July 27, 2012, - 1:31 pm
Mitt Romney Refused Memorial For Slain Israeli Athletes as Salt Lake Olympic Chief; Denounced US Fans
In 2002, I was on CNN criticizing the Olympic Games’ refusal to memorialize the Israeli athletes murdered by Islamic terrorists at the Munich Olympic Games in 1972 (see video, below). It was then the 30th anniversary of the Munich Olympic Massacre, and Mitt Romney was running the Salt Lake Games. He was approached by many who wanted the Israeli athletes memorialized, and yet, he ignored those requests and joined IOC Chief Jacques Rogge in refusing to do anything to remember them. Now, ten years later, Mitt Romney echoed (more than a week later) even anti-Israel Barack Obama in calling for an official Olympic memorial to the Israeli athletes. But it’s just more evidence of how cheap talk is for Mitt Romney and what a hypocrite and fraud he is. As the chief of the Salt Lake Olympic Games, he could have done a memorial. But he chose not to. Instead, he got $380 million in U.S. tax money for his Olympics (something the GAO reported, but which Romney conveniently skips over when he gushes over his Olympic Games), and, as I noted on this site in 2002, used some of it to have an Olympic Memorial to Florence Griffith-Joyner a/k/a “Flo-Jo,” whose death had absolutely NOTHING to do with the Olympics, in the Salt Lake Games’ Opening Ceremony. The Alvin Ailey-choreographed memorial cost $2-3 million dollars and was publicly funded by American tax dollars. And, by the way, the Flo-Jo memorial puts the lie to Rogge’s claim that the Olympics doesn’t want memorials in the Opening Ceremonies or references to sad events. It’s just more BS by him. In addition to refusing to memorialize the Israeli athletes, Mitt Romney also denounced American fans cheering for Team USA just a few months after the 9/11 attacks. More on that later. But first, read this about Romney’s views on the Israeli Olympic athletes who died (and whom he refused to memorialize when he had the chance):
U.S. presidential candidate Mitt Romney, about to visit the London Olympics and Israel, said for the first time on Monday that he supports an official minute of silence at Friday’s opening ceremony for the Games to honor Israeli athletes killed at the 1972 Munich Olympics.
Romney’s move broke years of his own silence on the issue, including his time leading the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics in 2002. During those Games, survivors of the slain Israelis called on the International Olympic Committee to observe a moment of silence to mark what was the 30th anniversary of the deaths in Munich. . . .
Now, with Romney in a heated campaign against Democratic President Barack Obama and heading to Europe and Israel for a week on an international stage, the Republican former Massachusetts governor is joining those calls.
“Governor Romney supports the moment of silence in remembrance of the Israeli athletes killed in the Munich Olympic Games,” Andrea Saul, a spokeswoman for Romney, told Reuters in an email on Monday.
Yup, more Romney opportunism. When he had the chance, he did nothing and ignored those of us calling for a memorial. Now, it makes no difference. It’s just cheap talk coming from him. And at that time, instead of remembering the slain Israeli athletes, he chose to attack Americans in the foreign press (in the UK’s Guardian):
Around the world it was like, ‘Boy, those Americans, always beating their chests.’ This is not our time to talk about how great America is. It’s not designed to be a patriotic American display.
That was Romney just ten years ago. Romney now is no different and won’t be in the White House. So, basically we have a choice of fully White Obama or half-White Obama in November.
Anyone who thinks there will be much actual difference between these two schlocky candidates in the White House is smoking dope. Either way, we’re screwed.
Remember Them . . .
Remember Who Murdered Them . . .
Tags: Flo-Jo, FloJo, Florence Griffith Joyner, Israel, Israeli athletes, Jews, Mitt Romney, Munich massacre, Munich Olympic massacre, Munich Olympics, Olympic Memorial, Olympics, Salt Lake Games, Salt Lake Olympic Games, slain Israeli athletes
They are both bad, but I still think Obama is worse. He doesn’t even acknowledge Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and he barely acknowledges Israel’s fight with terrorism.
Zsuzsi on July 27, 2012 at 1:49 pm