Obama watched the NFL Playoffs instead of attending the Paris march for victims of jihad
January 12, 2015 3:36 pm By Robert Spencer 64 Comments
obama-footballLook: he told Charlie Hebdo not to mock Muhammad. They didn’t heed him. He told Israel to make more concessions to the “Palestinians.” They didn’t heed him. So maybe he stayed away because he has scant sympathy for the victims. And hey, it was the Playoffs.
This Paris march was more show than substance, and severely compromised any message it might have had by including jihad leader Mahmoud Abbas, but Obama’s absence was glaring.
“Too little too late? Kerry says he WILL go to Paris but only after U.S. was shamed for snubbing historic weekend rally of world leaders,” by Simon Tomlinson and Francesca Chambers, Daily Mail, January 12, 2015:
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U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said he will now travel to Paris after the U.S. government was shamed for not joining a rally yesterday for victims of the French terror attacks.
The rally was attended by 40 world leaders, including British Prime Minister David Cameron and Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, and a million people.
A staggering 3.7 million people gathered across France today to stage further defiant marches in a moving tribute to the 17 people killed in hostage sieges last week.
Kerry said at a news conference that U.S. officials had been ‘deeply engaged’ with French authorities almost immediately after the first attack occurred and had offered intelligence assistance.
As to criticism about the lack of a senior U.S. official at Sunday’s March, Kerry said: ‘I really think that this is sort of quibbling a little bit in the sense that our Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland was there and marched, our ambassador was there and marched, many people from the embassy were there and marched.
‘As everybody knows, I have been here in India for a prior planned event,’ he added.
‘I would have personally very much wanted to have been there but couldn’t do so because of the commitment that I had here and it is important to keep these kinds of commitments.’
Kerry was in the Indian city of Ahmedabad on Sunday for a long-scheduled appearance at an international investment conference, and to prepare for President Barack Obama’s trip to India later this month.
But another high-ranking administration official, Attorney General Eric Holder, was in Paris at the time for a terrorism summit, and he didn’t attend the march, either.
It it not known why Holder didn’t join other world leaders on the streets of Paris. The Department of Justice did not return DailyMail.com’s request for comment on the matter.
The outgoing AG did have time to appear on four different American news shows on Sunday that aired during the rally, though it was not immediately clear if the interviews were pre-taped.
Calling France the United States’ ‘oldest ally,’ President Obama said Friday, ‘I want the people of France to know that the United States stands with you today, stands with you tomorrow.’
Two days later no U.S. officials, save for the relatively unknown deputy secretary of state and U.S. ambassador to France Jane Hartley, stood with the French at the unity march against barbarity, however.
According to an administration official, President Obama spent part of his Sunday afternoon watching a National Football League game on television….
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2015/01/obama-watched-the-nfl-playoffs-instead-of-attending-the-paris-march-for-victims-of-jihad
