Repub Sen. Inhofe, shows FAKE 'Russians in Ukraine' Photos to Congress. Then is forced to apologize! [View all]

[sabrina 1]

Last edited Tue Feb 17, 2015, 03:33 PM - Edit history (1)

With huge amounts of egg on his war-mongering face, Republican Senator Inhofe, after initially, and with the required amount of OUTRAGE that these photos PROVED the presence of Russian troops in Ukraine, presented his fake info to the media and the Senate, he tries to wriggle out of his huge faux pas with a 'conditional' apology.

But thanks to fact checkers, Bloggers again, no longer willing to take war mongers at face value, Inhofe was forced to admit that he had made a mistake.

Do our Senators no longer have paid staffs to fact check stuff as important as this before spreading potentially incorrect information to the media?

Sen. Inhofe Blames ‘Ukrainian Delegation’ for Providing Him with Bogus War Atrocity Photos

Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) today blamed a Ukrainian delegation for the photos supposedly depicting Russian atrocities in Ukraine, which he provided to a DC news site and subsequently discovered were outdated.

According to BuzzFeed, Inhofe’s office told them that the photos, eventually published by the Washington Free Beacon, had come from a “delegation” including two first-year members of parliament, some academics, and some military officers.

http://www.c-span.org/video/?c4528166/senator-inhofe-shows-fake-photos-ukraine-war]
Why is he blaming someone else? Isn't it HIS job, when he gets material from people with an agenda, a WAR agenda at that, to thoroughly fact check the information before using it for the purpose of ramping up OUTRAGE that COULD lead to war?

Image of photos that turned out to be fake, sent to the media by Inhofe's office:




Feelings, nothing more than feelings, are all that are required now from a US Senator asking for money for WAR, before presenting his EVIDENCE as to why our tax dollars need to be spent, on MORE WAR:

“We felt confident to release these photos because the images match the reporting of what is going on in the region,” Inhofe said in a statement to BuzzFeed. “I was furious to learn one of the photos provided now appears to be falsified from an AP photo taken in 2008.

Maybe he better check his OTHER 'sources' also?? Might be a good idea before the neocons drag us into yet another war!

And maybe the media should fact check what our Senators are sending them before THEY publish, blindly apparently, the information themselves?

Last night, the Free Beacon updated its story with the headline “Updated: Provenance of Photos Showing Atrocities Questioned,” and added the reporting from BuzzFeed in their final update. “The Washington Free Beacon regrets the error,” they added.

And from CSpan:

See Video of Inhofe with his fake photos on Senate Floor:

Senator Inhofe Shows Fake Photos To Congress from Ukraine War

Video of Sen. James Inhofe presenting photographs to the Senate on Feb. 11 of what he said were Russian tanks in Ukraine last year. Two of the three images were in fact taken in 2008 during Russia's war with Georgia; the third shows Russian-backed separatists.

And more from the NYT:

Sifting Ukrainian Fact From Ukrainian Fiction

In his prepared remarks, Mr. Inhofe, a Republican from Oklahoma, said the images of “Russian troops in T-72 tanks, B.T.R. armored personnel carriers, and B.M.P. infantry fighting vehicles entering eastern Ukraine” constituted evidence of “an invasion of the Ukraine by Russia.”

While none of his colleagues saw anything amiss with the presentation, The Washington Free Beacon, a friendly conservative news outlet Mr. Inhofe’s staff provided the same images to, acknowledged on Thursday that “serious questions have been raised about the authenticity of some of the photographs” by bloggers with access to Google Image search.

So once AGAIN, America has to rely on BLOGGERS to 'vet' information being used by our Representatives, to demand FUNDING for Foreign Wars, which is what Inhofe was using those fake photos for!

And in case anyone thinks that NO ONE would ever LIE to get us into WAR, a reminder, an article documenting the deceptions that led to the disastrous Invasion of Iraq:

Lie After Lie After Lie: What Colin Powell Knew Ten Years Ago Today and What He Said

Clearly, Powell's loyalty to George Bush extended to being willing to deceive the world: the United Nations, Americans, and the coalition troops about to be sent to kill and die in Iraq. He's never been held accountable for his actions, and it's extremely unlikely he ever will be.

Whenever there are neocons involved, and there are in Ukraine, people need to read and listen very carefully to what they are being told.

We learned that from Iraq, or did we?