FReepers on the ground note 2 hours 45 minutes, with Obama fleeing, just before the call to Islamic prayer.
Posted on 07/19/2008 9:07:00 AM PDT by kristinn
SNIP
Mr. Obama touched down in Kabul about noon, according to a statement released by his aides. His trip has been cloaked in secrecy, which advisers said was due to security concerns set forth by the Secret Service.
SNIP
The governor of Nangarhar province, Gul Agha Shirzai, a burly former mujahedeen commander with a brutal past but who is favored by the United States as someone who gets things done, was the only Afghan official to meet Senator Obama and Senators Chuck Hagel, Republican of Nebraska, and Jack Reed, Democrat of Rhode Island, at Jalalabad airfield along with the United States ambassador and generals.
SNIP
“Barak Obama thanked the officials of Nangarhar and the people of Nangarhar for eliminating poppy cultivation, fighting corruption, and he promised that the United States would give more help to Afghanistan and especially to Nangarhar,” he said by telephone after the one-hour meeting.
“I talked to him about our security and other development projects and programs that we have,” Mr. Shirzai said. “We also discussed some other important issues. I hope Nangarhar becomes an example for the other parts of Afghanistan.”
The senators flew back to Bagram airbase at 5 p.m., the governor said. At 6 p.m. two military Chinook helicopters landed at the United States embassy, as two more attack helicopters circled above. The senators are expected to stay the night in the Kabul embassy.
Mr. Obama’s whereabouts had been unknown since he departed Chicago. He left Andrews Air Force Base near Washington on Thursday afternoon, according to a pool report, and stopped and visited American troops in Kuwait on the way to Afghanistan, the statement from his aides said.
SNIP
No reporters accompanied him to Afghanistan.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
The Senator is expected to stay the night at the Kabul embassy....Wow, there’s a BIG secret...
According to Julie, “These are powerful images”. Please. This is OB’s first trip to A-stan since this WOT began almost seven years ago. He has been Jr. Senator of Illinois for about four years. I am NOT impressed with Sissy Boy's World Trip in Search of His “Gravitas”.
As a member of Congress, he could’ve flown there anytime. The timing of this trip is suspicious.
I’ll also point out that Michael Moore made a movie about the Iraq war without ever visiting Iraq. He relied solely on a second unit crew; a crew that managed to interview Nick Berg before he was kidnapped and had his head cut off but somehow neither of those details were not “important enough” for inclusion in his little film.
Keep him there, please.
He fits in much better with the local populace.
The FOX babe said no less than three times how “powerful these pictures are.” Huh? He was sitting in a square with generals and muslims around the room and he was just listening. Who knows what they were telling him?
This “quickie trip into danger” sounds akin to Mr. Dukakis climbing into the tank for a spin around the block....
And should be “spun” as such....
- John
Carlotta Gall ? I hope it’s her married name.
OK, I’m getting lost here. How can Obama be at Jalalabad for all of two hours and forty-five minutes, while at the same time visiting with the Gov. at Nangarhar for five hours?
We have eyewitness from a Freeper present to verify the time at Jalalabad. Wondering about the NYT representation on this trip.
OK, NOW IT IS MAKING SENSE. The part I missed is that “No Reporters Accompanied Obama to Afghanistan”, so then the Obama team is saying to the NYT whatever they want apparently, and the NYT is dutifully reporting what they are told by the Obamamites.
This is really looking like a BS Photo Op tour....Lets hope every where he lands we get a good local report ....thanks Captain. ...
Aid and Comfort to our enemies. Did he place a roadside bomb or just give them a warm hug.
Thanks to geo40xyz;
Just long enough to go to the airport gift shop, get a pressie photo taken, visit the head, make sure the passport was stamped and reboard the plane.
Lightweight, empty suit, sissy poseur. He visited under the blanket of protection provided by our military and gets cover by the absence of news reporters. He can say anything he wants with no verification or witnesses. What a phony!
For Julie and her liberal friends who don’t know the difference between a photo op and “a powerful image”, this is a big deal.
For neophyte, ideologs, like B.O., there will be no “learning” in this process.
He will simply wrap this photo op in the guise of “experience”, to further his existing bias.
The AP reports that Obama had a two hour stop at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait. They quote a spokesman for the base as saying Obama met with soldiers and "constituents" and played basketball. He says the officers at the base gave a briefing to Obama.
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Something is not computing here....where was this table that appears in the photos...based on the report from Captain Shamrock on the other thread...seems if the table was there....it was very little more than a photo op...
Can there be any doubt that the terrorists prefer Obama in the White House?
A reporter at The New Republic writes today that it would have been easy to figure out where Obama is this weekend based on the Obama campaign's communications:
Those of us covering the campaign got an e-mail from Obama communications strategist Robert Gibbs a little after 3 this morning saying Obama had landed in Afghanistan. The timing of the trip had previously been shrouded in secrecy for obvious security reasons. But, in retrospect, I probably should have put it together (as I'm sure many of my more observant colleagues did). A little over a week ago, a Netroots Nation spokesperson told me the campaign had told her Obama was going to be out of the country during the conference, which was scheduled to run from Thursday through Sunday. Then, this week, the press was reporting that Obama would be in Jordan and Israel beginning Monday before heading to Europe later in the week. And we already knew Obama was headed to Afghanistan and Iraq at some point. That left a two-plus-day window in which he'd be out of the country before he was due in Jordan. Which basically had Afghanistan and Iraq written all over it if you were paying attention.
Campaign stop for Barry Hussein. Pure and simple.
Bush and McCain in Iraq are “propaganda”, Obama pics are “powerful and historic”. I’m so damned sick of leftists, Euro-turds and the media. I don’t need that idolized caramel Caesar wannabee as tyrant in chief.
For years the left have said Afghanistan has been "forgotten" by President Bush. Now after all these years B Hussein decides to go & visit for the first time????
Give me a friggin break!
***Mr. Obama touched***
They worship the ground he walks on. Not in a good way.
Bill Clinton wanna be.
Im sick of hearing about sissy boy 24/7.
Why, so they couldn't see him pray toward Mecca?
That’s because Obambi has been anti war for so long..Now he will use the images from this trip to make himself look like he’s finally strong on national security. enough to make one puke.
I think I am going to be SICK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Another one grabbed from some FR’er:-)
Oh yeah — “powerful images” of the visit indeed! Hah!
This Obambi sojourn is about as ridiculous as that old comedy, “If It’s Tuesday, It Must Be Belgium.”
My question is why are taxpayers paying for Hagel when he’s leaving the Senate.
Why, to buy hashish?
Chuckie drank the Dem Kool-Aid and quite possibly could be Obambi’s running mate.
Nebraska fields a good football team but they don't know Shiite about about Chukie.
Religious pilgrimage?
For tracking purposes....
I'm turning this cr@p off.
I remember when candidate George W. Bush was savaged for not having traveled out of the country much. Obama's overseas travels have been his boyhood in Indonesia, a college-aged trip to Pakistan and his 2006 trip to Iraq, as far as I know.
Hm. All Muslim countries.
Purely a coincidence. At least you’re pretty much guaranteed a few days of peace and quiet while he’s in country—his allies in the insurgency wouldn’t want to harm Code Pink’s best friend.
I'm sure Obama will take credit for it.
Purely a coincidence.
More like his comfort zone.
From this thread:
Barack Obama addresses troops in Afghanistan
BBC has now changed the photo to this:
Mr Obama met the governor of Nangarhar province
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