STORIES APPEAR, DISAPPEAR, THEN REAPPEAR…

by Sharon Rondeau

(Jun. 7, 2013) — On Friday morning, Obama was in California to speak about his signature health care law but also made comments about the NSA leak which revealed that millions of Verizon customers’ phone records have been collected by the regime since at least April 25, 2013, in a possible violation of law.

An article was apparently published at The Hill containing Obama’s remarks at the following url:  http://thehill.com/video/administration/304183-president-i-could-become-nsa-target

but the url does not work. The time stamp was “1:24 p.m. ET.”

The writer, Justin Sink, paraphrased Obama as having said that “he could be targeted after leaving the White House.”  Sink wrote:

“Obama noted that he ‘will leave this office sometime in the next three and a half years,’ and at that point, would ‘have a personal interest in making sure my privacy is protected.’

‘I suspect that on a list of people who might be targeted, so that someone could read their emails or listen to their phone calls, I’d probably be pretty high on that list,’ Obama said.”

But where is the article?  Copying and pasting the link led to blank search boxes and error messages on several attempts between 4:30 p.m. EDT and 5:00 p.m. EDT.  At 6:27 p.m. EDT, the link appears to be working at the following url:  http://thehill.com/video/administration/304183-president-i-could-become-nsa-target?tmpl=component

When logging on to The Hill’s home page, a different article on Obama’s statements on NSA surveillance is there, time-stamped “02:07 ET” by the same author, Justin Sink, titled, “Obama defends NSA surveillance programs as ‘right balance'” and begins differently:

President Obama on Friday defended a pair of recently disclosed surveillance programs as striking the “right balance” between national security and civil liberties following a speech Friday in California.

“You can’t have 100 percent security and also have 100 percent privacy and zero inconvenience. We’re going to have to make some choices as a government,” Obama said.

The new article contains a different video clip of Obama’s remarks on Friday which is missing the “three and a half years” comment.

Farther down in the article, two of the same paragraphs which had appeared in the original article stated:

The president also said he had a personal interest in the controversy because when he left office, he could be a prime target for surveillance.

“I suspect that on a list of people who might be targeted so that someone could read their emails or listen to their phone calls, I’d probably be pretty high on that list,” Obama said.

The original article sent to this writer begins:

President: I could become NSA target

By Justin Sink 06/07/13 01:24 PM ET

President Obama on Friday said he sympathized with concerns about National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance because he could be targeted after leaving the White House.

Obama noted that he “will leave this office sometime in the next three and a half years,” and at that point, would “have a personal interest in making sure my privacy is protected.”

“I suspect that on a list of people who might be targeted, so that someone could read their emails or listen to their phone calls, I’d probably be pretty high on that list,” Obama said.

But the president said he has confidence in the checks and balances in the system and the officials involved in the program.

“I know that the people who are involved in these programs, they operate like professionals and these things are very narrowly circumscribed. They’re very focused,” Obama said.

Above the article, a video is embedded which shows Obama defending the collection of phone records by the NSA and making the statement, “I will leave this office sometime in the next three and a half years.”

An internet search for the article using the words “Obama will leave this office sometime in the next three and a half years NSA” yielded very few results at 4:55 p.m. EDT, while at 6:31 p.m. EDT, numerous results appear.

After performing the search, WND appeared with a reference and link to the original article, which was located here.  The url is http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/304183-president-i-could-become-nsa-target

which is different from the link sent with the original story to this writer.

Blogger Lucianne.com also reproduced the original story in part with a link back to The Hill and added her comment:

Odd choice of words. Is he planning to leave office early?

Newsgeeker picked up the story from Twitchy, where speculation abounded as to why Obama did not seem to know exactly when he would be leaving office.

There is a “Justin Sink” who appears in a search as a blogger:

The blog contains a link with “thehill” in it.  The blog post which shows after clicking the link is titled, “Current Affairs, Politics and History From a Liberal Democratic Perspective” and begins with an article about Malcolm X.

Some believe that Malcolm X is Obama’s biological father.

Screenshots of the first article appear as follows:

Obama stated that he was sensitive to the NSA collecting records because after he leaves office, he will become “a private citizen” and would worry about being “targeted.”

Over the last two weeks, it has been revealed that IRS employees were instructed to identify and “target” “conservative” groups applying for tax-exempt status for extra scrutiny, delays, invasive questioning and coercion in an attempt to prevent them from engaging in certain First Amendment activities.  The marching orders have alleged to have been issued by a Washington, DC-based IRS attorney.

This morning, Fox News and The Daily Caller announced that the IRS attorney “will retire this summer.”

And what about Obama?