September 15, 2008 • Vol. 14, No. 1 Download Now! (pdf)

 

EDITORIAL
Thanks, Guys
by William Kristol

SCRAPBOOK
Sarah Palin's Foreign Policy Team

ARTICLES
McCain Finds the Right Wingman
by Stephen F. Hayes

A Party of Mavericks
by Fred Barnes

Axis of Honor
by Noemie Emery

Punishing Russia
by Gary Schmitt

Biden's One Accomplishment
by Eli Lehrer

Tax Cuts, Real and Imaginary
by Newt Gingrich & Peter Ferrara

FEATURES
Game Changer
by Jessica Gavora

Among the Paultards
by Matt Labash

Why They Hate Her
by Jeffrey Bell

BOOKS & ARTS
Who Gets In
by Peter Skerry

Alien Nation
by Shawn Macomber

Founders Afloat
by Joseph F. Callo

Poet of Reason
by Wyatt Prunty

Dearly Beloved
by Erin Montgomery

CASUAL
Down in the Boondocks
by Philip Terzian

CORRESPONDENCE
Campaign finance and more

PARODY
'US Weekly' Salutes Stalin


« Pentagon Questions Obama's Claim | Main | Iran Assists al Qaeda Cell Based in Bahrain? »

AP Fact Check: Obama's Story Impossible to Verify

The AP reports:

The Obama campaign offered no details to support the captain's story, making it impossible to verify. A spokesman did not immediately respond to questions about who the captain was and when and how the candidate learned about the allegation.

ABC News said it talked to the unidentified captain, whose account of shortages in Afghanistan was for the most part accurately summarized by Obama, although not verified.

The captain said, however, that the unit did not go after the Taliban for the purpose of getting their weapons, but sometimes used those weapons when some were captured.

"For the most part" is a generous description. Aside from Tapper's faith in the captain as credible, the story remains unverified, and, in fact, "impossible to verify," since the Obama campaign has not released any detail that might corroborate the account. Even if one takes the captain's story at face value, there is a large discrepancy between the story he tells and the story Obama told in last night's debate (mainly that there was no ammunition shortage, and that the unit was equipped with a full compliment of weapons).

But at this point the captain's story cannot be taken at face value, and confirmation of his account cannot be left solely to Jake Tapper's assessment of the captain's credibility. Confirmation requires something beyond the word of an unnamed captain who found his way to a meeting with Barack Obama's staff at some unspecified date in the past. Obama has leveled a specific and unsubstantiated allegation that remains, by any objective analysis, "impossible to verify."

Email the article AP Fact Check: Obama's Story Impossible to Verify to a friend:

Send this article to:


Your email address:


Message (optional):


 
Contributors
Editor (on leave):
Michael Goldfarb

Deputy Editors:
John McCormack
Samantha Sault

Contributors:
Dean Barnett
Jennifer Chou
Brian Faughnan
Ulf Gartzke
Reuben F. Johnson
Thomas Joscelyn
Stuart Koehl
John Noonan
Bill Roggio
Jaime Sneider
Search
Archives
Contact
wws@weeklystandard.com
Categories
Feeds: Atom | RSS
[What is this?]
Powered by
Movable Type 3.2