By James Gordon Meek
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU
Updated Friday, July 25th 2008, 10:05 AM
WASHINGTON – The latest chain e-mail smear against Barack Obama: He “blew off” troops at an Afghan base to shoot hoops for a publicity photo.
The letter was apparently written by a Utah Army National Guard intelligence officer in a linguist unit at Bagram Airfield who claimed the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee was rude to G.I.s.
“As the soldiers where [sic] lined up to shake his hand he blew them off,” wrote the Task Force Wasatch “battle captain.”
But angry Army brass debunked the Obama-bashing soldier’s allegations, which went viral Thursday over the Web and on military blogs such as Blackfive.
The e-mail claims Obama repeatedly shunned soldiers on his way to the Clamshell – a recreation tent – to “take his publicity pictures playing basketball.”
“These comments are inappropriate and factually incorrect,” said Bagram spokeswoman Army Lt. Col. Rumi Nielson-Green, who added that such political commentary is barred for uniformed personnel.
Obama didn’t play basketball at Bagram or visit the Clamshell, she said. Home-state troops were invited to meet him, but his arrival was kept secret for security reasons.
“We were a bit delayed … as he took time to shake hands, speak to troops and pose for photographs,” Nielson-Green said.
E-mails to the officer who made the charges and a call to his wife were not returned.
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Once again the Hallmarks of the Rightwing: lies, distortion and disinformation.
And, in case you didn’t want to hear (read) it earlier, McNasty was also cautioned by the Pentagon not to meet with troops in what might be seen as a political setting and guess what – HE DIDN’T. You see, boys and girls, these sorts of thing are planned way in advance and it’s very difficult to suddenly change those plans and “wing it”. Anyway, go ask McFlipFlop why he didn’t hang with the troops. He’ll explain it to you. But keep pushing the story – it will only embarrass you. Just what you don’t need right now.
