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White House unravels from within

DieHardBrownsFan

By DieHardBrownsFan
in POLITICAL DISCUSSION

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jbluhm86 Enthusiast

jbluhm86

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On 12/27/2018 at 11:48 AM, calfoxwc said:

Pres Trump is bound to have more turnover - with the UNPRECEDENTED open belligerence, harrassment and threats, even in public,

to WH employees, and their FAMILIES.

A Blue Wave of Violence and Death Threats Against Republicans ...

 
Oct 8, 2018 - A Blue Wave of Violence and Death Threats Against Republicans ... numbers and health information of two of the senators' children as well:.
 
Jun 28, 2018 - ... of a Republican -- or, to be more specific, a Republican's children. ... Authorities say a Florida man has been arrested after threatening Rep.
 
May 24, 2018 - Anti-Trump forces threaten lawmakers' lives in name of #Resistance ... Most of the targets have been Republican lawmakers, who are in the ...

 

 

 

On 12/27/2018 at 11:50 AM, calfoxwc said:

Death threats target Brett Kavanaugh's family, Christine Blasey Ford

 
Sep 20, 2018 - A steady stream of violent threats have targeted those involved in the ... buildings Thursday to protest Republicans' handling of the sexual assault ... "May you, your husband and your kids burn in hell," one message read.

 

On 12/27/2018 at 11:51 AM, calfoxwc said:

https://wtop.com/congress/2018/10/i-own-everything-senators-childrens-health-social-security-info-threatened-in-email/

 

On 12/27/2018 at 9:15 PM, calfoxwc said:

as we depart from the previous tawdry fake newsburst above,

back at Real America Reality Ranch:

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=11&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwju8JLTucHfAhXI7oMKHeyYCtc4ChAWMAB6BAgJEAE&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fnews%2F2018-12-27%2Ffake-news-trump-did-not-expose-covert-seal-team-iraq-say-special-forces-vets&usg=AOvVaw0w7O-jjzBOLL5YlgkZuobC

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Thu, 12/27/2018 - 15:36
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It's the latest outrage fail after over a week of "outrage!" including Trump's announcing the pullout of all American forces from Syria, a major reduction of troops from Afghanistan eventually leading to a full withdrawal, and his telling a seven-year old that belief in Santa is "marginal" at that age. During Trump's Wednesday surprise Christmas visit to US troops in Iraq, he posed for a photo op with a Navy SEAL team deployed to Iraq; and after flying out of Baghdad posted the video to Twitter, yet the video was uploaded before the SEAL team members' faces could be blurred out to protect their identities according to protocol. 

.@FLOTUS Melania and I were honored to visit our incredible troops at Al Asad Air Base in Iraq. GOD BLESS THE U.S.A.! pic.twitter.com/rDlhITDvm1

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 26, 2018

This immediately prompted howls and headlines that Trump exposed "covert" and "classified" ops from pundits and the media; however, a number of military and special forces experts, including some members of American special forces themselves quickly pointed out this was hugely exaggerated given that SEAL team 5 — the unit Trump posed with while they wore full combat gear and night vision goggles — is a "white" unit (meaning not classified), whose deployment with Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force Iraq (CJSOTF-I) is public knowledge.

 

On 12/27/2018 at 9:17 PM, calfoxwc said:

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-12-27/fake-news-trump-did-not-expose-covert-seal-team-iraq-say-special-forces-vets

Task & Purpose notes that while photographing deployed special forces troops is not ideal, it in no way constitutes revealing "covert ops" as many of the headlines are now claiming.

“Is it a secret that these guys are out there in that part of the world? No,” a defense official told Task & Purpose on condition of anonymity. “It’s been a little more sensationalized than we would’ve hoped.”

The military analysis site explains: 

As it stands, the vast majority missions carried out by U.S. special operations forces are non-statutory clandestine operations under Title 10 rather than explicitly (and legally) covert operations under Title 50; OPSEC, in the case of the former, is usually designed to conceal an operation for tactical purposes rather than fully embrace the level of plausible deniability usually referred to spies. In this context, the only true “covert” operation carried out by U.S. special operations forces was the SEAL Team 6 raid on Osama Bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in 2011.

Simply belonging to a SEAL Team doesn’t make your every move “covert,” especially if you’re hanging out in the DFAC during the commander-in-chief’s visit.

All of this is to say that if SEAL Team 5 was deployed to Iraq on a covert mission, there’s no way in hell anyone, including conventional U.S. forces, would likely know they were there. I mean, Lt. Lee, the SEAL chaplain, was identified as a member of SEAL Team 5 in the public pool report and photographed by Agence France-Presse. No commander on an actual “covert” mission would ever let that happen, no matter how amped they are to hang out with the commander-in-chief, given the gravity surrounding Title 50 activities; even letting personnel engage with the commander-in-chief in public completely negates the plausible deniability that supposedly comes with covert operations.

This may seem like a pedantic argument, but it’s an important one, especially for matters of civil-military engagement. But make no mistake: Revealing the identities of SOF personnel is still bad news, even if they’re not tasked with a real “covert” mission.

So ultimately we just witnessed another 24-hour Trump outrage news cycle dominated by total hype, extreme overstatement, and sensationalism driven by willed ignorance and reflexive anti-Trumping — all of which of course leads to further bad analysis. 

And we don't expect any mainstream media corrections to be issued after such deep investment in the fake story. 

 

On 12/28/2018 at 12:36 AM, calfoxwc said:

libs love false narratives that emotionally may sway other people to their cultish ways.

No workee.

 

12 hours ago, calfoxwc said:

so, once again, I'll list more than one link to tell the other side of the story.

https://taskandpurpose.com/trump-reveals-navy-seals-iraq

You may have heard that President Donald Trump recently posted a video revealing a "covert" Navy SEAL Team in Iraq, and well, that's kinda bullshit.

In a report titled "Donald Trump Twitter Account Video Reveals Covert U.S. Navy SEAL Deployment During Iraq Visit," Newsweek's James LaPorta noted that footage taken during Trump's confab with service members and published on his Twitter account appeared to show the president chatting with members of SEAL Team 5, whose presence in Iraq was previously unreported.

"After Air Force One left the Iraqi airspace, Trump posted a video to his Twitter account of his time spent with American forces during his visit to Iraq," Newsweek reported. "Lee Greenwood’s 'God Bless the USA,' plays over the video and shows the president and the first lady posing for pictures with service members that appear to be from SEAL Team Five. The special warfare operators are dressed in full battle gear and wearing night vision goggles. ... The video cuts to team members shaking the president’s hand before cutting to other special operations personnel and support troops."

 

The Newsweek article itself isn't completely off base. The Pentagon hardly posts pictures of SEALs to its official visual imagery portal anymore and rarely talks about special operations units or deployments over operational security concerns.

But the headline on the Newsweek article, with the term "covert," is what many people have taken issue with, and for good reason (it's worth noting here that most news organizations don't let authors choose their headlines, so this may not be LaPorta's fault).

"Is it a secret that these guys are out there in that part of the world? No," a defense official told Task & Purpose on condition of anonymity. "It’s been a little more sensationalized than we would've hoped."

"Covert" has a very specific definition under Title 50 of the United States Code, which makes it a matter of intelligence authority, focused primarily on the activities of state organs like the Central Intelligence Agency (with some input from the DoD); this is a direct contrast to Title 10 of the USC, which deals solely with military authority. Title 10 "is used colloquially to refer to DoD and military operations," as the Harvard National Security Journal puts it, while Title 50 "refers to intelligence agencies, intelligence activities, and covert action."

While the two authorities detailed under Titles 10 and 50 aren't mutually exclusive, forces operating under Title 10 are explicitly prohibited from carrying out covert operations, instead relegated to clandestine activities which involve "the tactical concealment of the activity" and don't require an explicit notification of Congress, according to an April 2018 Congressional Research Service report.

"By comparison, covert activities can be characterized as the strategic concealment of the United States’ sponsorship of activities that aim to effect change in the political, economic, military, or diplomatic behavior of an overseas target."

As it stands, the vast majority missions carried out by U.S. special operations forces are non-statutory clandestine operations under Title 10 rather than explicitly (and legally) covert operations under Title 50; OPSEC, in the case of the former, is usually designed to conceal an operation for tactical purposes rather than fully embrace the level of plausible deniability usually referred to spies. In this context, the only true "covert" operation carried out by U.S. special operations forces was the SEAL Team 6 raid on Osama Bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in 2011.

Simply belonging to a SEAL Team doesn't make your every move "covert," especially if you're hanging out in the DFAC during the commander-in-chief's visit.

All of this is to say that if SEAL Team 5 was deployed to Iraq on a covert mission, there's no way in hell anyone, including conventional U.S. forces, would likely know they were there. I mean, Lt. Lee, the SEAL chaplain, was identified as a member of SEAL Team 5 in the public pool report and photographed by Agence France-Presse. No commander on an actual "covert" mission would ever let that happen, no matter how amped they are to hang out with the commander-in-chief, given the gravity surrounding Title 50 activities; even letting personnel engage with the commander-in-chief in public completely negates the plausible deniability that supposedly comes with covert operations.

This may seem like a pedantic argument, but it's an important one, especially for matters of civil-military engagement. But make no mistake: Revealing the identities of SOF personnel is still bad news, even if they're not tasked with a real "covert" mission.

"Even during special operation demonstrations for congressional delegations or for the president or vice president, personnel either have their faces covered or their face is digitally blurred prior to a release to the general public,” as one DoD official told Newsweek. "I don't recall another time where special operation forces had to pose with their faces visible while serving in a war zone."

On the upside, at least nobody left a whiteboard with troop movements sitting in the background.

U.S. Special Operations Command and Naval Special Warfare Command did not respond to requests for comment from Task & Purpose.

 

12 hours ago, calfoxwc said:

No, Trump Didn't Reveal a 'Covert' Navy SEAL Team in Iraq | Military ...

 
17 hours ago - You may have heard that President Donald Trump recently posted a video revealing a "covert" ... No, Trump Didn't Reveal a 'Covert' Navy SEAL Team in Iraq ... "Is it a secret that these guys are out there in that part of the world? ... This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

 

12 hours ago, calfoxwc said:

for a more technical explanation of why the allegation is your usual fake news political cheapshot,

https://theaviationist.com/2018/12/27/no-they-probably-werent-secret-navy-seals-in-the-presidents-christmas-video/

Mainstream Media Caught in Case of Mistaken Identity in Christmas Twitter Video.

News stories around the world on Thursday, Dec. 27, 2018 reported that the U.S. President “… may have revealed the location of SEAL Team Five…” during his Christmas visit to Iraq this week. While the specific units shown in the video are not identified due to normal security protocols, the claims that the men are Navy SEALs are likely inaccurate.

The reports that appeared on the Newsweek.com, Rolling Stone and Daily Mail websites claimed that the U.S. President may have compromised the operational security of a naval special warfare team by publishing photos and video of the President and First Lady posing with members of “SEAL Team 5” and posting the video on Twitter. The photos and videos are from the U.S. President’s visit to Al Asad Air Base in Iraq on Wednesday.

.@FLOTUS Melania and I were honored to visit our incredible troops at Al Asad Air Base in Iraq. GOD BLESS THE U.S.A.! pic.twitter.com/rDlhITDvm1

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 26, 2018

 

The reports are partially inaccurate. Only one person appears briefly in the video wearing a Naval Special Warfare qualification insignia. He is seated at a table during what appears to be a meeting with the President.

Unidentified special operations team member wearing insignia different from U.S. Navy Special Warfare in the Christmas video with U.S. President. (Photo: Screen Grab TheRealDonaldTrump via Twitter)

Earlier in the video, the President and the First Lady are shown posing for photos and video with at least twelve men wearing uniforms and tactical equipment in the “AOR1” camouflage pattern that are used by several U.S. military special operations teams. While U.S. Naval Special Warfare (SEAL) teams have worn the AOR1 camouflage scheme, so do other U.S. military units including U.S. Air Force special operations teams.

The Wikipedia page for the U.S. Air Force Combat Control Team shows an archive photo of Kentucky Air National Guard Tech. Sgt. Phil Speck wearing an AOR1 uniform, while other archive photos widely published also show members of U.S. Air Force Special Operations wearing the AOR1 digital desert camouflage uniform.


 

Perhaps the key details the mainstream media missed in the video with the President are the older style night vision devices worn by the men in the video.
Members of the U.S. Navy’s special operations teams, especially operational SEAL teams deployed in the Middle East, have been photographed wearing the L-3 (Level 3) GPNVG-18-ANVIS Night Vision goggles. This device is readily identifiable by its four optical tubes. Most people are familiar with this device from its use during Operation Neptune’s Spear, the raid to capture Osama bin Laden.

The night vision devices shown in the Christmas video are an older two optical tube night vision device, most likely the less exotic, more common Harris AN/PVS-23 Night Vision Binocular System. This night vison optic is in use with Air Force special operations teams.

Another interesting detail in the video is that one of the men wearing a camouflage uniform posing with the President is wearing a unit patch from the U.S. Army 3rd Infantry Division. While unconfirmed, it is possible the person seen wearing the U.S. Army 3rd Infantry Division patch on the front of their body armor is a former member of the 3rd Division and is now serving in an Air Force Reserve special operations unit likely seen in this video.

While common operational security dictates that specific units are usually not identified in media showing U.S. forces deployed in an operational setting, it is almost a certainty that the men shown in the President’s Christmas video while visiting troops in Iraq were not members of a U.S. Navy Special Operations team.

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