Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Thermopylae Revisited

A Guest Post By Mat Bracken:

  Did Obama Withhold Cross-Border Authority?

 Please help me. I am trying as hard as I can to get out the word about cross-border authority (CBA).

 I just can’t believe reporters don’t know enough to ask the right questions! It’s infuriating.

 Libya, as far as standing down the rescue, is 100% Obama’s show, and nobody else’s. Only he can grant CBA, not Biden, not Panetta, not Dempsey, not Hillary, and certainly not Ham in Germany.

 The entire episode is explained perfectly inside the context of not granting CBA. The CIA QRF in Tripoli? No problem, send them on the local Tripoli station chief’s say-so. He merely informs up COC that he has done so. CCs them so to speak. “This is what I am doing.” Ditto if Predators were in country, no problem using them.

 But the big rescue air armada streaming toward Libya right away after the alarm got to Stuttgart and Africom? That has to stop. I believe at the 5pm meeting with Panetta and Biden in the Oval Office, he said, “No outside military intervention,” on the basis that the last report was the “lull” from the consulate, at about 1030 p.m. in Benghazi, when the attack appeared to be over and the situation stabilizing.

 (As a soft exception, Obama may have authorized sending an unarmed Predator from outside of Libya, but I am thinking the two Predators were already in-country, and hence available to use within “no CBA granted” rules.)

 “No outside military intervention” equals “no cross-border authority” and that constitutes “standing orders” until POTUS changes them. Nobody else can “un-decide” the POTUS decree. The rescue air-armada of C-17s, C-130s and SOF helos like MH-47 Chinooks and Pavehawks cannot proceed directly to Libya without CBA being granted, so instead they are all staged at Sigonella, Sicily.

 USN ships are in position to “lilypad” helos for long over-water flights. Airborne tankers are coming into position. SOF forces in Sigonella are going over their gear for different contingencies. Fuming all night as officers keep checking in with operational commanders. “Hold in place, no rescue yet. We can’t find the President, it sounds like,” say the colonels to the majors and captains. 100s of military must know about this. I keep waiting for the conclusive whistle-blowers to come forward BEFORE the election. After won’t matter, it will be for the historians.

 Panetta is falling on his sword for Obama with his absurd-on-its-face, “The military doesn’t do risky things” defense of no rescue. Panetta is destroying his future reputation entirely, to save Obama. The question is why? Loyalty?

 Petreaus was probably “used” in some way early, about the supposed CIA intel link to the Mohammed video, and now he feels burned. So he conclusively said via his PAO, “The stand-down order did not come from CIA.”

 Well, what is higher than CIA? Only White House. Obama, nobody else. Petreaus is naming Obama without naming him.

 Now, as far as Obama / Huma Abedin / Valerie Jarrett etc actually wanting Ambassador Stevens dead, to terminate the end of the very dirty Libyan arms to Syrian AQ programs, I can’t speculate. Obama is not competent enough, I’m thinking.

 But for sure, the ambassador going to unsecure Benghazi on 9-11 of all days stinks to me of a setup. You can bet Stevens would have told the Turks, “No, 9-11 is not a good day for us,” and stayed in Tripoli behind many high and thick walls. For him to go to dangerous Benghazi on 9-11 means the Turks totally insisted, but why would they care about the meeting date, unless they were in on a “hit” as the Judas goat?

 Alternatively, ordering Stevens to meet the Turks in Benghazi on 9-11 may have come from down OUR chain of command. Stevens seems to have been wearing two hats as ambassador and CIA arms shipper. Moving between more-secure Tripoli, the Benghazi “consulate,” and the CIA “annex.” So orders to him might come down the State or the CIA commo channels, or both. I am unclear on his job title and true position, but either the CIA or State sends him final instructions. How this works with “dual-hatted” ambassadors, I haven’t a clue.

 But Stevens meeting the Turks at the unsecure Benghazi “consulate” on 9-11 stinks to me of a deliberate setup. The Turks left the meeting and probably flashed their headlights to the attack team commanders lurking in shadows. A coded text, a word on a phone, meaning, “The ambassador is there, with minimal security: proceed with the attack plan.”

 That is all pure speculation. What I know FOR SURE is that the big “stand down order” issue revolves around granting or withholding cross-border authority.

 Every SOF officer and ops officer all the way up has this drummed into his head. We can make Obama respond to this question, even if reporters must shout it at him while he’s doing storm cleanup photo ops. If the reporters KNOW enough to ask the quesion.

 That’s why I am shouting all over the internet about CBA.

 I can’t believe cross-border authority permission is not one of the top discussion points about Benghazi.

 That, and who “set him up” by sending him to Beghazi to meet the Turks on 9-11, with them leaving after dark.

 And of course, down the road, was the military rescue-in-progress turned back because Obama actually wanted to make sure the consulate was wiped out? Is that why the spooks at the annex were refused permission to travel the under one mile to intervene? That would connect it all together, but for now, the best focus is on Obama either granting or withholding cross-border authority for the rescue.

 Feel free to repost these musings of a long-ago SOF officer anywhere you please.

DONE

More Outrage HERE 

Who is the Ephialtes?


ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ!!

Sunday, October 14, 2012

The New Paradigm

The President’s 2013 Budget is out and it should be stated that there is no forecasting ability incorporated in this report. The projections  are based on the assumption that what is in motion stays in motion. So the increase in interest expenditures that they freely show here will exceed all nondefense spending in the next decade. This is based on the idea that interest rates will remain the same. There is no anticipation that the economy would decline and tax revenues with it the higher the tax rates rise. Virtually every assumption is effectively just false. There are already plans to raise the age limit on the entitlements. The government employee pension funds are way out of control.
The statement of the President shows how he accepts no blame for anything and shifts it to the effect that somehow the crisis is the offspring of the fact that the rich made more money. How this has anything to do with failed government spending or the fact that if you eliminate ALL government spending except interest and entitlements, you cannot balance the budget. His solution will be to raise taxes by 50%. However, by the time we reach 2020, that same solution will be needed again and we will have completely destroyed the economy for there will be no private wealth left for anyone to argue over. The President’s statement makes it very clear:
“We now face a make-or-break moment for the middle class and those trying to reach it. After decades of eroding middle-class security as those at the very top saw their incomes rise as never before and after a historic recession that plunged our economy into a crisis from which we are still fighting to recover, it is time to construct an economy that is built to last.”
This demonstrates that there is ABSOLUTELY no solution to the Sovereign Debt Crisis. They just plan on continued borrowing and project the National Debt will reach $26 trillion by the end of the next 10 year period. There is no accountability. There is no plan other than to blame anyone with money as the reason the politicians have failed. This statement makes it crystal clear that there is no acceptance of responsibility and the only thing intended is to raise taxes and secretly reduce entitlements, but there is no practical solution that is long-term nor is there any realization that there has to be a debt default on those very entitlements just as we see in Greece whose bonds are now with the lowest rating and presumed to be junk. The amount of wealth destruction on the horizon is off the charts. We are looking at massive STAGFLATION, rising costs (including taxes) and declining (an end to?) economic growth.
Both Presidential Candidates rant and rave about social issues from abortion to gay rights while failing to mention that all rights will be gone by following this course of brain-dead actions. The elections are nothing more than a marketing battle between Coke and Pepsi. Slightly different flavor, but the same color, and effectively the same thing.

In China, the number one T-Shirt being sold portrays Obama as Mao claiming he is the Savior of America. Unfortunately, no politician in this race is even willing to look at what the hell is going on. You wouldn’t hire any of these people to even balance your own checking account. They are totally oblivious to everything and assume it will always be as it is – they will borrow forever, diminish the real value of everything as they retain power so they can live high on the hog at everyone else’s expense. The citizens in Western society deserve what they get. They will not open their eyes to a manipulated press that supports government nonsense, the banks, and special interests.

The President’s Budget even shows TARP continuing indefinitely. Once a program is passed, there is never any end. The lobbying efforts to keep agencies in place is unbelievable. They should have merged the SEC & CFTC long ago. Because they refused to do so, they forced fund managements offshore, giving birth to the Hedge Fund Industry. Even when they created the mortgaged backed CDOs, there were 7 agencies that had to approve. When no one was doing their job, another was added another on top of everything else. The Federal Reserve was born in 1913 to effectively manage the regional capital flows with each of the 12 branches maintaining its own interest rates and “stimulating” the economy was direct, for it was to ONLY by buying corporate paper. Then WWI came, the politicians insisted the Fed had to support their debt by ending the buying of corporate paper. With socialism, Roosevelt usurped the independence of the 12 branches making it one rate for all defeating the purpose of its design. WWII came and they directed the Fed to support US government bonds at par ending that in 1951. Then 1998 came & the Fed bailed out a hedge fund to save the banks. With 2007, they emerged with this "Too Big To Fail" power where they have now taken control of corporations, not only banks. They are politically driven, just as QE3 has shown to the world, and it is no longer even a central bank; but some rogue entity empowered to do whatever it damn well pleases without any accountability and of course it is an unelected nondemocratic institution as is most everything else that runs the government. We vote only for Pepsi or Coke and have no say over anything else whatsoever. So hang on to your socks/wallets. We will by no means make it to 2022!!!!

The United States is attacking its own citizens and capital. Where will capital go to next? When Europe did it, mankind fled to America. Where are we to go now? We are facing a truly catastrophic collapse of our entire economic system in the years ahead. You will be given the guide posts. You will have to tick them off as we pass each one by. Our politicians are like the idiot who is pushed off the tallest building in the world. As he passes the 4th floor, he remarks: " Well so far – So good!"  This is our future they have screwed with just for personal gain to get re-elected by the art of bribery: "Vote for me & I will give you this."


Source: Armstrong Economics