Will Obama blame Bush for the only success of his administration>?

[George Whorewell]

Thus far Bush has been blamed for the economy, oil prices, Iraq, the deficit, global warming, small pox and Nancy Pelosi's bad face lift.

Now that it has been established that the intel which led to Osama's demise came from Bush sanctioned enhanced interrogations and the overall operation to locate Bin laden began about 4 years ago, will Bush be given the credit that he deserves?

I am very happy over Osama's death. And Obama gets to reap the benefits of being President during the time in which Bin Laden was taken out. However, Obama had about as much to do with Osama being killed as an executioner does when flicking the switch on an electric chair. No other outcome was feasible, possible, logical or politically advantageous. Being the recipient of praise and adulation for someone elses work doesn't transform reality; Obama is receiving far too much credit where small credit is due.

Furthermore, Obama undertook this operation unilaterally ( GW Bush style) without even the tacit approval of the international community ( GW again) and invaded Pakistani airspace with a team of American military personell (GW). So in actuality, the only positive thing that Obama has acomplished during his entire presidency was the plagiarism of a few pages from the GW playbook in terms of decisiveness, leadership and substantive counterterrorism intelligence. In other words, Obama had to violate everything his party stands for, ignore his prior incoherent foreign policy and contradict himself.


I suppose if Obama continues to act like GW and not himself, America may be on the right track afterall.

[Soul Crusher]

Like I said - GITMO was always a bogus issue by leftists and dupes. 

[dario73]

Isn't that  always the case with this president? The previous administration did all the footwork. All the necessary intelligence was gathered 4 years ago via enhanced interrogation techniques, which Obama and Panetta have always opposed. For the past few years the CIA was just waiting for the courier to slip up and get his exact location.  Obama had nothing to do with any of these things occurring and if he had his way, closing Gitmo, getting rid of enhanced interrogation techniques, and pulling all troops from Afghanistan and Iraq, Bin Laden would never, EVER had been found.

Face it, idiots from the left and Obama dittoheads. Obama is capitalizing on all of Bush's legislations, programs and efforts. He has not one original idea. Whether it was the Bush tax cuts, to withdrawal timelines put into motion by Bush, to what is now the results of Bush's war on terror.  The only success in Obama's administration is due to Bush. That is hilarious.

[dario73]

From a brief by the CIA:

From the time that we first recognized bin Laden as a threat, the CIA gathered leads on individuals in bin Laden's inner circle, including his personal couriers. Detainees in the post-9/11 period flagged for us individuals who may have been providing direct support to bin Laden and his deputy, Zawahiri, after their escape from Afghanistan.

One courier in particular had our constant attention. Detainees gave us his nom de guerre or his nickname and identified him as both a protÉgÉ of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of September 11th, and a trusted assistant of Abu Faraj al-Libbi, the former number three of al Qaeda who was captured in 2005.

Detainees also identified this man as one of the few al Qaeda couriers trusted by bin Laden. They indicated he might be living with and protecting bin Laden. But for years, we were unable to identify his true name or his location.

The fact that the initial tip about the courier emerged from detainee interrogations needs to be unpacked. Were any "enhanced interrogation techniques" used to obtain information about the courier? Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and al Libbi were two of the detainees who were subjected to "enhanced interrogation techniques." KSM was waterboarded, a technique Obama and current CIA chief Leon Panetta have repeatedly decried as torture. There can be little question that both Al Libbi and KSM were questioned about the courier, whom the CIA was pursuing aggressively, according to the senior administration official: (See photos of bin Laden's Pakistan hideout.)

Four years ago, we uncovered his identity, and for operational reasons, I can't go into details about his name or how we identified him, but about two years ago, after months of persistent effort, we identified areas in Pakistan where the courier and his brother operated. Still we were unable to pinpoint exactly where they lived, due to extensive operational security on their part. The fact that they were being so careful reinforced our belief that we were on the right track.


http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2068998,00.html?xid=rss-fullnation-yahoo

[Soul Crusher]

Again - its so ironic that the leftists are cheering this on.   They called SEALS assasins for years, cried about gitmo and torture, etc, now bask in obama's glory over this.   

Unbelievable.   

Screw these savages - I would volunteer to torture these animals. 

[dario73]

Again - its so ironic that the leftists are cheering this on.   They called SEALS assasins for years, cried about gitmo and torture, etc, now bask in obama's glory over this.   

Unbelievable.   

Screw these savages - I would volunteer to torture these animals. 

Exactly. The left hates the military. They prefer that the USA be isolated from the rest of the world. They don't believe anything is worth fighting for. If it was up to them, USA would always be on the defensive against terrorrist attacks, instead of taking the offensive by putting boots on the ground in Afghanistan.  They are certainly the biggest hypocrites in the world.

[Soul Crusher]

The BlogReminder: Group that Killed Bin Laden was Smeared as Dick Cheney's 'Assasination Ring'
1:19 PM, May 2, 2011 • By MARK HEMINGWAY

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/reminder-group-killed-bin-laden-smeared-dick-cheneys-assasination-ring_558593.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter


    
    It's been reported that bin Laden was killed by SEAL Team Six, officially known as Naval Special Warfare Development Group or DevGru. Marc Ambinder has a good report that fills in some of the particulars:

DevGru belongs to the Joint Special Operations Command, an extraordinary and unusual collection of classified standing task forces and special-missions units. They report to the president and operate worldwide based on the legal (or extra-legal) premises of classified presidential directives. Though the general public knows about the special SEALs and their brothers in Delta Force, most JSOC missions never leak. We only hear about JSOC when something goes bad (a British aid worker is accidentally killed) or when something really big happens (a merchant marine captain is rescued at sea), and even then, the military remains especially sensitive about their existence. Several dozen JSOC operatives have died in Pakistan over the past several years. Their names are released by the Defense Department in the usual manner, but with a cover story -- generally, they were killed in training accidents in eastern Afghanistan. That’s the code.

Under Bush, JSOC was routinely smeared by the left and placed at the center of many Bush/Cheney conspiracy theories. Specifically, New Yorker reporter Seymour Hersh alleged it was Dick Cheney's personal assassination squad:


"After 9/11, I haven't written about this yet, but the Central Intelligence Agency was very deeply involved in domestic activities against people they thought to be enemies of the state. Without any legal authority for it. They haven't been called on it yet."

Hersh then went on to describe a second area of extra-legal operations: the Joint Special Operations Command. "It is a special wing of our special operations community that is set up independently," he explained. "They do not report to anybody, except in the Bush-Cheney days, they reported directly to the Cheney office. ... Congress has no oversight of it."

"It's an executive assassination ring essentially, and it's been going on and on and on," Hersh stated. "Under President Bush's authority, they've been going into countries, not talking to the ambassador or the CIA station chief, and finding people on a list and executing them and leaving. That's been going on, in the name of all of us."

Now that a Democratic President has employed JSOC to take out Osama bin Laden, will the fever swamps of the left continue to assert that it's just a Bush/Cheney plot to run around unjustifiably killing people?

[whork25]

Exactly. The left hates the military. They prefer that the USA be isolated from the rest of the world. They don't believe anything is worth fighting for. If it was up to them, USA would always be on the defensive against terrorrist attacks, instead of taking the offensive by putting boots on the ground in Afghanistan.  They are certainly the biggest hypocrites in the world.

Ehh Obama is a lefty and he just gave the order to kill Bin Laden

I see your point but you exagerate a little

[dario73]

Ehh Obama is a lefty and he just gave the order to kill Bin Laden

I see your point but you exagerate a little

I was speaking on the left in general. Do you deny that most liberals hate the military?
Please, what was Obama going to do? Say no when confronted with the overwhelming intelligence data that a "high value target" was in the compound. Besides, a President is supposed to be neutral when it comes to the Left and Right. He is supposed to be bring both parties together. Something that Obama hasn't done his entire term, which is another strike against him.

I will continue repeating the same thing because no one can argue against it.This is the same man who was against Gitmo, CIA camps in Europe, and enhanced interrogation techniques. The very same things that brought about Bin Laden's demise.  Are you going to argue against that?

I rather exagerate a little than be blind as a bat during daylight regarding Obama's significance in all of this.

[dario73]

Another point is that Obama can put aside his dislike of the military for a moment in order to gain politically. Nothing helps Obama like having Bin Laden killed at a time when most of the nation disapproves his handling of the economy. This couldn't happen at a better time. His poll numbers were the lowest ever since he took office.  Whether it will help him in the long run it's debatable. If the economy continues in the crapper, Bin Laden's death won't help him.

In the end, Obama tried to help himself. He doesn't care about the nation. You will see that in the end he will try to take all the credit, when all the credit should go to the CIA and those SEALS.

[George Whorewell]

In retrospect, he has not a single other accomplishment to his name besides Bin Ladens death that the American people can hang their hat on.

It's understandable why he would try to hog the credit. Especially when all his pals in the media treat him like he walks on water anyway. None of them do any serious journalism and all have a vested interest in seeing him get reelected so the truth about the Bin Laden operation will go largely unreported.

The same commander and chief who got us involved in Libya, wants to cut military spending, waited almost 9 months before giving our troops a bump in Afghanistan, wanted KSM tried in downtown Manhattan, was in office during the Fort Hood massacare, refuses to associate Islam with terrorism; yet gave Bin Laden an Islamic burial, most recently had our armed forces in Afghanistan walking around without loaded guns; which led to the murder of several and literally dozens of other gaffes and missteps cannot all of a sudden be considered a Commander and Chief that is militarily savy, or involved, or supportive of our armed forces and the war on terror. His involvement with this operation was minimal at best-- he was in fact a spectator. To now hail him as some military genius is patently ridiculous. He did his best GW Bush impression with GW's soldiers and GW's intel. Even in his only moment of success, he is riding GW's cottails.

[Soul Crusher]

Hersh, Olbermann Called Bin Laden SEAL Team "Assassination Ring" In 2009
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Hersh, Olbermann Called Bin Laden SEAL Team "Assassination Ring" In 2009
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In 2009, Seymour Hersh claimed the special operations group that took down Osama bin Laden on May 1 was Cheney's "secret assassination ring.":



"After 9/11, I haven't written about this yet, but the Central Intelligence Agency was very deeply involved in domestic activities against people they thought to be enemies of the state. Without any legal authority for it. They haven't been called on it yet."

Hersh then went on to describe a second area of extra-legal operations: the Joint Special Operations Command. "It is a special wing of our special operations community that is set up independently," he explained. "They do not report to anybody, except in the Bush-Cheney days, they reported directly to the Cheney office. ... Congress has no oversight of it."

"It's an executive assassination ring essentially, and it's been going on and on and on," Hersh stated. "Under President Bush's authority, they've been going into countries, not talking to the ambassador or the CIA station chief, and finding people on a list and executing them and leaving. That's been going on, in the name of all of us."


Cue former MSNBC host (and forthcoming news host at Al Gore's Current TV) Keith Olbermann. Olbermann pushed this story on his "Countdown" show in 2009, saying:


Mr. Hersh is making the revelations at a forum in Minnesota two nights ago. The topic: America’s constitutional crisis. Hersh saying of Mr. Cheney and his inner circle, quote, "They ran a government within the government." Adding, "Eight or nine neoconservatives took over our country."

Hersh’s bombshell allegations about the assassination ring, the result of reporting for a book he says might be still a year or two away from being published. Hersh is telling MinnPost.com in an email after the event, that the disclosures are, quote, "not something he wanted to dwell about in public."


However, no sooner than two years later did Olby change his tune when the same squad that he called an "assassination ring" was responsible for the death of Osama bin Laden. On his "FOK News Channel" website, Mr. Olbermann now salutes these heroic individuals.



www.realclearpolitics.co m

[Soul Crusher]

Majority Credit Bush for bin Laden Death
Pundit Press ^ | 5/3/2011 | Thomas Ferdousi



Oh, how things have changed.

When President Bush left office he was derided as a failure and an embarrassment. He was the butt of so many poor jokes and stupid faces. One of his biggest failures, the meme went, was not killing or capturing Osama bin Laden.

Now it appears that at least some of the perception has shifted in the aftermath of Osama getting a bullet in the brain. This comes from 538's Nate Silver:

WaPo poll shows 51% of Americans think GW Bush should get some credit for killing Bin Laden. His image may improve too.

There are already people deriding the concept of appreciating President Bush when the constant narrative was either that he was behind September 11th or intentionally or through incompetence let him through Tora Bora. If liberals really believe that Bush just 'squandered goodwill' and 'polarized' Americans, they should accept this result. If not, their intentional polarization (as seen on MSNBC yesterday) will be apparent.

[whork25]

I was speaking on the left in general. Do you deny that most liberals hate the military?
Please, what was Obama going to do? Say no when confronted with the overwhelming intelligence data that a "high value target" was in the compound. Besides, a President is supposed to be neutral when it comes to the Left and Right. He is supposed to be bring both parties together. Something that Obama hasn't done his entire term, which is another strike against him.

I will continue repeating the same thing because no one can argue against it.This is the same man who was against Gitmo, CIA camps in Europe, and enhanced interrogation techniques. The very same things that brought about Bin Laden's demise.  Are you going to argue against that?

I rather exagerate a little than be blind as a bat during daylight regarding Obama's significance in all of this.

I have no idea i dont hang out with many liberals.
How can you hate the military I know the far left does but there is always idiots

[Straw Man]

Why would anyone give Bush credit for the killing of Bin Laden

If memeory serves me correctly Bush closed down the group in the CIA that was tasked with finding Bin Laden in 2005

Also, KSM didn't give up any info about Bin Laden's couriers until after we stopped waterboarding him and started using convential (aka non- torture) interogation techniques and apparently the rest of the info on the couries cames from a guy that was captured by Kurdish police (I think) who had flash drives and other data.

[George Whorewell]

Why would anyone give Bush credit for the killing of Bin Laden

If memeory serves me correctly Bush closed down the group in the CIA that was tasked with finding Bin Laden in 2005

Also, KSM didn't give up any info about Bin Laden's couriers until after we stopped waterboarding him and started using convential (aka non- torture) interogation techniques and apparently the rest of the info on the couries cames from a guy that was captured by Kurdish police (I think) who had flash drives and other data.

Your memory doesn't serve you correctly or in any capacity whatsoever. As usual you are on another planet in terms of accuracy. Thanks for chiming in with your typical cringe inducing stupidity.

[Straw Man]

Your memory doesn't serve you correctly or in any capacity whatsoever. As usual you are on another planet in terms of accuracy. Thanks for chiming in with your typical cringe inducing stupidity.

great response as usual

which part is not correct

[Soul Crusher]

The special ops capabilities we have now are a direct result of gwb policies.  And waterboarding works. 

[Straw Man]

Here you are Georgie,

Bin Laden task force shut down in 2005:  http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/04/washington/04intel.html

Info pertaining to when/how KSM finally started giving us viable info (including the info about Bin Laden couriers):  http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/2011/05/03/five-reasons-why-torture-did-not-help-us-forces-find-bin-laden/

Info pertaining to Hassan Ghul - captured by Kurdish police provided key info (or rather had the information which we confisacted):  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hassan_Ghul

[Fury]

Majority Credit Bush for bin Laden Death
Pundit Press ^ | 5/3/2011 | Thomas Ferdousi



Oh, how things have changed.

When President Bush left office he was derided as a failure and an embarrassment. He was the butt of so many poor jokes and stupid faces. One of his biggest failures, the meme went, was not killing or capturing Osama bin Laden.

Now it appears that at least some of the perception has shifted in the aftermath of Osama getting a bullet in the brain. This comes from 538's Nate Silver:

WaPo poll shows 51% of Americans think GW Bush should get some credit for killing Bin Laden. His image may improve too.

There are already people deriding the concept of appreciating President Bush when the constant narrative was either that he was behind September 11th or intentionally or through incompetence let him through Tora Bora. If liberals really believe that Bush just 'squandered goodwill' and 'polarized' Americans, they should accept this result. If not, their intentional polarization (as seen on MSNBC yesterday) will be apparent.

Boom.

Liberals are so desperate to find something to praise Obama about that they've actually thrown away all their cries of torture and illegal wars to praise a guy who did nothing more than continue all the programs Bush put in place.

Ha ha ha.

[headhuntersix]

Here you are Georgie,

Bin Laden task force shut down in 2005:  http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/04/washington/04intel.html

Info pertaining to when/how KSM finally started giving us viable info (including the info about Bin Laden couriers):  http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/2011/05/03/five-reasons-why-torture-did-not-help-us-forces-find-bin-laden/

Info pertaining to Hassan Ghul - captured by Kurdish police provided key info (or rather had the information which we confisacted):  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hassan_Ghul

The article refers to the CIA section that hunted him. Bush enlarged JSOC and they became the primary organization that hunted Bin Laden...various names TF 19, TF Black, TF 16 have been used to call the small units hunting him. They were all supported by the CIA/DIA and other organizations. Bush took SOCOM and made it a combatant command on pare with CENTCOM etc. He drove the budget up almost 8 Billion as President. Barry had the guts to use a tool created by Bush. Bush gets as much credit for this and Barry does....name one President since 1980, besides Clinton, who would not have ordered this.

[Soul Crusher]

Not only that - barry had to be pushed into this.  Too many people knew barry knew about the intel and it forced his hand.  Left to his own devices, bama probably would have air dropped aid , food, water, weapons, american movies, to obl instead of the us navy seals.

[headhuntersix]

He would have sent him some hugs and a nice pink bunny...

[Soul Crusher]

I just read that bama slept on the decision for 16 hours and played golf pondering whetehr to do this or not. By then too many people knew and he had to go through w it.  His ass would have been impeached otherwise.

[blacken700]

I just read that bama slept on the decision for 16 hours and played golf pondering whetehr to do this or not. By then too many people knew and he had to go through w it.  His ass would have been impeached otherwise.

lets have a source