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Sunday, September 14, 2014
Saturday, September 13, 2014
Anybody interested now?
Hell no!
Remember how this administration, Hollywood, and many in the MSM came down hard on Israel for "excessive force"?
http://hemingwayreport.blogspot.com/2014/08/how-to-treat-our-one-and-only-friend-in.html
Twitter was abuzz with it. Israel tried to make the case Hamas was using civilians as human shields and they were scoffed at.
Recently Hamas also admitted they abducted and killed the 3 Jewish teens that started the whole thing.
But this is so yesterday. Today they moved on to more important matters like... a Kardashian putting an extra 3 inches on her ass.
Hamas admits it DID use schools and hospitals in Gaza Strip as 'human shields' to launch rocket attacks on Israel - but claims it was 'mistake'
• Official says group had no choice but to launch rockets from civilian areas
• Ghazi Hamad: safeguards taken to protect civilians but 'we made mistakes'
• He refuses to accept responsibility for deaths in retaliatory airstrikes
By Matthew Blake for MailOnline and Associated Press
Published: 03:07 EST, 12 September 2014 | Updated: 11:51 EST, 12 September 2014
Hamas appeared to admit using human shields to fire rockets into Israel for the first time today, but refused to accept responsibility for the slaughter of hundreds of innocent Palestinians killed in retaliatory airstrikes.
In a veiled confession that comes two weeks after the end of the Gaza war, a senior Hamas official said the group's fighters had no choice but to use residential areas from which to launch missiles into their neighbour's territory.
But while Ghazi Hamad claimed they took safeguards to keep people away from the violence, he admitted 'mistakes were made', blaming Israel's heavy-handed response for the deaths of civilians.
Increasingly, the discussion is not about whether the Hamas rockets were fired from civilian areas, but exactly how close they were to the actual buildings.
'The Israelis kept saying rockets were fired from schools or hospitals when in fact they were fired 200 or 300 meters (yards) away. Still, there were some mistakes made and they were quickly dealt with,' Hamad told The Associated Press, offering the first acknowledgment by a Hamas official that, in some cases, militants fired rockets from or near residential areas or civilian facilities.
The questions lie at the heart of a brewing international legal confrontation: Did Hamas deliberately and systematically fire rockets at Israel from homes, hospitals and schools in the hope that Israel would be deterred from retaliating, as Israel claims? Or did Israel use force excessively, resulting in deaths among people not involved in combat operations?
The answers could help determine whether Israel - or Hamas - or both are ultimately accused of violating the international laws of war in a conflict that caused tremendous damage.
According to Palestinian figures, nearly 2,200 Palestinians were killed - roughly three quarters of them civilians and including more than 500 children - and 11,000 were wounded. The war also left some 100,000 homeless. Seventy-two people were killed on the Israeli side, including six civilians.
Ahead of a U.N. investigation, the Israeli military has released reams of evidence, including satellite photos and aerial footage, to support its claims that it acted responsibly and attempted to minimize Palestinian casualties. It asserts that Hamas made no effort to disguise its attempt to maximize Israeli civilian casualties.
Throughout the war, the Israeli air force compiled dozens of video clips showing alleged wrongdoing by Hamas, an Islamic militant group sworn to Israel's destruction.
These videos, many of them posted on YouTube, appear to show rockets flying out of residential neighborhoods, cemeteries, schoolyards and mosque courtyards. There are also images of weapons caches purportedly uncovered inside mosques, and tunnels allegedly used by militants to scurry between homes, mosques and buildings.
'Hamas' excuses are outrageous, misleading and contrary to the evidence supplied by the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) and the reality documented by international journalists on the ground in Gaza,' said Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, an Israeli military spokesman.
Confession: In a veiled confession that comes two weeks after the end of the Gaza war, a senior Hamas official today said the group's fighters had no choice but to use residential areas from which to launch missiles into their neighbour's territory
But a black-and-white satellite image released by the Israeli military illustrates the difficulties in proving the point. The army says the image, taken of the Gaza City neighborhood of Sheikh Radwan, shows four rocket launch sites sitting next to a cluster of schools and a nearby residential neighborhood.
Such images, it says, are evidence that Hamas used built-up areas for cover - and carelessly exposed civilians to danger in Israeli retaliatory strikes. However, the image itself is grainy and shows no clear signs of rocket activity, though rocket launchers are often hidden underground. The army refused to say how it had made its conclusions.
A visit to the area this week found three separate military sites - possibly training grounds - slightly larger than football fields located close to the state schools.
Hamas tightly restricts access to such facilities, and it was impossible for photographers to enter the sites. Israel confirmed the area was targeted in airstrikes.
Another location identified by the Israeli military as a rocket-launching site is in northern Gaza around the newly built Indonesian hospital. Immediately to the north of the two-story hospital and across the road to the west are two Hamas military facilities. Both stand in close proximity to residential homes. The hospital stands intact, while nothing is visible from inside the bases.
Hamad, the Hamas official, argued that many of the buildings shown in Israeli videos were either a safe distance from the rocket launchers or that the buildings had been kept vacant during the fighting.
The ground in Sheikh Radwan, for instance, lies some 150 meters (yards) away from the neighborhood, and the schools were empty for summer vacation.
During 50 days of fighting, many observers witnessed rocket launches from what appeared to be urban areas. One piece of video footage distributed by the AP, for instance, captured a launch in downtown Gaza City that took place in a lot next to a mosque and an office of the Hamas prime minister. Both buildings were badly damaged in subsequent Israeli airstrikes.
There was other evidence of Hamas having used civilian facilities: Early in the conflict, the U.N. agency that cares for Palestinian refugees announced that it discovered weapons stored in its schools as they stood empty during the summer.
'I don't think there's any doubt urban areas were used to launch rockets from in the Gaza Strip,' said Bill Van Esveld, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch. 'What needs to be determined is how close to a populated building or a civilian area were those rocket launches.'
The issue may never be conclusively settled as both sides voice competing narratives over their conduct in the deadliest and most ruinous of the three wars since Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007.
'Yes, Hamas and others may have used civilians as human shields, but was that consistent and widespread?' said Sami Abdel-Shafi, a Palestinian-American who represents the Carter Center in Gaza. 'The question is whether Israel's response was proportionate."
(In other words Israel should apologize to Hamas for incurring less casualties)
(In other words Israel should apologize to Hamas for incurring less casualties)
The war erupted on July 8 when Israel launched a massive aerial bombardment of Gaza in response to weeks of heavy rocket fire by Hamas and other Gaza-based militant groups - part of an escalation that began with the killing by a Hamas cell of three Israeli teens in the West Bank.
The Israeli army says Hamas fired almost 4,000 rockets at Israel, including 600 from close to schools, mosques and other civilian facilities, and scores of mortar shells. Israel carried out some 5,000 airstrikes, in addition to using powerful artillery and gunship fire.
Frequently, Israeli arms struck hospitals, schools, homes, mosques, factories and office towers. Israel said the buildings had been used for cover by militant fighters, and that whenever possible, it provided warning to civilians that strikes on their buildings were coming.
Israel disputes the makeup of the Palestinian casualty figures, saying that nearly half the dead were militants.
Nevertheless, the death toll and number of civilian deaths have led to harsh condemnations of Israel and raised questions on the proportionality of Israel's response. In an apparent attempt to head off international investigations, the Israeli military said Wednesday it has opened criminal investigations into two high-profile cases involving Palestinian civilian casualties.
Hamas also has been sharply criticized for launching rockets aimed at Israeli cities and towns. Israel says its own civilian death toll would have been much higher had it not been for its rocket defenses.
The U.N. Human Rights Council has appointed a commission to look into the latest fighting. Its report is expected no sooner than March.
Friday, September 12, 2014
This is a public lynching of Ray Rice
In the same fashion as Darren Wilson?
Who's telling the truth?
Report: Ray Rice told Roger Goodell that he hit fiancee
This guy?
Roger Goodell is at a crossroads in his tenure as commissioner. (USATSI)
Or this one?
Don't really know and not crazy about "unnamed 4 sources".
But I do know this. The last paragraph...Mueller..he was the one who was supposed to be investigating the IRS targeting of the Teaparty. Not one Teapartier was ever interviewed by the FBI.
This is how it went down:
The country’s top investigator seemed to be in the dark when pressed to provide details of the IRS investigation into the tax agency’s targeting of Tea Party and conservative groups.
Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, seemed to rattle FBI Director Robert Mueller for not knowing the specifics surrounding the IRS probe.
“You’ve had a month now to investigate,” Jordan said. “This has been the biggest story in the country and you can’t even tell me who the lead investigator is. You can’t tell me the actions the inspector general took which are not typically how investigations are done. You can’t tell me if that’s appropriate or not. This is not speculation. This is what happened.”
Mueller repeatedly declined to answer Jordan’s questions, saying he couldn’t because the investigation was ongoing or that he’d have to get back to the lawmakers with answers.
When Jordan asked again,” Can you tell me who the lead investigator is?” Mueller responded, “Off the top of my head, no.”
Why? Because there was no investigation going on. A crime onto itself.
Just thought I'd throw this in. I heard he's great at investigating the NFL though because he doesn't have to answer to Barry.
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In an interview Tuesday with CBS Morning News, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said the league requested the surveillance video from the Atlantic City hotel where Ray Rice punched then-fiancée Janay Palmer in the face, "Because when we make a decision we want to have all the information that's available. When we met with Ray Rice and his representatives it was ambiguous about what actually happened."
Thursday night, four sources told ESPN's Don Van Natta Jr. that when Rice met with Goodell, he told the commissioner that he did in fact punch his fiancee.
"Ray didn't lie to the commissioner," one source with knowledge of the meeting told Van Natta Jr. "He told the full truth to Goodell -- he made it clear he had hit her, and he told Goodell he was sorry and that it wouldn't happen again."
"He told the truth," a second source said. "This is a public lynching of Ray."
A third source, who also had knowledge of Rice's discussions with Goodell, added: "There was no ambiguity about what happened [in the elevator]." A fourth source also confirmed this to Van Natta Jr., although a fifth source said Rice told Goodell he had "slapped" Palmer.
On Wednesday, Ravens general manager Ozzie Newsome said: "Ray had given a story to John [Harbaugh] and I. And what we saw on the video was what Ray said. Ray didn't lie to me. He didn't lie to me."
This latest development comes hours after a Wall Street Journal report that Goodell backed off his investigation of what happened between Rice and Palmer after hearing Palmer's side of the story. Reportedly, she told the commissioner that she had hit Rice and felt partially responsible for what happened on the night in question.
According to the WSJ, Goodell "felt it would have been insensitive to question Janay Rice's story because it would have come across as an indictment of her character."
Meanwhile, if Goodell had viewed the video there would be no room for ambiguity or concerns about being insensitive to the victim. Goodell told CBS This Morning that neither he nor anyone in his office saw the video, a claim that was refuted in an Associated Press report that said a law enforcement official sent the video to the league in April.
The NFL announced Wednesday night that former FBI Director Robert Mueller will head an independent investigation into what Goodell and the league did and didn't know regarding the Ray Rice case. Whatever comes of that, this much is a near certainty: Goodell will keep his job.
Thursday, September 11, 2014
13 years ago...
And I still remember it like it happened yesterday.
May God keep those Americans who died that fateful day close to his heart.
Bretagne too!
Meet Bretagne, The Last Known 9/11 Service Dog That Worked At Ground Zero...
Monday, September 8, 2014
Obama: ‘I Should’ve Anticipated The Optics’ Of Golfing After Foley Beheading
What about the “optics” of going to Vegas for a fundraiser less than 24 hours after 4 Americans died in the Benghazi debacle?
---------------------------------------
The Daily Caller
By Brendan Bordelon
President Obama admitted on Sunday that he “should’ve anticipated the optics” of golfing just minutes after a sober statement on the brutal beheading of American journalist James Foley by ISIS, noting that “part of this job is also the theater of it.”
Obama sat down Sunday with NBC’s new “Meet The Press” host Chuck Todd for a wide-ranging interview that touched on immigration, ISIS and other White House challenges. But Todd made sure to ask about that golf game, a moment that even supporters of the president admitted made him look tone deaf and disengaged.
“I gotta ask, during that vacation,” Todd said. “You made the statement on Foley, you went and golfed. Do you want that back?”
The president claimed it’s “always a challenge when you’re supposed to be on vacation, because you’re followed everywhere. And part of what I’d love is a vacation from the press –.”
“I promise you, in two and a half years I think that happens,” Todd joked.
“But there’s no doubt that, after having talked to the families — where it was hard for me to hold back tears listening to the pain that they were going through, after the statement that I made — that I should’ve anticipated the optics,” Obama admitted. “That’s part of the job.”
“You take this stuff, and it’s serious business, and you care about it deeply,” he explained. “But part of this job is also the theater of it. How you –.”
“You hate the theater of it,” Todd replied.
“Well, it’s not something that always comes naturally to me,” Obama conceded. “But it matters. And I’m mindful of that.”
Theater?
His entire presidency is predicated on it.
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