Posted on 01/11/2016 8:15:12 PM PST by Whenifhow
One day after the Wall Street Journal revealed that a dummy U.S. hellfire missile was mistakenly shipped from Europe to Cuba in 2014, the State Department refuses to deny whether or not it was sold to the Cuban government.
"I am restricted, under federal law and regulations, from commenting on the specific defense trade, licensing cases and compliance matters," State Department spokesman John Kirby said during a press conference Friday.
"What I can say is under the Arms Export Control Act, the State Department licenses both permanent and temporary exports by U.S. companies of regulated defense articles," Kirby added.
The State Department spokesman went on to say that it is U.S. companies that are responsible for documenting their shipping logistics and are responsible for reporting any shipping deviations to the federal government. Previous reports indicated that Lockheed has been attributed with the shipping error that lead to the improper shipment.
When pressed for more detail, Kirby said he's "not at liberty to comment further." But that did not stop reporters from pressing the official on the issue.
"You're not suggesting that you actually sold this to the Cubans?" one reporter asked Kirby. "I don't understand why you can't say, 'No, we didn't sell this to the Cubans, it got there by accident by mistake.'"
"You want to leave open the possibility that our government sold or gave a hellfire missile, intentionally, to the government of Cuba?" the reporter continued, seemingly agitated.
The missile, now allegedly in Cuban possession, did not contain explosives, according to the Journal, but there are concerns over the potential for the Cubans to share the defense technology with U.S. adversaries like North Korea or Russia.
U.S. officials have been urging the Cuban government to return the missile. In addition, the U.S. government is reportedly investigating whether or not the missile's disappearance was an intentional act of espionage.
The United States and Cuba restored diplomatic relations in July 2015 after more than 50 years of hostility.
Watch the exchange below:
1:37 Minutes State Department Will Not Deny That U.S. Sold Hellfire Missile to Cuba
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXv3MfO6ffk
That would mean the 'government' would have to investigate 'itself'.
Oh come on.... don't be ridiculous.
It wasn't a 'bazillion'.
think about it. a US missile is in cuba, in cuban hands.
do you actually think there is some arbitrary way for military tech to ‘get on a plane’ and accidentally end up in cuba??
we have no military shipments to cuba, except for those going specifically to Guantanamo.
therefore, if a US missile is in cuban hands... it was either:
a. stolen from gitmo
b. delivery from gitmo into their custody
c. flown directly to a location of their choosing
option A is the only one that doesn’t involve TREASON.
so the question should be... WAS IT STOLEN OR NOT ?
WTF OVER?!
More treason. It never stops.
Time for the firing squad to take some serious target practice.
bkmk
Who is the reporterette?
Uhhh... lets see a drone mistakenly flew into Iran,we left a stealth chopper in abbottobman when we killed OBL’s double and now a hellfire mistakenly is shipped to Cuba,what else has happened that we don’t know about?????
What an idiotic statement. Congress has no prosecutorial powers, only the Justice Department does. Here you have the Democrats and Obama caught red handed in at least gross incompetence, and maybe a lot more, and all you can do is whine and cry about Republicans? Crawl back in your hole!
Don’t know who the lady reporter is, but the fellow is the AP reporter, Matt Lee.
AP reporter GRILLS State Dept on whether Iran has come clean yet on past nuclear program
Fall asleep in civics class, did we? LOL!
See: Impeachment
The House brings impeachment charges against federal officials as part of its oversight and investigatory responsibilities. Individual Members of the House can introduce impeachment resolutions like ordinary bills, or the House could initiate proceedings by passing a resolution authorizing an inquiry. The Committee on the Judiciary ordinarily has jurisdiction over impeachments, but special committees investigated charges before the Judiciary Committee was created in 1813. The committee then chooses whether to pursue articles of impeachment against the accused official and report them to the full House. If the articles are adopted (by simple majority vote), the House appoints Members by resolution to manage the ensuing Senate trial on its behalf. These managers act as prosecutors in the Senate and are usually members of the Judiciary Committee. The number of managers has varied across impeachment trials but has traditionally been an odd number. The partisan composition of managers has also varied depending on the nature of the impeachment, but the managers, by definition, always support the House's impeachment action.
Now, you may be happy to have Congressional Republicans sitting on their hands instead of their sworn duty, but I prefer to hold their feet to the fire.
You didn’t say “impeach” or “prosecute”, you said “prosecute”. Words mean things. I didn’t have to go to a civics class to learn that, I learned it in Kindergarten.
Fall asleep in English class, did we? LOL!
I didn't say, "impeach" or "prosecute," I said "prosecute?"
Yes, I agree. Words mean things. So far, you're spewing gibberish.
Wow.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_United_States_campaign_finance_controversy
http://www.nytimes.com/1999/05/11/world/clinton-approves-technology-transfer-to-china.html
These articles barely scratch the surface. It’s treason, campaign finance illegality, and bribery all the way down.
OK, OK, maybe a few million...
The fact that the correct answer is “No, we did not sell that missile to Cuba.” just tells me everything I need to know about this administration.
Really?
The other day you had him camped out under the White House for a few years.
You need to get your fiction straight, if for no other reason than continuity.
Seriously.. when Obama is gone what will you base your fan-fiction stuff on?
There' s vampires and Yu-Gi-Oh and Harry Potter...
I'm betting you could come up with all kinds of stuff on Harry Potter.
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