From Roto-Reuters via Yahoo News:
Special ops group attacks Obama over bin Laden
A group of former U.S. intelligence and Special Forces operatives is set to launch a media campaign, including TV ads, that scolds President Barack Obama for taking credit for the killing of Osama bin Laden and argues that high-level leaks are endangering American lives.
Leaders of the group, the Special Operations OPSEC Education Fund Inc,
say it is nonpartisan and unconnected to any political party or
presidential campaign. It is registered as a so-called social welfare
group, which means its primary purpose is to further the common good and
its political activities should be secondary.
In the past, military exploits have been turned against
presidential candidates by outside groups, most famously the Swift Boat
ads in 2004 that questioned Democratic nominee John Kerry's Vietnam War
service.
The OPSEC
group says it is not political and aims to save American lives. Its
first public salvo is a 22-minute film that includes criticism of Obama
and his administration. The film, to be released on Wednesday, was seen in advance by Reuters.
"Mr. President, you did not kill Osama bin Laden,
America did. The work that the American military has done killed Osama
bin Laden. You did not," Ben Smith, identified as a Navy SEAL, says in
the film.
"As a citizen, it is my civic duty to tell the
president to stop leaking information to the enemy," Smith continues.
"It will get Americans killed."
Amen to that, brother.
An Obama campaign
official said: "No one in this group is in a position to speak with any
authority on these issues and on what impact these leaks might have,
and it's clear they've resorted to making things up for purely political
reasons."
I think getting shot at for the sake of freedom is an excellent qualification for just about anything. It's infinitely more important and impressive than calling yourself a "community organizer" and subverting the rule of law with communist terror tactics.
Obama has highlighted his foreign policy record on the
campaign trail, emphasizing how he presided over the killing of bin
Laden, as well as how he ended the war in Iraq and set a timeline for
winding down the war in Afghanistan.
However, Obama has come under sharp attack from
Republican lawmakers who have accused his administration of being behind
high-level leaks of classified information.
They have pointed to media reports about clandestine
drone attacks, informants planted in al Qaeda affiliates and alleged
cyber-warfare against Iran that Republicans say were calculated to
promote Obama's image as a strong leader in an election year.
The White House has denied leaking classified information.
It could not have come from any other place. If Benito Hussein Insaner didn't leak it himself, one of his top aides did and he's responsible for them.
The president of Special Operations OPSEC Education
Fund Inc, Scott Taylor, is a former Navy SEAL who in 2010 ran
unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination for a congressional seat in
Virginia.
Calling itself "OPSEC" for short - which in spy jargon
means "operational security" - the anti-leak group incorporated last
June in Delaware, a state that has the most secretive corporate
registration rules in the U.S.
Ooooooooh...Delaware! I am so scared.
It also set itself up as a nonprofit organization under
section 501(c)4 of the U.S. Tax Code, allowing it to keep donors'
identities secret. Spokesmen for the group declined to discuss its
sources of financing.
Several group representatives say their main motivation
for setting up OPSEC was dismay at recent detailed media leaks about
sensitive operations.
In an interview, Taylor denied OPSEC had any political
slant. He described the group as a "watchdog organization" but added
that the current administration "has certainly leaked more than others."
OPSEC spokesmen said the group has about $1 million at
its disposal and hopes to raise more after the release of its
mini-documentary, entitled "Dishonorable Disclosures," which aims, in
spy-movie style, to document a recent spate of leaks regarding sensitive
intelligence and military operations.
Following the
film's release, OPSEC's spokesmen said, the group expects to produce TV
spots on the anti-leak theme that will air in a number of states,
including Virginia, Florida, Ohio, Colorado, North Carolina and Nevada -
key battleground states.
Fred Rustmann, a
former undercover case officer for the CIA who is a spokesman for the
group, insisted its focus on leaks was "not a partisan concern." But he
said the current administration had been leaking secrets "to help this
guy get re-elected, at the expense of peoples' lives.... We want to see
that they don't do this again."
Chad Kolton, a
former spokesman for the office of Director of National Intelligence
during the George W. Bush administration who now represents OPSEC, also said the group's message and make-up are nonpolitical.
"You'll see
throughout the film that concern about protecting the lives of
intelligence and Special Forces officers takes precedence over
partisanship," he said.
Responding to criticism about the president taking credit for the bin Laden
raid, an Obama campaign official pointed to an interview with CNN last
month in which Admiral Bill McRaven, commander of the raid, said: "At
the end of the day, make no mistake about it, it was the president of
the United States that shouldered the burden for this operation, that
made the hard decisions, that was instrumental in the planning process,
because I pitched every plan to him."
And Valerie Jarrett kept talking the pansy out of it. Over and over again.
"I think Admiral
McRaven knows more about the President's role in the bin Laden operation
than this group," the campaign official said.
I'm guessing the admiral is still active duty. Wait until he retires...
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