Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) released photographs Thursday of what he says is confirmed Russian military action against Ukraine. He gave them “exclusively” to the Washington Free Beacon.
Except there’s just one problem — some of the photographs given to WFB from the 80-year-old senator date back to 2008 from the AP and aren’t exclusive at all.
Washington Free Beacon is being up front about the serious issue at hand and has posted an update at the top of the story as well as on Twitter via the story’s author, Adam Kredo.
UPDATE 3:11 P.M.: Following publication of this story, serious questions have been raised about the authenticity of some of the photographs provided by Sen. Jim Inhofe (R., Okla.). Several images of the Russian convoys appear to have been taken in 2008, during Russia’s conflict with Georgia. Given the similarity’s of these images to those provided by the senator’s office, the Washington Free Beacon is investigating further and will update as necessary.
When asked about the discrepancies, Donelle Harder, Inhofe’s communications director, said that the office is checking back with its sources.
“These were presented to the Armed Services Committee from a delegation from Ukraine in December,” Harder said. “In December, we talked to them about publishing the photos and giving them the credit, and they were fine with that. We thoroughly checked our sources again prior to releasing the photos, and felt confident proceeding because the photos also match reporting. We are currently making calls to our sources.”
Moral of the story: senators know how to use the media for their purposes. Which is why the media needs to be extremely wary when dealing with senators with an agenda who are old as dirt. In other words, well out of the scope of the internet age.
The so-called “evidence” clearly opposes statements by Russian President Vladimir Putin concerning his country’s forces arming Ukraine separatists.
The WFB points out that the photographic evidence could be pivotal in convincing Congress to back legislation that would give military assistance to the Ukranians. They say Inofe worked “independently” from Congress to verify the authenticity of the photographs.
Independently, meaning his office forget to do basic online image searches.
Inhofe, of course, bashes President Obama, saying he’s “slow to recognize” what is happening around the world.
But maybe it’s a certain Oklahoma senator who needs to take a class at the local Apple store.
Some of the soldiers in the “exclusive” pictures look charred as the result of thermobaric weapons. Another looks headless.
Don’t look if you don’t want to see dead people.
See here.
