'We can't pull it off': Florida sheriff says he can't muster security for GOP convention- How this is different from when GWB was told Curveball lied
We have a situation where Donald Trump wishes to have, at all cost a coronation and he is having massive tunnel vision as to the ends and means of having his god hood affirmed as to worshiping acolytes in a public ceremony. The Florida sheriff is in public telling a POTUS that his plans are not credible. However, Trump will NOT be able to have this news presented to him due to his Norman Peale fantasy as to willing his reality into existence.
Unlike 2004, we do not have a POTUS who will be able to be told that what he wishes to be is simply not possible.
Flash backwards as to 2004, when Richard Kay, the WMD hunter, emerged from Leesburgh, Virginia to give the news to GWB that Curveball , the single source for the allegation of WMD bioweapon Trucks was a fabricator and con man.
In what was one of the most consequential moments of the GWB presidency, GWB was told to his face, by the CIA hired bioweapons searcher that his entire reason for the Iraqi was was a fraud.
To GWBs credit, he heard Richard Kay out and he was invited to speak at the White House by no less than Condoleezza "Condi" Rice Rice, who invited Kay to give the news in the mist of an epic melt down by the Tenet CIA which had been conned by the German BND into accepting Curveballs account.
Where do we have such profiles in courage today ?
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/20/florida-sheriff-gop-convention-security-373089
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'We can't pull it off': Florida sheriff says he can't muster security for GOP convention
There's a lack of clear plans, adequate funding and enough law enforcement officers, he says.
Duval County Sheriff Mike Williams. | Joe Raedle/Getty Images
By MARC CAPUTO
The sheriff of Jacksonville, Fla., said he can’t provide security for the Republican National Convention because of a lack of clear plans, adequate funding and enough law enforcement officers.
“As we're talking today, we are still not close to having some kind of plan that we can work with that makes me comfortable that we're going to keep that event and the community safe,” Duval County Sheriff Mike Williams told POLITICO.
“It’s not my event to plan, but I can just tell you that what has been proposed in my opinion is not achievable right now ... from a law enforcement standpoint, from a security standpoint.”
The controversy deals one of the biggest potential blows to President Donald Trump’s decision to hold an in-person nominating convention during a pandemic. The proposal has already been beset by concerns over safety and reports of high-profile Republicans declining to attend.
Williams, a Republican, wouldn’t definitively say there is no way the event could be held. But he said he had grave doubts, especially in an era of heightened protests concerning police use of force.
Williams said the event, scheduled for Aug. 24-27, was announced in June, giving his agency little time to plan and prepare. The Republican National Committee has not yet nailed down which convention events will be at which venues, making it more challenging. And a pledged $50 million grant has been paired back to $33 million and, Williams said, there are strings attached that make letting contracts too difficult.
RNC spokesperson Mandi Merritt said in a statement that the RNC is working closely with local leaders in Jacksonville on planning for the convention, including on health and security measures. She added that the Department of Justice will provide millions of dollars via a safety grant.
"Jacksonville has accommodated upwards of 70,000 people for football games and other events, and we are confident in state, local and federal officials to be able to ensure a safe event for our attendees,” she said.
The venue was changed to Jacksonville from Charlotte, N.C., after that state’s Democratic-led government clashed with Trump over safety concerns over holding a convention during a pandemic. Trump insisted he wanted a “full” convention at the time.
Trump has since backed off his demand for a full-blown convention, but the proposal has continued to meet logistical hurdles as the RNC has failed to commit on specifics, such as whether Trump would have his nomination at an indoor arena or an outdoor arena. The RNC could not immediately be reached.
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Meanwhile, Florida has become a breeding ground for coronavirus infections. That has made it difficult to recruit more law enforcement officers to come to the event.
In early July, the Florida Sheriffs Association asked departments in the state’s 67 counties for 2,000 officers, according to an email obtained by POLITICO. But only 500 were able to go, Bob Gualtieri, president of the association and Pinellas County Sheriff told POLITICO over the weekend. Williams also asked the Florida Police Chiefs Association for help, but he’s still coming up short.
“We do need law enforcement officers and we’ve gotten commitments, but not to the level that we thought we needed. And a lot of that is people having virus concerns from their communities, and I understand that,” Williams said.
“But there's a lot of things that need to happen: an event schedule nailed down, and being able to sign contracts and spend money so that we can prepare for this event. And none of that has happened yet,” he said. “So here we are inside of 40 days, and I haven't really pulled the trigger on anything RNC-related when it comes to finances or contracts and so, you know, only related to security, mind you, nothing, nothing related to any of this.”
Other sheriffs told POLITICO they sympathize with Williams.
Martin County Sheriff Bill Snyder said he’s sending about 20 officers but wouldn’t question the convention happening. He’s committed to helping Williams.
“It’s like a gun fight. I don’t think we should have gun fights. But if you have one, I’m coming,” Snyder said. “It will be a noxious brew of vitriol and emotion.”
Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood said Trump’s security detail already makes such big demands of local law enforcement that it makes it difficult to supply security for him, which Chitwood witnessed firsthand during the president's recent trip to Daytona Beach.
Chitwood said he didn’t believe the event should be held and said the RNC is struggling to do the impossible.
“There’s a fear of telling him no because anyone who tells the president no, it’s like, off with their heads,” Chitwood said.
Chitwood, who committed to sending about two dozen officers, said conventions need months of planning “and that’s without Covid-19."
"There are going to be tons of issues," he added. "This has something that has never ever happened before. And for some reason common sense is being thrown out the window.”
Williams referenced the lack of time repeatedly, saying that even if he started planning in June, it would have been difficult to pull off.
“At virtually 75 days it was an incredible lift, and everything would have to be perfect. And needless to say it has not,” Williams said. “So you know with that, we can't pull it off in any kind of current configuration. But again, it's not my job to plan the [convention]. It’s my job to be able to provide security for it, but I can't do it right now in this time frame with this current configuration of the event.”
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At this moment I have having a fit of Deja Vu. I.e. see this book, i.e.
https://www.amazon.com/Curveball-Spies-Lies-Man-Caused/dp/1400065836
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Bob Drogin struck journalistic gold in this story of a conman who told his intelligence handlers exactly what they wanted to hear. If this twisted tale could be read simply as a thrilling farce it would be pure delight -- but much more importantly, it is a history of our time.
--Philip Gourevitch
Bob Drogin is a brilliant reporter. In Curveball, he has produced a riveting and important investigation, full of startling and carefully documented detail, laying bare the anatomy of an intelligence failure and its contribution to a catastrophic war.
--Steve Coll, author of GHOST WARS: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001
Bob Drogin accomplishes what only the best reporters can; he forces you to wonder how he could possibly know that! If you want to know how the CIA could have possibly been so wrong about Iraq, here is a big part of the answer.
--Mark Bowden, author of Black Hawk Down
A crucial study in the political manipulation of intelligence, understanding how Curveball got us into Iraq will arm us for the next round of lies coming out of Washington.
--Robert Baer, author of See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War on Terrorism
Here we go again: the self-deception, the corruption of intelligence, and the abuse of authority, amid a full cast of the usual suspects in the White House and the Pentagon. It's a crucially important story, and it comes wonderfully alive in Curveball. It would be almost fun to read if the message wasn't so important–and so devastating to the integrity of the American processes.
--Seymour M. Hersh, author of Chain of Command: The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib
Curveball is a true story, marvelously reported, about a descent into the netherworld of deceit and duplicity, where the lies of a single man in an interrogation cell in Germany grew like a malign spore in the dark. When it emerged, on the lips of the President and the Secretary of State, it infected the course of world events.
--Jonathan Harr, author of A Civil Action and The Lost Painting.
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The long and short of it is this. Unlike GWB who in the face of unremitting bad news invited senior WMD hunter Richard Kay, to the White House to directly report to the POTUS as to the impossibility of carrying out a convenient narrative for the Iraqi war, we have dereliction of duty so extreme that a would be coronation of Donald Trump in Jacksonville is too sensitive for Donald Trump to hear to his face. Instead the Jacksonville Sheriff has to be cited in public by Politico as to the impossibility of a POTUS fantasy. This massive dereliction of duty by Donald Trump and its contrast with 2004 is the single best example of why Donald Trump is totally unfit for command of the nation.
Andrew Beckwith, PhD