Friday, September 23, 2016

Hell, the Most Equal Comrade doesn't even do transparency within his own administration

Keeping the right hand from knowing what the left hand do-eth:

One might think President Barack Obama would have asked his top military officials to weigh in on his administration's  decision in January to send $400 million in cash to Iran. After all, Iran is the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism, and terrorists prefer cash to wire payments because it's so difficult to track. And its armed forces have both directly and indirectly threatened the U.S. military in the Middle East.
But Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry did not consult Secretary of Defense Ash Carter or the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joseph Dunford.
This news came out of a hearing Thursday before the Senate Armed Services Committee. In response to a question from Republican Senator Ted Cruz about the cash payment to Iran, Carter made it clear that he had been out of the loop.
"We weren't involved in this," Carter said, adding that it was part of the settlement of a decades-long legal dispute  between Iran and the U.S. over arms sales. "I don't know all the details of it, and the chairman and I were not involved in that. It is a decision that was taken by the law enforcement and diplomatic and I would refer you there."
When Dunford was asked about the cash payments, he responded: "I am not trying to be evasive but I don't know the details of that arrangement and it really was a political decision that was made to provide that money and I don't think it's appropriate that I comment on that."
Christopher Sherwood, a press officer at the Pentagon, later told me pretty much the same thing. "It was worked out through the administration. The Department of Defense had nothing to do with that."
And thus does the fissure between the Pentagon and the overlords widen.


11 comments:

  1. The military goes to the Commander in Chief, not the other way around. One of the bulwarks of our Constitution is a civilian commander. The Commander in Chief consults with whomever he wishes on any subject he wishes and all military personnel will follow his or her orders. That's a period. Period.

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  2. 40 Mil is what percentage of 38 Billion? And, oh, by the way: http://www.mintpressnews.com/americans-rather-see-38-billion-invested-vets-education-israeli-military-aid/220615/

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  3. And this was the result of another one of Lyin' Ted's interrogations. Cruz is apparently more of a kiss ass than a liar, but, hey, he prayed about it. Trump probably offered him the Supreme Court nomination. It's OK, there were so few Cruz supporters in the primary, relatively speaking, that this won't help Trump.

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  4. In Indiana a few short months ago, Turncoat Ted said this: He went on to call Mr. Trump “a pathological liar”; “utterly amoral”; “a serial philanderer”; and “a narcissist at a level I don’t think this country has ever seen.”

    If voters did not stop him, Mr. Cruz said, “this country could well plunge into the abyss.”

    Well, I'll pray about it too. I'm sure you will too. I'll even ask God to change my mind which has already been made up. I will announce what God told me on Tuesday morning. You? Follow der leader!

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  5. Knew you'd jump on the Ted endorsement - and take the opportunity to do so whether to not the post in question had a damn thing to do with it.

    Yes, it's a disappointment. Politics is a nasty, ugly realm. Per the old adage, it's war by non-lethal means.

    He obviously came to the conclusion that a lot of conservatives I still deeply respect have come to - namely, that a Hillary Clinton presidency would finish off post-America. I'm thinking of the principled conservatives here, those who have reluctantly and with great horror and despair and desperation gotten on board: Mark Levin, Dennis Prager et al. I still harbor extreme disgust and animosity for those "conservatives" who got actually enthusiastic about Squirrel-Hair from the get-go: Conrad Black, Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity, Ann Coutler, Wayne Allen Root. They are a different kind of being.

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  6. Ted Cruz was the inquisitor of the military men, stirring things up, as always. And he has a lot to do with it!!!!!

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  7. Finish off post-America? That's what Cruz said Trump would do. You'll follow der leader, I have already seen you softening. And there is no comparison between Hillary and Trump. Trump is the lying evil sack of bones. Ted prayed about it? Lord deliver us!

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  8. Cruz is every bit the lean and hungry arrogant elitist his college roomie says he was. And not that many people outside of crazed Texas like him all that much. Certainly not that many people in government, but, hey the great deplorables are swallowing it, believing all the lies. No way, Jose, Hillie is not at all the end of us. It wasn't under Billie and it won't be under Hillie. And she is more hawkish than you might give her credit for. What about the 25 retired diplomats who never endorsed a candidate before this cycle but are aghast at the possibility of a Trump presidency. Yes, Lyin Turncoat Ted has probably been promised AG or SCOTUS, lean, hungry, lyin' and he'll leave us cryin' but your ilk likes that. Of course I'm gonna jump on this. I voted for him against Trump in the Indiana primary. Had to hold my nose, but I did, I did. I didn't believe he was a liar then, but I sure do now.

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  9. So you're the big boss man and you want to execute a decision on, say, whether to go with this brand new accounting fraud secret. Do you bring in the Purchasing Department, Security, Legal, HR, hell, let's just make it a meeting of all the senior heads, huh?

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  10. It is morally imperative for those who know Madame BleachBit to be unfit for the office of president to get the word out as forcefully as possible between now and November 8.

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  11. We'll see if the vast silent majority on silent majority on social media who vote but don't post or comment on in crazy-ass threads. Obama's approval rating is at a fairly healthy 50% now you know. I know that in the heat of the Indiana primary debates and political ad blitzes, when I was exhausted from Trump, I switched the channel to CSpan and there was Hillie speaking calmly and assuredly on foreign policy at Stanford University and it was like a soft cool breeze blew over my heated consciousness. I see it and I think others will sense it immediately in Hillie v. the Demon in their first debate on Monday. I'm sure you'll be in front of the tellie too. It will be nothing if entertaining, as usual when brash spontaneity hits the air like an elephantine beer fart.

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