Obama kills American hostage

[SFLiberal]

President Obama killed American hostage Warren Weinstein, who had been held captive by al Quada since Aug 11, 2011 and a fellow Italian hostage when he ordered a drone strike on American aL Quada spokesman Adam Gadahn in January of this year.  Obama persoanlly approves drones strikes that target Americans and publiclly said so when Anwar al-Awlaki, the U.S.-born Yemeni cleric and senior member of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, was killed in a CIA strike in September 2011.

Nice job Barack....

[Scrapper]

You're an idiot.  Plain and simple.  

[Valuesize]

So it seems a common practice of these lunatics to keep their hostages as well as their woman and children in and around the compounds they use to meet as a way of protecting themselves. Why? Because they know we try our best not to kill the innocent. From what I understand, those doing the surveillance on these target spend hours and hours for weeks or months watching the comings and goings, trying to avoid getting in this situation. For the lunatics? worst case scenario is just what happened here, they're dead and we get egg on our face.

Do I have it wrong? If not, why do I not hear the president, spokespersons, "experts" or anyone else on any news stations bring this fact up. 

[bbqboy]

Are you talking about the middle east, or the miner's standoff in Jokeo?
The tactics sound similar.

[Valuesize]

Balochistan, British India. 

[SFLiberal]

Balochistan, British India. 

That area would be better of if it was still under British rule.

[SFLiberal]

So it seems a common practice of these lunatics to keep their hostages as well as their woman and children in and around the compounds they use to meet as a way of protecting themselves. Why? Because they know we try our best not to kill the innocent. From what I understand, those doing the surveillance on these target spend hours and hours for weeks or months watching the comings and goings, trying to avoid getting in this situation. For the lunatics? worst case scenario is just what happened here, they're dead and we get egg on our face.

Do I have it wrong? If not, why do I not hear the president, spokespersons, "experts" or anyone else on any news stations bring this fact up. 

That's why a legitimate investigation need to be done to determine what kind of surveillance was done and how did it happen.  Obama gives personal approve on any drone strikes that involve American citizens, so what was he told?  Did he give the go-ahead knowing there was hostages there or was the intelligence bad.  We will never no the truth unfortunately.  We can't even get the truth on the IRS, Benghazi, Fast and Furious, missing State Dept emails, or anything else.

[tvguy]

So it seems a common practice of these lunatics to keep their hostages as well as their woman and children in and around the compounds they use to meet as a way of protecting themselves. Why? Because they know we try our best not to kill the innocent. From what I understand, those doing the surveillance on these target spend hours and hours for weeks or months watching the comings and goings, trying to avoid getting in this situation. For the lunatics? worst case scenario is just what happened here, they're dead and we get egg on our face.

Do I have it wrong? If not, why do I not hear the president, spokespersons, "experts" or anyone else on any news stations bring this fact up. 

SFLiberalThat's why a legitimate investigation need to be done to determine what kind of surveillance was done and how did it happen.  Obama gives personal approve on any drone strikes that involve American citizens, so what was he told?  Did he give the go-ahead knowing there was hostages there or was the intelligence bad.  We will never no the truth unfortunately.  We can't even get the truth on the IRS, Benghazi, Fast and Furious, missing State Dept emails, or anything else.

So you admit you don't know jack shit but that didn't matter when you wrote the absurd title for this thread.

[GPnative]

Obama accepted responsibility, the buck stops with him...the title fits.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: As president and as commander-in-chief, I take full responsibility for all our counterterrorism operations, including the one that inadvertently took the lives of Warren and Giovanni. I profoundly regret what happened.

[tvguy]

Obama accepted responsibility, the buck stops with him...the title fits.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: As president and as commander-in-chief, I take full responsibility for all our counterterrorism operations, including the one that inadvertently took the lives of Warren and Giovanni. I profoundly regret what happened.

 
  I don't remember anyone saying Jimmy Carter killed eight of our US soldiers when he tried a rescue attempt that also failed.

I know Obama took responsibility but IMO that's not even close to saying HE KILLED the hostages.

If we want to go that route  than we can also say every president we have ever had in any war killed innocent women and children.

[Hugo]

This is nothing but unfortunate collateral damage. Barely worthy of being any kind of news story, much less an "anti-Obama" news story.

[Snail]

This is nothing but unfortunate collateral damage.  Barely worthy of being any kind of news story, much less an "anti-Obama" news story.

That is exactly right. Someone couldn't wait for a real scandal or misstep so they built an anti Obama story out an unfortunate incident. 

[SFLiberal]

Obama accepted responsibility, the buck stops with him...the title fits.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: As president and as commander-in-chief, I take full responsibility for all our counterterrorism operations, including the one that inadvertently took the lives of Warren and Giovanni. I profoundly regret what happened.

 
  I don't remember anyone saying Jimmy Carter killed eight of our US soldiers when he tried a rescue attempt that also failed.

I know Obama took responsibility but IMO that's not even close to saying HE KILLED the hostages.

If we want to go that route  than we can also say every president we have ever had in any war killed innocent women and children.

A lot of people on this very forum repeatedly said Obama killed Bin Laden  If he killed OBL, he killed these hostages.  He has said he personally authorizes the drone strikes that target Americans and that strike was targeting an American.  Can't have it both ways.....

[Valuesize]

I'm confused... Who was the American being targeted? 

[tornado]

What say, forum members, how many will join me in nominating Oblunder for another peace prize?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/03...08815.html
Obama Told Aides He's 'Really Good At Killing People,' New Book 'Double Down' Claims

A new book on the 2012 presidential campaign claims that President Barack Obama told aides that he is "really good at killing people."

According to Mark Halperin and John Heilemann, the authors of Double Down: Game Change 2012, Obama made the comment while discussing drone strikes last year. CNN's Peter Hamby noted the anecdote in his review of the book for the Washington Post.

While the White House has not commented on the president's alleged remarks, senior Obama adviser Dan Pfeiffer on Sunday brushed off, but did not dispute, other reports from the book, including that campaign officials weighed replacing Vice President Joe Biden with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the Democratic ticket.

"The president is always frustrated about leaks," Pfeiffer said on ABC's "This Week." "I haven't talked to him about this book. I haven't read it. He hasn't read it. But he hates leaks."

The quote comes in the context of both the drone program and the killing of Osama bin Laden by a special forces strike force. The passage also specifically references the death of another al Qaeda leader, Anwar al-Awlaki, who was killed by a CIA drone strike in Yemen on Sept. 30, 2011.

Obama didn't need to run through this preamble. Everyone knew the litany of his achievements. Foremost on that day, with the fresh news about al-Awlaki, it seemed the president was pondering the drone program that he had expanded so dramatically and with such lethal results, as well as the death of Bin Laden, which was still resonating worldwide months later. "Turns out I'm really good at killing people," Obama said quietly, "Didn't know that was gonna be a strong suit of mine."

Al-Awlaki's 16-year-old son, Abdulrahman, who was an American citizen, was killed in a separate drone strike two weeks after his father.

"My grandson was killed by his own government," the teenager's grandfather Nasser al-Awlaki wrote in a New York Times op-ed in July. "The Obama administration must answer for its actions and be held accountable."

Obama, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009, has overseen the expansion of the CIA's targeted killing program, which the Bureau of Investigative Journalism estimates has killed between 2,528 and 3,648 individuals in Pakistan since 2004. That organization also estimates that between 416 and 948 of those killed in drone strikes were civilians -- an estimate disputed by the Obama administration.

Among those civilians, according to Amnesty International, was a Pakistani grandmother killed alongside 18 civilian laborers in a 2012 strike. The grandmother's family came to Washington, D.C., last month to testify before Congress and urge an end to drone warfare.

Despite the president's pledge to be more transparent about the drone program, the administration has continued to face criticism for its secrecy on the legal case for the strikes.

The Huffington Post's Matt Sledge reported last month that a coalition of human rights and journalism groups is putting pressure on the administration to release the opinions that underpin the program.

"While the government has an obligation to protect properly and appropriately classified information, democracy does not thrive when our national security programs and the intelligence community's actions are shrouded in secrecy," the groups wrote in the letter.

The groups hope the Obama administration will take the concrete step of instructing the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to release the legal opinions that provide the foundation for the U.S.' drone war and the NSA's surveillance operations.

In a May speech at the National Defense University, Obama defended the use of drones.

"Let us remember that the terrorists we are after target civilians, and the death toll from their acts of terrorism against Muslims dwarfs any estimate of civilian casualties from drone strikes," Obama said.

[tvguy]

I'm confused... Who was the American being targeted? 

It aint you.

[tvguy]

Obama accepted responsibility, the buck stops with him...the title fits.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: As president and as commander-in-chief, I take full responsibility for all our counterterrorism operations, including the one that inadvertently took the lives of Warren and Giovanni. I profoundly regret what happened.

 
  I don't remember anyone saying Jimmy Carter killed eight of our US soldiers when he tried a rescue attempt that also failed.

I know Obama took responsibility but IMO that's not even close to saying HE KILLED the hostages.

If we want to go that route  than we can also say every president we have ever had in any war killed innocent women and children.

A lot of people on this very forum repeatedly said Obama killed Bin Laden  If he killed OBL, he killed these hostages.  He has said he personally authorizes the drone strikes that target Americans and that strike was targeting an American.  Can't have it both ways.....

Hugo said it clearly. YOU want to use this as an attempt to bash Obama which is why you phrased the thread title the way you did.
It was an unfortunate mistake that goes with the territory when you use deadly force. And if someone said "Obama kills Ben Laden" as a title to a thread that is equally absurd.
Equally absurd is your defense that someone else did it so I did too.

But I think the truth here is that you want to makes this about Obama and never mind our military experts who did the research , surveillance and carried out the mission.

I'll go one step farther and say that if the president was Reagan or any Bush the thread title would not be worded the way it is.

[Cuzz]

This is nothing but unfortunate collateral damage.  Barely worthy of being any kind of news story, much less an "anti-Obama" news story.

Good god man! We agree on something! Unfortunate certainly, and my sympathies go out to the hostage's families but shit inevitably happens in war zones. And that's all this was.

[Scrapper]

This is nothing but unfortunate collateral damage.  Barely worthy of being any kind of news story, much less an "anti-Obama" news story.

I agree.  I'm shocked that you believe it and posted it... but good on you. I definitely agree.