Tag: White House

Fighter jets in Democratic convention’s military montage were Turkish, not American

By Neil Munro

The Democratic Party’s national convention in Charlotte, N.C., may have doubled down on insulting the U.S. military community.

The Democratic National Committee has already apologized for using a photo of four Soviet-era Russian warships in a giant stage backdrop intended to illustrate the party’s support for military personnel and veterans.

That huge image, visible in the Time Warner Cable Arena during speeches by Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry and retired Admiral John B. Nathman, also depicted a synchronized formation of jet aircraft that convention-goers assumed were American fighter planes.

But the F-5 fighter planes in the photo are part of the air force of Turkey, a nation whose government is now jailing journalists and establishing Islam as a state religion.

Brad Woodhouse, a spokesman for the Democratic National Committee, did not respond when the The Daily Caller asked why the convention planners displayed Turkish-flown aircraft alongside Russian warships while seeking support from the American military community.

On Sept. 12, Democrats apologized for using the picture of Soviet-era, Russian-operated ships after the slip up was first reported by the Navy Times. The Navy Times also received a tip that the planes depicted may have been from the Turkish Air Force. (NAVAL EXPERT: Ships shown during Democratic convention tribute to veterans were Russian)

The vessels, with their distinct radars and blue-cross-motif Russian naval flags, occupied the center of the massive backdrop. The aircraft were depicted flying in a seven-plane formation on the upper right.

At least three of the ships in the image were designed and built by the Soviet totalitarian state that killed 20 million of its own citizens. Amid steady pressure from the U.S. military, the Soviet Union collapsed in 1989, marking its defeat in the four-decade Cold War. One of the warships may now be part of the Ukrainian Navy.

The Russian ships and Turkish aircraft were shown during the final night of the Charlotte convention on Sept. 6, shortly before President Barack Obama accepted his party’s nomination to serve a second term.

The image first appeared in the closing minutes of an address by Sen. Kerry.

Obama is “a commander-in-chief who gives our troops the tools and training they need in war,” Kerry said, reinforced by visuals of foreign ships and aircraft operated by foreign-trained military personnel. (SEE ALSO: TheDC’s complete coverage of the 2012 DNC)

Martin Rosenkranz, a military aircraft expert and editor-in-chief of a military aviation journal in Austria, revealed the fighter jets’ origin to The Daily Caller.

“The aircraft in this image displayed are not U.S. [operated] aircraft,” he told TheDC.

“The jets are most likely from the Turkish air force [because] the formation and the type (F-5) flown is very typical of the seven-ship formation flown by the Turkish Air Force Display Team known as the ‘Turkish Stars,’” said Rosenkranz.

“There is no other display team worldwide” that uses a similar seven-aircraft formation.

Rosenkranz’s argument is bolstered by two other factors.

The aircraft shown at the Democrats’ convention are old F-5 aircraft. They were were designed in the United States and sold to many countries, including Turkey — whose display team uses that same model.

Also, the planes depicted in the Democrats’ Sept. 6 photo montage display an unusual red and white striped pattern painted on the underside of their fuselages — most visible on the lowest and best-lit of the F-5s in the image.

During a June 2012 airshow in Norway, seven of the “Turkish Stars” F-5s flew in formation above a cheering crowd. They all featured that same striped paint job, which can be seen 45 seconds into an amateur video available online.

The latest Charlotte faux pas comes as Obama has called for help from Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Erdogan, to stem widespread Islamist riots against U.S. facilities and diplomatic personnel.

Obama and Islamist leaders agree the riots were spurred in part by an anti-Islamic video produced in California, although many regional experts say upsurge was caused by Islamist groups competing for support from anti-American voters.

After blaming the video, the White House asked YouTube on Sept. 14 to consider removing the footage from its Web servers. That same night, just after midnight Pacific time, California police drove the film’s producer to an interview with federal law enforcement authorities to discuss a possible parole violation.

David Martosko contributed reporting.

Daily Caller

September 18, 2012
Helen Thomas tells Playboy: Jews ‘control’ White House

Ex-dean of Washington press corp: ‘Everybody is in pocket of Israeli lobbies’

By Drew Zahn
© 2011 WND

Helen Thomas, the former “dean” of the White House Press Corps who lost her position over a string of anti-Semitic comments, is interviewed in the April issue of Playboy, renewing her criticism of Israel and Jews in “control” of America.

Helen Thomas

“[The Jews are] using their power, and they have power in every direction … power over the White House, power over Congress,” Thomas told Playboy Contributing Editor David Hochman. “Everybody is in the pocket of the Israeli lobbies, which are funded by wealthy supporters, including those from Hollywood. Same thing with the financial markets. There’s total control.

“It’s real power when you own the White House, when you own these other places in terms of your political persuasion. Of course they have power,” Thomas continued, then addressed Hochman: “You don’t deny that. You’re Jewish, aren’t you?”

The 90-year-old journalist was a correspondent with United Press International for 57 years, an opinion columnist with Hearst Newspapers for 10 years and the senior White House reporter, covering every president since Eisenhower, until damaging comments last year pushed her to retirement.

Thomas resigned in June after telling a rabbi on camera that Israelis should “get the h— out of Palestine” and “go home” to “Poland, Germany and America and everywhere else.”

Though Thomas published an apology for her statements last year, writing, “I deeply regret my comments,” Thomas expressed a different sentiment in her interview with Playboy:

“I knew exactly what I was doing – I was going for broke. I had reached the point of no return. You finally get fed up,” she told the magazine. “I finally wanted to speak the truth.”

Part of that “truth,” Thomas told Playboy, is her claim that Israel is perpetuating its people’s victim-of-the-Holocaust status to escape criticism over wrongdoing against the Palestinians.

“The slaughter of Jews stopped with World War II. … They were liberated since then. And yet they carry on the victimization,” Thomas told the magazine. “American people do not know that the Israeli lobbyists have intimidated them into believing every Jew is a persecuted victim forever – while they are victimizing Palestinians.”

She continued, “Sure, the Israelis have a right to exist – but where they were born, not to come and take someone else’s home. I’ve had it up to here with the violations against the Palestinians. … [The Palestinians] are incarcerated and living in an open prison. I say to the Israelis, ‘Get out of people’s homes!’ … I mean, they’re living there and these people want to come and take their homes and land and water and kill their children and kill them.”

Still, Thomas insists, she doesn’t hold any hatred for the Jewish people.

“Oh, I know what they’re going to say: ‘anti-Semite.’… The truth is, I don’t hate anybody. I care deeply about people. I care for the poor, the sick, the lame, the harmed, those who’ve been treated unjustly,” she told Playboy. “I think [the Jews] are wonderful people. They had to have the most depth. They were leaders in civil rights. They’ve always had the heart for others but not for Arabs, for some reason.

“I’m not anti-Jewish,” she explained, “I’m anti-Zionist.”

Thomas, therefore, explains why she blames Israelis for Palestinian terror attacks:

“Of course I don’t condone any violence against anyone. But who wouldn’t fight for their country? What would any American do if their land was being taken? Remember Pearl Harbor,” Thomas told Playboy. “The Palestinian violence is to protect what little remains of Palestine. The suicide bombers act out of despair and desperation. Three generations of Palestinians have been forced out of their homes – by Israelis – and into refugee camps.”

Following her comments last year, made on the White House lawn during American Jewish Heritage month, President Obama criticized Thomas’ statement, supporting her departure from the White House press corps.

“Her comments were offensive,” Obama said. “It’s a shame because Helen’s someone who has been a correspondent through I don’t know how many presidents, was a real institution in Washington, D.C. But I think she made the right decision. I think those comments are out of line, and hopefully she recognizes that.”

Earlier this week, however, Editor & Publisher reports, Thomas told a national conference of campus journalists from College Media Advisers, “I want an apology from the president.”

“I also heard from Jimmy Carter,” Thomas revealed. “He called a few weeks later. Basically he was sympathetic. He talked about the Israelis in the Middle East, the violations. It was very nice of him to call, but I don’t want to get him into trouble.”

She also reiterated her statements that Israelis should leave homes occupied by Palestinians prior to 1948, only this time suggesting they come to the U.S., rather than “go home” to “Poland, Germany and America and everywhere else.”

May 25, 2011
Turf war forces White House intelligence chief Dennis Blair to quit

Resignation comes after infighting with other administration figures and growing doubts about grip on job

Dennis Blair, the White House’s chief co-ordinator of intelligence in the fight against terrorism, resigned last night at the end of a difficult 16 months in office marked by infighting with other administration figures and growing doubts about his grip on the job.

Rumours have swirled for months in Washington that Blair’s tenure as national intelligence director was ending, following a sequence of turf battles with colleagues and criticism over the way he handled the failed Christmas Day bombing attempt on a plane bound for Detroit.

It is known that Barack Obama interviewed two possible replacements for Blair in advance of last night’s resignation. According to ABC News, Blair offered to resign on Thursday afternoon and Obama accepted. In a statement, Blair said he had offered his resignation “with deep regret”.

The post of DNI was created in 2004 on the recommendation of the 9/11 commission which argued that the failure of intelligence before the attacks on New York and Washington illustrated the need for a strong co-ordinating role in the White House. The office was invested with the task of bringing together intelligence from 16 different government agencies.

But from the start it was racked with problems stemming from lack of clarity about the role and territorial squabbling with other departments.

Under Blair, such infighting had spilled out into the public eye. Last November he was involved in a tussle with Leon Panetta, the politically-adept director of the CIA. Though nominally his boss, Blair lost the battle which was over his desire to chose some of the chief US intelligence officers abroad, a post that has traditionally gone to the CIA station chief.

That dispute became so heated that even the vice-president, Joe Biden, failed to resolve it and in the end Obama stepped in and sided with Panetta.

Following the Christmas Day bomb attempt, in which Umar Farouq Abdulmuttalab allegedly managed to board a plane bound for Detroit carrying explosives, Blair made a number of comments that proved awkward. He said that the suspect should not have been interviewed by FBI agents after his arrest, which angered administration officials who had been portraying the attempted bombing as a criminal matter.

He also referred to a new body, the high-value interrogation group, implying it should have been involved in the questioning even though in fact it was not yet in operation. Terrorism continues to be the most sensitive political issued faced by the president in the wake of 9/11, as any sign of weakness or incompetence is likely to be seized on by the Republicans as evidence that Obama is failing to protect Americans from danger.

Blair has an impeccable CV. A retired admiral from a six-generation naval family, he was a Rhodes scholar in Oxford with Bill Clinton and served as military liaison to the CIA. But despite his credentials he appeared to lack the political cunning needed to make a success of a fiendishly difficult job.

The Guardian

May 21, 2010
Ex-NY police chief Kerik guilty

Former New York City police chief Bernard Kerik has pleaded guilty to lying to the White House, tax evasion and corruption charges, in a plea deal.

Mr Kerik, who was police commissioner at the time of the 9/11 attacks, had been due to stand trial next week.

He had his bail revoked two weeks ago for passing on secret pre-trial documents and has been in prison since.

He made false statements to the White House in 2004 while being considered for a job as homeland security chief.

Mr Kerik made his eight guilty pleas at a court in White Plains, New York state.

The admissions are part of a plea bargain designed to resolve three pending criminal trials on 15 federal counts. Mr Kerik had previously denied all charges.

He faces sentencing in February next year.

National hero

In court, Judge Stephen Robinson warned Mr Kerik that he could face up to 61 years in prison for the offences to which he was pleading guilty.

Under the plea bargain, the prosecution has suggested the former police commissioner be sentenced to between 27 and 33 months in jail.

Mr Kerik told the court he had given up his right to appeal. He has also agreed to file amended tax returns and pay restitution.

As well as making false statements to the White House and other federal officials, Mr Kerik admitted accepting a $250,000 (£151,000) payback in the form of apartment renovations from a company to which he gave a city contract.

He also admitted tax crimes including failing to report more than $500,000 (£302,000) in taxable income between 1999 and 2004.

Mr Kerik had been hailed as a national hero following the 9/11 terror attacks and was nominated for the post of the head of the Department of Homeland Security under the Bush administration in 2004.

But he withdrew his name from consideration for the role after he was accused of failing to pay taxes, and of having extramarital affairs.

BBC

November 5, 2009