Beltway Insider:Obama Visits Moore; British Solider Dies in Brazen Attack; Bomber Associate Killed; President Heckled During Commencement Speech
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- Category: Beltway Insider
- Published on Sunday, 26 May 2013 19:39
- Written by Janet Walker
President Obama traveled to hard hit Moore, Oklahoma and offered reassurance to residents one week after an F5 tornado decimated the city’s South side and ripped a gaping hole in the heart of the nation.
According to Gallup, President Obama’s job approval, over the past week, dropped three percentage points to 47% of those polled approve of his effectiveness as President and those who disapprove of his effectiveness as President rose a single percentage point to 44%.
Obama Visits Moore Tornado Site
President Obama arrived in Moore, this afternoon, touring the heavily damaged region with Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin, FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate, Mayor Glenn Lewis and others.
Obama promised the shell shocked residents speedy assistance adding “When we say we’ve got your back, I promise you we keep our word.” The deadly Moore Tornado, struck May 20th at 3:01PM, cutting a swath through this Oklahoma City suburb, obliterating everything in its path except the resilience of the people.
It is the spirit of resilience that the president praised as he spoke in front of the demolished Plaza Towers Elementary school, where seven children died, adding “Oklahomans inspire us with their love, their courage and their fellowship. This is a strong community with strong character. There is no doubt they will bounce back. But they need help.”
Moore lost 24 residents, including 7 children and two babies, as the 1.3 mile wide twister stayed on the ground for almost 40 minutes, traveling for 17miles, reducing parts of it to ruins. A second elementary Briarwood, was also in session at the time of the disaster, fortunately no fatalities were reported.
The president again comforted the people of tragedy with his presence and promise of “sustained federal assistance.”
British Solider Beheaded in Brazen Daylight Terror Attack
Lee Rigby, a British soldier, was brutally murdered in a brazen daylight terror attack outside his barracks in Woolwich, UK on London’s South side.
Rigby, an Afghanistan veteran and drummer with the 2nd battalion The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, was randomly targeted and reportedly struck by the attackers vehicle which knocked him to the ground. Witnesses to the stunning crime watched as the decorated soldier and father was butchered and beheaded in broad daylight on the street in front of dozens of onlookers many who videotaped the gruesome murder.
The attacker, Islamic radical Michael Adebolajo, his hands bloody and still gripping the hatchet and butchers knife, made no attempt to flee the scene or in any way elude capture as he spoke calmly to a witness who videotaped the Islamic extremist as he stated, “I apologize that women had to witness this today but in our lands women have to see the same thing.”
He continued on a jihadist fanatical rant as a witness videotaped him, stating, ‘“The reason we have killed this man today is because Muslims are dying daily by British soldiers. And this British soldier is one. It is an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. . . .Why does that means you must follow us and chase us and call us extremists and kill us. Rather you lot are extreme. You are the ones that when you drop a bomb you think it hits one person? Or rather your bomb wipes out a whole family? That is the reality.
You people will never be safe. Remove your governments, they don’t care about you. You think David Cameron is going to get caught in the street when we start busting our gun, you think politicians are going to die? No it’s going to be the average guy, like you and your children. So get rid of them. Tell them to bring our troops back so we can all live in peace. So leave our lands and we can all live in peace, that’s all I have to say.”
In the video, which has gone viral, a lone female walking calmly passed the suspect with the murder weapons in his hands. The suspect, and a second suspected assailant, Michael Adebowale, 22, were shot when police arrived on the scene are now in the hospital.
David Cameron, Britain’s Prime Minister made this statement, “First, this country will be absolutely resolute in its stand against violent extremism and terror. We will never give in to terror or terrorism in any of its forms. Second, this view is shared by every community in our country. This was not just an attack on Britain and on the British way of life; it was also a betrayal of Islam, and of the Muslim communities who give so much to our country. There is nothing in Islam that justifies this truly dreadful act.”
Rigby will receive a full military funeral with a Drumhead Ceremony.
President, Hagel Tackle Tough Issues At Military Commencement Speeches
President Obama and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel each spent this Memorial Day weekend addressing the graduating classes of the nations’ military academies.
At the National Defense University, in Fort McNair, in Washington D.C., President Obama received more than an initial standing ovation as one female heckler presented her own agenda as the president spoke on the detention of terrorists at Guantanamo Bay.
Interrupting the President ten separate times the audience member, identified as a female Muslim from Yeman attempted to interject her foreign policy opinions on the hot button issues surrounding the conditions at Guantanamo Bay.
President Obama eventually ad-libbed her into his speech, after trading polite requests for her to “let me finish.” He explained “given his administration’s relentless pursuit of al Qaeda’s leadership, there is no justification beyond politics for Congress to prevent us closing a facility that should have never been opened.”
The president ended the volley adding, “I think that – and I’m going off script, as you might expect here. (Laughter and applause.) The voice of the woman is worth paying attention to. (Applause.) Obviously, I do not agree with much of what she said, and obviously she wasn’t listening to me in much of what I said. But these are tough issues and the suggestion that we can gloss over them is wrong.”
Defense secretary Chuck Hagel also addressed tough issues during his commencement speech at Westpoint where he challenged the 1,007 cadets to stop the tolerance of Sexual Assault adding, “Sexual harassment and sexual assault in the military are a profound betrayal – a profound betrayal of scared oaths and scared trusts.”
President Obama addressing the navel cadets at Annapolis, Maryland also challenged the graduating class adding, “Likewise, those who commit sexual assault are not only committing a crime, and they threaten the trust and discipline that make our military strong. That’s why we have to be determined to stop these crimes, because, they’ve got no place in the greatest in the military on Earth.”
It was the second speech in as many days where our nation’s leaders have confronted the plague of sexual violence that tarnishes our military and seeps, like poison, into society leaving an indelible stain on our civilization.
Boston Bomber Associate Dead
Ibragim Todashev, a suspected associate of Boston Marathon Bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev, was shot and killed this week during a cooperative questioning by FBI in regards to his involvement in the September 11, 2011 triple homicide in the Boston suburb of Waltham, Massachusetts.
FBI sources indicated Todashev, a mixed martial arts instructor, had been participating in questioning and from all accounts had been cooperating. Something changed and apparently he lunged at the official and cut him. The FBI agent was treated at a local hospital.
Todashev, a Chechen, was part of an ongoing investigation into Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s involvement in the triple homicide and could have extended to information regarding the April 15th twin blasts that killed four and injured more than 260.
To date, in addition to Dzhokhar Tsarnaev the FBI have arrested and charged three friends of the younger Tsarnaev, Azamat Tazhayakov, Dias Kadyrbayev and Robel Phillipos in connection with hindering the investigation. Two others are dead including Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who died from injuries sustained in his attempt to escape, and Ibragim Todashev.
For more information on President Obama: www.whitehouse.gov
Sources: Gallup, Wikipedia, Whitehouse.gov, Huffington Post, Buzzfeed UK,DailyMail.com,
