by local supervisors and you rarely hear a peep. However, this was not any given day and the lead up to it was so clear that you could make a case against a blind man for not connecting the dots.

• There was an assassination attempt on the British Ambassador on June 11^th, 2012. 
• The British Consulate subsequently pulled out in June 2012.
• There was an attack on the Tunisian Consulate in June 2012.
• The International Red Cross pulled out in August 2012 after being attacked by an RPG.
• The U.S. Consulate was attacked on two prior occasions with explosives.
• The C.O. of the DOD Site Security Team requested that his team’s assignment in Libya be extended because of the deteriorating condition which was denied.
• Requests were made to the State Department for additional security personnel which were also denied.
• The U.S. Ambassador personally requested additional security in August citing inability on the part of locals to provide adequate security.

The significance of this request cannot be stated enough. For the President, and Vice President, and everyone else to say they didn’t know is a lie. He would have been advised of everything listed above in his daily briefings.

A U.S. Ambassador personally requesting additional security is going to make it directly to the President’s desk. So, when the U.S. Consulate was attacked on September 11^th, 2012 resulting in the deaths of four Americans it should have come as no shock to anyone in Washington.

It was not a matter of if, but a matter of when it was going to happen.

But according to the bureaucrats in D.C. there was no discernable pattern there.

SOS is 100% correct, when those brave SEAL’s, Ty Woods and Glen Doherty, called for help they were abandoned.

If the media won’t do its job, then it is up to all of us Americans to demand what the President promised us in 2008, Transparency. 

It starts with “what did he know and when did he know it” and until we have those answers, we must never let this issue fade from our minds and lips.

Despite what the fine, just slightly left of center, people over at Facebook believe.

In memory of Artur Kasprzak, NYPD

In the aftermath of the devastation left behind by Hurricane Sandy, we are once again reminded that the destruction left behind more than physical damage, the personal damage is only now being learned.

This particular story hits close to home for me and I wanted to take a moment to mark the passing of one the New York City’s Finest.

Among the people killed in New York City as a result of Hurricane Sandy was an off-duty NYPD police officer who died after rescuing his family from flood waters on Monday night.

Officer Artur Kasprzak was able to get six members of his family, including two men, ages 69 and 31, three women, ages 31, 56 and 68, and a 15-month-old boy into his attic so they could safely escape the rapidly rising water. He went back down into the house but didn’t return.

NYPD ESU attempted to get to the house but couldn’t because of downed electric lines. His body was later recovered. Officer Kasprzak was only 28 years old.

His actions that night were in keeping with the finest traditions of the NYPD.

Fidelis Ad Mortem.

Never Forget, Never Forgive.

I remember first reading those words on a memorial patch for the twelve Navy SEAL’s and eight members of the 160^th Special Forces Aviation Regiment that were lost during the Operation Red Wings ambush and the subsequent rescue effort.

They are strong words, solemn ones. They caution us, not only to remember the bravery of those lost, but to never forgive those responsible. Some may not agree with that, but I do.

At one time or another we have all seen a Hollywood movie where the hero is sacrificed for a politically expedient decision or gain. We have all cheered as the hero overcomes overwhelming odds and rises up in defeat against his betrayer.

But what happens when it is real, when the hero dies and politics wins?

It has been exactly forty-five days since the attack on our consulate in Benghazi, Libya that resulted in the deaths of our Ambassador and three other American’s including two former Navy SEAL’s. With each passing day, the tale becomes almost more unbearable to hear.

Today we are learning that former SEAL, Tyrone Woods, was at the CIA annex when the U.S. consulate came under attack. When they heard the shots fired, at approximately 9:40 p.m., they informed their superiors and requested permission to respond to the consulate and help. At that point they were told to "stand down," a second request was met with the same reply.

Woods, and at least two others, ignored the orders and made their way to the consulate, which at that point was on fire, to assist and returned fire on the attackers. They managed to evacuate those who remained at the consulate including Sean Smith, who had been killed in the initial attack. They could not find the ambassador and returned to the CIA annex at about midnight; two hours after the attack had begun.

At that point, they called for military support because they were now taking fire at the CIA annex. The request was denied. The fighting at the annex continued for four hours.

At least one member of the team was on the roof of the annex and had a laser sighted on the target that was firing at them. They repeatedly requested back-up support from an AC-130 Spectre gunship, which could have deployed ordnance on the laser sighted target.

A Special Operations team had been moved to Sigonella, Italy, but was never told to deploy. A second force that specializes in counter terrorism rescues was also at Sigonella. Sigonella is about the same distance to Benghazi as Tripoli is. Both teams could have been onsite in less than two hours.

Pentagon official says there were never any requests to deploy assets from outside the country. Secretary of Defense, Leon Panetta, the former director of the CIA, went so far as to say the following during an interview on October 25th, "But the basic principle here ... is that you don't deploy forces into harm's way without knowing what's going on." 

Call me crazy, but someone might just want to share the USMC mantra of “Improvise, Adapt, and Overcome.”

In any event, there were two military surveillance drones that had been redirected to Benghazi shortly after the attack on the consulate began. Both could have provided real time footage that could be accessed from any computer that had proper clearance. Surely there was one or two of those handy at the White House, Pentagon, State Department, etc...
 

An American Quick Reaction Force sent from Tripoli had arrived at the Benghazi airport at approximately 2:00 a.m. but was delayed for 45 minutes at the airport because they could not get transportation from the airport to the annex.

February 17th Brigade, a Libyan militia which is friendly to the U.S., showed up at the CIA annex at approximately 3:00 a.m.


Tyrone Woods, and fellow former Navy SEAL Glen Doherty, who was a part of the Global Response Staff, a unit that provides security to CIA case officers and provides counter-surveillance / surveillance protection, were killed when a mortar hit their roof top position around 4:00 a.m. 

The truth is, it was too late for Ambassador Stevens and Sean Smith, but Woods and Dohertys deaths were avoidable.

Seriously, the attack lasted seven hours and the best the United States could do was to send one team from Tripoli, that didn’t arrive on scene until nearly five hours later, while Special Forces units were just as close in Sigonella.

This however begs the follow-up question to Secretary Panetta’s statement. Why, if there supposedly wasn’t enough information in the first place, was a smaller, less equipped force sent in, rather than the better equipped Special Forces unit? This is what they are trained for!

I’m sorry, but I don’t believe the story we are being told.

·        The State Department denied requests for additional security prior to the attack.

·        The embassy was previously attacked with explosives, the Red Cross had pulled out, there was an assassination attempt on the British Ambassador which resulted in the British closing their embassy and withdrawing the Ambassador, and our Ambassador had notified State Department that there had been threats to his life, yet the President, Vice President and surrogates all claim they were unaware.

·        A request, made by the Lt. Colonel in charge of the Site Security Team (SST), to remain in country was denied and the security detail was pulled mere weeks before the attack.

·        Requests for support, made by people on the ground during the attack, were either denied or ignored.

·        Drones were overhead providing live feed, and communication was being relayed by those being attacked, yet according to SecDef we didn’t have a clear enough picture to deploy military assets.

·        An email was sent by the State Department advising that a terrorist group had claimed direct responsibility, yet we were told for weeks that it was all about a video.

·        A United States Ambassador, the official representative of the President of the United States, is killed in a terrorist attack and yet the President travels to Las Vegas the next day for a fund raising event where he says “we had a rough day.” Two weeks later in an interview with CBS he would say this, and other incidents in the Middle East, were “bumps in the road.”

·        Why hasn’t the President addressed the American people like he did the night he gave his “Justice has been done” bin Laden speech.

The other day I wrote about Operation Neptune Spear and how I felt the president was grandstanding and taking credit for the killing of Osama bin Laden. Within days of the operation being completed we were being fed copious amounts of information from the administration, which was almost universally decried by the special warfare community for the risk of comprising operational security. If you don’t believe them ask Dr Shakil Afridi. He helped the CIA find Osama bin Laden. His reward, 33 years in a Pakistani prison after he was outted by Leon Panetta.

Yet here we are forty-five days later and it feels like the administration is treating us like tourists watching a shell game.

Maybe one day we will learn what really happened, but you can bet your last dollar that it will not be before the Presidential Election on November 6^th.

But ask yourself this question: If we find out that we were lied to and that, at the very least, two American heroes died in vain, should we ever Forget? can we ever Forgive?

Stolen Valor – Operation Neptune Spear

I have a problem. I know that is going to come as a shock to many of you.

By now most of you have probably heard that the National Geographic channel will be airing a show titled: “SEAL Team Six: The Raid on Osama bin Laden” otherwise known as Operation Neptune Spear.

Now, I am all for our brave Navy SEAL’s getting some much deserved credit for ridding the world of that scum.  But I am here to alert you that all is not what it seems.

The show is going to be aired two days before the 2012 Presidential election. Coincidence? I don’t believe in them.

Consider for a moment the following:

The film was completed and was subsequently purchased in May by Harvey Weinstein, a major supporter of President Obama.

After Mr. Weinstein purchased the film, it was edited to include additional voice-overs, still photographs and archival footage which now put President Obama in the center stage of the ninety minute film.

The person hired to do the additional editing is Meghan O’Hara. Ms. O’Hara is a producer for Obama supporter Michael Moore, whose prior films include such classics as “Fahrenheit 9/11,” “Sicko” and “Bowling for Columbine.”

National Geographic, for their part, had some of the added footage removed from the film because they felt it was out of context and inappropriate. The footage appeared to show Mitt Romney being against the raid. The only problem was that the footage was taken from the 2007 primary, four years before the raid took place. I commend NatGeo for that.

The reality is that the release of this movie, two days before the Presidential election, turns it into nothing but a presidential, chest thumping, football spiking, campaign ad. If they were honest, they would at least include the voice over “I’m Barack Obama and I approved this ad” at the end.

Just over eleven years ago nearly 3,000 people lost their lives in a terrorist attack orchestrated by Osama bin Laden. Taking credit for giving the green light FOR OTHERS to take out the perpetrator of that heinous act is not exactly magnanimous nor is it appropriate.

A real leader would have let it go immediately after making the announcement that bin Laden had been killed. There are no doubts as to who authorized the op and I certainly applaud the president for making the right choice. But this is the real world we are talking about and I don’t envision the president to be the Kabar and night-vision kinda guy.

Maybe I’m simplistic, but I believe the accolades rightly belong to the shooters, those in the arena fighting and not bureaucrats sitting in some comfy situation room in the White House riveted to a TV set like they were watching the newest release the Medal of Honor video game.

If I’m wrong, and simply rooting for victory on the sidelines is comparable to taking the field, then please let me know because I have four super bowl rings that the NY Giants owe me.

If you are inclined to watch this show, I ask that you consider the following before you do.

President Obama sat in Washington while the SEAL’s conducted the operation in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Within about eight hours of so the president went on live television and announced to the world that bin Laden was dead. Ever since then we have been inundated with the campaign slogan “GM alive and bin Laden dead.”

Yet, on the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 attack,  we had two brave former SEAL’s, Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty, killed in the embassy attack in Benghazi, Libya. Two months have gone by and we still don’t have an answer as to how or why. I guess the old adage “success has many fathers, while failure is an orphan” is very true.

To co-opt President Obama’s “you didn’t build that” sound bite, I suggest that when it comes to the killing of bin Laden the president should be told “You didn’t do that.”

To learn more about the real hero’s visit the US Navy UDT SEAL Museum.

Hooyah!

Here we go again…….. Planned Parenthood Lie

In 2008, as part of his “Hope & Change” tour, President Obama pledged to change the tone in Washington. Needless to say, that hasn’t happened. Today Washington is as divisive as it has ever been and the President, his Vice President, and all his surrogates are running around calling the candidate, Mitt Romney, a Liar. Not exactly the change that we had all hoped for.

But what about the President? Is he being open and honest with us?

Recently during the “town hall” debate, President Obama once again persisted in perpetuating the myth that Planned Parenthood provides mammograms. Specifically he said “millions of women all across the country who rely on Planned Parenthood for . . . mammograms.”

The truth is they don’t. Planned Parenthood has neither the license nor the machines. The most they can do is refer women to mammogram providers, something any woman can do by opening the local phone book or search on line via Google. Yet I hear this argument being made constantly.

People, this is but one lie, there are countless others. You just have to be willing to open your eyes and ears and do some digging. Forget the media, think of them as your kids. I don’t care how much you love them, cherish them, and believe they can do no wrong. If you saw smoke coming from your kitchen, would you accept little Johnny or Sue’s reassuring claim that everything is alright?

I am not saying that both campaigns don’t engage in this type of behavior, but when I hear one side engaging in a constant barrage of “liar, liar” it makes me wonder what THEY are lying about. In the case of the President, it’s looking more and more like he should take heed of the old biblical verse “physician, heal thyself.”

We the people deserve better and quite honestly we should demand better. If we go around just believing every spoonful of drivel that is hand fed to us, without checking for ourselves, then we deserve what we get.

It’s not terrorism, Panetta said so.

Shock of Shocks, the Pentagon now says it will not reclassify the Fort Hood shootings as a terrorist attack over concern about biasing the case against the gunman.

In rejecting the victim’s pleas, Defense Secretary Panetta’s spokesman cited concern that having the government weigh in could “bias” the case against Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who is awaiting trial for killing 13 people and wounding 29 others.

Yeah, I can see how it wouldn’t be appropriate now. Maybe they should have thought about that three years ago when it first happened. It seemed everyone else knew it was an act of terror, everyone that is except this administration. Then again, that never really fit their narrative.

Things would be so much easier if we didn’t think for ourselves and just gratefully accepted manna that is being spoon-fed from on high.

It should be noted that Major Hasan had previously asked al-Qaeda terrorist leader Anwar al-Awlaki for religious advice, such as whether a soldier who "died while attacking fellow soldiers" would be a martyr. When this information was forwarded to the FBI terrorism task forces, they determined that Hasan was not a threat and that his questions to al-Awlaki were consistent with his “medical research.”

After the shooting, Awlaki quickly declared Hasan a hero, as "fighting against the U.S. army is an Islamic duty."

Nope, no terrorism hear folks, move along.

241 Lives and 29 Years Later

Today marks the 29^th anniversary of the suicide truck bombing at the U.S. Marine Corps Barracks in Beirut, Lebanon.

On that tragic day, 241 brave American souls lost their lives in a despicable cowardly act aided by Iran and Syria.

Never Forgive, Never Forget.