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naraburns  nihil supernum  6mo ago (text post)   29920 thread views

Israel-Gaza Megathread #2

This is a refreshed megathread for any posts on the conflict between (so far, and so far as I know) Hamas and the Israeli government, as well as related geopolitics. Culture War thread rules apply.

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How is it safe for Biden to visit Israel with a war raging next door? Like he’s got what, 100 secret service with him at a given time? Or maybe it’s even 500, I dunno. But I assume he’s not bringing tanks, mounted guns, and all that good stuff.

What is stopping like Hamas/Iran/Al Qaeda from saying “here’s our chance” and throwing everything last thing they’ve got and going after him? Is it just the host county, Israel in this case, is responsible for security, and must I assume go to great lengths with a US president in town?

Killing the president does very little damage to the US military industrial global hegemon, which is what they are opposed to, that would just make the US population hunger for blood and go after them even harder. Plus, why would you even want to kill Biden? He's like the most milquetoast person you can get, any replacements will be worse for you.

Killing this president does even less. Never forget that Bin Laden specifically instructed Al Qaeda to spare Biden, because he thought Biden so incompetent that putting him in charge would be advantageous.

What a ridiculous conspiracy theory. I should ask for a source just to expose how utterly ... wait, what the hell, that was actually a thing that happened?

B I N L A D E N

How did we all miss this? It’s been there in plain sight. It’s like he was daring us to catch him.

Also funny to look back and remember how well liked and respected Patraeus was before he threw it away to pass info to some floozy.

You're acting like these things are unconnected.

That Patraeus was well-liked and respected is Why the Clintonistas had to drum up some bullshit charges to get him out of the way.

So, I'm curious, when you say they were bullshit are you saying it didn't happen, or that it's the kind of thing that normally leads to few or no consequences?

A mix of both.

The magnitude of the offense was both vastly overstated, and the offense as it actually happened would not have ordinarily resulted in any charges.

As a strategic level commander pretty much anything Patraeus thinks or does in relation to his job is going to classified on some level. He was charged with "unauthorized removal and retention of classified material" for keeping a hand-written journal and with "unauthorized disclosure" for letting his biographer/mistress read said journal while quietly glossing over the fact that Paula Broadwell had an active security clearance at the time.

Contrast this with Huma Abedin's alleged "nothing burger", where material specifically marked as not to be removed from the SCIF was removed from the SCIF, copied without authorization from the classifying authority, and then sent unencrypted over the internet to her husband's personal laptop. Even if said husband had an active clearance (which he didn't) you kind of have to assume that foreign intel services are going to be monitoring the communications of senior cabinet officials and their staff.

while quietly glossing over the fact that Paula Broadwell had an active security clearance at the time.

Isn't access to classified information subject to both security clearance requirements AND need-to-know requirements?

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