More smears against Barack obama, this time in the form of an email that's been making the rounds of right wing and milblogs (winger blogs like this one even sexed it up for their readers...) but which has since been recanted by the author. From the Military Times:
The e-mail, signed by Capt. Jeffrey S. Porter at Bagram Airbase, characterized Obama’s July 19 visit with soldiers there as contrary to the positive portrayals of the mainstream press.
“As the soldiers where (sic) lined up to shake his hand he blew them off and didn’t say a word as he went into the conference room to meet the general,” the e-mail said.
Porter wrote that Obama then went straight to the base’s “Clamshell” or recreation facility to pose for “publicity pictures playing basketball” and “shunned the opportunity to talk to soldiers to thank them for their service. I swear we got more thanks from the NBA Basketball Players or the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders than from one of the Senators, who wants to be the President of the United States. I just don’t understand how anyone would want him to be our Commander-in-Chief. It was almost that he was scared to be around those that provide the freedom for him and our great country.”
Army Times sent an e-mail to Porter, a Utah Army National Guard member assigned to the 142nd Military Intelligence Battalion, asking if he could verify that he wrote the controversial e-mail and requesting an interview.
Porter’s reply declined the interview request, but said:
“I am writing this to ask that you delete my e-mail and not forward it, after checking my sources some of the information that was put out in my e-mail was wrong. This e-mail was meant only for my family. Please respect my wishes and delete the e-mail and if there are any blogs you have my e-mail portrayed on I would ask if you would take it down too.”
The reason for Porter's hasty, and nervous sounding retreat? The Army confirmed that Barack Obama never even visited the "clamshell" at Bagram Airbase, to work out, or play basketball there. That's according to Bagram spokesman Lt. Col. Rumi Nielson-Green, who called the email contents “inappropriate and factually incorrect,” and "added that such political commentary is barred for uniformed personnel," which means that he may have violated military regulations.
Home-state troops were invited to meet him, but his arrival was kept secret for security reasons.
“We were a bit delayed ... as he took time to shake hands, speak to troops and pose for photographs.”
The only place that Obama played basketball wasn't even in Afghanistan, it was days earlier in Kuwait, at the start of the trip (where Obama sunk that now famous three-pointer.) Porter had literally made the whole thing up. (Hat tip to the Carpetbagger Report))
More about Captain Porter, with a bit of embellishment from The Richmond Democrat blog, (whose post includes the entire text of the email, which was headlined "Hussein's visit to Afghanistan"):
Jeffrey S. Porter--a man who is obviously unfit to carry a commission in the armed forces of the United States, intended this false e-mail to be mass e-mailed anonymously so that Barack Obama would never get the opportunity to confront his false accuser. But Porter's wife made the mistake of forwarding the e-mail under his real name to friends and family, who soon forwarded it on to complete strangers. In only a few days, the e-mail was tracked back to Porter. When confronted by his superior officers, Porter admitted that the allegations he made in the e-mail were false.
Oops. And Tiff included her own name as well:
I don't know each of your personal political convictions, and apologize if anyone finds this offensive. I thought it was important enough to share.
This is Jeff's first hand view of Senator Obama.
Tiffany
Though she was less personable when contacted by the Army Times:
When contacted, Tiffany Porter who identified herself as his wife, said: “There were discrepancies in the e-mail, but I am not at liberty to say more.”
Porter made the same plea for deletion that he did to the Army Times to the Daily News' Mouth of the Potomac, which added this bit of detail on the young man's internal struggle:
An Army officer familiar with the incident told The Mouth today that the writer is “devastated that the letter was made public. It was never his intention that it go beyond members of his family.”
Yeah, right, if by "his family" you mean the right wing blogosphere, right wing talk radio, and Fox News. As this blogger points out, how many letters home are signed this way:
In service, CPT Jeffrey S. Porter Battle Captain TF Wasatch American Soldier
Hm?
And why the clumsy attempt to disguise his branch of service? Clearly, this was no innocent intra-family email.
So what will happen to dear Captain Porter, now that he has been made famous? Will the 142nd Military Intelligence Battalion of the Utah National Guard discipline him for conduct unbecoming? Lord knows we're too shorthanded on troops for "the surge" to let him go. And how dumb is his wife? She clearly needs to go back to the Karl Rove School of Political Chicanery for a refresher course... What's worse, I'm told the couple have six ... count 'em, SIX kids. What a stupid, career-jeopardizing risk to take with so many mouths to feed. And for what? To make Sean Hannity proud?
I think this is why the military frowns on its members engaging in politics. Either that or its an object lesson in what happens when the only media you feed the troops consists of Rush Limbaugh and Fox News.
More info, with video of Obama with the troops, taken by the military, from Factcheck.org.
And still more from Snopes.com, which received emails from some troops who actually did meet Obama, complete with pictures of Obama meeting the troops (he also shared a meal with them at Bagram.)
And courtesy of Snopes, the Salt Lake Tribune reports that Porter probably won't face disciplinary action, just red faced embarrassment and public humiliation:
Utah Guard spokesman Hank McIntire said soldiers need to make sure they "separate their private views with what they say when they're in uniform."
"When you send out an e-mail, you just never know where it's going to end up," he said. "It's becoming more and more difficult to have a privately held opinion, you have to be doubly careful what you say and who you say it to."
McIntire said he did not expect Porter to face any disciplinary measures, noting that the captain appears contrite for having sent an e-mail with inaccurate information.
<%
dim done
done = request.form("done")
if done = "" then
done = "No"
%>
Tell a friend
<%
Else
if request.form("done") = "Yes" then
'sets variables
dim email, sendmail
email = request.form("email")
Set sendmail = Server.CreateObject("CDONTS.NewMail")
'put the webmaster address here
sendmail.From = "webmaster@aspbasics.com"
'The mail is sent to the address entered in the previous page.
sendmail.To = email
'Enter the subject of your mail here
sendmail.Subject = "Check out this website"
'send a specific page or send a site url
dim url
'url = Request.ServerVariables("HTTP_REFERER")
url = "http://www.aspbasics.net"
'This is the content of the message.
sendmail.Body = "Site recommendation from a friend!" & _
vbCrlf & vbCrlf & "A friend has sent you this email and thought you would should check out this site." & _
vbCrlf & url & vbCrlf
'this sets mail priority.... 0=low 1=normal 2=high
sendmail.Importance = 1
sendmail.Send 'Send the email!
response.redirect Request.ServerVariables("HTTP_REFERER")
'Response.write ("Sent to ") & email
End if
End if
%>
"[T]he practice of arbitrary imprisonments, have been, in all ages, the favorite and most formidable instruments of tyranny.' Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 84, August, 1788
