Rep. Michele Bachmann Completely Baffles John Brennan With Bizarre Questions During CIA Hearing

[WhoIsNumberNone]

Representatives from the CIA, including newly-installed Director John Brennan, didn't quite know what to make of Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) this week when they sat down to answer questions from the House Intelligence Committee. Each topic she raised seemed to draw blank stares and more questions from the intelligence officials, who could not believe the congresswoman was broaching various classified subject in the open forum.First off, Bachmann brought up one of her favorite topics, the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi in September 2012. She wanted to know about the White House's "armed drone strikes" in eastern Libya prior to those attacks last year.
"Armed drone strikes in Libya?" Brennan asked in seeming disbelief. "I am unknowing of such and would defer to the White House to address your question." When she pushed him on the issue, Brennan asserted that "the White House doesn't have a drone capability, responsibility" and said "I don't know what it is specifically you're referring to."When she failed to get the answers she was looking for, Bachmann said, "well if we aren't going to talk about that, we aren't going to talk about that, but that's a question I'd like to know." She moved on, asking Brennan "what is our red line regarding the Iranian nuclear development program?""That clearly is a policy question," Brennan responded, explaining to Bachmann why he's not the right person to answer that question. From there, Bachmann went off on a tangent about the various times the United States and U.S. interests have been attacked over the last few decades, expressing her concern that an Iranian nuclear attack could also come as a surprise.
But the most bizarre moment came at the end of Bachmann's time when she asked about Iran's "heavy water reactor." The CIA men conferred amongst themselves for several seconds before politely informing Bachmann that it would be better to have that discussion in a "closed session."
It's not entirely clear whether Bachmann thought she would be able to extract classified information live on C-SPAN from Brennan and his CIA colleagues, or if she was just using her platform on the committee to air some of things on the international stage that have been bugging her. Either way, it was likely one of the strangest interactions between Congress and the CIA ever caught on camera.

[Flashmann]

1. bizarre-Bachmann

I can't think of two other words that are just so RIGHT together than those.

Bachmann-Bizarre

Bizarre-Bachmann...It just WORKS!

[WhoIsNumberNone]

2. Normally I insist on referring to her merely as 'BSC', but it refuses to catch on...

n/t

[leftyohiolib]

3. ditz

[brucefan]

4. Wow!

Just wow! She left those guys completely baffled.

[Moostache]

5. Its time for Mr. Bachmann's beard to just go away already...

It sickens me that Paul Wellstone died in an at the very least questionable plane crash and this idiot continues to embarrass the nation anytime a microphone gets shoved in front of that freaking hole in her face...

The glorification of fools must end in this country, we need to no longer allow for the "eccentricities" of these people and instead should call a spade a spade and an idiot and idiot.

[WhoIsNumberNone]

6. In 2004 I actually tried to start a death pool-

-for which key Democrat would die in an "accident" a week before the election.


I guess even in America three elections in a row would have been too obvious though...

[hue]

7. Michelle Bachmann is insane...

[shenmue]

8. The Tyrell Corporation doesn't make 'em like they used to.

[Ikonoklast]

19. Outsourcing to the lowest bidder usually means crap for a product, full of glitches.

For instance, ask Leon about his mother, go ahead, I dare you.

[MotherPetrie]

9. A teabagging lunatic vs a former Bush torture supporter whose presence in the

Obama administration further tarnishes it...

Know what, they can just both go fuck themselves.

[abq e streeter]

11. Amen to that.

[awoke_in_2003]

10. "I look forward to that"...

my lord, what a maroon.

[Poll_Blind]

12. She's an incredibly uninformed questioner and it clearly shows.

Her being crazy aside, you'd think she would actually have staff or something who would help her put together a question package. If you listen to her asking the questions, I swear to god it sounds like she's asking bullet point questions off a legal pad she wrote five minutes before the hearing.

The questions are...they show she doesn't know what she's doing, even remotely. It's actually kind of concerning beyond the surface because if you think about the stupid questions she is asking, think about the smart questions she isn't asking on this or other issues.

That's amazingly troubling- and she's already known for being nuts.

PB

[dmr]

17. Problem is she can't keep her staff. They keep quitting.

Personally, I think she should be sanctioned as untrustworthy in keeping our National Security interests safe.

If she can't understand the ramifications that the world is watching and listening, and may take seriously her awful questions, then she ought to be on a Committee that oversees nothing of consequence.


(Sorry, I don't have any of the links regarding her staff.)

[PatrynXX]

13. So we are charging Maning with aiding the enemy

but she's on a committee doing the same thing o_O

Alas we do live in a world now where people are hoarding ammo because someone is paranoid the govt is taking the ammo away. (horders thanks. now the cops don't have enough ammo)

[oldbanjo]

37. Cops have plenty of ammo they just need to shoot less.

Stop shooting up trucks with the wrong people in them.

[FourScore]

14. Okay. I just wasted 4min and 28 seconds of my life.

What a dimwit!!

[leveymg]

15. Actually, US & NATO were flying armed drones in Libya before Benghazi. Question isn't so bizarre.

According to The Guardian, both American and UK pilots were operating armed US drones during the NATO airstrikes that took down the Ghadaffi regime in 2011. Bachman (who is, I agree, bizarre) appears to have actually been asking a reasonable question (gasp) about when that stopped and when and if such flights were commenced by the CIA in Eastern Libya prior to the Benghazi attack.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/26/british-pilots-drones-libya

British pilots flew armed US drones in Libya, MoD reveals

Disclosure comes 10 months after end of a campaign in which the government insisted no British drones were involved

Nick Hopkins
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 26 July 2012 13.26 EDT

RAF pilots flew armed US drones as part of Nato's military effort in last year's Libyan conflict, the Ministry of Defence has revealed.

The disclosure, slipped out in a parliamentary answer, comes 10 months after the end of a campaign in which the UK government had insisted no British drones, or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), were involved.

Though that remains true, the MoD has admitted RAF personnel on an exchange programme in the US flew American Predator drones, which were a key component of the air campaign.

The US announced last April it was deploying two patrols of armed UAVs above Libya and they launched numerous missile strikes against buildings, tanks and other military equipment being used by forces loyal to Colonel Gaddafi.

Between April and October the Predators conducted 145 air strikes in Libya, the Pentagon said. It is not known how many missions were flown by the British, or how many targets were destroyed by them.

The deployment of drones has become a hugely sensitive subject, primarily because of the way the Americans have used them for cross-border raids on Taliban and al-Qaida suspects in Pakistan.

Please, see, related post: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021333915

[bvar22]

18. The only really crazy segment was the part about,

Were there any Armed Drone Attacks" prior to "Nine, one,one"?
WTF?

I was expecting her usual wild eyed insanity for my Sunday Afternoon entertainment,
but found her to be uncharacteristically calm and coherent.

With the exception to the bizarre but polite "before nine, one, one" stuff,
I saw nothing out-or-the-norm for our Congressional Committee Interrogations.

As an American Citizen, I would like to know what the "Red Line" is concerning Iran,
and how we will know if they cross it?
I no longer trust the NY Times, MTP, or Whitehouse.gov.


On Edit:
NOBODY refers to the WTC attacks as "Nine, One,One".
EVERYBODY says "Nine Eleven",
which leads me to believe she was reading from a carefully prepared script,
saw "9-11", and read it as "Nine, One,One".

If this WAS a carefully prepared script, what could they possibly be going for with the "Before 9-11 stuff?

[maddiemom]

21. I thought that was the most bizarre part, also.

Nine-one-one? Drone strikes prior to that? WTF? Hard to imagine this woman actually felt that she was capable of being president.

[leveymg]

23. She's referring to 9/11/12 - the date of the Benghazi attack, not 9/11/01.

Might be confusing, but I think Brennan was just doing a poker face.

[bvar22]

24. Oops! Got it.

Of course she was referring to 9/11/12.
That makes more sense,
but one never really knows with THAT one.

I am continually flabbergasted that her congressional district
is immediately Next Door to Keith Ellison's district in Minneapolis,
and shares a long common boundary.
What a contrast.

[tout_le_monde]

16. Bizarro Bachmann is a "Heavy Water" Addict

Last edited Mon Apr 15, 2013, 12:52 PM - Edit history (1)

As a "beard," she's definitely not getting "it" from her "hubby." Wonder who's her source....
.


FABULOUS!

[AsahinaKimi]

20. She really tries to appear inteligent...

but keeps falling on her face.

[Wellstone ruled]

22. Bachnman loves to keep her face in front of a camera.

This Twit has a base of Religious Fanatics and a bunch of Millionaires whom love the inter squabbling of all the folks in Region Six. I've mentioned before her base of Mega Churches,36k and 38k members. These Dupes are just that Dupes. With all of her money issues closing in on her and the Marcaus,she just continues to act like whom she really is in real life. A twit and a sorry ass joke for Mn 6.

Someone should ask her School mates about her,very interesting. How about all those subsidies on that Baldwin Wisconsin farm? Are you doing your Banking in Switzerland?

[formercia]

25. It amazes me that Bachmann still has a Security Clearance.

Someone cut her off, please.

[Thinkingabout]

26. My thoughts and furthermore why is Boehner allowing her to remain on this committee

When she continues to blurt out classified information, like a bull in a china closet.

[Iwillnevergiveup]

28. She seemed very robotic to me...almost drugged

Reminded me of one of the "Naked Gun" movies - help me out here - somebody gets hypnotized or shot full of something and goes on a rampage.

Ms. Bachmann seems to have forgotten the PDB regarding 9/11 (Nine eleven) "Bin Laden determined to strike in the United States." She has a very pretty face - let's have her lose in 2014 and go work for Estee Lauder or somebody.

[cartach]

30. Cosmetics counter in a drugstore. EOM

[SummerSnow]

29. Amazingly stupid.lol

[RBInMaine]

31. The White House doesn't micro-manage the military. Next, she is asking about highly classified

information that would not be discussed in any kind of specifics in open session and on matters of policy that would need to be addressed directly by the White House, Pentagon, and State Department. Next, her sweeping statements are rather ridiculous. There was intelligence around all of the groups and types of incidents and capabilities associated with the exact incidents she mentions. It is very hard to know just when any radical is going to strike. Not all sneak suicide attacks and bombings can be pinpointed to the second of occurrance. And she is also comparing low level suicide attacks to an entire nation reaching a nuclear capability. Where did this person get her law degree? From a box of Cracker Jacks?

[JDPriestly]

32. How did Michelle Bachmann get on that committee?

She appears to be a walking-talking national security risk.

Wouldn't you think that she would have more common sense than to ask her questions in the way she does?

Something makes me think she is asking these questions more to show off her superior knowledge about things she believes are true than to really oversee our intelligence agencies.

It's not that I like drone strikes or that I think that information about Iran should be completely off the record, but she has this suspicious, accusatory manner when she asks questions that could be very misleading to someone who does not understand our body language or the subtleties of our language. This woman's questions could start a war all by themselves. Why is she in Congress?

[EvolveOrConvolve]

33. A wise man once said

"If you can't dazzle 'em with brilliance, baffle 'em with bullshit."

Not sure who said it, but a number of R's seem to have taken it to heart.

[drynberg]

34. MICHELE IS SO BIZARRE, SHE QUICKLY CROSSES FUNNY AND CHARGES INTO

embarrassing...holy fud.

[Quixote1818]

35. She is such an embarrassment to our country and the people of Minnesota.

Below average intelligence clearly!

[Douglas Carpenter]

36. I'm bet most rightwingers look at this the way we look at Elizabeth Warren grilling bank regulators

I would also bet that the bafflement on Brennan and his CIA colleagues faces is proof positive to them that she has them on the ropes covering up lies for the Obama Administration. Obviously there is no equivalency. But they don't can't see that.

[blackspade]

38. Bachmann is such a fool.

[zebonaut]

39. Earth to Bachmann.... Earth to Bachmann

She's CukKoo FoR CoaCopUffs!

[heaven05]

40. ???

Last edited Mon Apr 22, 2013, 12:50 PM - Edit history (1)

she was VOTED into her position. Only those voters are responsible for this aberration. Classic example of right wing think/speak voted into positions of responsibility by irresponsible amerikkkan voters. Amerikkka makes me