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Fox Blames Obama For American Hostages In Algeria

Posted by Ellen -7859.80pc on January 17, 2013 · Flag

Didn’t you just know that the moment the news arrived that some Americans had been taken hostage by an Al Qaeda-linked group in Algeria that Fox News scrambled to figure out a way to blame the Obama administration? Well, in a neat twofer, they got the job done by suggesting Fox’s favorite faux scandal of the year, Benghazi, was the cause. Never mind that even Fox News has reported that the terrorist attack was in retaliation for France's military action in Mali.

On America's Newsroom this morning, host Martha MacCallum set up a discussion with Fox contributor John Bolton by saying:

A spate of recent terror attacks raising serious concerns over whether terrorists are emboldened after the lack of reaction to the attack in Benghazi. Four Americans were murdered on September 11, including our U.S. Ambassador. Not one suspect has been charged in this case. The one that was, was released.

She went on to play a clip of Charles Krauthammer suggesting the same thing on Special Report the night before.

Bolton acknowledged, “We don’t know the specifics about this hostage-taking in Algeria and whether in fact it’s a direct response to the French intervention in Mali.” But that didn’t stop him from going on to point a finger of blame at Obama anyway.

I think the fact that it’s been now over four months since the attack on Benghazi, four Americans murdered, no visible America response, has to say to people, given everything else that President Obama has said for four years about his view of the Muslim world and the war on terror, that (Islamic extremists) are much safer, much more likely to decide to use force to take hostages than in previous years. I think we’re seeing the evidence of it right now.

“Yeah,” MacCallum agreed. Even though her show airs during what Fox calls its “objective” news lineup.

As the New York Times reported - but MacCallum didn't bother, at least not in this segment - there were good reasons to suspect that French military action in Mali, rather than Benghazi brazenness, was at the heart of the hostage taking:

The attackers seemed particularly incensed that Algeria’s government had permitted the French to use Algerian airspace to fly warplanes and military equipment into Mali, according to their statement, which may explain why they chose Algeria for retaliation. Some Algerian military experts said the Algerian public also was unhappy about the government’s decision.

“The setting in motion of a military machine in north Mali was going to have definite repercussions in Algeria,” said Mohamed Chafik Mesbah, a former Algerian Army officer and political scientist, adding, . “There are going to be much worse consequences. There will be more attacks.”

UPDATE: Even Fox News is saying that the terrorist attack was all about France:

At least 20 gunmen attacked and took over the vast complex early Wednesday in retaliation for France's military intervention against Al Qaeda-linked rebels in neighboring Mali. Militants phoned Mauritanian media to say one of its affiliates had carried out the operation and that France should end its intervention in Mali to ensure the safety of the hostages.

But have no fear, Fox fans. I feel confident the "fair and balanced" network will figure out a way to blame that on the Obama administration, too.

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Anne-claire Souza commented 2013-01-18 12:51:15 -0500 · Flag
A boycott on Algeria will be imposed immediately by the great Vile Bile O’.An interview is scheduled with the “Great Whore of Babbleon” on Fox to discuss this grave matter.Of course she has no clue where Algeria is located.We have been stunned by her knowledge of World Geography before,so this should be good.
Kent Brockman commented 2013-01-18 12:07:08 -0500 · Flag
Why no interviews with Mitt what’s-hiz-ass on these issues? What would Mr. Bain Capitol have done? Who’s on first?
Zap Pow commented 2013-01-18 06:24:52 -0500 · Flag
@ AAP

If only the US had listened to De Gaulle, who, as soon as 1961, told them the solution could only be political, and that there wouldn’t be any military solution.
Kortez commented 2013-01-18 06:04:28 -0500 · Flag
Fox and Toilet brush are so fixated and insane about blaming the President I will never take anything they say seriously. They are so compromised they cannot expect anyone with intelligence to consider them journalists or even remotely unbiased.
Bemused commented 2013-01-18 04:15:04 -0500 · Flag
The foxy attitude towards Obama can be summed up in the following exchange:

President Obama: Good Morning, folks!
FNC: What’s so good about it?
Bemused commented 2013-01-18 04:13:36 -0500 · Flag
@paul and Joseph: Mali also has some pretty big deposits of a lot of other stuff but it’s out in the middle of nowhere (astronomical transport costs made their mining uncompetitive and the situation is now worsened by insecurity). Bauxite and uranium come immediately to mind though I used to hear people talk about some mysterious deposits of stuff currently available mainly in China … “rare earths”, perhaps? Who knows, but that would have the Western powers very interested indeed.

Only rumors so far as I know, but fruit for thought nonetheless: I remember well how everybody fell off their collective stools when the off-shore oil deposits in Equatorial Guinea were “discovered” well after the big companies (backed by their respective countries) had already divided up the pie.
mj - the same one commented 2013-01-18 02:09:11 -0500 · Flag
Bolton: “I think the fact that it’s been now over four months since the attack on Benghazi, four Americans murdered, no visible America response, has to say to people, given everything else that President Obama has said for four years about his view of the Muslim world and the war on terror, that (Islamic extremists) are much safer, much more likely to decide to use force to take hostages than in previous years. I think we’re seeing the evidence of it right now.”

Hey, if anybody knows about giving aid and comfort to foreign terrorists, it’s the Talking Toilet Brush:

Bolton has long spoken in favor of the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (also known as the Mujahedin-e Khalq, or MEK), “an armed Islamic group with Marxist leanings” which has long been on the U.S. State Department list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations. According to the State Department, the MEK “[f]ollow[s] a philosophy that mixes Marxism and Islam.” In the 1970s, MEK members, who “had been trained by the Soviet Union in guerilla warfare and supported Khomeini . . . assassinated U.S. military officers then working in Iran. MEK members actively took part in the 1979 seizure of the U.S. embassy in Tehran, according to a U.S. government report.”
On January 25, 2011, Bolton drew a standing ovation at a Brussels conference in support of the MEK, giving a speech in which he “backed MEK’s legitimacy, and the notion of removing it from the list of terrorist organizations.” Georgetown law professor David D. Cole has pointed out that “the United States government has labeled the Mujahedeen Khalq a ‘foreign terrorist organization,’ making it a crime to provide it, directly or indirectly, with any material support [including] engag[ing] in public advocacy to challenge a group’s ‘terrorist’ designation,” under the Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_R.Bolton#People.27s_Mujahedin_ofIran

I continue to ask: why isn’t this POS sitting in Gitmo wearing an orange jumpsuit?

.
Zap Pow commented 2013-01-17 21:23:42 -0500 · Flag
@ Lakeview Greg

What was that french mess ?
Aria Prescott commented 2013-01-17 19:22:18 -0500 · Flag
Oh, so Fox News can now blame Obama for an overseas hostage situation… without the first clue about said situation?

Cool, by their logic, I get to blame every American hostage taken with the expressed motive of ransoming against action in the middle east on Bush.

When does the trial for all the ones they killed start?
Joseph West commented 2013-01-17 18:01:06 -0500 · Flag
@paul: The hostage situation was in Algeria, not Mali. The situation is believed to be a response by an Islamist Algerian group sympathetic to the Islamist Malian rebels.

But it is a large producer of gold*, at least as of 2006 (the intervening years of rebellion have probably put a large damper on the production), the country produced more than 85,000 kilograms of gold (not really sure how much that comes to in “tons of gold” since an ounce of gold is based on the Troy system rather than the standard/avoirdupois system—85000 kg of gold translates to nearly 3000000 standard ounces or to about 2750000 Troy ounces—and the Troy system wasn’t designed for weights over a pound which, in the Troy system, only has 12 ounces).

*And, as we all know, if there’s anything the right-wingers like more than oil, it’s gold.
truman commented 2013-01-17 17:00:31 -0500 · Flag
After his slander of Hillary Clinton, the talking-toilet-brush Bolton should have been exiled from Fux Noise. He and the wooden dummy Kraphamsters are a matching pair of like-minded wingnuts.
Jan Hall commented 2013-01-17 16:33:21 -0500 · Flag
Wait until Little Billy EGO’reilly hears about this. Billow The Clown, will bring Algeria to its knees.
Lakeview Greg commented 2013-01-17 16:01:49 -0500 · Flag
I get the feeling this is more than just religious stuff. The French do not have a good record at all in Africa as a whole and I would bet at least some of this is just anti-France stuff. We need to stay out of this one. Last time we picked up a French mess, it took 25 years to get out of it.
Lakeview Greg commented 2013-01-17 15:33:45 -0500 · Flag
I am sure some Republican Congress-types will start aping this latest Fox spew. Cue Michelle Bachmann et al!








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