WOLF Blizter Gets His ASS Handed To Him On A Silver Platter

[Segami]

The faint sound you hear is the sound of republican heads exploding everywhere..... Wolf didn't know what hit him...


It was truly a thing of beauty. Wolf Blitzer did a live, on stage interview with Adm. Bill McRaven, Head of the U.S. Special Operations Command at the kickoff session of the Aspen Security Forum. Admiral McRaven was in charge of the Seals when they raided the bin Laden compound at Abbottabad, Pakistan.


If I had not seen this live, I would not have believed it. The transcript is from the CNN website and is heavily edited as is the video they posted. The video following the transcript is unedited and from the Aspen Security Forum. What you will see in the video but not the transcript is this little gem:

Presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney has suggested that the decision to launch the raid was a no-brainer. "Even Jimmy Carter would have given that order," Romney said in April.
McRaven refused to respond Wednesday when asked whether he agreed with Romney that any president would have made the same decision Obama did. However, at a couple of junctures, the Special Operations commander offered effusive praise for Obama.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/under-the-radar/2012/07/mcraven-gives-fantastic-obama-credit-for-bin-laden-130150.html

Interview Excerpt:

WOLF BLITZER, CNN: This is the guy who's sitting right here who had the guts to tell the commander in chief we should do it, let's do it. And when you ordered that raid and when you said you think you - you didn't even know for sure that bin Laden was in Abbottabad at that compound about a mile or so away from the West Point of Pakistan, did you?

ADM. WILLIAM MCRAVEN, COMMANDER, U.S. SPECIAL OPERATIONS: Well, let me make one thing clear. I didn't order the raid.
(LAUGHTER)

BLITZER: But he told the president of the United States that he thought he could do it.

MCRAVEN: I mean, and this is not a small point. The fact of the matter is it was the president of the United States that ordered the raid.

BLITZER: And he deserves an enormous amount of credit for that decision.

MCRAVEN: Absolutely, he does.
(APPLAUSE)

BLITZER: And when he came to the head of special operations, that would be you, and said, what do you think, what did you say?

MCRAVEN: Well, first, I will tell you that it was a long process to get there.
And our piece of it, the military piece of kind of what I look at kind of three components was probably the easiest aspect of the entire raid. The two other pieces of this were the CIA's role. And I think when the history is finally written and outlined and exposed on how the CIA determined that bin Laden was there, it will be one of the great intelligence operations in the history of intelligence organizations.

And a tremendous amount of that credit goes to Director Leon Panetta at the time because he built the right team, he had the right people, he made some very gutsy calls. And he was not concerned about who got the credit. And so when you take a look at how he built that team, which was a military and intelligence team, tremendous amount of credit goes to the agency.

And the other piece of this really is the president and his national security team. I have made it very clear to people, again, the military piece of this, we did I think 11 other raids that evening in Afghanistan. Now, I don't want to diminish the nature of this raid. It was a little bit more sporty.
(LAUGHTER)

MCRAVEN: And we understood that there were some strategic implications to it.
But, at the end of the day, it was what we had been doing really for 10 years. The president and his national security team - I'm not a political guy, but I will tell you, as - as an interested observer in this, they were magnificent in how they handled the start to finish.

We went through a number of meetings. The president asked all the right questions. His national security team, with Secretary Gates, Secretary Clinton, Chairman Mullen, the vice chairman, Tom Donilon, Denis McDonough and John Brennan and others, really did a fine job of digging down to find out the facts, to make their recommendations based on the facts.

And of course the president gave me ample time to prepare once the concept was approved. But at the end of the day, make no mistake about it, it was the president of the United States that shouldered the burden for this operation, that made the hard decisions, that was instrumental in the planning process, because I pitched every plan to him.

So any indication that Bill McRaven ordered this raid, led this raid was, you know, the key piece of this raid is just patently false.

BLITZER: But you're a Navy SEAL.

MCRAVEN: Yes.
(LAUGHTER)

BLITZER: And these men who went in there, Navy SEALs, they were taking orders from you directly.

MCRAVEN: They were.

BLITZER: You were speaking to all of them. You knew each one of them personally. Here's just a technical question. Did you rehearse it in advance?

MCRAVEN: Well, I'm not going to talk about the tactical details.
But, obviously, we're not going to do a mission like that without rehearsing. We rehearse every operation, particularly significant ones like that. As I said, I have made a point of not talking about the tactical piece of this, other than to say that it is what we do.

We get on helicopters, we go to objectives, we secure the objectives, we get back on helicopters, and we come home. I was short one helicopter, but...
(LAUGHTER)

BLITZER: Well, that stealth helicopter, when it went down - and all of us have read about it, we have heard about it, I have spoken to people who were in that room, the White House SITUATION ROOM, which as opposed to another SITUATION ROOM - but when that helicopter went down, there was a gasp, because a lot of the folks there, correct me if I'm wrong, thought of Desert One in 1980, Jimmy Carter's plan to rescue Americans in Iran.

MCRAVEN: Well, I wouldn't pretend to tell you what they were thinking.

BLITZER: What were you thinking?

MCRAVEN: I was too busy, frankly. I mean, we had a backup plan. We executed the backup plan.
And at that point in time, you're worried about getting the mission done and getting the boys back home. So we had a plan, suffice to say.

BLITZER: And it worked.

MCRAVEN: And it worked.

BLITZER: That helicopter, by the way, all the stealth technology and all that, is that gone? Has it been shared with bad guys?

MCRAVEN: I'm not going to address that.

BLITZER: You don't want to talk about it.
(LAUGHTER)

BLITZER: I'm curious.
All right, let's talk a little bit about - and I want to nail this down as best as I can. You didn't have 100 percent knowledge. The president didn't have 100 percent knowledge that bin Laden was holed up in that compound. Did you have 80 percent, 50 percent? Give me a ballpark. How confident were you that a tall guy was hiding out in that compound?

MCRAVEN: Well, again, I'm not going to address the tactical piece of that.
Suffice to say we were not sure he was there. And, again, that gets back to some tough decisions that were made. My job was to get him if he was there. If he wasn't there, we would know that pretty quickly. And our intent was to get up and get out.

BLITZER: I suspect you're not going to want to answer this question, but I will ask it anyhow.

(LAUGHTER)

BLITZER: And as the admiral and I know -- we just spent some quality time together -- this is the United States of America. We can ask the questions. He doesn't have to answer them. But we can ask the questions.

And I think it's an important question that at least I have always been very, very curious about.

Was the mission to capture bin Laden or was the mission to kill bin Laden?

MCRAVEN: You know, that's a great question. I'm not going to answer it.

(LAUGHTER)

BLITZER: All right.

But there were contingencies this guy would be brought out in a helicopter and brought somewhere?

MCRAVEN: Did they teach you this, to do the end-around when your first question doesn't work?

BLITZER: Yes.

(LAUGHTER)

BLITZER: Just trying to make sure. You don't want to discuss that?

MCRAVEN: No.

A big THANK YOU to 'Second Gen' who found the full video. Wolf begins with the 'Obama doesn't get credit' crap at 2:50 point. Enjoy folks it doesn't get much better:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/07/27/1114101/-Wolf-Blizter-get-his-ass-handed-to-him-on-a-silver-platter


.

[grantcart]

1. kick

[babylonsister]

2. Most excellent! Thanks for sharing! nt

[rfranklin]

3. Blitzer was working his ass off to smear Obama as a weak leader...

bringing up the Situation Room and the helicopter crash and Jimmy Carter...

Commander Craven responds "I wouldn't pretend to tell you what they were thinking...."

[Segami]

4. Its on video for everyone to judge and watch Wolf working hard to dismiss Obama's role.

[awoke_in_2003]

55. Best line out of a bunch of good ones. nt

[liberalhistorian]

5. Well, 'ol Wolfie really could not

have been more obvious, could he? Anyone with even just two brain cells knows that military commanders themselves do NOT "order" raids, they follow the orders of the commander-in-chief, the president, in executing raids. They have command of those under them in executing said raids, but they DO NOT THEMSELVES order the raids. Wolfie the Tool was doing everything possible to plant in the listener's minds that the white military leader, not the black president, was totally responsible for the killing of Bin Laden.

Second, WTF was the purpose of bringing up the Carter hostage rescue disaster? There was NO OTHER REASON for it than trying to get people to both remember the disaster and equate it with the Black President. And McRaven was definitely onto his real purpose and handled it well, to his great credit. Wolfie just could not deal with his praise of the Black President, could he?

Reminds me of one of Wolfie's interviews in New Orleans, shortly after Katrina. He was interviewing an Army Corps of Engineers spokesperson, who was talking about the reasons for the breach of the levees. He was saying that severe underfunding of the Corps over the past several decades had caused difficulties in the maintenance of infrastructure, including the levees. Wolfie asked, and I quote directly: "so, who's to blame for this, then, CLINTON?" Never mind that he hadn't been president for four years at that point and that the corpsman had JUST said "decades" of underfunding. I knew Wolfie was a tool before that, but that just sealed it. I couldn't believe he'd be that blatant.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

6. Who the hell does Wolf think is in charge of our military?

Is he actually (trying to) suggest that President Obama isn't the Commander-in-Chief of our armed forces (which was CLEARLY understood when GWB was POTUS, esp. after 9/11) and that the raid to get OBL was a rogue operation or basically something that President Obama and his national security team just punted over to McCraven and his team?



What a tool.

[gopiscrap]

7. Blitzer has always been a whoring piece of shit

for the corporate MSM!

[rainy]

8. That was a thing of beauty! nt

[Rosa Luxemburg]

9. Priceless!

[qb]

10. I wonder how it can benefit CNN to keep this buffoon on their payroll.

[JBoy]

11. Wolf's dumbest question was actually "did you rehearse it in advance?"

"No Wolf, we find that these complicated, important missions actually work best when we just kind of wing it. Just get a bunch of dudes together, saddle up, and just go for it."

[Segami]

12. LOL!

[dixiegrrrrl]

13. Blitzer has always made me shudder.

Mcraven, on the other hand, understood exactly how to handle him.

[hifiguy]

14. I'm surprised that there was anything left of Wolfie

save for a pair of smoking shoes. That is a smackdown The Rock would be proud of.

[sa2968]

15. ahhh, Wolf Blitzer...

...always has been a tool always will be a tool. Know wonder he works for CNN.

[myrna minx]

16. I truly enjoy your posts. K&R

[patrice]

17. High praise, especially from someone like McRaven, "The president asked ALL of the right questions."

Asking the right questions requires not only intelligence but also courage.

Unlike, some whom we can think of . . . .

[ieoeja]

18. This really sums it up: "because I pitched every plan to him".

He doesn't say if he recommend this particular plan over the others. He seems to be implying that he chose not to; that it was the administration that chose which plan, in addition to, of course, making the go/no-go call.

[malaise]

19. I actually saw this live because GEM$NBComcast was

showing the Olympics and for broadcast rights issues the cable company has to cut any of their Olympic coverage.

Blizter was whipped worse than his infamous beating on Celebrity Jeopardy - and I was screaming with laughter.

[pa28]

20. McRaven knew exactly what Wolf was doing. He didn't like it much.

Thing of beauty to watch.

[Uncle Joe]

21. Any day Wolf Blitzer gets his ass handed to him is a good day.

Thanks for the thread, Segami.

[xtraxritical]

37. What kind of a name is Wolf Blitzer? As a kid he must have had hell to pay!

[Uncle Joe]

41. It's what happens when a wolf eats hot peppers and ex lax.

[HangOnKids]

42. His REAL name is Leslie n/t

[Blanks]

44. It's an acronym.

Works On Looking Foolish.

Of course his parents had no idea he'd be so successful at looking foolish. I'm sure they'd expect him to call himself SALF

Succeeds At Looking Foolish; now that he's all growed up.

[Matariki]

22. I appreciate that you posted this transcript

The animated smilies however, make it kind of hard to read.

[harun]

23. Blitzer had a clear agenda.

[graywarrior]

24. Impressive!

[BumRushDaShow]

25. This has been that racist's biggest fear

He still considers blacks as monkeys, including the current President, and can't wrap his head around someone who not only has a far more superior intellect than his, but also holds the power of the Presidency, which includes ultimate control over the military. I hope he rots in hell.

[JHB]

26. "Even Jimmy Carter would have given that order," Romney said in April.

Jimmy Carter did give that order.

And Republicans have fed for decades on the fact that the mission Carter ordered went very, very badly.

[katsy]

27. Send Blitz feedback (link below):

http://situationroom.blogs.cnn.com/2012/07/02/ask-wolf/comment-page-2/#comment-47070

[jerseyjack]

28. Notice Blitzer also had to bring up Jimmy Carter's Iran failure.

[xtraxritical]

36. Would you explain how it was President Carter's failure? I don't get it.

[magical thyme]

46. I think because he didn't order extra helicopters

That's what I remember reading. If there had been extra helicopters, it could have succeeded.

I believe that influenced the number of helicopters and the backup plan for Obama's bin Laden raid.

[DinahMoeHum]

47. No matter, that albatross for the Democrats died an unlamented death

on May 1, 2011.

[triplepoint]

56. Rescue Mission Failed Because of Equipment Failure, lack of training,bad decision-making

Last edited Sat Jul 28, 2012, 05:02 AM - Edit history (2)

In looking back on this, it appears that low altitude, high speed desert night flying was not something that many rotorheads were skilled at back then. Then, there's the aspect of sand in the engines. At the time of the rescue mission, that very topic was a hot research topic. There were preliminary research results, but that information wasn't as yet, passed to the flight line pilots.

Here's some interesting information from a website set up as a memorial (of sorts) for this failed mission:

http://rescueattempt.tripod.com/id15.html

"The real screw up was the idiot that ordered the helicopter to move to another C-130 for fuel because the aircraft commander of the original C-130 had just enough fuel for it to make it back to their duty station. I think the smart thing to do would have been to abort the C-130 and have them pump all of their fuel into the RH-53D. But that's not what happened. Once the RH-53D crashed into the C-130 there was no going on. The remaining helicopters were Un-flyable due to flying shrapnel for the ordinance that was blowing up. In all honesty, I think if the mission had continued on we would have lost a whole lot more than 8 heroes."

and finally, it's been claimed:

The real cause of the helicopter crashing into the C-130 is never mentioned. It was the lack of depth perception in the night vision equipment they were using. The helicopter pilot thought that he was far away from the C-130 while looking through his night vision device, when actually he was about to plow directly into it. Night vision equipment and FLIR is now 1000 times better.

[bonniebgood]

29. What's the difference between a

Wolf and a Fox? They both heavily edit transcripts and comments even their own.
I happen to be watching this live.
The Wolf told The Admiral up front,
" he was a pentagon corespondent" . so you know we are both republicans and heroes so where ever i lead you, Mr. Admiral you just follow, we're going to smack down the President . NOT.
When the Wolf said: "when you ordered that raid" I pit my coffee as if I had just witness a train wreck. And it only got worse for The Wolf.
Did The Wolf learn his lesson that you don't mess with a SEAL?

[Scurrilous]

30. K & R

[goclark]

31. K and R ~excellent post!

[Whisp]

32. k&r

for showing Blitzer's stupid, smelly, repuglican bagger asscrack.

What a disgusting and obvious little puke.

[Chorophyll]

33. Your "liberal media" in action, huh?

for Admiral McRaven!

[Enrique]

34. are journalists supposed to just spread war propaganda?

I have just started listening and Wolf has started by calling the Admiral a "real real hero".

Overall I think journalists are TOO deferential to government officials, especially the military, but I'm reading here at DU that Wolf is INSUFFICIENTLY deferential, people are resenting Wolf for challenging him rather than asking him to celebrate our great war victories. I think this is insane frankly.

[BumRushDaShow]

35. He's not a journalist

He's a rightwing hack who purportedly does "analysis".

The so-called "challenging" is his trying to assert, over and over, with a push-poll type question, that the President had nothing to do with the final decision for go/no-go, and he wants to trick the Admiral into saying such... And if the Admiral had fallen for it, this would have lead to months and months of Obsma-bashing material that he could use to fill the CNN fake news vacuum.

He and Creepy Crawly need to be taken off the air.

[Segami]

39. +1000

[Enrique]

40. Watch Blitzer argue with Trump that Obama deserves credit for killing bin laden

BLITZER: He killed Bin Laden.

TRUMP: He didn't kill Bin Laden. He gets so much credit for that. Ok, excuse me.

BLITZER: He authorized.

TRUMP: Excuse me.

BLITZER: He had the guts to make that decision.

TRUMP: Excuse me. Guts. You're sitting in the White House. They come to you, and here's the question. We can take him out. We have him. You're the president. We can take him out with a missile or we can go get him. Now, the third thing is leave him alone, and only a very stupid person would say that.

So, we can take him out with the missile or we can get -- either way. Either way, it's OK. All right? Either way, it's OK. So, he said, all right, let's go get him. Why does he get so much credit? You know, they give him credit for that. He shouldn't get so much credit. He happened to be sitting --

BLITZER: It wasn't a slam dunk.

TRUMP: Excuse me.

BLITZER: You remember Jimmy Carter --

TRUMP: Jimmy Carter was incompetent. Look, very nicely, we can take him out with a missile or we can pick him up. He's sitting in the White House. These military guys were there long before he was there. They found him. Now, the bad news is, Pakistan should have told us this years before because they knew exactly where he was.

He's sitting right next to one of their major military bases. So, I mean, for them not to have told us is very insulting, but I don't know why Obama gets credit for the whole Bin Laden thing. He's sitting there. He's got three choices. Leave him alone which nobody would do, take him out with a missile, or take him out with the military. So, he said take him out with the military. OK. Congratulations.

BLITZER: If wouldn't found him, it would have been a disaster.

TRUMP: One, you should get the -- yes, it would have been a disaster. It could have failed, but he's not the one that --

BLITZER: Some of those navy SEALs would have been killed.

TRUMP: They were great. They were great. They're great guys.

BLITZER: It was a dangerous mission.

TRUMP: They're great guys, but anybody in that position sitting happened to be president, if you walk in, say we have Bin Laden, we can either get him this way or that way. Honestly, either solution's OK.

I almost think the other would have been better, except this way there's a little more proof.

A lot of people disagree with what happened after the fact and the way he was treated so solemnly. I mean, they treated him so solemnly after the fact -- cleansed the body, washed -- I mean, give me a break.

Anybody sitting in that office, Wolf, would have -- I keep hearing about, oh, Bin Laden. The military did an incredible job, and they called him and they said, we have him. And he said, go get him. What's he going to say, don't get him? And he gets all this credit? It's a lot of crap.

[BumRushDaShow]

43. There should also be a transcript of him

suddenly going after Sununu for his ridiculous statements about "he's not American". But contrast that with his and John Klingon's orgiastic gloating the day the SCOTUS released their decision on The ACA and they thought it went their way. Plenty of footage of that, where their commentary wasn't scripted teleprompter questions, but personal, unscripted reactions.

I.e., CNN just came off the worst ratings quarter in 20+ years, so you can actually watch how Blitzkrieg is being wrenched to and fro via teleprompter, to at least attempt to be factual, but he reverts back to shilling when not scripted or when out of the studio, because CNN as Fox News Lite has been one big FAIL.

[Flatulo]

58. Way to spoil a perfectly good two-minute hate. nt

[Sherman A1]

45. All I can say is

Thanks for Posting!

[alphafemale]

48. Wolf Blitzer. One of the coolest names of all time wasted on a sanctimonious piece of shit.

I mean. Really.

[obxhead]

49. Fuck CNN and the asshole they've hung their hat on.

I'm tired of all the major networks, but CNN is nearly as bad as fox for different reasons.

[Agony]

50. a big FUCK YOU to the aspen institute

and the horse they rode in on... at&t etc

[valerief]

51. Excellent clip. Thank you. nt

[handmade34]

52. rec

[upi402]

53. This gentleman refrained from calling Wolf a DOUCHE-BAG

CNN is the bag that holds plenty of it.
ADM. WILLIAM MCRAVEN, COMMANDER, U.S. SPECIAL OPERATIONS will never soil his uniform like Colin Powell did, IMHO.

I just got the feeling the Admiral thought Wolf was a douche-bag for going there.

[lonestarnot]

54. Bwa ha ha ha haha

[Flatulo]

57. This whole thread strikes me as way over the top. How anyone can come

away from this transcript with the impression that Blitzer is a RW fascist, racist asshole is beyond me.

Blitzer clearly gives the POTUS credit for the success of this operation. Yeah, he pushes back on the Admiral, but that's his job as a journalist. Do we want a subservient ass-kissing media?

Just my opinion. Hate away.

Disclaimer: I dont watch CNN, so I'm not too familiar with Blitzer. But on the merits of this transcript, I see no justification whatsoever for this barrage of hate. However, this reaction is completely consistent with what I see passing as discourse on DU these days. Post after post of seething, bilious hatred. And I expect to get a dose of it in the replies to this post.

[Enrique]

59. "Ehud Barak sings praises of Obama administration"

If Blitzer is a tool for Romney, he has a funny way of showing it:

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/07/30/ehud-barak-sings-praises-of-obama-administration/

(CNN) – Israel's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Ehud Barak said the Obama White House has been the most supportive administration throughout the two countries' diplomatic relations on matters of Israeli security, in an interview to air Monday on "The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer."

Asked by Blitzer if the president has been more supportive than previous administrations' Barak said, "In terms of the support for our security, the cooperation of our intelligence, the sharing of sorts in a very open way even when there are differences which are not simple sometimes, I've found their support for our defense very stable."

Pressed if the Obama administration has been the most supportive ever, throughout history of U.S.-Israeli relations, Barak affirmed, saying that from his recollection of President Carter forward - "the defense relation between Israel and the United States are extremely stable and good."

Barak continued, "It doesn't mean that we agree on everything, it's very well known that differences between our government and the American administration about peace process about other issues, but I believe that in regard to world turmoil, in regard to Hezbollah, in regard to what happens in Syria, in regard to Iran, we basically – basically agree on the diagnosis. We don't agree on the prognosis on some of the issues."

[99Forever]

60. Wadda friggin' tool. n/t