Glenn Beck Reports CIA Plot Between Embassy Killing and Something Awful 413
An anonymous reader writes "Here's one that even The Onion would reject as too blatantly ridiculous: American right-wing radio and TV clown Glenn Beck believes that Sean Smith aka Vile Rat, the EVE Online diplomat who was killed earlier this month during the attack on the US embassy in Benghazi, was actually a CIA agent, relaying communications to his fellow undercover agents at Something Awful."
Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. (Score:5, Funny)
Are you sure? I suspect he's an underground agent working for The Onion.
Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. (Score:5, Funny)
The onion owns many subsidiaries, it seems. [theonion.com]
Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. (Score:5, Informative)
The great thing about the Onion story is that Iran's Top News Agency (Fars) actually believed it!
http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/10/01/irans-top-news-agency-reposts-onion-article-as-fact/ [time.com]
Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. (Score:5, Informative)
But,even with no Glenn Beck, there IS a conspiracy.
http://www.subgenius.com/ts/hos_logs/Hour_of_Slack_1233.html [subgenius.com]
A little retro smile for my slash buddies.
Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. (Score:5, Insightful)
He is only after ratings...
Exactly what his bosses expect of him. How is that 'moronic'? You're not supposed to believe anything he says. That would be moronic. You're only expected to buy the products advertised on his show. It's TV, okay? He's there to entertain.
Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. (Score:5, Insightful)
You have to listen to several shows and learn his method before you judge him.
If you can survive listening to more than one of his shows nowadays, then you are either previously brain-damaged, or are seeking to become so. He was tolerable and even somewhat balanced in his early days, but then he went off the deep end and into whatever he is now.
Re: (Score:3)
"Remember that sometimes he gets his point across by using hyperbole and comedy. You have to listen to several shows and learn his method before you judge him."
OK, I'm listening. Please tell me how to interpret this into some kind of point or something.
Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. (Score:4, Insightful)
"In fact he even says not to believe him until you do your own research"
Unfortunately a lot of people take this to mean what I am saying is true, and you need to prove me wrong. Then you get stuck into conspiracy logic reasoning, where lack of evidence only means the conspiracy is deeper.
For example the Birther Movement.
Some Guy Pull out of his ass that Obama wasn't born in the united states, because his father wasn't a native citizen.
Demand research, so they demand a copy of the birth certificate.
They finally get it, well it could be fake,
They find newspaper articles, about his birth,
They figure that it was paid to be placed in there.
They track it down to the hospital.
they assume the hospital was paid off...
For some reason a half white and half black child from a modest middle class family must be groomed to be president of the United States, as a plot for the UN communist to take over the United States.
For average vote Joe, they do not have the research skills to realize they are going down a dead end path, and will research and pull more crazy and bad sourced information.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
EVE Online diplomat (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. (Score:4, Funny)
Have you ever listened to the guy for any period of time? He's been absolutely spot on about many things.
Some of the things he says seems ridiculous when he says them, but a year later? Many have happened.
Bottom line to the Slashdot Crowd... the intelligent Slashdot crowd anyway. Before you form a (very obviously) uninformed opinion, perhaps you should try to listed for two weeks straight. Then at least you have something credible to base it on.
Be the intelligent, scientific crowd you think you are, and try it. Otherwise, you are more of a buffoon than you can comprehend.
Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. (Score:4, Informative)
Have you ever listened to the guy for any period of time? He's been absolutely spot on about many things.
You're right. He called himself a “...hopeless alcoholic and drug addict.”
"I'm on the verge of moral collapse at any time."
"I’m not good for anything; I just keep hurting people, everybody I meet, everything I touch."
Other, less "spot on" quotes:
"When I see a 9/11 victim family on television, or whatever, I'm just like, 'Oh shut up' I'm so sick of them because they're always complaining."
"The only [Katrina victims] we're seeing on television are the scumbags."
"So here you have Barack Obama going in and spending the money on embryonic stem cell research. ... Eugenics. In case you don't know what Eugenics led us to: the Final Solution. A master race!"
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Before you form a (very obviously) uninformed opinion, perhaps you should try to listed for two weeks straight.
Why don't you try to read Das Kapital for two weeks straight? It's not enough time to form a reasoned opinion, one only needs an hour or so for that. But it is enough time to warp your sense of reality.
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In the words of the Daily Show: "What he says makes sense. And if you don't think about it he makes even more sense."
Glenn Beck is about one thing and one thing only: Glenn Beck. He's not a moron. He's not stupid. He gets paid millions of dollars for spewing conspiracy laced nonsense across the airwaves. And his listeners love him for it.
Sure, any rational thinking person would listen to one show and say, "Wow, that guy is a few sandwiches short of a picnic.". But then again, rational thinking people are n
Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. (Score:5, Insightful)
Take over in what sense? They made emergency loans to much of the car companies that otherwise would have gone bust (leaving mostly just Ford). And mandating health insurance so that you don't have poor contagious sick people walking the streets. There is no take-over there, either. So he was still crazy.
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Ford, and they've even admitted this themselves, were just lucky. They had just taken a big re-structuring loan out right before rates and credit availabity tanked. They did well because that allowd them to be the only American auto maker not needing a bail out.
Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. (Score:5, Insightful)
You realize that when you speak like this about a person, you become that which you claim to hate (I guess you would claim to hate Glenn Beck, I don't know). That doesn't bother you at all?
I know the AC title is all about saying some kind of explitive joined with a derogatory ad hominem. But, This is EXACLTY the type of thing he would say about someone else! It's not productive. It just clouds your judgement and only speaks to people who only think like you do.
I know it's slashdot, I know "someone on the internet is wrong". But This was modded "Insightful". Really?
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
As the right-wing Hate Machine spews its filth over the public spaces, it consistently maintains it's just "calling things as they are", "exercising their free speech" or "avoiding political correctness".
But God forbid someone should call one of them names. Then suddenly out of the woodwork various arbiters of decency appear waving their fingers and going "tut-tut".
Here's a deal for you: why don't you go fuck off?
Mart
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
No, I've been living under a conservative Christian Democrat government the past 12 years, with a growing racist party in Parliament which actually got to govern in the last cabinet.
The world is not the USA, and your predictable right-wing false equivalencies are tiring.
Well, I can't really accurately reply to the "right wing" in your country since I don't know what country that is. And hell, your "right wing" may truly be "Hate Machines". But this article is about a US based libertarian talk show host who is falsely associated with the "right wing" because he, like all libertarians, favor a small, central government with most of the power given to the states and communities.
Beck is not a "right wing Hate Machine" like what you have described. He is simply, like many lib
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Re:Glenn Beck is a fucking moron. (Score:4, Insightful)
Nothing suprises me about this. Ive been attacked by fellow republicans (who claim I must be a democrat or something-- oh no!) simply for asking for civil discussion.
Political discussion in this country is doomed.
100000s work for the CIA, BIG DEAL (Score:3)
Seriously, Bin Ladin worked for the CIA.
Stupid politicians work for CIA.
CNN has fake reporters making fake stories, YES they got caught, idiots.
Wakeup dumb stupid americans, working for the CIA is nothing special, 100000000000s work for them.
Again, Dumb asses (except the 1% linux users).
Then again, most wouldnt know google was 'funded' a bit by CIA ppl.
Oh my god, our saviour has mirrored 'backups' and Langley.
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Steganography can be far more interesting than that. Especially when a post by DragonTHC on Slashdot means our New York assets, on grasscity.com means Chicago assets and penny-arcade means our Los Angeles assets. A Monday post means that work is going according to schedule, posting at an odd hour (7PM) as opposed to an even hour means that the message is true as opposed to possibly compromised, and the homepage that is linked contains a paragraph that is encrypted and tells me the name of a hotmail address
Aha! It all makes sense! (Score:5, Insightful)
This is why Beck is so against socialized healthcare - because if we had it, he'd be institutionalized for being so completely fucking nuts.
Glenn Beck Actually Working Deep Undercover (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
However, I don't understand the supposed video game tie-in.
Re:Glenn Beck Actually Working Deep Undercover (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't understand the supposed video game tie-in.
EVE Online's players tend to begin to treat it as a lifestyle and many of them develop close friendships and connections to other players and I would not be surprised in the least that someone involved that much in EVE would be chatting with gamer friends practically all the time. And VileRat was associated with GoonSwarm which was a group mainly associated with Something Awful, so its no surprise he'd be chatting with them.
Beck just has absolutely no clue about gamers. None.
Re:Glenn Beck Actually Working Deep Undercover (Score:5, Informative)
I'm not sure I get the joke here. The job of the deceased was "foreign service information management officer." I'm trying to imagine how somebody in that position could not work with intelligence services?
Perhaps he was the Exchange/Sharepoint/SAN administrator? "Foreign service" is pretty much any State Department employee stationed overseas. "Information Management Officer" sounds like he could be anything from the IT Admin to the filing clerk (if they still have paper files, that is).
Re:Glenn Beck Actually Working Deep Undercover (Score:5, Informative)
He was an enemy in game, and a friend out of game. I miss talking shop with him.
Sinister Plot Success! (Score:5, Insightful)
People are talking about Glenn Beck :-P
Re:Sinister Plot Success! (Score:4, Funny)
People are talking about Glenn Beck :-P
Hey, at least Beck pushes gold instead of bitcoin.
as the song goes... (Score:5, Insightful)
"Paranoia strikes deep, into your lives it will creep. It starts when you're always afraid. Step out of line, the man comes and takes you away."
Really. The fine line between clear batshit-crazy paranoia and justifiable concern grows thinner and thinner the deeper down the "terrorists!" Rabbit hole we go. The cited song refered to the last boogeyman: "Commies!", but it fits very well, if eerily, 50 years later with "Terrorists!"
People like Glen Beck just drink the koolaid. Rather than point and laugh about his over the top paranoia, take an honest look at how batshit we are acting in regard to "Terrorists!", where we are scared of plastic knives, exploding underwear, and flamable mouthwash to the point where we grope and tickle old women and 2 year old children as a daily occurance at our borders.
In times like these, agencies like the CIA get ever expanding license to do stupid, batshit crazy stuff to "catch them terrorists", and "make us feel safe!" As such, things like the silly stupid of this story might not actually be as silly stupid as they seem.
That is what is truly scary.
Re:as the song goes... (Score:4, Interesting)
Drink the Koolaid? Glenn Beck IS Koolaid Man. Bashing through bricks walls. With poseur black-rimmed glasses.
Consider for a moment, that Fox News felt obliged to take him off of television. THAT is how whacked out he sounds. When even Fox won't touch you, you've gotta be fuckin' crazy.
I can't tell if he's actually crazy or if he's somehow the Republican answer to Stephen Colbert. Could he really believe the crazy shit he spouts? It doesn't even seem possible.
Re: (Score:3)
But don't forget that the other side was crying "fascists." Then, when that didn't stick, it was "crypto-fascists" and we were expected to believe that everyone in the right secretly wore a Hitler moustache beneath their Klan robes, while they kept up a clean cut facade for the cameras.
And that back and forth, between cries of "Commie!" and cries of "Fascist!," came directly from Joe Stalin's CCCP and the Nazis, when Hitler and he fell out. We just took it into our own politics with very little consideratio
Ad Hominem is called for in this case (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Ad Hominem is called for in this case (Score:5, Informative)
Move along, no news here
Actually, I did learn something new today: Fanboys of Glenn Beck actually do exist [slashdot.org]!
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Slashdot (Score:5, Insightful)
New for Nerds not from Idiots. Stop this shit.
Re:Slashdot (Score:5, Funny)
Stop this shit.
What are you trying to hide? I'm not saying you are part of a global conspiracy, I'm just asking questions.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm am saying this is all a global conspiracy to make people tear all their hair out!
Re:Slashdot (Score:5, Funny)
Stop this shit.
What are you trying to hide? I'm not saying you are part of a global conspiracy, I'm just asking questions.
Clearly, thammoud is a CIA operative attempting damage control.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Public forums? (Score:3)
Why would the CIA, with a $50 billion budget, use public forums rather than some sort of secure satellite link or a VPN?
And some other kook thinks... (Score:2)
...that the Masons are behind it all. So what? Why are the rantings of a loon news for nerds? Or anyone else?
Re: (Score:2)
...that the Masons are behind it all.
Quick, someone ask Woz! [slashdot.org]
Oh, Glenn... (Score:4, Funny)
Did the internet make you stupid?
Re:Oh, Glenn... (Score:4, Funny)
No, he achieved that all on his own.
"right-wing" (Score:3)
Let's not pretend Beck's critics are left-wing. They may be predominantly Democrats (and other anti-TeaParty people) and disagree on how the power of the state should be applied, but they are as supportive as any of giving the state that power.
Re:"right-wing" (Score:4, Insightful)
Sad (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Really? Is this what Slashdot has become? Posting Glenn Beck rants?
Well, the original plan was to post his well-reasoned analyses, but they had to find a Plan B.
Media Matters (Score:5, Insightful)
They figured them out (Score:5, Interesting)
1. something awful is
2. goonfleet in particular was.
I am still in shock and disbelief that both get into the news, and vile rat will be deeply missed.
Some back story, before there was 4chan, there was something awful. Goons used to do pranks and raids (far more mild that what 4chan/anonymous eventually became). Goons became named "Goons" because they were Lowtax's "goons" who'd invade forums and crash websites. But there were no LOIC, or any other tools. it was just using the
There were also pranks, such as habo hotel, and the like.
The Forums "Goons" had a general dislike for the rest of the internet, and would play internet games with other goons, because they disliked the general population of gamers at the time. Goonfleet stuck out because of how harsh the game was, and how goons when from harrassing people in game, to becoming a serious angry force hell bent on serious stellar conquest. EVE is a game where everyone is a ruthless bastard hell bent on conquest, and people fucked with the goons, they pushed back harder. They kept to themselves and disliked outsiders, and took a dim view on the status quo of the EVE eliete(poopsocking pubbies). Goons made a break for power in 2006 and I am proud to say I was there. Other alliances had players with far more skill points(like level), who where more powerful, but goons had numbers, excellent organization, and teamwork. There was a profound sense of "goon nationalism" in the game that we were out to stake our claim and challenge the status quo. leaders had charisma, and leadership skills, but not as much in game skill points. We bucked the pecking order in favor of our own. We let anyone from Something Awful in, while rejecting the most seasoned non-goon EVE players.
The world hated us, but as goons we reveled in their hatred, and it made us closer, stronger, more determined. We had the numbers and were far far far more ruthless than the worst the game had to offer. EVE is not just played online, its played over instanat message, cell phones, text messages, and even in the real world. When we allied with the Russians, we sent a real life delegation to Russia to visit them in person, and they sent one to NY, to shore up in game ties.
We upset some major long standing alliances who had publicly gone on EVE TV to bash us.(Lokta Voltera, Vertas Imortalis) to bash us and our antics. We went on to terminate them with prejudice.
EVE got serious just about the same time goons were almost at the height of their in game power.
Somewhere around 2005, when the internet started getting really "serious" and pranks and raids started to have legal conotations, site founder, lowtax put a halt to raids and pranks. The sense of community remained. But just a reminder before "Anonymous" was "Leigon", we were "40 thousand screaming goons"
RIP VIle Rat. Here is a speech remedial made on teamspeak before the epic battle of XZH-, of which I was a defender. I recorded this as I listened to.
http://www.favupload.com/audio/6704/
Biased a bit? (Score:5, Insightful)
...American right-wing radio and TV clown Glenn Beck...
Now, I'm not commenting on whether he's right or wrong, but this in an accepted summary? Seems a bit much even by Slashdot standards.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
It's actually quite nice to see a spade called a spade, instead of the typical media "all opinions are equally valid" bullshit.
If a game show host can be an agent (Score:3)
Plagiarizer!!!!! (Score:3)
He ripped that off from Adam Curry who said this exact thing two weeks ago on No Agenda [noagendashow.com]
Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... (Score:5, Insightful)
Ooh, is someone upset that the GOP and its representatives (official or otherwise) would be taken for being mad?
Beck falls into chasm created by Poe's law.
I see, people see Beck say wild shit and you accuse people here of suffering from Aspergers. Real classy one you are.
Considering the man can't tell a joke for shit and the other wild-ass garbage come out of the Republican Party these days, I'm not surprised at all that people missed it.
IT'S A CONSPIRACY! And Slashdot is in on it too! Careful, you're starting to sound like Beck as well.
Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... (Score:4, Insightful)
But I do suffer from Asperger's, you insensitive clod!
This whole Benghazi thing is driving people nuts, just like 9/11.
They think: How does this shit happen without a devious plot by the CIA, Illuminati, or some other shadowy government operatives?
We are unable or unwilling to accept that both happened because of shear stupidity, hubris, and incompetence. (and not necessarily in that order)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
The Earth is 6,000 (excuse me, 6,016) years old, creation by a deity is a better explanation than evolution by natural selection, homosexuality is a choice and a sin, and women are meant to be subservient and deliver every time they conceive. When a party already believes laughable things like that, it’s hard to tell the sarcasm from the seriousness anymore.
Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... (Score:5, Informative)
Here is the official summary of the episode from Glenn Beck's website:
http://www.glennbeck.com/2012/09/17/is-the-obama-administration-covering-up-scandalous-details-in-libya-attack/ [glennbeck.com]
Note particularly this part at the end:
Audio from the relevant portion of the episode is posted on Soundcloud:
http://soundcloud.com/nivdes/glenn-beck-goonswarm-is [soundcloud.com]
"Goonswarm" is the name of the in-game organization affiliated with Something Awful.
TL;DR: It really did happen.
Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... (Score:5, Funny)
Makes sense to me. After all, if you want to send a message to the FBI you use 4chan, therefore it's entirely reasonable that if you want to talk to the CIA, you use Something Awful.
Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... (Score:5, Funny)
"Considering the inability of the supposed "geniuses" on this site to spot an obvious joke that Mitt Romney made last week"
No, no jokes are funny.
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I have to go with Occam's Razor here. Or maybe Occam's Meat Axe, since the differences really, really small. But I find it slightly more plausible that Mitt things that his joke is funny than that he hasn't seen Goldfinger.
Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... (Score:5, Informative)
Glenn Beck has been known to use this device known as "sarcasm"
Good point. There's a talk show host named Rush who does the same thing; basically says ridiculous stuff to get people's attention. But the foaming at the mouth crowd takes them both seriously.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... (Score:5, Insightful)
Wait, your position is that Beck has a radio show that features him saying things in jest, for entertainment, and that he shouldn't be taken seriously, but that it's flamebait to call him a clown?
Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... (Score:5, Insightful)
the right side of politics sure has been "funny" a lot lately
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Glenn Beck has been known to use this device known as "sarcasm" which tends to escape the Aspergers crowd that runs Slashdot.
Isn't everything he says sarcastic?
I have to admit that the right seems to have a very weird sense of humor these days (assuming Romney really was joking about those airplane windows) that seems to go past us feeble-minded libbies. On the other hand, right wing bloviators do tend to say stupid things in all seriousness and then claim they were being sarcastic when they're called on it. I guess that's why they say everything with a smirk, since this expression is so ambiguous with respect to seriousness.
So that's your attempt at spin... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Now here's my point: How many people on this site will insult Glenn Beck, some nut on the radio who has no real power, while giving the White House a free pass?
Good point. Then again most people here are still giving the White House a free pass on Fast and Furious along with Holder and Obama and the killing of 300+ Mexicans a US border agent, a mass murder(most recently discovered and linked at a party of teenagers) [dailycaller.com], or they're blaming Bush still because that's the line the WH is still trying to feed on the narrative. Even though under Bush's program their guns were tracked. Under Obama and Holder they simply let the guns walk away.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Since when are most people here giving that a pass? Most people here tend to think that both sides are fucked up. A lot of people just decide that one is less fucked up and go with the less fucked up one (which goes both ways). But a lot of us just hold on to that they're both fucked up and we're headed down the shitter in the US either way. Personally, I'm the latter: to say that any side is more fucked up than the other is just bickering over which way you want the pineapple being shoved up your ass to be
Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... (Score:4, Insightful)
Even though under Bush's program their guns were tracked. Under Obama and Holder they simply let the guns walk away.
Which brings us to the bigger point... people give the White House something of a pass because Obama isn't THE ONLY PERSON IN THE GOVERNMENT. He doesn't have a say in the minute details of everything... how ridiculous is it to even think that he would? But, the fascist conservatives hate Obama, so they'll lie like son of a bitches EVERY TIME something happens. They tracked the guns under Bush, they tracked the guns under Obama... fucking mental midget ideologues want to lie, however, and make asinine statements like you did.
Quit fucking lying, and you'll get a little respect.
Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... (Score:5, Informative)
Right, now it's time to grow up. So, remember Iran-contra? And how the democrats blamed Regan for everything. No? Okay. So remember the last 8 years and oh let's go with the housing crisis. That was obviously all Bush's fault right. Despite the fact that in 2002 and 2003, that the republicans tried to change the rules but were blocked by the democrats. Wait, he was the only person in the government. Now that your little temper tantrum is done, you'd better get your head out of the sand.
Under Obama they were not tracked, the documents received showed that. The real problem that comes back on this is that the democrats themselves are stonewalling and it has become a civil case because the DoJ itself is blocking further investigations into the issue. Now, if you're finished lying to yourself perhaps, just perhaps you learned something today.
Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... (Score:5, Interesting)
Answer yes or no:
Is Reagan responsible for the Iran-Contra scandal?
If "yes", then why are you whining about Democrats blaming him for it?
If "no", then why are blaming Obama for Fast and Furious?
You're complaining about double-standards being applied by liberals while simultaneously using double-standards yourself.
Either the president is responsible for everything that happens in his administration, in which case you had best condemn everyone from Reagan to Roosevelt to Lincoln, or they're not, in which case you have no reason to be condemning Obama.
The second option seems far more sane to me.
Re: (Score:3)
Whether Reagan is responsible for Iran-Contra, and Obama responsible for Fast and Furious, is an open historical question that will probably not be answered for a very long time.
The question in both cases is "What did the president know, when did he know it, and what did he do about it?" And in both cases, we don't know the answer to any of those questions because all the relevant documents are classified.
Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... (Score:4, Interesting)
1. Of course he's nuts, but do you think it would be impossible for the CIA to use an online game like Eve to communicate in some circumstances?
Right, because there's nothing suspicious about an undercover operative who suddenly needs to contact headquarters firing up a video game. I guess that would be somebody infiltrating the Al Qada's notorious gold farming operation.
Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... (Score:5, Insightful)
Uh.. as many people on Slashdot point out all the time, *LOTS* of people play online games. So what do you do if you are a spy and want to communicate without raising suspicion... do what *LOTS* of other people do and blend in.
James Bond is not a real spy, Joe Blow, the average guy who you pass on the street without even noticing is what a real spy looks like. If it is expected that a white guy in his 20s - 30s and who is kind of nerdy will play video games, then that is an excellent thing for an operative to do so that he blends in with every expected stereotype.
I'm not saying that this particular guy was doing it, but for you to call it ridiculous is patently silly... especially given the credulity of people on this website to every single conspiracy theory that supports the pet-prejudices that are promoted around here.
Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... (Score:5, Insightful)
*LOTS* of people play online games
Lots of people don't play MMORPGs that suck up half their lives. What kind of cover story includes that much time spent on a collective fantasy? Not one that includes actual time spent gathering intelligence.
You mention that James Bond is fiction. That's very true. Real secret agents don't have elaborate schemes for doing ordinary things, like talking to people.
Re:Full Audio or it didn't happen... (Score:4, Insightful)
If Obama had called it terrorism immediately, you'd be accusing him of scaremongering. No matter what he does, you'll call it the wrong thing. Why should anyone even care what you think any more? You're openly trying to turn the murder of innocent people into a politcal cudgel. Fuck you.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
yes! clearly, barack obama is the real reason why glenn beck is such a fucking moron. it's so obvious! is there anything obama isn't responsible for?
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Old. (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/06/magazine/job-creation-campaign-promises.html?pagewanted=all [nytimes.com]
Good zinger, really! I chuckled.
But the Prez can do very little to create jobs, realistically. Obama may have an easier time creating the Unicorn we all seem to want. Add in a obstructionist, insane House, and the Euro wanting to implode the European Union?
Good zinger though, really...
Re:Old. (Score:5, Informative)
http://money.cnn.com/2012/09/18/news/economy/obama-bush-jobs/?source=cnn_bin [cnn.com]
And what is Dubya's excuse during his orgy of spending? Where was the outcry then?
Come to think of it, even as an independent, Dubya made me cry a lot...
Re:Old. (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3)
Why not ask the president? he will tell you whose fault it all is.
Re:Old. (Score:5, Funny)
"it's so obvious! is there anything obama isn't responsible for?"
Yup.
The film caused all the unrest.
The economy is still Bush's fault. Either one, Doesn't really matter.
The banks are the Republicans' fault, collectively. They started it, and the whole financial industry precipitated all this.
Housing is a Republican problem too. Along with student loans. Same problem, but that's not at issue here. We are not really too involved in reality, just in avoiding holding our President accountable for a damned thing.
Because, after all, it was like that when he got there. It could be worse. Bush could have left it all for Obama to figure out. Oh,wait...
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Monday morning quarterbacking sure is fun. And the best part is, you can never be wrong!
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Ask Osama about his experience in international affairs.
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Ask Osama about his experience in international affairs.
Killing Bin Laden was indeed a military and intelligence coup, but in his success he is indebted to others. (He didn't build that, at least not alone.)
To Get Bin Laden, Obama Relied on Policies He Decried [nationalreview.com] - By Michael Barone
The president deserves credit—but so does his predecessor.
Let’s cheerfully and ungrudgingly give credit to Barack Obama for approving the military operation that resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden. . . .
While we may not know all the details about and behind this operation, it’s fascinating to see how many of the things that made the success of this operation possible were not so long ago decried by many of the president’s fans and fellow partisans.
For one thing, it apparently would not have happened without those infamous enhanced interrogation techniques — “torture,” according to critics of the Bush administration.
The enhanced interrogation techniques reportedly led to identification of the courier who eventually led our forces to bin Laden’s hiding place. Critics of waterboarding and other enhanced interrogation techniques assured us that “torture” could not produce reliable information.
They were probably right that sometimes such techniques yield false information. But the bin Laden operation shows that they can also produce actionable intelligence.
You may remember that many Democrats called for criminal prosecution of CIA interrogators who were acting under orders vetted by legal counsel. Attorney General Eric Holder actually considered bringing such prosecutions.
Fortunately, he decided not to do so — fortunately for the individuals involved but fortunately also for his own reputation. Who would want to be known for prosecuting the people who helped track down bin Laden?
It has also been reported that in hunting down bin Laden our forces relied on intercepted communications. I wonder if any of them included contacts between suspected terrorists abroad and persons in the United States.
This was the “domestic wiretapping” revealed to great acclaim by the New York Times and presented as an intolerable infringement of civil liberties. Given what we know now, it’s a good thing our folks were tuning in.
Obama deserves credit also for employing the Navy SEALs, who are part of the Joint Special Operations Command. It was fashionable a few years ago to call the JSOC “Dick Cheney’s death squad” and “Cheney’s assassination team.”
The assumption behind such criticism was that Bush administration officials were using what they termed the war against terrorism as a smokescreen for persecuting domestic dissidents. But there is not a scrap of evidence that either the Bush administration or the Obama administration was doing anything of the kind. They were too busy trying to protect us.
There was criticism as well of the idea of targeting particular individuals for assassination. But, in ordering the raid on bin Laden’s compound, Obama authorized the killing of bin Laden. And no Miranda warnings first.
Smart Diplomacy (a Danish View) [youtube.com]
Obama Regretted His ‘Muted’ Early Stance on Iran [nationalreview.com] - By Jim Geraghty - September 25, 2012
This morning, The New York Times offers a lengthy look at President Obama’s relationship with leaders in the Arab world, full of revealing detail. It never quite comes out and explicitly says the president’s approach has failed, but the overall picture is withering and bleak. . . . more . . . [nationalreview.com]
What Obama Considers Diplomacy, the Taliban Considers Defeat [nationalreview.com]
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However, the article you pasted is chock full of weasel words, sarcasm, "quotes", and general contempt. It's difficult - very difficult - to take articles like this seriously; at least for those of us who are what "moderate" used to be. Why don't people ever seem to understand that the facts speak fo
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Blah blah blah. No president does anything single-handedly. Lincoln didn't tear through the Confederacy like an action hero. FDR didn't paradrop into Nazi Germany. Obama didn't pull the literal trigger on Osama. But it was his decision to refocus efforts on finding OBL, it was his decision to go with troops on the ground rather than an airstrike, it was his decision to keep the Pakistanis out of the loop. All of those turned out to be the right choices, and Obama deserves credit for that.
All you Republicans claiming the credit should go exclusively to the military, ask yourself this: If the mission had ended with a dozen dead SEALs instead of a dead terrorist, would you be placing the blame solely on the military?
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Lincoln didn't tear through the Confederacy like an action hero.
Yea, but to be fair, he did take on all those vampires single-handedly.