These meetings are all show and no substance. They are public relations events, designed to make a bipartisan statement to the public, to convince those who aren't paying attention that this White House is different, that they really care what the other side thinks. Anyone who remembers the infamous "I won" quote has known better for some time now. But using the familes of victims of the U.S.S. Cole bombing and 9/11 as props and photo ops is crossing the line in my book. Debra Burlingame, sister of Charles F. "Chic" Burlingame III, the pilot of American Airlines flight 77, which was crashed into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, has the details.
In February I was among a group of USS Cole and 9/11 victims' families who met with the president at the White House to discuss his policies regarding Guantanamo detainees. Although many of us strongly opposed Barack Obama's decision to close the detention center and suspend all military commissions, the families of the 17 sailors killed in the 2000 attack in Yemen were particularly outraged.
Over the years, the Cole families have seen justice abandoned by the Clinton administration and overshadowed by the need of the Bush administration to gather intelligence after 9/11. They have watched in frustration as the president of Yemen refused extradition for the Cole bombers.
Now, after more than eight years of waiting, Mr. Obama was stopping the trial of Abu Rahim al-Nashiri, the only individual to be held accountable for the bombing in a U.S. court. Patience finally gave out. The families were giving angry interviews, slamming the new president just days after he was sworn in.
The Obama team quickly put together a meeting at the White House to get the situation under control. Individuals representing "a diversity of views" were invited to attend and express their concerns.
On Feb. 6, the president arrived in the Roosevelt Room to a standing though subdued ovation from some 40 family members. With a White House photographer in his wake, Mr. Obama greeted family members one at a time and offered brief remarks that were full of platitudes ("you are the conscience of the country," "my highest duty as president is to protect the American people," "we will seek swift and certain justice"). Glossing over the legal complexities, he gave a vague summary of the detainee cases and why he chose to suspend them, focusing mostly on the need for speed and finality.
Many family members pressed for Guantanamo to remain open and for the military commissions to go forward. Mr. Obama allowed that the detention center had been unfairly confused with Abu Ghraib, but when asked why he wouldn't rehabilitate its image rather than shut it down, he silently shrugged. Next question.
[snip]
News reports described the meeting as a touching and powerful coming together of the president and these long-suffering families. Mr. Obama had won over even those who opposed his decision to close Gitmo by assuaging their fears that the review of some 245 current detainees would result in dangerous jihadists being set free. "I did not vote for the man, but the way he talks to you, you can't help but believe in him," said John Clodfelter to the New York Times. His son, Kenneth, was killed in the Cole bombing. "[Mr. Obama] left me with a very positive feeling that he's going to get this done right."
"This isn't goodbye," said the president, signing autographs and posing for pictures before leaving for his next appointment, "this is hello." His national security staff would have an open-door policy.
Believe . . . feel . . . hope.
We'd been had.
Binyam Mohamed -- the al Qaeda operative selected by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM) for a catastrophic post-9/11 attack with co-conspirator Jose Padilla -- was released 17 days later. In a follow-up conference call, the White House liaison to 9/11 and Cole families refused to answer questions about the circumstances surrounding the decision to repatriate Mohamed, including whether he would be freed in Great Britain.
[snip]
The Obama team has established a pattern that should be plain for all to see. When controversy erupts or legitimate policy differences are presented by well-meaning people, send out the celebrity president to flatter and charm.
[snip]
I asked Cmdr. Kirk Lippold why some of the Cole families declined the invitation to meet with Barack Obama at the White House.
"They saw it for what it was."
We must all see it for what it is. The media, with few exceptions, hasn't done its job on this guy since the beginning. They failed to report on his associations or complete lack of a personal record during the campaign - to this day, despite dozens of lawsuits and hundreds of thousands of dollars spent defending them, his original birth certificate still has not been produced. He has alienated the CIA with his threats to prosecute "torturers," and is in very real danger of losing control of the military he is supposed to command. They view him as illegitimate, and refuse to take orders from an impostor. From Bill Ayers to Rev. Jeremiah Wright, his lack of a record at Occidental College or published articles as president of the Harvard Law Review, there are so many questionable, shady dealings in his past. His willingness to use anyone as a prop to shore up his own legitimacy without concern for what it costs anyone else is extremely disturbing.
The celebrity president is not a man of honor and principle. He is a puppet, with a pretty face and hypnotic manner, elevated to lofty heights by people of money and power and plans to transform this country into a European Socialist style nation. It is up to us, the loyal opposition, to do the job that should fall to reporters and journalists and publicize the truth of their agenda, and the complete unsustainability of their plan. We cannot continue to print money, which will cause raging inflation in the near future, or to borrow hundreds of billions more from the Chinese (if, of course, they will continue to lend, which is increasingly in doubt). If you think Chrysler's bankruptcy is serious, what will you think when it's the federal government that's completely, irreversibly broke, leaving us holding the tab for their trillions in debt? Do you realize that our government is currently in debt for over $10,900,000,000,000.00? That's roughly $36,000.00 for each and every citizen of this country. And Obama plans to double that debt. Are you Obama supporters really willing to allow your government to run up a tab of over $70,000.00 in your name, just because you like this guy? Do you understand the reality of this matter? Some day it will come due - let's see how far "hope" and "change" get you then.
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