Last week, during a Senate hearing on the Benghazi attack, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) asked Secretary of State Hillary Clinton a deeply strange question: "[I]s the U.S. involved with any procuring of weapons, transfer of weapons, buying, selling, anyhow transferring weapons to Turkey out of Libya?"
Clinton, confused, said, "To Turkey?" Paul insisted this story has "been in news reports." The Secretary of State said she didn't have "any information on that" and the hearing moved on.
But it was hard not to wonder what in the world the Republican senator was talking about. Today, the kooky conspiracy website World Net Daily published a new report, explaining that Paul believes the Obama administration may be "covering up a gun-running scheme in Benghazi that fell apart when jihadists attacked the U.S. mission there."
In an interview with WND, the senator said his "suspicion, although I don't have any proof, is that guns were being smuggled out of Libya, through Turkey and into Syria."
I have a few follow-up questions for Rand Paul. First, if you "don't have any proof," what on earth are you talking about? Second, why do you keep falling for silly conspiracy theories?
Third, why is a sitting U.S. senator talking to a fringe website like World Net Daily?
For the record, as Hayes Brown explained, Paul's theory, which has apparently gotten some attention on Fox News and strange websites, is that the late Chris Stevens and the CIA secretly moved guns from Libya to Turkey, to be smuggled to Syria.
Why would the administration want to do this? I haven't the foggiest idea. Is there any evidence to suggest this is even remotely true? Apparently not.
But that won't stop Rand Paul from speculating about it anyway, during televised Senate hearings and in chats with online conspiracy theorists.
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Rand Paul is a dunce.
Please don't denigrate dunces by comparing them to Randy.
Disclaimer: Not meant to be a factual human being
Quick questions
What caliber bullet killed the Americans?
This is a coverup. In the absence of truth, conspiracy theory is all that one has.
You need to troll harder shooter.
Shooter, look in the mirror; give it a shot. Cryptic enough for ya?
Shooter, requests for more security were denied because Republicans insisted on spending cuts to pay for additional security, but they wouldn't specify what they wanted cut.
Of course, you don't care, you got the attention you crave, so now to quote the Thing, it's clobberin' time. In this instance, you are in place of The Thing, and clobberin' is a euphemism for whatever tragic thing you do to your wiener.
I'm just typing what we're all thinking.
http://moelane.com/2012/06/09/troll-hunting-101/
I think the main question about Benghazi, Dear Mr. Shooter, is why did the house tea party republicans slash requested funding for embassy security?
Clinton warned that if the funds were slashed, it could have an immediate negative impact on security.
Do you have an answer?
re 1.3
(I know, I know don't feed the troll)
In other words, you've got nothing factual to offer.
Randy Wandy has probably been too devoted in his worship of the "Aqua Buddha" lately. I wonder if that is also The Blank's excuse.
Libertarian...a Republican who wants to smoke pot.
Exactly, but not in the way you think.
Rand Paul is not a person to be taken seriously. Neither is World Net Daily or FOX. They exist to take advantage of simple-minded people eager to be have their fears validated.
Rand Paul and WND are proof of the old saying, "birds of a feather, flock together."
Shooter. Where were the "questions" or even "hearings" when here were 11 "embacies" attacked under GWB. More than 30 dead and over 100 injure? Didn't hear you bitching about any of that.
And you must have missed the President, the very next morning, in his rose Garden press confrence, say it was an act of terror. But then a great number of the GOP Senaters missed the "brieffing on Bengazi that answered all those questions.
Why does shooter get to insist anybody here provide him with anything about anything? Clearly he has the time to investigate these questions. Unless of course, he doesn't really care about the answers and he's just goading you so you attack him because your wrath is how he makes deposits in the ol' spank bank. But really, what are the odds of that?
Oh. Right.
http://moelane.com/2012/06/09/troll-hunting-101/
Can't find a better conspiracy yet but they spend every waking moment trying to dig something up on dems... on Obama...but dirt just follows republicans around like low hanging fruit. Example: look at Bush's presidency for illegal activity never charged and then look at Obama's. The Bush team took a dump in every corner of government and look how hard they struggle to come up with anything on Obama. Shooter is just petty. Tries to find something negative to say about Obama and the dems on every issue and fails. Another petty rock thrower
Henceforth anyone that hears the name "Rand Paul" will think
TURKEY??????????????????
Dollars to donutz, the name Ayn Rand will find its way into this before the day is out!
A local shuttered Krispy Kreme donut place has reopened. JOBS, JOBS, JOBS.
Rumor has it that someone in-line was reading Atlas Shrugged. At the same time, they were accessing WND for news updates on their smartpHone.
He had to get this conspiracy from Glen Beck.
I think he got it from MADD magazine.
What, me worry!
the republican party should feel embarassed more often. everyone is laughing at them because they hate intelligence, change, science, defeat and telling the truth. have a little more humbling qualities. admit your wrong for once and research what it is that you're blabbing about.
you'll look less stupid in the process.
And why would they do that, when they're rewarded by still being in office by their constituents? The fact is the rethugniCon party doesn't acknowledge "being embarrassed" either. They have shown that there is no low/rock/river/stream/level of inferno that they will not stoop to, speak to, or prevaricate about - and their sheeple will follow - just look at Shooter, pathetic really...
I'm reminded of the great "Herman Cain" when he said, "Now I don't have any proof of this, but..." It has become the Conservative mantra.
Either that or 'this is not intended to be a factual statement'.
One must feel sorry for the people of Kentucky.
Thanks, we need it. The stupid, it hurts.
I feel for ya, citizen. We're stuck with Ron Johnson. The stupid, it gives me migraines.
Yup, I'm feeling sorry right along with both of you. We are stuck with Michele Bachmann. The stupid, it gives our whole state brain tumors.
:-♫
Thanks, Anton, for your kind expression of sympathy!
citizen, I agree whole-heartedly! What part of KY do you live? I'm in Louisville. When Paul was elected, it made me ill. Frankly, I hadn't yet dreamed the reality of his awfulness!
News in the Courier Journal today, in KY, McConnell has more opponents than supporters. YEEEEEHAAAAA! Maybe we can dump them both.
"A wise man can learn more from a foolish question, than a fool can learn from a wise answer" Bruce Lee
Silly conspiracy theory, says you…
Soon to become conventional wisdom via Fox News and AM radio stations, says I.
Rand Paul may be a lot of things, many no doubt can be discussed in the pejorative, but of all the things Rand Paul may be, he is certainly a great embarrassment to our august upper chamber!
Senator Paul is an oxymoron! -Kevo
Senator Paul is a self identified professional , as in , "We don't need no steenkin verification" professional .
As the GOP entertains its multitudinous approaches to the humbling defeats at the polls , there seems to be a certain urge to identify not only with the certainty in the superiority of their logic . This is turn draws them into the wee conundrums found in the heavy work of studying the varied processes of pigs flying , or whistling , as they are in the habit of responding to the same from "legitimate" professionals .
These doughty researchers have plunged ahead with the trick of providing policy , good government , and electoral power through Electoral Certainty , not oxymorons (tsk) .
Not for these brave new constitutionalists the idling engine of negotiation , the boring levers of power through virtuoso comprehension . No , no , no , competence is found here through the subtlety of the old fashioned three fifths of a vote for thee , and five fifths for me .
The very idea of lowering ones self into a pernicious palaver , favored by the "Elitist" attitudinizing legitimizing intellectual miscegenation , is a trial for the mild soul the conservative libertarian agent of Electoral Certainty . This has had the discouraging electoral success found in winning unfair elections , where folks who pander to policy favoured by the so called moocher vote , have stated their desire to destroy a decent America . Votes cast despite heroic efforts to frighten , or obstruct that unholy end . This , the crazy idea of one individual one vote , is the unnatural result of marrying two different ideas (together) , as if that were even possible .
There you have it , to see straight with Electoral Certainty to save the Optomatracacy , not Oxymorons , by Lee .
Real Time with Bill Maher scooped you on this TRMS!
I guess hillbillies have evolved to the point where they can pizz their vote away.
Paul starts his sentences the same was Fox News does when they want to start a controversy where there isn't one by saying "Some people say..." or "It's been reported..." when neither is true.
Actually, they've figured out that if the loony bin is big enough between FOX, hate radio and locked-down-for-discussion blogs like Redstate.com, then they can say silly things to each other, and suddenly it actually is true to say: some people are saying stuff.
The obvious here is that they're saying it to each other.
The sad thing is that occasionally it leaks over the top and normal people get exposed to the BS.
Sounds like a few senators are caught in a Do Loop with their own media.
This is what happens when Senators get their intelligence briefings from breitbart.com.
Rand, maybe next time hire staffers that do not work for WND, as we all know they have no idea how to even fine someone who is next to three people who once knew the way to San Jose.
I have worlds of respect for any medical doctor who is frustrated by the Board Certification process enough to simply invent his own Board and rating. The man is an icon, brilliant.
According to Hannity, Breitbart and Rand Paul, the Flying Dutchman is, apparently, somewhere in the Mediterranian Sea bound from Libya to Syria with the famous missing Weapons of Mass Destruction.
Or something.
Typical False Flag and Pseudo-Operations conspiracy theories. Yeah, Ambassador Stevens was the perfect fellow to run a gun-running mission out of Benghazi. Who knew?
I think I'm getting too tired to care about the loonies. As I've heard someone say...there are none so blind as he who will not see. The vast majority of Faux watchers are incapable of discerning the difference between fact and opinion and you just cant educate someone out of that. As a constitutionalist lawyer I used to try to explain its tenets and history to people who respond "you're entitled to your opinion." Informed conscience and opinion requires a suspension of ideology in order to learn; this is inconsistent with the mindset of most conspiracy theorists. What I fail to understand is why so many people think the CIA should reveal publicly the location and purpose of all its operations. But then, I fail to understand the evil intent of someone revealing the identity of our operatives anywhere in the world for pure political gain or petty revenge. Ergo, I think I am too tired to care about the loonies anymore and only venture forth occasionally to see if the intellectual environment has improved.
I, too, have become tired of reading, or scrolling past, uneducated, ranting posts. So I have put a number of the most annoying trolls on "ignore". I did read them enough to know that they have very limited and repetitive subjects; they are not worth reading more than once.
The GOP is in this chicken-meets-egg-meets-Frankenstein-meets-Creature mashup. The leaders have been spoonfeeding horsecrap to the base for so long to gin up their rage and hear and hate to whoever "The Other" is (sadly, "The Other" tends to be Democrats far more often than, say, terrorists). But now many of the next-gen leadership was once part of the base that's been spoonfed the horsecrap. So they're true believers, too.
Does Rand Paul know he's full of crap but wants to appease the base by attacking Clinton? Does he NOT know he's full of crap and believes what he's spewing? Who knows? The results are the same, dumb people get dumber and they stand in the way of progress in the name of defending freedoms they're in no danger of losing because the fathead on the radio and the pretty lady on the news network told them so.
Like his father before him...nuttier then squirrel poo.
It just did not take quite as much time to show up.
Okay, so Rand pulls this "fact" out of his nether regions and then spews it to Wacko-Net-Daily. Then Faux "news" reports it like it is a real thing, citing "credible" sources (read WND). The wing-nut-o-sphere then feeds on this until it builds up to critical mass. The next thing you know, the wacky uncle Rachel likes to cite is emailing all of his friends and family about the latest conspiracy. Reminds me of that game we used to play as kids where a "fact" is whispered from person to person.
Telephone. And it is really fun to see how distorted the original message becomes when passed around a circle of only 10 people. Electronic communications just speeds up the game.
It reminds me of that special time comedians became more recognized as a voice of facts , Rhyme and Reason .
Look, I am neither a conservative nor a conspiracy theorist. But there is in fact loads of evidence that getting MANPAD missiles - not guns per se - to Syrian rebels is precisely what was going on in Benghazi, and probably was the whole reason the consulate-that-wasn't-really-a-consulate was there in the first place.
It is well known that personnel in Benghazi were involved with collecting some of the many shoulder-fired missiles that remained in Libyan arsenals to keep them out of the hands of the militias. To assume that those missiles might do some good in Syria is not that much of a stretch.
It is known that the primary reason Ambassador Stevens was in Benghazi at all was to meet quietly with the Turkish Consul General. Very soon after this meeting, a Libyan-flagged ship docked in Latakia with a large load of shoulder-fired missiles. These missiles certainly appear to have made it into Syria.
The dots are pretty easy to connect. The "consulate" in Benghazi was in fact a CIA station covered as a State Department facility, which by the way, would have seriously complicated any process of reinforcing security through the State Department. The SEALS at the station were working for CIA collecting Libyan SAMs and covertly shipping them to Syria via Turkey, with Turkey's support. Chris Stevens was involved in the high-level diplomatic aspects of the op, which has now been comprehensively blown.
I am by no means a Rand Paul fan, and he is obviously looking for political points by bringing this up now, but he is in essence almost certainly correct
This will fall on deaf ears here Nessus. Most here think the current administration could do no wrong or get involved in anything covert like that - although our government has done this stuff for a very long time (under both Democrat and Republican Presidents). They think only the right would ever do this. To them the world is totally transparent and what you "see" is what you get and all official explanations are the total truth about everything...at least when folks they support are in control.
It's just silly to think that since Obama (or any other Democratic President in the past) came to office that all of a sudden all policies, operations and global interactions are all above board and totally "innocent" - both in intent and outcome. There is no magic switch that can be turned on or off after inauguration day.
Nessus, are you quoting from Glenn Beck's October 2012 radio broadcast?
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2012/10/24/treason-and-possible-prison-beck-breaks-down-obamas-lying-on-libya-in-fiery-segment/
You couldn't pay me enough to listen to 5 minutes of Beck. My sources include the NYT and BBC.
Is this the NYT article?
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/07/world/middleeast/citing-us-fears-arab-allies-limit-aid-to-syrian-rebels.html?ref=robertfworth
BBC?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-19874256
Remember when Candidate Romney expressed that he would gladly arm the Syrian rebels?
It's completely amazing how you manage to blend actual fact with complete nonsense, Nessus38.
Almost everything you said was correct (Barring nonsense like asserting that it wasn't really a consulate or that security would be hard, when in fact almost all consulates and embassies have CIA operating out of them.) except you have decided to randomly tell lies about the actual mission of the CIA, which was simply to collect and/or destroy the MANPADs.
Benghazi was, in fact, a _huge— black market weapon hub, and it would be rather odd and surreal for the CIA to set up some sort of transfer station there to run weapons of their own. The CIA station was there to _stop— that as best as it could.
Now, if you want to assert that _that mission— was why the consulate was attacked, fine. In fact, that seems entirely plausible, and explains the rather well-armed attackers. We were cutting into some weapon runner's business. Or perhaps the Syrian rebels were getting annoyed we were cutting off their suppliers.
The problem is that the Fox echo chamber has (somewhere correctly) decided that there is no scandal behind 'We were attacked because we were attacking arms dealers', so has decided to make up random lies that the CIA's job was literally the opposite of what it was doing. That it was distributing MANPADs instead of blowing them up.
Why on earth we would be doing this out of _Libya_, instead of, for example, Turkey, no one in the echo chamber has bothered to explain.
Nor has anyone bothered to explain why we wouldn't just _give— the Libyans the missile launchers...we don't have any sort of _moral— objection to helping the rebels, our concern is that they will fall into the hands of extremists who will attack passenger airplanes.
And God knows what the hell this theory has to do with the _attack_. We were selling weapons...so some random people attacked us? (Perhaps it was some other government's intelligence service, like MI-6, who were _actually— doing what we were only pretending to be doing!)
Of course, we do, in fact, remember the CIA illegal smuggling weapons to rebel forces. We also remember how President Reagan mysteriously wasn't impeached for that. Rule #1: With Republicans, it's ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS projection.
Johnson & Paul ---- Brothers from Another Planet.
More like, why is a fringe Senator talking to the Secretary of State?
(I know, I know, it was a hearing. But man, talk about outkicking your coverage, Kentucky...)
"First, if you "don't have any proof," what on earth are you talking about? Second, why do you keep falling for silly conspiracy theories?"
A lot of the Tea Pottiers are prone to be fans of kooks like Alex Jones. If it comes from the government, they don't believe it. If it makes the government look bad, they're prone to believe it. Besides, Republicans still need to even the score for Iran-Contra.