As President Obama Clearly Condones Lying to Congress, Why Should His Rationale for War Be Believed?

[xocet]

Now, 170 days after the fact, DNI Clapper is still DNI in spite of his direct lie to Senator Wyden.

Given that this behavior is, at the very least, tolerated by the Obama Administration, what credibility, if any, does the Obama Administration have remaining?

[HooptieWagon]

1. Exactly.

And given all the civilian deaths by Obama's drones, he's in no position to claim a humanitarian moral high ground either.
He made himself a bed of lies, civilian deaths, covering up for war and Wall St criminals, spying, and backing corporate interests...now he has to lie in it. I see no reason to believe a word he says, nor give him the benefit of doubt.

[jsr]

2. Excellent point.

[Thinkingabout]

3. It seems like there are a lot of folks here condones lying so what is new here.

[MotherPetrie]

4. K&R

[rhett o rick]

5. The only problem with your OP that I personally have is that it assumes that

Pres Obama is in charge of the NSA. I believe the NSA, FBI and CIA are in charge of Obama.

[alittlelark]

8. +10,000

[another_liberal]

12. Hmmmm?

I have to admit that if the President does go through with this otherwise pointless attack, what you say would seem to be true.

[DeSwiss]

13. Been 'a sayin.....

They kept trying to tell us. Ike. Then JFK. And Senators Frank Church and Daniel Inouye. Then the revelations seemed to just stop. Maybe they were in control now. It all sounds so absurd, doesn't it? No one wants to even consider it. And if you repeat it, you're just another crazy CT. That's the beauty of it. It's a self-correcting system of oversight integrity which relies principally upon its victims to protect its existence through their own ignorance and incredulity. And through the constant use of ridicule against those able to see things more objectively and realistically, they maintain a consistent hard outer shell made of incredulous, unknowing people. Because it is understood in our society that being accused of being stupid is the one thing an truly ignorant person hates to be accused of the most.

~DeSwiss

"Only puny secrets need protection. Big discoveries are protected by public incredulity." ~Marshall McLuhan

[rhett o rick]

20. .

[Doctor_J]

29. That's it, r o r

Look at how similarly this presidency has tracked with the previous, and it's hard not to conclude that "someone else" is really driving

[rhett o rick]

31. It makes a lot of sense. When Obama became President, the spy agencies didnt all of a sudden

become honest. He didnt have a choice, stick with the authoritarian run spy agencies or take the heat for a terrorist strike.

The same holds true with economics. He had to stick with the existing programs or the banksters would bring our economy down (not on purpose of course) and Obama would take the heat.

[ProSense]

6. Believe it or not

there were chemical attacks in Syria.

Amnesty International on use of chemical weapons in Syria
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023555922

The UN will issue its report in a few weeks, but they have gathered the evidence.

U.N. experts prepare to leave Syria, chemical probe needs time
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/30/us-syria-crisis-us-idUSBRE97T0P120130830

The information Amnesty and the UN gathered, the victims doctors examined (including DWB http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/press/release.cfm?id=7029&cat=press-release), and the casualties all represent evidence.

[truedelphi]

7. Do they use the same people they used back when the

"Kuwaiti babies are being thrown out of incubators" lie was being told? Or do they use different people?

And even if this is all true, please mention even one war that we have fought for "humanitarian purposes," that didn't end up with over a million people killed... (outside of Grenada.)

Vietnam - six million killed or wounded or left homeless.

Iraq - over 1.4 million dead, with 4 million more forced to become refugees. (Many of those refugees are now in Syria.)

[KittyWampus]

9. Ah, and DU'ers keep saying nobody is denying there a 1000 dead civilians due to chemical weapons.

And yet, there you are.

Congratulations. Even World Net Daily admits it happened. LOL!

[another_liberal]

11. What makes you think our cruise missiles will improve things?

The International Red Cross in Syria warns that any attack by the United States and its allies will only make helping Syria's innocent civilians even harder. If anything we should be air-dropping food and medicine not missiles and explosives:

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/8/30/icrc-military-strikeswillworsensyrianciviliansuffering.html

[rhett o rick]

21. The only people saying it are those that you put words in their mouths.

The more open-minded among us have doubts when we are told by our government to trust them this time. This time the intelligence is honest.

I hope your sweet "LOL" doesnt mean that you hope you are right.

[Bluenorthwest]

25. They all take it lightly and with great levity, it's 'dead babies' then 'lol' and 'rofl'

and it is definitive of the quality of the thinking involved.

[rhett o rick]

27. The only arguments are strawmen. Put words in your mouth and then attack you for it. nm

[KittyWampus]

34. I'm not the one comparing and empty vial to 1000 dead civilians.

[KittyWampus]

35. Wrong. You just don't mind DU'ers denying it outright or pussyfooting around it.

And the fact some are spouting FAR right wing rags to support their assertions is disgusting.

But HEY! Greenwald isn't a liar. Right?

[arely staircase]

32. Don't you get it? Both Bush's lied so therefore Obama is a liar.

It is simple logic.

[Turborama]

15. Here's one...

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosovo_War

[avaistheone1]

17. Here's what I believe:

Obama lies.
http://news.firedoglake.com/2013/08/21/obama-lied-nsa-scans-75-of-american-internet-traffic/


Amnesty International track record has been less than stellar on the human rights atrocities. They screwed up badly on Gulf War 1 and their incorrect analysis promoted our entry into that war.

Following the war, human rights investigators attempted to confirm Nayirah's story and could find no witnesses or other evidence to support it. Amnesty International, which had fallen for the story, was forced to issue an embarrassing retraction. Nayirah herself was unavailable for comment. "This is the first allegation I've had that she was the ambassador's daughter," said Human Rights Caucus co-chair John Porter. "Yes, I think people ... were entitled to know the source of her testimony." When journalists for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation asked Nasir al-Sabah for permission to question Nayirah about her story, the ambassador angrily. refused.
http://www.prwatch.org/books/tsigfy10.html

[Doctor_J]

30. Yep, and Saddam gassed his own people too

of course when that happened he was an ally of the BFEE.

[BlueStreak]

10. No matter how many times I watch that, it is still shocking

to see Clapper step up and just lie so blatantly. There is no possibility he misunderstood the question. There is no possibility he didn't know the facts. He just lied, straight up. He had a year to think about his answer and still just plain old lied.

And he is still Obama's man. I honestly expected that Obama would have fired him. And where is Congress? Why have they not found him in contempt of Congress?

[another_liberal]

14. Perhaps he has the goods on too many in Congress?

Perhaps he has the goods on our President as well?

[Scuba]

18. Ding, ding, ding. We have a winner.

[AzDar]

16. K & R

[JustAnotherGen]

19. I don't know the answer

But perhaps he should just go on vacation for the next three years.

[randome]

22. What do you not get about Clapper's testimony?

He was sworn to not answer those kind of questions yet was then asked in public about it and screwed up his answer.

If he had said nothing, everyone would have interpreted that as a 'Yes', which he was forbidden from saying.

I have no problem calling out someone for malfeasance but before I jump on the bandwagon, I will give all alternative explanations an airing. If, after that, malfeasance still shows then it is a solid showing, from my frame of reference.

If something can't get past reasonable explanations in my mind, then it does not survive as an 'outrage'.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]There is nothing you can't do if you put your mind to it.
Nothing.[/center][/font][hr]

[reusrename]

28. The Nuremberg defense.

He was just following orders.

That's the whole problem that you don't want to face.

He was most likely ordered to lie to Congress.

Are you unable to process right and wrong?

[rhett o rick]

33. That's all wrong. If he'd sworn not to answer then he shouldnt have. But after he lied

Sen Wyden asked him specifically if the question/answer were confidential and Clapper said no. Why didnt Clapper "clarify" his answers to Congress instead of to a reporter?

In his statement to the reporter he admitted to lying claiming is what the least lie or some such crap. He didnt provide that information to Congress that could have cross examined him. He fed the info to a reporter.

His lie was 100 times worse than Clinton's lie yet you are willing to let him, a Republican, get away with it.

Do you side with Democratic Sen Wyden or Republican Clapper (not elected)? I side with the Democrat.

[kenny blankenship]

23. "Once a liar..." - a fair point.

[bemildred]

24. Yep, that's the problem, Pols and media shills all lie their asses off, it's their main job skill.

So why believe anything? How are you supposed to tell when they are sincere and when they are lying to us for our own good?

[Bluenorthwest]

26. Not to mention the lack of accountability applied to the Bushco lies and those who accepted them

and used them to make the worst decision the US has ever made in invading Iraq to find those WMDs which Kerry said were a threat to us just before he voted Yes to invasion.
The problem in that aggressive protection of those who did wrong is that there is zero reason to trust a government that believes it has the right not only to lie, but to be promoted even after the lies are found out and the vast cost of the lies in lives and treasure are seen to be far worse than we'd imagined.
Kerry bought Bush's lies, sold them to us, refused to hold Bush accountable and now says 'I can't show you the facts but believe me'. Of course there being no repercussions for lying, truth is just an accessory and option.