<http://www.nypost.com/> Description: Description: New York PostUpdated: Sun., Aug. 14, 2011, 4:16 AM Description: Description: home Obama's cheap 'shot' By JOHN HAYWARD Last Updated: 4:16 AM, August 14, 2011 Posted: 11:47 PM, August 13, 2011 Thirty American troops came home to Dover Air Force Base last week. They died when their helicopter was shot down in Afghanistan by Taliban with rocket-propelled grenades. Many were members of SEAL Team Six, the fabled special operations unit that flew stealth choppers into Pakistan after Osama bin Laden, putting the old monster down in a pile of his porno tapes. Nineteen of the 30 families asked for no media coverage of the ceremony at Dover - that request for privacy was, of course, honored. By everyone, that is, except Barack Obama. He slipped in a personal photographer, who snapped a dramatic photo of the president saluting in silhouette. This was not an item for the private Obama scrapbook, to go beside a copy of the Standard & Poor's letter downgrading America's credit rating. The White House pushed it to every major media outlet, and made it "Photo of the Day" on its official website. It was an obvious attempt to carve an iconic image into the American consciousness with a mass-media chisel. Confronted about this remarkable show of disrespect, White House spokesman Jay Carney responded that it was no big deal because there weren' t any caskets in the photo. Besides, Carney said, the White House "released the photo in the interests of transparency, so that the American people could have as much insight as possible into this historic and sobering event." Does the image of President Obama's shadow tossing a salute add anything to our "insight" into the deaths of those brave troops? Did we need photographic evidence of Obama's presence at Dover AFB to achieve "transparency"? This is not the last time Obama will try to exploit the SEALs for political advantage. The director of the Oscar-winning film "The Hurt Locker" announced that she would begin filming a movie about the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, with a generous focus on Obama's role in making the "gutsy call" to proceed with the operation. The White House is providing access and interviews. It will come as no surprise that "Gutsy Call: The Movie" is scheduled for release a month before Election Day 2012. The humility of the executive is important. Americans are sick of everything in their lives being used for political theater. Obama's Dover photo is a transparently political artifact, waved energetically at the public in a time of collapsing poll numbers. This is what happens when war becomes silhouetted against politics, a desperate bid for re-election overrides common sense, and the honor and respect due to our fallen heroes and their f amilies is not the highest priority of the commander in chief. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, discuss-os...@yahoogroups.com. -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor biso...@intellnet.org http://www.intellnet.org Post message: osint@yahoogroups.com Subscribe: osint-subscr...@yahoogroups.com Unsubscribe: osint-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtmlYahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: osint-dig...@yahoogroups.com osint-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: osint-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
