Posted on 11/04/2010 2:22:26 PM PDT by 84rules
Rumors are running rampant about President Barack Obama’s upcoming trip to India, including one that he has dispatched a flotilla of 34 warships, including an aircraft carrier, to provide security while he is in Mumbai starting on Saturday.
“The measure has been taken as Mumbai attack in 2008 took place from the sea,” according to a story by Press Trust of India, which did not indicate where this information came from. Nevertheless, it was the lead story on the Drudge Report on Thursday morning.
Even Teddy Roosevelt, who sent The Great White Fleet around the world, might find sending that many warships a tad excessive, so The Rumor Doctor decided to delve into the matter.
Sure enough, there are not 34 ships – and there isn’t an aircraft carrier – supporting the president’s trip, said a defense official, who declined to provide any information on security measures for presidential trips.
(Excerpt) Read more at stripes.com ...
Even one ship is one too many.
Within limits.
Does anyone have Julian Assange’s phone number?
Where’s Wikileaks when you need ‘em?
Someone had to crush the story. I already don’t like Obama. I don’t need worthless rumors to add to that.
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They dilute the effect of the valid issues too.
Imagine that. These obviously unreliable reports from India turned out to be false after all.
And yet there were dozens of FReepers who piled on to them, spewing venom from every orifice.
If I were a bad guy (e.g., a Democrat operative), and I were worried about Tea Party types, I might just use that sort of response to make the Tea Partiers jump in all directions until they collapse from sheer exhaustion.
Maybe this will clue some folks in on the need to start using a bit more common sense where sensational stories are concerned.
But I am not optimistic.
Does our Navy even have 34 ships anymore? Just asking.
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“What matters is that the story is completely believable to most Americans.”
And, may I add, many Americans don’t believe one word coming from the WH.
Ironic that the American taxpayer will be spending perhaps half a billion dollars a day to insure that scumbag’s security while he’s working overtime to strip the country of any semblance of security, either in its physical security or its financial security.
Democrats taught us that the truth of the charge doesn’t matter so much as the seriousness of the charge.
White House spokesman Tommy Vietor shot down the $200 million-a-day figure — to put the outrageous sum in context, that’s 5 million times Rachael Ray’s recommended $40 a day.
“The numbers reported in this article have no basis in reality. Due to security concerns, we are unable to outline details associated with security procedures and costs, but it’s safe to say these numbers are wildly inflated,” Vietor said.
Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell also outright rejected the claim that 34 warships would patrol the Mumbai coast while Obama is in town.
“I think there has been a lot of creative writing that’s been done on this trip over the last few days,” he said. “We obviously have some support role for presidential travel ... but I will take the liberty this time of dismissing as absolutely absurd, this notion that somehow we are deploying 10 percent of the Navy, some 34 ships and an aircraft carrier in support of the president’s trip to Asia — that’s just comical.
reminds one of Bush’s fly into Iraq on Thanksgiving with just AirForce one....during an on going war...makes this president look like a little girly boy
Imagine that. These obviously unreliable reports from India turned out to be false after all.....
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Wow. I wish we were all as smart as you.
I wish we could believe some no-name blogger who takes his orders from the Pentagon - who takes their orders from the White Hut.
But you must be right. Because Robert Gibbs has also denounced these silly rumors, so they MUST be false.
Why - even Snopes has shoen them as false.
Wow. If White House and Pentagon spokesperson are denying this 200 million dollar per day report, then it MUST be false.
Don’t forget - Snopes has debunked it too.
/sarc
Good one! Still laughing!!!
That figure is in line with – how much does it cost to secure an Olympic site for two weeks or a summit?”
Answer: $1.8 billion
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