Monday, July 14, 2014

Earnest defends notion of 'most transparent administration' in US history (Is this a joke or what?)


The White House on Sunday stood by President Obama's position that he continues to be the most transparent president in U.S. history, despite widespread complaints from journalists and other Americans about a lack of information or apparent misinformation.
“I have a responsibility in this job to try to help the president live up to his commitment to be the most transparent president in history,” new White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said on CNN’s “Reliable Sources.”
Earnest said he “absolutely, absolutely” sticks by Obama’s line about having the most transparent administration, after continued criticism about apparent attempts to not make full disclosures.
Among the criticisms are that the president and his administration misled Americans by telling them they could keep their existing health insurance plans under ObamaCare, intentionally tried to conceal what sparked the 2012 terror attacks in Benghazi, Libya in which four Americans were killed and prosecuted federal employees who should have been protected under the whistleblower protection act.
Last week, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Poynter Institute and others sent a letter to Obama complaining about the lack of access to information from federal agencies, citing several recent examples.
And last month, Steve Thomma, a senior White House reporter for McClatchy newspapers and president of the White House Correspondents Association, expressed some frustration about the White House posting its own photographs of official events.
“We have no problem with the White House sending out that stuff,” he told FoxNews.com. “But we’d also like to be in the room.”
Earnest suggested at least some of the complaints were part of the traditional struggle between reporters and government.
“They're all journalists,” he said. “The day that they sort of sit back and say, you know, we don't need to write a letter, the White House is telling us everything that they're supposed to, is the day that they're no longer doing their jobs.”
Earnest also said the administration has taken several steps “to give people greater insight into what's happening at the White House.”
He argued the White House guest log is routinely and voluntarily posted on the Internet and that reporters now have access to presidential events held in private homes.

Netanyahu vows 'any means necessary' to stop Hamas

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday he will use “any means necessary” to stop Islamic militant group Hamas from bombing civilians but declined to say when his military action will stop or whether he will continue using ground troops.
Netanyahu said on “Fox News Sunday” that his objective was to reach “sustained quiet” and that he’ll continue “until it’s achieved.”
The prime minister spoke as Israeli ground troops moved into the Gaza Strip early Sunday for the first time in the increasing bloody battle with Palestinians, sparked by the recent killings of three Israeli teens, then the apparent revenge killing of an Arab Palestinian youth.
The troop movement also has prompted concerns about whether the Gaza attack, the first such since 2009, will result in a full-scale ground war.
The week-long dispute until Sunday has been limited to Hamas rocket attacks and Israeli rocket and airstrikes that have killed an estimated 160 Palestinians, in a decades-long battle between both sides in Israel.
Israel has launched more than 1,300 airstrikes since the offensive began, military spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner said Sunday.
Palestinian militants have launched more than 800 rockets at Israel, including 130 in the last 24 hours, the Israeli military said Sunday.
Several Israelis have been wounded, but there have been no fatalities.
“We cannot accept that and will take the necessary action to stop it,” said Netanyahu, who declined to get into specifics. “We’ll do what any country would do."
He also apologized for the civilian casualties but blamed Hamas for trying to use residents as human shields.
Former U.S. Ambassador Dennis Ross, who also appeared on “Fox News Sunday,” speculated that Netanhayu’s goal is to restore calm, not dismantle Hamas.
He suggested a foray into Gaza to eliminate Hamas creates too much risk for a high number of civilian casualties, which could result in international opposition.
“I’m not sure what you would achieve,” Ross said.
Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Sunday criticized the United States for not condemning Israel’s attacks, which he described as a “slaughter” on “men, women and children.”
“We don’t see any move by the United States to condemn this,” he told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Israel on Sunday briefly deploying troops inside the Gaza Strip resulted in roughly 4,000 people fleeing southward.
Neither Israel nor Palestinian militants show signs of agreeing to a cease-fire to end their week-long conflict, despite calls by the United Nations Security Council and others that they lay down their arms.
With Israel massing tanks and soldiers at Gaza's borders, some fear the latest Israeli threats could signal a wider ground offensive that would bring even heavier casualties than the Palestinian deaths already registered.
Early Sunday, Israeli naval commandos launched the brief raid into northern Gaza to destroy what the military described as a rocket-launching site, an operation it said left four of its soldiers slightly wounded.
The Israeli Air Force later dropped leaflets warning residents to evacuate their homes ahead of what Israel's military spokesman described as a "short and temporary" campaign against northern Gaza, home to at least 100,000 people.

Israel military says it has shot down drone along southern coastline


Israel's military said Monday that it had downed a drone along its southern coastline, marking the first time it had encountered such a weapon in its week-long campaign against Islamic militants in the Gaza Strip. 
The drone came from Gaza and was shot down by a Patriot surface-to-air missile near the southern city of Ashdod, the military said. It did not say what the drone was carrying and there was no immediate confirmation from Gaza on the use of unmanned aircraft.
However, the use of drones with an offensive capacity could potentially inflict significant casualties -- something the rockets from Gaza have failed to do, largely because of the success of the military's 'Iron Dome' air defense system in shooting them down.
In addition to the drone, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) says that militants have launched 971 rockets at Israeli cities in the six days since Israel launched "Operation Protective Edge," a bid to halt such attacks. No Israeli fatalities have been reported, though a teenage boy was seriously injured by rocket shrapnel in the town of Ashkelon on Sunday.
The military says that due to years of generous Iranian shipments, thousands of rockets remain in Gaza, and there is no quick way to eliminate the threat. The army says Hamas has an arsenal of some 10,000 rockets, including longer-range, foreign-made weapons capable of reaching virtually anywhere in Israel. The current round of fighting has seen air-raid sirens sound in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa, Israel's three largest cities.
Israeli analysts say that most of the remaining long-range rockets are believed to be stashed beneath residential buildings, and that the only way to completely remove the threat would be to re-conquer Gaza, from which Israel withdrew in 2005, and stay there for a lengthy period. Such a scenario would carry great risk, and Israeli leaders are wary.
On Monday morning, The Times of Israel reported that the IDF had declared an area just north of the Gaza Strip border to be a closed military zone. The significance of the declaration was not immediately clear, but the paper reported that ground forces were continuing to muster on the border. 
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that the current Israeli operation could last for "a long time" and that the military was prepared "for all possibilities." That includes a wide-ranging Gaza ground operation, which would likely cause heavy casualties in the coastal strip.
The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza says 172 people have been killed by Israeli airstrikes, though it is not clear how many are civilians and how many are operatives of Hamas or other militant groups. 
The IDF says its goal is to inflict so much pain on Hamas that it will be deterred from attacking Israel again — just like Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon have largely remained on the sidelines for the past eight years.
Military spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner said the military estimated 20 percent of the rockets in Gaza have either been fired or destroyed by Israel. Besides diminishing Hamas' future capabilities, he said Israel's assaults were mostly aimed at convincing Hamas never to try it again.
"When they come out of their bunkers and they look around, they are going to have to make a serious estimation of whether what they have done was worth it," he said. "And people will look in their eyes and say 'Why did you do this? What did you gain from this?'"
But Netanyahu is coming under increasing international pressure to end the operation soon. On Sunday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for an immediate cease-fire while U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry voiced American "readiness" to help restore calm. Egypt, a key mediator between Israel and Hamas, continued to work behind the scenes to stop the conflict.
Hamas has sent signals it may be ready to consider a cease-fire but appears to be waiting for some tangible military or diplomatic achievement before moving ahead on that front. For his part, Netanyahu wants to show the Israeli public that he has succeeded in significantly degrading Hamas's ability to strike at its Israeli targets before moving ahead diplomatically.

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