June 24, 2015

(Correction: I replaced my original title with this one because it more accurately describes what took place)

You can always count on conservative talkers to immediately get a platform on Fox News to instantly attack whatever policy President Obama initiates, no matter how decent or innocuous it is. Earlier today, the White House announced some clarifications to the way the US deals with our hostages and their families.

Better communication with the families of kidnapped Americans — and a pledge that those relatives won't face criminal charges if they pay ransoms — are at the heart of an update to the U.S. federal hostage policy, released Wednesday.

The Obama administration says the federal government will continue to try to prevent hostage situations, and to resolve them — but the Justice Department also clarifies that it "does not intend to add to families' pain in such cases by suggesting that they could face criminal prosecution."

Much of the new updates have to do with better communication and coordination with hostages' families.

It's tragic enough when a family has to deal with the knowledge that a loved one has been kidnapped, but then to ice them out of what is happening to them only intensifies the horrors they must face. The Obama administration put in place a couple of simple fixes to help ease the pain of those suffering families. That's the humane thing to do for them without making concessions to the kidnappers themselves.

You would think that would be greeted with class, but not for the right wing Concerned Veterans for America. They immediately sent Jason Beardsley, their Special Operations Advisor to attack the new changes, complaining that we're giving criminals a green light to kidnap more of our people even though the changes have nothing to do with how the US deals with kidnapped Americans. He also falsely states that the government is turning over negotiations of our captives to their families which is complete horse dung.

I think this is an example of a compassionate conservative.

Beardsley: We know the families are hurting and they're making a difficult decision, but right now our soldiers are in harm's way. The policies that are out there are ambiguous and some of them are confusing. When we add complexity to that, any time we add incentive to the criminal organization or the terrorist group to do more of this kidnap and ransom, we put them in further jeopardy. What we don't want to do is, we don't want to harm the service members and the soldiers that are out there now, even more by putting a target on their backs.

Because we're not going to prosecute suffering families from trying to get their kids back is supposed to be a green light for ISIS to go on a kidnapping rampage? What an antifreeze guzzling fool.

Cavuto did point out that we still have a no-ransom policy and the government has rarely ever arrested a family for reaching out to their kidnapped kids, but for CVA, facts don't matter.

Cavuto: Would that really mean more hostages at face value or open more possibilities for that?

Beardsley: When we legitimize this franchise of kidnap and ransom , what we're really saying is is when we give the families a green light to negotiate with terrorists for their loved ones ...it's almost like admitting that the US policy is not competent enough to deal with it. In other words, we're leaving this in the hands of the families, when the US should be a stronger advocate for getting in front of the security of our service members....telling the families that we want to put the onus on their shoulders...

That is flatulent nonsense. Beardsley talks in a slow and purposeful manner which is supposed to cover up his inaccuracies and lies.

Can you help us out?

For nearly 20 years we have been exposing Washington lies and untangling media deceit, but now Facebook is drowning us in an ocean of right wing lies. Please give a one-time or recurring donation, or buy a year's subscription for an ad-free experience. Thank you.

Discussion

We welcome relevant, respectful comments. Any comments that are sexist or in any other way deemed hateful by our staff will be deleted and constitute grounds for a ban from posting on the site. Please refer to our Terms of Service for information on our posting policy.
Mastodon