So let's review what happened here. Just as the president was under severe pressure not to withdraw troops from Afghanistan , an aide to Gates [perhaps inadvertently] creates a security scare for Obama. This all may be coincidental, and probably is, but the facts stand. Obviously, if Obama was "rightly concerned" and personally asked for an investigation, that means he thought there was more going on than just a screw-up on an invitation.
It's important to note that it was only after Obama folded to the military pressure, in other words, after the die was cast in Afghanistan, that the military leaked a story about the tremendous mineral wealth lying underneath that country. Suddenly, although public support for keeping American troops in Afghanistan was declining, there was a new "realistic" reason to retain a U.S. presence... Again, all this was perhaps only coincidental, but leaks are carefully calculated for intended purposes -- and as students of the so-called "Deep State" know, not even the participants in a leak may fully understand deeper intents behind acts in which they are asked to participate.
Creepily, the Salahis' uninvited entry into the White House was not their first effort to get close to Obama. Four weeks before crashing the state dinner, they crashed a Congressional Black Caucus event at which Obama appeared. Surely not lost on Obama was the poetic touch that Tareq Salahi, a Palestinian, entered the event through the kitchen, as the lone nut Palestinian Sirhan Sirhan also did prior to purportedly shooting Robert Kennedy. (Sirhan's guilt, like that of Lee Harvey Oswald, is the subject of intense ongoing controversy--and his attorneys have recently presented a federal court with reports from experts contending that Sirhan was programmed by hypnosis to create diversionary gunfire to mask the actual killer.)
The Salahis, it must be emphasized, are not just some goofy types. They were long on people's radar as folks who would go for any cozying gambit -- and a couple with powerful friends. One was the person who played some kind of role in encouraging the idea that they might hope to attend a White House gathering: Michele S. Jones.
It's hard to figure out why Defense Secretary Gates gave Jones the job of special assistant and Pentagon liaison to the White House. What we do know is that Gates was perhaps the military-industrial-oil complex's chief person keeping an eye on Obama. Gates had been CIA director under George HW Bush and later was in charge of the elder Bush's library and papers, before becoming Defense Secretary to both George W. Bush and Democrat Obama. That Gates's special assistant had some kind of hand in introducing this security risk to the president deserves scrutiny.
Jones, who was public in her support of Obama's candidacy (and even made a speech for him at the 2008 convention), is African American, as is the Salahis' lawyer, Paul W. Gardner II. Gardner has donated several times to Hillary Clinton -- but, notably, not to Obama. Jones was a Facebook friend of Gardner's, though it is not clear how she knew him, or exactly how or why he served as a link to her.
A few months before the scandal, Jones was guest of honor at a DC event the Salahis hosted called America's Polo Cup. In her remarks to the crowd, she declared, somewhat obscurely, "This game is a true reflection of the relationship we have around the world."
What exactly did Jones do to make the Salahis imagine they could get into the White House?
In relating their email exchanges on the day of the state dinner, ABC reported:
"In the last email from Jones, sent at 8:46 a.m., Nov. 24, she said she still had not gotten them tickets.
"'The arrival ceremony (was scheduled to be outdoors) was canceled due to inclement weather,' Jones' email said. 'They are having a very small one inside the WH, very limited space. I am still working on tickets for tonight's dinner. I will call or e-mail as soon as I get word one way or another.'"
So, was their gate-crashing a simple misunderstanding, easily explained? As noted above, the Salahis, who might be able to clarify matters, refused, "on advice of counsel...to answer any questions surrounding the circumstances around the events of November 24, 2009."
Meanwhile, we can find no further mention of the grand jury investigation that was once said to be underway... As for Pentagon official Jones, a story asserted that she had padded her resume prior to joining Gates's staff by claiming employment with a non-existent entity. That story got little attention, though it raised a host of interesting questions.
A year after the Salahi incident, the Pentagon quietly reassigned Jones, moving her from Gates's office to a lower-ranked post.
***
It is against this murky, suggestive backdrop that we must consider both the recent shooting into the White House -- and the fact that someone dumped confidential documents relating to Obama's security into a Canberra gutter.
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