For John, BLUF: Could this be a disinformation operation on the part of the Clinton Camp? Nothing to see here; just move along.
The Associated Press is reporting that our Vice President, Joe Biden, had to apologize to the leader of another country over remarks he, the Vice President, may have made. The word used is "clarify", as in "Biden calls UAE prince to clarify remarks on Syria". The Reporter is Ms Aya Batrawy.
Here is the beginning of the article:
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Vice President Joe Biden on Sunday called the crown prince of the United Arab Emirates to clarify that he did not mean to imply in his remarks last week that the Gulf ally was supporting al-Qaida fighters in Syria.What ever happened to Chatham House Rules and Deep Background? That is to ask if the Vice President, and his aides, are just careless or if the Press is not acting in an ethical manner?Biden spoke with Prince Mohamed bin Zayed, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi and a key Emirati leader, the White House said.
In fairness to Vice President Biden, there are a fair number of folks who think that Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States are, in fact, supporting Sunni insurgents against the Alawi Islam♠ led Government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Regards — Cliff
♠ Followers of Alawi Islam are Twelvers.
2 comments:
My view is that before we fault Vice President Biden we need to ask ourselves the following question. What are the usual rules of engagement for political comments conducted on site/cite at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. I seriously doubt the contents of Biden's comments made at Harvard came from either a journalist in attendance or the VP's office.
This could be the case of someone within the school wanting to further themselves by first posing a loaded question to the VP and then anonymously leaking his flawed answer to the press thus casting a shadow over the guest lecturer, more often than not a prominent political figure. I imagine that this same person had the correct answer to the question formed prior to event where the VP gave his flawed answer. This same individual will most probably submit a write-up of this portion of the event containing the question, flawed answer with his/her correct answer for publication in a referred political journal. Lastly, without this media brouhaha there just might not be enough ergancy to publish the article, let alone in an esteemed journal, in time for a possible upcoming academic review decision to award him/her tenure status. Academia is a publish or perish world or so I have heard often.
Perhaps we should anonymously post a notice on all the lecture halls at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University stating "Engaging in any candid discussion here might be hazardous to your chances of being (re)-elected." I confess I have a fundamental problem, i.e., hatred, for losers who set up other people, those trying to do the correct thing, for the purposes of embarrassment or other forms of harm and then gain in return either pleasure or profit. It makes me wonder, does anybody even bother to raise Eagle Scouts in Massachusetts anymore?
Perhaps a second notice on all the lecture halls at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University should read "And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for yourselves."
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