White House struggles with Obama comment on Paris attack

[webfact]

White House struggles with Obama comment on Paris attack
By JULIE PACE

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House and State Department struggled Tuesday to clarify President Barack Obama's suggestion that last month's deadly shooting at a kosher deli in Paris was random, despite the administration's earlier assertions that the attack was anti-Semitic.

Obama, in describing terror threats during a lengthy interview with the online news site Vox, said the American people were right to be concerned "when you've got a bunch of violent, vicious zealots who behead people or randomly shoot a bunch of folks in a deli in Paris."

Administration officials at first defended Obama's comments, with White House spokesman Josh Earnest saying that while the administration was aware of the "motivation" of the gunman, the president was making the point that those killed in the deli "were not targeted by name."

"There were people other than just Jews who were in that deli," Earnest said.

His comments were echoed by State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki, who noted that the four victims of the attack were not all from one background of nationality. She also declined to say whether the attacks were anti-Semitic, deferring to the French government, which has used that language.

Administration critics quickly challenged that explanation, saying Obama was ignoring the gunman's motivations.

"French President Francois Hollande has consistently called the January shooting at the Kosher Deli in Paris an 'appalling anti-Semitic attack,' so why can't the administration do so, too?" Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., said. "The administration's inability to speak consistently and clearly about Islamic terror threats reflects not only muddled thinking, but also muddled policies."

Matt Brooks, the executive director of the Republican Jewish Coalition, said the statements by Obama and his advisers "send the wrong message to both the Jewish community and the terrorists who are responsible for these heinous acts."

Soon, the administration's spokespeople were taking to Twitter to try to clean up their earlier explanations.

Earnest wrote that the administration's view "has not changed. Terror attack at Paris Kosher market was motivated by anti-Semitism." And Psaki wrote, "We have always been clear that the attack on the kosher grocery store was an anti-Semitic attack that took the lives of innocent people."

The administration's clunky handling of Obama's comments comes on top of earlier criticisms of the president's response to the France attacks.

In the days after the attacks, the White House acknowledged that it erred in not sending a high-level official to attend an anti-terror rally in Paris. While the leaders of nations including Israel, Britain and Germany attended the event, the U.S. was represented by its ambassador to France.

Obama has also faced criticism for not calling the perpetrators of the attacks Islamic extremists, which is how they have been described by some French officials and British Prime Minister David Cameron. The White House has said it avoids using that term because it does not want to give legitimacy to the notion that the attackers were acting on behalf of their religious beliefs.
_

AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee contributed to this report.


-- (c) Associated Press 2015-02-11

[canuckamuck]

All part of a strict whitewashing campaign of anything unseemly carried out by Muslims.

[RickBradford]

All part of a strict whitewashing campaign of anything unseemly carried out by Muslims.

Yes, because it's not enough for the Left to denigrate the Good and Successful, they also have to exalt and elevate the Bad and Failed.

Only in that way can they achieve the moral equivalence between IS and the Westen democracies, that their infantile worldview demands.

[Seastallion]

All part of a strict whitewashing campaign of anything unseemly carried out by Muslims.

You can think of it like that, however I think, " The White House has said it avoids using that term because it does not want to give legitimacy to the notion that the attackers were acting on behalf of their religious beliefs." is in fact an important strategy. Rob them of any semblance of legitimacy and distance and distinguish them from the majority of law-abiding non-extremists.

[Jingthing]

He is afraid to call those terrorists (Hebdo and the grocery) Islamic Jihadists and it was stupid and offensive of him not to explicitly tell the truth about the Paris grocery: they were antisemitic (hatred towards Jews) murders perpetuated by an Islamic Jihadist terrorist.

The way Obama worded this which was wrong and/or a mistake and I hope not intentional implies that the terrorist didn't seek out Jews to murder and could have just as well gone to a place where no Jews were expected. He should correct this ASAP (at the very least to clarify the antisemitic part, he seems committed to not saying Islamic Jihadist) especially after his absurd absence at the Paris march.

Edited February 11, 2015 by Jingthing

[Jingthing]

Why is this a major headline story in the Thai press?

World News forum.

[Ulysses G.]

Islamic terrorists "randomly" shot a bunch of folks in a kosher Jewish deli. Typical Obama denial of the obvious. .

[Jingthing]

Islamic terrorists "randomly" shot a bunch of folks in a kosher Jewish deli. Typical Obama denial of the obvious. .

This one is more extreme than usual for him.

Edited February 11, 2015 by Jingthing

[Steely Dan]

All part of a strict whitewashing campaign of anything unseemly carried out by Muslims.

The comments come fresh from the president meeting with Muslim brotherhood representatives in the White House. There must be a point where the assumption of serial incompetence gives way to the assumption of treason.

[Steely Dan]

All part of a strict whitewashing campaign of anything unseemly carried out by Muslims.

You can think of it like that, however I think, " The White House has said it avoids using that term because it does not want to give legitimacy to the notion that the attackers were acting on behalf of their religious beliefs." is in fact an important strategy. Rob them of any semblance of legitimacy and distance and distinguish them from the majority of law-abiding non-extremists.

The Whitehouse goes all mealy mouthed with the obvious link between terrorism and Islam in order to disarm the Wests basic survival instincts when faced with the prospect of mass Muslim immigration.

[canuckamuck]

All part of a strict whitewashing campaign of anything unseemly carried out by Muslims.

You can think of it like that, however I think, " The White House has said it avoids using that term because it does not want to give legitimacy to the notion that the attackers were acting on behalf of their religious beliefs." is in fact an important strategy. Rob them of any semblance of legitimacy and distance and distinguish them from the majority of law-abiding non-extremists.

They do not want to give legitimacy to radical Islamists? Is this their policy to make them disappear? Pretend they don't exist? I don't think it's working.

Wouldn't this same strategy enable them to terrorize without the threat of any decisive policy to eradicate them.

[canuckamuck]

All part of a strict whitewashing campaign of anything unseemly carried out by Muslims.

The comments come fresh from the president meeting with Muslim brotherhood representatives in the White House. There must be a point where the assumption of serial incompetence gives way to the assumption of treason.

Yes

[Anthony5]

Islamic terrorists "randomly" shot a bunch of folks in a kosher Jewish deli. Typical Obama denial of the obvious. .

"There were people other than just Jews who were in that deli," Earnest said.

His comments were echoed by State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki, who noted that the four victims of the attack were not all from one background of nationality.

So probably there were Christians among the victims, so why is the attack not called anti-Christian?

I recall the worker who hid the customers and sneaked out to alert the police was a Muslim. So why the attack isn't called anti- Muslim?

If I say that Goldman-Sachs is responsible for much of the trouble in the world right now, I'm probably also labeled an ant-semitic?

No, let's find something to blame Obama for his opposition to the Netanyahu's speech in the white house, for which he seems to get some support from the Jews themselves, and at the same time make the Jews look some more as martyrs, which they are not.

[Ulysses G.]

Islamic terrorists "randomly" shot a bunch of folks in a kosher Jewish deli. Typical Obama denial of the obvious. .

So probably there were Christians among the victims, so why is the attack not called anti-Christian?

Maybe because you expect to find JEWS in a kosher Jewish deli? Are far as the Islamic terrorists are concerned, a few Christians are just icing on the cake.

[Anthony5]

Islamic terrorists "randomly" shot a bunch of folks in a kosher Jewish deli. Typical Obama denial of the obvious. .

So probably there were Christians among the victims, so why is the attack not called anti-Christian?

Maybe because you expect to find JEWS in a kosher Jewish deli? Are far as the Islamic terrorists are concerned, a few Christians are just icing on the cake.

Thanks for cutting out part of my post to make your boat float.

How about the Muslim worker who was on site every day?

How about the Charly Hebdo attacks, that were related to the one on the grocery? Where were the Jews there?

[ezzra]

Obama the indifferent president... doing Hogan hero's Schultz... I see nothing, I know nothing...

What do you expect from a president who kowtowing to an Arab king and go on a tour prostrating

himself in front of donkey and camel's herders saying we love you all, we mean harm against you

dear Arabs, please don't bomb our towers ....

[canuckamuck]

Maybe because you expect to find JEWS in a kosher Jewish deli? Are far as the Islamic terrorists are concerned, a few Christians are just icing on the cake.

Thanks for cutting out part of my post to make your boat float.

How about the Muslim worker who was on site every day?

How about the Charly Hebdo attacks, that were related to the one on the grocery? Where were the Jews there?

You may not have noticed, but the Islamists have a history of being a bit indiscriminate in their attacks. The fact it was Jewish deli was enough to set it apart from every other store in the neighborhood (If we attack there, some Jews will die and likely no Muslims). I doubt they took a census before commencing with the gunfire.

[Steely Dan]

Islamic terrorists "randomly" shot a bunch of folks in a kosher Jewish deli. Typical Obama denial of the obvious. .

So probably there were Christians among the victims, so why is the attack not called anti-Christian?

Maybe because you expect to find JEWS in a kosher Jewish deli? Are far as the Islamic terrorists are concerned, a few Christians are just icing on the cake.

Thanks for cutting out part of my post to make your boat float.

How about the Muslim worker who was on site every day?

How about the Charly Hebdo attacks, that were related to the one on the grocery? Where were the Jews there?

It may come as a shock to you but the hate manual masquerading as a holy book which the Islamists use as a guide calls for the murder of gays, apostates, and blasphemers as well as Jews. Coming to think of it, there is another reason to deny the religious motivation of the terrorists, someone might join up the dots and see a pattern instead of outbreaks of random violence or insanity.

[Ulysses G.]

If I say that Goldman-Sachs is responsible for much of the trouble in the world right now, I'm probably also labeled an ant-semitic?

You might be labeled that way because of the general content of your posts, but I doubt if anyone would point to your remarks on Goldman-Sachs specifically. Straw man much?

[Seastallion]

Islamic terrorists "randomly" shot a bunch of folks in a kosher Jewish deli. Typical Obama denial of the obvious. .

This one is more extreme than usual for him.

You're blind to the truth. You're spinning it as the other outraged critics in the OP are.

I assume (as do we all as we will never know for sure) that the deli was targeted because it would have Jews in it. But that's an assumption.

But lets make it a reasonable assumption and take it for granted, ok? The choice of a kosher deli was antisemitic.

What is a less reasonable assumption is that he (the gunman) shot the victims specifically. What is a reasonable assumption is that he shot whoever he came to first or whoever happened in his sights first...ie randomly chosen from amongst all the customers. That is what Obama meant by saying "random".

[Ulysses G.]

Huh? That makes no sense.

Edited February 11, 2015 by Ulysses G.

[landslide]

Islamic terrorists "randomly" shot a bunch of folks in a kosher Jewish deli. Typical Obama denial of the obvious. .

So probably there were Christians among the victims, so why is the attack not called anti-Christian?

Maybe because you expect to find JEWS in a kosher Jewish deli? Are far as the Islamic terrorists are concerned, a few Christians are just icing on the cake.

Thanks for cutting out part of my post to make your boat float.

How about the Muslim worker who was on site every day?

How about the Charly Hebdo attacks, that were related to the one on the grocery? Where were the Jews there?

The original post did not mention the Charlie Hebdo attacks specifically. Obama did mention the attack on the deli. As for the muslim employee, the French did recognize his bravery. He was granted immediate French citizenship following the attack for his actions that day. Obama, on the other hand, has gone out of his way to downplay any relationship of the attacks to "radical Muslim extremists". His denial of the true nature of Islamic Terrorism was never more evident.

Edited February 11, 2015 by landslide

[recycler]

What happened in Paris has a direct connection with Hollande's proposal in December to ease the sanctions on Russia and France voting for a UN resolution in favor of the Palestinians just before new year.

We should all be reminded of who the bad guys are and agree on spending more on security services, police and army.

Within days budget increase proposals where hitting the European parliaments with the biggest loony David Cameron demanding to ban all encrypted communication!

All of us are paying again in taxes and loss of individual freedom!

[Thaiready]

Islamic terrorists "randomly" shot a bunch of folks in a kosher Jewish deli. Typical Obama denial of the obvious. .

So probably there were Christians among the victims, so why is the attack not called anti-Christian?

Maybe because you expect to find JEWS in a kosher Jewish deli? Are far as the Islamic terrorists are concerned, a few Christians are just icing on the cake.

Thanks for cutting out part of my post to make your boat float.

How about the Muslim worker who was on site every day?

How about the Charly Hebdo attacks, that were related to the one on the grocery? Where were the Jews there?

Dude if you ever had a boat it was sunk a long time ago......people like you that offer sympathy for evil really chap my Ass. As the current leader in Thailand likes to say...You really need a "Attitude Adjustment".

[ALLSEEINGEYE]

how absolutely ridiculous!!! The people inside the deli just happened to be there when this terrorist attack took place. Each of them a=was not specifically targeted. To say they were randomly shot is correct. Just because he didn't add that it was also likely an anti-Semitic attack means nothing!!! It astounds me how the anti-Obama camp will do anything to turn what he says into a big deal.

Get over it already!!!

Do you clowns even remember when Bush would try to talk? OMG!!!

[Loptr]

White House struggles with Obama

They could have left the headline with just these five words and it would have been accurate...

[hawker9000]

What a master statesman.

[Scott]

An inflammatory post and an off-topic post have been removed.

[ToddinChonburi]

Unfortunately for 40+ years we have been hearing, we just need to talk to them and show them we mean no harm . Negotiate, talk to them, They will listen. How many innocent people have to die before the world wakes up.

Jordan finally found out that they to can be killed by these nuts and have joined in on the fun. For some reason President Obama has no problem reacting to social incidents at home in the US but when he needs to make a real and I stress real important decision he fails miserably. just go back and look at some of the local stories; Travon Martin , The college professor and the beers with the cop at the white house.

When general Pratraus ask for 60,000 more troop in Afghanistan it took 90 days for him to decide, during this time US service members were dying. After he was elected they no longer report US troop deaths. They are reported as UN security forces deaths.

As someone who has severed the lack of leadership during this time is very disappointing to say the least.

Edited February 11, 2015 by ToddinChonburi

[Anthony5]

So probably there were Christians among the victims, so why is the attack not called anti-Christian?

Maybe because you expect to find JEWS in a kosher Jewish deli? Are far as the Islamic terrorists are concerned, a few Christians are just icing on the cake.

Thanks for cutting out part of my post to make your boat float.

How about the Muslim worker who was on site every day?

How about the Charly Hebdo attacks, that were related to the one on the grocery? Where were the Jews there?

Dude if you ever had a boat it was sunk a long time ago......people like you that offer sympathy for evil really chap my Ass. As the current leader in Thailand likes to say...You really need a "Attitude Adjustment".

Where do I offer sympathy for the attacks? Any reading issues, or you just want to sound interesting?

My point is that the jews on this forum should stop playing cry baby and stop blaming everything on anti antisemitism.