Late last Friday evening, word got out the Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi, the US Marine being held in Mexico for taking a wrong turn at the border, had been released. And indeed he has.
Welcome Home Sgt. Tahmooressi!
Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi
While we are certainly thrilled to have Sgt. Tahmooressi back home, we can only imagine what pain and suffering our beloved US Marine was exposed to during what I consider to be a kidnapping. There is no doubt Sgt. Tahmooressi will face hurdles as he tries to move forward in his life, and we offer our full support and best wishes in his endeavor.
The citizenry of our nation should be appalled that this whole ordeal ever happened in the first place. For a citizen, much less a Marine, to be held in Mexico in the fashion he was by our supposed friend and neighbor Mexico is very troubling.
Of much more concern is that apparent lack of attention paid to this matter by our Commander in Chief, who seems to have done next to nothing to persuade the Mexican authorities to release the innocent Marine. One might surmise, that with all the help we give Mexico on an annual basis, President Obama would have a great negotiating position to fight for his release. By all accounts, and I will stand corrected should information come out to the contrary, Obama was not willing to engage Mexico regarding the release of Sgt. Tahmooressi.
Florida Senator Bill Nelson did not appear to be concerned about the plight of Sgt. Tahmooressi either, troubling since Sgt. Tahmooressi is from Weston down on the west coast of Florida. How sad.
Perhaps the strongest advocate for the release of Sgt. Tahmooressi was FOX News Greta Van Susteren, who continued to present his story on FOX News Channel while most media outlets buried the story. Others of note who I know helped keep the story alive were Mark Levin, Glenn Beck, Oliver North, Sean Hannity and Sarah Palin.
Rep. Tom Cotton (R-AR), Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) and Duncan Hunter (R:CA) worked hard to get Sgt. Tahmooressi released. Those who were present and most helpful in his release were Sgt. Robert Buchanan, Rep. Matt Salmon (R-AZ.), former governor Bill Richardson (D:NM), Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA) and former Marine and talk show host Montel Williams, who is among the most vocal advocate for the veterans of this nation.
It is worth noting that Sgt. Tahmooressi's mother, Jill Tahmooressi, worked tirelessly for the release of her son. Tonight, they are together enjoying a beautiful evening here in The Sunshine State. God Bless them both!
One of the seemingly diminishing list of good guys, Rep. Trey Gowdy, (R:SC), informed us last week that "explosive" hearings on Benghazi were coming this week. The testimony before The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee of three State Department "whistle blowers" begins on Wednesday, and although the administration has had a few days to prepare, the conclusions drawn could, and should, leave the Obama administration staggered.
Republican South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, who on rare occasions can be quite an asset to our republic, placed the following on Facebook this afternoon. "I think the dam is about to break on Benghazi. We're going to find a system failure before, during, and after the attacks. We're going to find political manipulation seven weeks before an election. We're going to find people asleep at the switch when it comes to the State Department, including Hillary Clinton. The bond that has been broken between those who serve us in harms way and the government they serve is huge — and to me every bit as damaging as Watergate."
CBS News investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson has been the leader, by far, among the mainstream media in reporting the events of Benghazi, and finally, it appears her colleagues over at CBS have seen the light, as indicated by the devastating investigative report CBS News filed Sunday.
You need have been Lieutenant Colombo to recognize the events in Benghazi were a terrorist attack, and not a reaction by street gangs to a YouTube video nobody saw as put forth by the Obama administration, inclusive of both former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama.
These were lies, despicable cold hearted lies, told to the surviving family members and the American people. To add minor insult to major injury, the filmmaker of the video was promptly arrested and remains in jail. Even The Washington Post recognizes the mistruths. In fact, unless you were part of the Obama propaganda team or having been residing under a rock, you knew it was a terrorist attack.
There were many in what could be considered the alternative media who spoke the truth about Benghazi from the get go. The usual suspects, including Sean Hannity and Mark Levin, stood firm in discrediting the portrayal presented by the propaganda of the administration and the lap dog media.
Glenn Beck, within just days of the attack, laid out the entire case of what really went on in Benghazi, and why, and we concurred. Along with his media arm The Blaze, Beck continues to be out front on Benghazi, and for that matter, most other issues.
Beck speculated that gun running was going on, and we agree. Although, due to the inability of our investigative staff to drive the nail home on this thus far, we cannot present a concrete case, we have noted activity centered around an upstate New York location being central to the air shipment of guns to Russian locations, which translated, are part of a path of guns making their way to Syrian rebels associated with, if not operated by, the Muslim Brotherhood.
Rush Limbaugh eloquently summarized the sad state of affairs of the current landsacape of Uncle Sam, being managed and operated by the blame America first crowd, in a blistering series of comments on top rated nationally syndicated radio show this afternoon:
One more thing about this Benghazi stuff, because the fireworks are gonna start tomorrow. But in a sane and normal era or world -- and I mean this, folks, from the bottom of my substantial and loudly beating heart (Ba-boom! Ba-boom!) -- what happened in Benghazi would finish the public career of Hillary Clinton. Any secretary of state, any secretary of defense who in supposedly peacetime -- peacetime they wanted us to believe existed! We all know we're not at peace with Al-Qaeda.
They tried to make everybody believe we're at peace. They had taken care of this enemy. They had killed bin Laden. They had gotten rid of Bush. They had made us loved and respected again. Four Americans dead, and not an effort made to save them. In any other administration, any other time, any other era, whoever was in charge of that and allowed that to happen and then offered the excuse, "Well, what difference does it make now?" or "Well, we couldn'ta gotten there in time," would have been gone.
They would have been publicly humiliated and gone. Deservedly so!
Things got ugly when the left went after Reagan during the Iran-Contra hearings, with all the networks going with wall to wall daytime coverage, postponing General Hospital and the like for weeks. It was big, with Ollie North and Fawn Hall and such. Benghazi; nothing to see here.
There are many outstanding questions about Benghazi beyond why the Obama administration failed to act in adequate fashion in efforts to rescue our countrymen. Why was Amb. Stevens meeting with the representative from Turkey? Did the discussion center around gun running? Or perhaps, should you wish to explore a conspiracy theory, was Amb. Stevens set up by our government to be abducted to set up an exchange of prisoners paving the way for the release of the "Blind Sheikh" and the effort went awry?
Obviously, the hearings have the potential to be blockbuster. We have not, and will not, ever forget about our countrymen who were left to die without the backup of our government, and we demand accountability and justice.
We will find out during these hearings if we are nation of laws or a nation of corrupt governmental elites who rule along with a lap dog media over a citizenry of lemmings operating outside the system of checks and balances constructed by our founding fathers during the founding of our representative republic.
At this moment, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta says signs point to Syria using weapons of mass destruction, in this case chemical weapons, on their own people. The uprising in Syria, in large measure, has been regrettably aided by The United States in levels extending beyond appeasement.
Larry Kudlow of CNBC chats with John Batchelor on the Syrian crisis.
Starting with speeches around the world proclaiming the transgressions of America, President Obama set out to right these perceived wrongs. As part of this effort, Obama implemented uprisings in the middle east, toppling enemies we knew for those unknown, as least by most. Although Obama spoke publicly about the enhanced chances for democracy and freedom, Obama privately knew those positioned to fill the vacuum, the Muslim Brotherhood, would advocate, or install by force, Shari-ah Law, as is currently the case in Egypt.
But let us regress. Although Syria has a weapons program, are the majority of the weapons of mass destruction currently possessed by Syria the same weapons we never found in Iraq?
Indeed they are.
No longer politically expedient to admonish George W. Bush for going to war with Iraq on false assumptions of the existence of these weapons, it should come as no surprise that stories shining light on the weapons transfer from Iraq to Syria are emerging in frequency. While many reports are discussing recently discovered pathways of weapon movement from Iraq to Syria, hidden behind the discussion is the transfer during the postponement of the invasion of Iraq that France President Jacque Chirac, a dishonest broker who worked against US interests, bought.
The second to none editorial page of Investors Business Daily leads the way as usual in presenting and detailing the truth. IBD, in an editorial yesterday, continues to present the facts even if few Americans are willing to absorb it.
Although I remain incensed regarding the antics used by the opponents of President Bush, most notably regarding the propaganda regrading the weapons, the discussion pales in comparison to what is happening now.
Benghazi, who most Americans think is some folk singer, should have been a story that would detonate and destroy the Obama administration. There was supposed to be a presser by a handful of Republicans, however, these GOP members snatched defeat from the jaws of victory as they did not want to seem as playing politics and not caring for the victims as super storm Sandy slapped the northeast.
However, the events in Benghazi supersede politics. Four Americans, including our Ambassador to Egypt and two NAVY Seals, were murdered. The Ambassador, and the Seals, requested help on various occasions but were turned down. Although many have called out Obama on this horrendous act of war against the Untied States, perhaps the commentary by Jeanine Piro on FOX News Channel hit him the hardest, and appropriately so.
As previously noted on the blog, Ambassador Stevens, who inexplicably was meeting with a Turkish contact in a dangerous area outside of our embassy, is thought to have been working to secure weapons. The weapons Stephens is thought to have been attempting to corral are weapons the United States, under Obama, had been supplying rebels in Egypt and Libya.
Recent reports, including from The New York Times, give confirmation of the central theme of the story, which is gun running by the Obama administration. Although not an optimal source, some strong information on this subject can be found over at blog site Lame Cherry. Regrettably, these weapons have gotten loose and have fallen into hands of those who aim America harm. Imagine that.
Although the issues surrounding Benghazi, in which a US Ambassador was murdered for the first time in over 30 years and an administration appears to be running guns seemingly without Congressional approval, seems to be a story which would dwarf Watergate, apparently no journalists are interested in winning a Pulitzer Prize.
On the heels of winning the election, the Obama administration is embolden by a new found sense of arrogance. With a complicit media in their hip pocket, why should they worry? What could happen with some weapons, perhaps some of mass destruction, loose in the hands of Al-Queda, Hamas or other groups or countries who wish us harm?
Well, take a listen to Dennis Kucinich (D:OH), of all people, who is asking some very alarming questions and not getting any answers:
This was a debate needed at the time in 2011, and one critically needed right now. Kucinich rhetorically asked who should be held accountable, and the answer is President Obama.
Unfortunately, the media is criminally negligent in coverage of the Obama administration. The Democrats are in support of the actions of Obama, as are the Progressives in both parties, who have been working toward reducing the superpower status of the US for quite some time. The GOP members in strong opposition are few in numbers and fearful of being labeled an extremist. See Rep. Allen West, (R:FL).
It is far time for someone to step forward, and take on those in power.
This type of thing used to be a big deal, for I recall missing General Hospital for days on end while a Congressional panel hammered Col. Oliver North. However, while America wonders who is on the next Dancing With The Stars cast and enjoying the ever expanding entitlements coming their way, lies are being presented as truth, unrecognizable to the "low information voters" who re-elected Obama.
I hope and pray America, and the media, wake up before a catastrophic tragedy occurs. While the likelihood of such en event favors a financial issue, that may be welcomed against the possibility of a weapon of mass destruction altering life in America forever.
Should such an event occur, while Kucinich wonders whose fault it would be, I would have no doubt who to hold to accountability.
BAHL is a REALTOR, Real Estate Investor and Residential Real Estate Appraiser in Orlando. He holds a BS degree in Economics from Florida State University.
