Early this morning, conservative military bloggers began to float reports that the US ambassador to Egypt, Anne Patterson, did not permit US Marine security guards to carry live ammunition. Within hours, this "no ammo" rumor in response to the embassy attack in Cairo lit up right-wing social media, with the allegation unquestioningly blamed on the White House. Conservative thought-leaders and pundits led the charge:
So Marines in Benghazi like Bobbies in London. Very leading-from-behindishKurt Schlichter@KurtSchlichter
Obama's World of Appeasement: Cairo embassy Marines not allowed to carry live ammo. bit.ly/Pme6nI #caring
- to a co-host on Glenn Beck's radio network:Michael Graham@MGraham969
- Under orders from Obama administration--NO AMMO for Marines at Cairo Embassyfreebeacon.com/reports-marine…
just a couple to show the intent.
The sole source for this assertion was "Nightwatch"—a conservative "intelligence" blog written by former Defense Department analyst John McCreary and hosted by a subsidiary of a defense contractors' lobby group—which attributed the report to unnamed (and uncounted) "USMC blogs." According to McCreary, Patterson—a career foreign service officer who was not a political appointee, and who served George W. Bush as an ambassador to the UN and to Pakistan—"did not defend U.S. sovereign territory and betrayed her oath of office.
" And: "She neutered the Marines posted to defend the embassy, trusting the Egyptians over the Marines.These claims were quickly perpetuated by the right-wing Washington Free Beacon and Fox Nation sites, despite never having been confirmed—and they are highly unlikely to be true. Patterson was in Washington at the time of the protests, leaving the deputy chief of mission in charge, and he would have had responsibility for issuing orders to guards, along with the embassy's regional security officer, a specially trained State Department official.
State's own guidelines for Marine security guards (PDF) require that any duty assigned to them "shall not contravene established Department or Marine Corps policy and shall not unduly jeopardize the safety or well-being of any Marine." That's a pretty straightforward way of saying Marines don't lay down their arms if danger is imminent, no matter what a diplomat says. Unless, of course, you're willing to believe the worst about POTUS and his diplomatic corps.
Pentagon spokesman George Little dismissed the allegations Thursday afternoon. "With or without a weapon, Marines are always armed," he told Time's Mark Thompson. "I've heard nothing to suggest they don't have ammunition."
like rats on a garbage scowl, the republican's take anything they can re-write and throw it as hard as they can, rebuked information is their speak de jour, that's getting to be a hard sell, with their base starting to get a clue.
McCreary and his followers are playing to emotions surrounding the four American deaths in Libya, but they don't bother to consider how the Marines might have actually used steel-jacketed, high-powered .223 rifle cartridges in Cairo, which was a different situation involving street protesters. Should they have gunned the protesters down? About the only thing the conservative blogosphere knows for sure is: Whatever happened, it must be the president's fault.
the right wing bottom line, are you believing this? if so ask yourself why.
