Obama Your Failure As Head Of The Subcommittee On European Affairs Again!

Original Link: http://noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/08/01/obama-your-failure-as-head-of-the-subcommittee-on-european-affairs-again/

By NancyA

Major Eric Egland, a major in the United States Air Force, former lead intelligence specialist in Iraq focusing on terrorist networks and improvised explosive devices (IEDs), in Allies Obama Overlooked, once again reminds us of Obama’s uninspiring inexperience. He even says that Obama wouldn’t have overlooked our allies if he had held just one meeting, yes, one meeting, of his Subcommittee on European Affairs, he would have never made such a mistake.

Egland had this to say:

Last weekend, Barack Obama dazzled crowds in Europe. Discussing international security, he spoke eloquently about the need for an American-European partnership to defeat terrorism.

In Paris, he said that “terrorism cannot be solved by any one country alone”, and that America should establish partnerships. In Berlin, he expressed hope that Europeans and Americans “can join in a new and global partnershipto dismantle the networks” of terrorists worldwide.

Eglin outlines a problem with Obama’s speeches, we already have a counterterrorism partnership with the European Union.

Obama only needed to hold one meeting, yet he hasn’t. Senator Obama said this during a debate hosted by MSNBC with Tim Russert and Brian Williams. Here is Russert’s question and Obama’s answer:

MR. RUSSERT: Senator Obama, I want you to respond to not holding oversight for your subcommittee. But also, do you reserve a right as American president to go back into Iraq, once you have withdrawn, with sizable troops in order to quell any kind of insurrection or civil war?

SEN. OBAMA: Well, first of all, I became chairman of this committee at the beginning of this campaign, at the beginning of 2007. So it is true that we haven’t had oversight hearings on Afghanistan.

Eglin has more on the partnership, one that was so urgently needed, post 9/11. Here are his thoughts on that:

The urgency of this partnership became clear after investigators discovered that a cell in Hamburg, Germany, had helped in Al Qaeda’s attacks against America on Sept. 11, 2001. After bombings in Madrid and London, the partnership expanded.

Since then the number of attacks and plots aimed at our European allies has dropped. And here in the United States, of course, Al Qaeda has been unable to attack since 9/11.


The major continues by discussing the challenges the intelligence community and others had in finding the source of the “new” bombs. He says the following on those challenges:

One challenge we had was to find where the research and testing of new bombs was taking place. Eventually, American intelligence and European law enforcement officials discovered together that much of the work was being done outside Iraq with the results transmitted via the Internet.

Acting on this information, the police in France arrested electrical engineering students at a French university who had been recruited by their local mosque leaders. After these arrests, American tactical countermeasures and improvements in technology became more effective and the number of casualties from certain types of explosives declined.

Such close collaboration between the United States and France against terrorist cells in Iraq may surprise those accustomed to digesting easy sound bites of “cowboy diplomacy” and “unilateralism.” But the partnership is real, and not just with France.

The partnership does indeed include other countries in the European Union (EU). One of these other countrie is Germany. Eglin said this about Germany and its efforts to combat terrorism. Here are his words:

The Germans contribute as well. I also worked on counterterrorism operations in southern Europe to stop a plot against American interests there. Thanks to German intelligence and law enforcement officials, a planned attack modeled on the 1983 truck bombing against U.S. marines in Lebanon - but several times larger - never happened.

Major Eglin tells us about diplomatic efforts at the highest levels:

Such tactical success is only possible after effective diplomatic engagement at the highest levels. Agreements between the United States and Europe, like the Declaration on Combating Terrorism and the Extradition and Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty, have helped enormously. And for years, NATO, the Group of 8 industrialized nations, and other multilateral organizations have contributed as well.

The major has this to say about testimony that was given prior to Obama entering the US Senate:

In 2004, J. Cofer Black, the State Department’s coordinator for counterterrorism, testified about the success of these partnerships before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s subcommittee on European affairs.

He has this criticism to offer about Obama. His criticism once again points out either, 1) his inexperience or 2) his lack of interest and inability to educate himself on his job as a senator. Eglin said this:

Had Obama, who now heads that subcommittee, read the transcripts from the meeting, which took place before he came to office, or had he held a similar hearing, he might have known that the partnerships he called for last week already exist.

The major says it best about Obama’s credibility as a potential commander-in-chief. He says this:

After years of investment and sacrifice, Americans and Europeans deserve accurate information about our efforts to defeat international terrorism, especially from a prospective commander in chief.

And another voice speaks out questioning Obama’s “qualification” to be our next president.