Posted on 07/24/2008 9:14:37 PM PDT by kristinn
The latest chain e-mail smear against Barack Obama: He "blew off" troops at an Afghan base to shoot hoops for a publicity photo.
The letter was apparently written by a Utah Army National Guard intelligence officer in a linguist unit at Bagram Airfield who claimed the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee was rude to G.I.s.
"As the soldiers where [sic] lined up to shake his hand he blew them off," wrote the Task Force Wasatch "battle captain."
But angry Army brass debunked the Obama-bashing soldier's allegations, which went viral Thursday over the Web and on military blogs such as Blackfive.
The e-mail claims Obama repeatedly shunned soldiers on his way to the Clamshell - a recreation tent - to "take his publicity pictures playing basketball."
"These comments are inappropriate and factually incorrect," said Bagram spokesman Army Lt. Col. Rumi Nielson-Green, who added that such political commentary is barred for uniformed personnel.
Obama didn't play basketball at Bagram or visit the Clamshell, he said. Home-state troops were invited to meet him, but his arrival was kept secret for security reasons.
"We were a bit delayed ... as he took time to shake hands, speak to troops and pose for photographs," Nielson-Green said.
E-mails to the officer who made the charges and a call to his wife were not returned.
Who is she?
Kristinn, did you ever read some of the anti-Obamessiah posts on the NY Daily News?
It’s a lib paper. But people get it. Even if the editors don’t.
The people see right through him.
Maybe the unwashed masses in the proletariet are smarter than the elitist libs give them credit for. They should probably do away with the blogs in their newspaper.
The narrative doesn’t jive with the editors. But I guess they think they have to so they can keep up with the blogosphere and the new media.
This one?
~~~~~
Hello everyone,
As you know I am not a very political person. I just wanted to pass along that Senator Obama came to Bagram Afghanistan for about an hour on his visit to “The War Zone”. I wanted to share with you what happened. He got off the plane and got into a bullet proof vehicle, got to the area to meet with the Major General (2 Star) who is the commander here at Bagram. As the Soldiers where lined up to shake his hand he blew them off and didn’t say a word as he went into the conference room to meet the General. As he finished, the vehicles took him to the ClamShell (pretty much a big top tent that military personnel can play basketball or work out in with weights) so he could take his publicity pictures playing basketball.
He again shunned the opportunity to talk to Soldiers to thank them for their service. So really he was just here to make a showing for the American’s back home that he is their candidate for President. I think that if you are going to make an effort to come all the way over here you would thank those that are providing the freedom that they are providing for you. I swear we got more thanks from the NBA Basketball Players or the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders than from one of the Senators, who wants to be the President of the United States.
I just don’t understand how anyone would want him to be our Commander-and-Chief. It was almost that he was scared to be around those that provide the freedom for him and our great country. If this is blunt and to the point I am sorry but I wanted
you all to know what kind of caliber of person he really is.
What you see in the news is all fake.
In service,
CPT Jeffrey S. Porter
Battle Captain
TF Wasatch
American Soldier
I think there's a PUMA convention planned for August somewhere.
That would be the one.
I think he was afraid someone would ask him about his plan to withdraw our troops from Germany. His handlers hadn’t yet armed him with a response to that one yet, so he decided to avoid a possible embarrassing moment.
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/05/17/iraq.quran/
I was a linguist during the VN war; I believe what the linguist says (we tend to be irreverent), I don’t put much stock in what the brass says.
Myspace threw a concert for troops in March of this year in Kuwait. They had a taped message from hillary, the crowd went silent and there were a few calls of BS(me being one of them) Later they played Obama’s message, the crowd booed, I was even suprised, I thought they would hold their tongue on that message too.
That’s the one and I believe him. As ususal, I’ll take the word of the troops “on the ground” over the politicans.
I know PUMA is having a big planning session in DC in August before the Convention.
Give ‘em hell gals.
And one more thing: I encourage everyone to get that e-mail into every e-mail address in America before November 4.
Perception is reality.
I’m not buying the story per se, but that rebuttal is a bit...weak...
If one reads it critically, basically they say “he never visited the clam shell” not that Obamao avoided glad handing the soldiers stationed there, then the article goes on to say the email was “against military policy” not that it was particularly untrue.
Not saying I buy the email wholesale, still the rebuttal leaves several things unanswered.
Let’s pray that there are no repercussions for this brave soldier.
Did you see the photos of him meeting troops on this trip? They looked more staged than Hanoi Jane Fonda’s visits to North Vietnam. Finding a white service member in the photos was like playing a game of “Where’s Waldo”.
Reminds me of when BIll Klinton visited Elmendorf AFB.
TO get any onw to show up, the base had a mandatory formation.
And folks didn’t show...
I don’t trust the brass one bit.
What are they gonna do? send him to Iraq? /s
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