Pentagon Red-Lights Obama Visit To Military Hospital

According to The New York Times, it was two weeks ago that the Pentagon gave Barack Obama the green light to land in Ramstein, Germany, this morning, where he was to visit wounded American soldiers at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center. For all intents and purposes, the Pentagon red-lighted the plan late on Wednesday, citing a Department of Defense regulation that prohibits a candidate for office from being accompanied by campaign staff when visiting a military base. Senate staff would have been OK, in Obama's case. But, as it turns out, campaign staff is all he had in tow.

Presumably, as part of the original approvals process, the Pentagon would have required that Obama tell them whom he planned to have accompany him to Landstuhl -- i.e., campaign staff.

If -- as Pentagon spokesperson Elizabeth Hibner told Talking Points Memo reporter Greg Sargent today -- it is "longstanding Department of Defense policy" that a candidate be prohibited from taking campaign staff along for the ride when visiting a military base...

Why did the Pentagon approve that part of the itinerary in the first place?

And why did the Pentagon wait until very late on Wednesday to disapprove it -- i.e., only after Obama had told the press, and thus the country, that he was going to visit the troops?

Was the Pentagon trying to embarrass Obama?

This all sounds very fishy.

A statement from Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell says, in part, that

it is not permitted to bring with [Obama] campaign staff. His team was notified of that, and they made a decision not to visit the hospital.

But exactly when was Obama's team "notified of that"? On this point, the Pentagon is conspicuously silent.

Surely, one assumes, the Pentagon would have to have notified Obama of its visitation policy well in advance of the original approval two weeks ago -- since only Senate staffers were allowed, and since, presumably, whichever Senate staffer(s) Obama wanted to bring with him to Landstuhl would have to have been part of the approval.

But according to a statement released last night by Obama adviser and retired Air Force Gen. Scott Gration, who is traveling with Obama this week:

We learned from the Pentagon last night that the visit would be viewed instead as a campaign event.

It's all in the timing. If the Pentagon didn't advise Obama of its policy until late Wednesday -- when it was too late for Obama to fly in Senate staff from Washington, much less to have that staff approved by the Department of Defense -- the Pentagon is playing games, knowing full well that no sitting U.S. Senator -- much less the presumptive Democratic nominee -- is going to make a visit like that "naked," i.e., without being accompanied by at least one of his or her own staff.

Who's supposed to take notes? Obama?

According to Politico reporter Carrie Budoff Brown, Obama adviser Robert Gibbs said no, when asked whether he believed the Pentagon had set up the campaign.

But when asked why he thought the Pentagon would clear the Landstuhl visit, only to raise question about it at the eleventh hour, Gibbs was far more circumspect, saying:

I don't know what to make of it.

That speaks volumes, does it not?

Comments

[CeciliaBertrand]

It doesn't seem to take much to amuse all the puppets. What goes around - comes around. What kind of a country is this? How low have we come? The only issues McCain/RNC have made are about attacking Obama and making up lies - a lot of money that could feed hungry people - help with the housing situation and it is all going in the coffers of a demented old man who has sold his soul!!
No doubt the money is all exploited from billions of unsuspecting people all over the world. How else are these monsters moving so much money?

[MiddleRoadLiberal]

There's a new McCain ad blasting Obama for his cancellation. He makes Obama look like he doesn't care about wounded veterans and insists that McCain *always* goes out of his way to visit them. The ad states that Obama has time to go to the gym, but not to see the troops. The gym trip referenced? Oh yeah, that was when Obama played basketball with US troops in Kuwait. Good job, numbnuts.

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/07/27/1227487.aspx

[horizonr]

POSTSCRIPT from John Lumea (part 1 of 2):

Some have suggested that the scuttling of Obama's visit to Landstuhl is Obama's fault. On a HistoryChannel.com thread which uses my piece as a starting point, one commenter asks, with incredulousness that fairly jumps off the screen:

"Are you saying that as a sitting Senator, and someone who has been on the presidential campaign for over a year, Obama was unaware of the rules of the DoD about visiting the troops? Are you saying he, and his handlers, are really that clueless? Are you telling us that, out of Obama's 2,000 staffers, not one knew he could not bring campaign staff, only Senate staff, with him on his visit to those military hospitals? Please, tell me he's not that stupid."

Of COURSE, Obama and his campaign know the Pentagon's rules. That's not the point. The point is that, two weeks ago, THE PENTAGON APPROVED OBAMA'S ORIGINAL PLAN --- a plan which had him visiting Landstuhl with retired Air Force General Scott Gration.

[continued]

[horizonr]

POSTSCRIPT from John Lumea (part 2 of 2):

As it happens, Gration is not a campaign staffer per se; he is an unpaid military adviser to the campaign. But does anyone seriously believe that the Pentagon did not --- both as a matter of due diligence and as a precondition of its initial approval --- verify for ITSELF the nature of Gration's relationship to Obama? More likely, the Pentagon already knew the relationship: Gration endorsed Obama in July 2007, and has been advising him ever since.

Certainly, one can see how the Pentagon might have felt that Gration's accompanying Obama would have violated the SPIRIT of its visitation policy, if not the letter. But if the Pentagon felt so strongly about the matter --- and given what it obviously knew about Gration --- why not raise the concern at the outset?

Absent any evidence to the contrary, what appears to have happened is that the Pentagon initially signed off on Gration --- in effect, waiving its own policy --- and that it reversed itself only when someone decided that pressing the broadest possible reading of the policy could do the most possible damage to Obama.

Someone decided that. The question is: Who?

History Channel thread at http://boards.historychannel.com/thread.jspa?threadID=510005897

Gration endorsement at http://iowa.barackobama.com/page/community/post_group/IowaHQ/CtRK

[end of postscript]

[masha2008]

clearly a set up. the pentagon has lied before and will lie again. remember embassy staff were told not to attend the speech as well and in israel, there were instructions not to aid the campaign if they requested anything from the embassy. clcearly, the bush administration (which has seen itself as a sort of monarchy) wanted to limit the success of obama's european trip as this would be unfavorable to the republican candidate. bush and cheney has so destroyed american institutions that endangers america's lofty beliefs.

[Lu4PUMA]

The Green Light was for a trip as a US Senator, not as a campaigning presidential candidate. He paraded around and put on concerts along with his speeches, posing for lots of "historic" photos. And this was followed by polls on what the locals thought about having Obama as the President of the US.

However, the Bush Administration is still in office through the end of the year and Obama has not even been confirmed as the Democratic Party's Nominee for President. Do you think President George W. Bush might consider his activities a violation of the Logan Act?

THE LOGAN ACT
The Logan Act, codified at 18 U.S.C. § 953, states: Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both. This section shall not abridge the right of a citizen to apply, himself or his agent, to any foreign government or the agents thereof for redress of any injury which he may have sustained from such government or any of its agents or subjects.

[charleslennon]

Do you honestly believe Pres.Bush has ever read the Logan act?

[illus2003]

In what instance has Obama acted in the authority of a US President. He is the Democratic Nominee who has gone on fact finding mission just as the Republican Nominee has gone on his. He has never intimated that he is the President and has publicly stated that there is only one US President at a time. So what has he done to violate the Logan Act?

[laylahb]

Total set up is the only answer I have. If anyone has any other ideas, please let me know. In any case, this "faux pas" has apparently been all over talk radio and the blogs, which I'm sure made Bushie, McSame and the Pentagon very happy campers. This was the highlight of McBush's week--even better than applesauce jars rolling in the aisles and a bratwurst at the local beer hall.