Sunday, February 15, 2015

U.S. Senator Uses Bogus Photos to Make the Case For Arming Ukraine


Despite the fragile ceasefire that emerged from the peace talks between leaders of Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine there is still an ongoing push by defense industry pimps to supply weapons to Kiev backed forces.  The top two proponents – as well as the most noisy – are of course the dynamic duo of John McCain and Lindsey Graham which comes as no surprise. Since it is Sunday at least one them will be appearing on the morning propaganda shows today to howl for pissing away American tax dollars in a civil war that we have no business meddling in. Neither one of the two - who have never met a foreign conflict that they would not send Americans off to die for - has ever done anything remotely as shameless as what Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe just did.

Inhofe, who sits elbow to elbow with McCain and Graham on the Senate Armed Services Committee has been doing his damned level best to poke the nuclear armed bear. This gaggle, and a multitude of supporting propagandists, State Department figures and Obama administration hacks seem to believe that it is in the best interests of America to get into a proxy war halfway across the planet over events in Ukraine. We can’t even secure our own freaking borders and it is largely thanks to the likes of Inhofe and his ilk who only seem to be interested in waging Cold War era ideological battles and shilling for the defense industrial complex.

The senator is taking heavy flak now for making his case to arm the Ukrainian regime against Russian backed insurgents and using phony photos to back his claims about a Russian invasion.  As reported by Michael Krieger of the website Liberty Blitzkrieg in the piece “In His Thirst for War, Senator Jim Inhofe Releases Fake Photos of Russian Troops in the Ukraine”:

Members of the Senate Armed Services Committee first viewed the graphic pictures in December. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R., Okla.) then obtained the photos and worked to independently verify and confirm the authenticity of the photos, before providing them exclusively to the Free Beacon.

Inhofe said he hopes the images act as a wake up call to the Obama administration and American people, who largely have been spared from seeing the graphic violence inflicted upon Ukraine by the Russian-backed separatists…

Following publication of this story, serious questions have been raised about the authenticity of some of the photographs provided by Sen. Jim Inhofe (R., Okla.). Several images of the Russian convoys appear to have been taken in 2008, during Russia’s conflict with Georgia. Given the similarities between the earlier images and those provided by the senator’s office, the Washington Free Beacon is investigating further and will update as necessary.

The providing of the pics to the Washington Free Beacon is a tried and true tactic for the establishment propaganda machine. First a fake story is put out by a lesser known website and then breathlessly hyped until one of the mainstream McNews outlets picks it up and then it becomes a talking point. Call me a cynic but it would be very advantageous to have "proof" of a massive Russian invasion that could be cited by McCain on Meet the Press. Inhofe is frantically backing away from the photos now and blaming the whole mess on the members of parliament in Kiev who provided him with the material.

Even conservative websites can see through this transparent bullshit, the Daily Caller provides an update on the pictures in a story entitled "Sen. Inhofe Blames Ukrainian Parliament For Falsified Photo":

Washington Free Beacon published a story Thursday that included several photographs offered to the publication exclusively by Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.). Well, “exclusive” was a bit of a stretch. Both the publication and the senator soon learned that at least one of the gruesome pictures came from the AP in 2008. Two others were easily spotted elsewhere online.

Washington Free Beacon walked back its story with a severe update as well as a second update up top.

Inhofe issued a statement late Thursday saying he was furious. But he claimed one falsified photo doesn’t change the gist of the story, which is that pro-Russia separatists have been murdering Ukranians and the U.S. government, in his view, needs to step in and militarily aid the Ukraine.

“The Ukrainian parliament members who gave us these photos in print form as if it came directly from a camera really did themselves a disservice,” Inhofe said in a statement sent to The Mirror by his office. “We felt confident to release these photos because the images match the reporting of what is going on in the region. I was furious to learn one of the photos provided now appears to be falsified from an AP photo taken in 2008. This doesn’t change the fact that there is plenty of evidence Russia has made advances into the country with T-72 tanks and that pro-Russian separatists have been killing Ukrainians in cold blood.”

But lying comes as naturally to a member of congress as breathing water does to a fish and the corrupt media never calls any of these swine out for their bullshit. Inhofe can huff and puff and blame it all on being suckered but it rings hollow because he is not walking back his statements on a Russian invasion of Ukraine one bit. This line of hogwash has been invoked so often over the past year that one wonders why Putin himself isn't already sitting behind Petro "the Chocolate King" Poroshenko's desk and sipping his aged cognac from a snifter.

I don't buy it that Inhofe didn't know that the pictures were a hoax but even if he was duped would that make you feel any better as to the level of competence of our government? And this is Russia that these morons are provoking not some dipshit Middle East hellhole that doesn't possess a huge nuclear arsenal which makes Inhofe's actions recklessly stupid.
Looks like Brian Williams may just have a career in politics after all.

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