Thursday, September 13, 2007
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If You Don't Like the News, Make Stuff Up
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Posted by:
Dean Barnett at
9:23 AM
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And you though the Moveon.Org ad was something. You ain’t seen nothin’ yet. There is no hole so deep that the modern left considers it unnecessary to keep digging. In other words, the demonization of David Petraeus has just begun.
The lefties at the Daily Kos and Think Progress are both giving a lot of play to the following quote that Admiral William Fallon allegedly (much more on that in a bit) made about his underling David Petraeus during their first meeting in Baghdad last March. The Daily Kos and Think Progress report Fallon called Petraeus “an ass-kissing little chicken-sh*t.”
I know what you’re thinking. For reputable outfits like the Daily Kos and Think Progress to report such an incendiary comment, the remark must be impeccably sourced. Well…
The original report of the comment, the scoop if you will, came in something called the “Inter Press Service News Agency,” or “IPS” as the organization bills itself. What? You’ve never heard of this IPS and find yourself curious about who and what it is? IPS describes itself this way on its website: “IPS, civil society's leading news agency, is an independent voice from the South and for development, delving into globalisation for the stories underneath. Another communication is possible.” I don’t know what any of that means either, but I figure I’d share it with you and put it our there for deconstruction.
A couple of things about this IPS “scoop”. IPS reported the alleged exchange on September 12, or yesterday to you and me. The alleged exchange occurred back in March. You also might wonder how IPS got this juicy nugget. Did Admiral Fallon put a call into the news agency renowned for “delving into globalization”? Hardly. IPS got the story from “Pentagon sources familiar with reports of the meeting.” Mind you, IPS didn’t just use just anonymous Pentagon source who might have seen the exchange. IPS relied on sources who not only didn’t witness the exchange, but didn’t even talk to people who witnessed the exchange. They were just “familiar with reports of the meeting.” Allegedly.
Here’s the kicker. Both Think Progress and the Daily Kos report IPS’s “scoop” like it’s a fact. Think Progress qualifies its reportage of Fallon’s comment merely by saying, “Inter-Press Service suggests animosity between the two might be one reason for Fallon’s absence” and then hits its readers with the quote. Think Progress does not bother to note the flimsiness of IPS’s reporting, nor does it bother to say exactly who and what IPS is. Maybe IPS is a household name where “delving into globalisation” is de rigueur, but I doubt it.
The Daily Kos does even worse. In happily relating Fallon’s alleged comment, Daily Kos front pager BarbinMD doesn’t even mention IPS. She doesn’t even link to IPS, a tacit admission of what a pile of hooey their report is. Instead, Dr. Barbin oddly chose to link back to Think Progress’s report on the matter.
And thus in the modern left’s eyes, a Four Star General who has served his country for decades becomes “an ass-kissing little chickensh*t.” And once again, the rest of the country is left to wonder about our nation’s far left: Have they no decency?
Compliments? Complaints? Contact me at Soxblog@aol.com.
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Reading these comments, one realizes how otherwise (probably) bright people can be so deluded. "drive-by" media, MONICA, "Democrats hate the military", you guys need to start thinking rationally and stop using Rush or Bill O's talking points.
Media outlets are A BUSINESS!!! they are corporations out to MAKE MONEY!!! Its not some 'vast LEFT-wing conspiracy.
The Right in this country went after Pres. Bill Clinton (and will do the same with Hillary) from the start. Whitewater, travelgate, Vince Foster... The ONLY thing they got from it was a lie a man told about having an affair. WHAT MAN WOULDN'T LIE!!!
What he should of told Ken Starr was "Its none of your GD business"!
And no Democrats like me don't hate the military, would we be trying to save them from the hell of Iraq if we did???? Our military shouldn't be used to quell a civil war. it should be used to DESTROY OUR ENEMIES!!!
Peace-keepiing is a good job for the UN, don't you think???
And lastly,
Pres. Clinton DID attack Al-Qaeda, remember?? And he was accused by EVERY right-winger for "Wagging the Dog"! Was Rush screaming about getting Bin laden then????
And Pres. Clinton HAD A CIA Team charged with getting him!!! That team was disbanded by Pres. Bush!!!
So if Pres. Bush leaves office with OBL still alive and we get hit again, will you blame him with the same fury?????????? I doubt it!!!
Notice how I used 'Pres.' Clinton and Bush
Not BILLY BOY, wheres YOUR respect for the office??????????????????????????????????? |
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Have you ever been in the military, Probably not scumbag. Where was BILLY(THE SCUD) CLINTON at before 9/11 and all the times that this country was being attack, oh Im sorry he was scudding MONICA instead of SCUDDING OBL so dont start nothing that you cant finish because if BILLY BOY would havetaken out OBL when he had a chance this BS probably wouldnt be taking place right now. Someday in the future you whinning ARSE LIBS are going to need the military and they want be there because no DUMBOCRAP has ever been for the MILITARY. Clinton cut the deficit on the backof the MILITARY in the 90's and then the DUMBOCRAPS were asking where the military was when this war started. Why not ask BILLY BOY what he did to the MILITARY. |
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DEMS are just as much to blame for this war as REPS and for you to state that this is BISH problem and the righties. Why did only 6, I repeat myself on 6 read the intel for the war. EVERYONE besides that voted to go to war. I will say that if this doesnt work you DEMS and the drive by media are just as much to blame as BUSH. It is kind of too late to say I voted for it before I voted against it. I have seven family members in this war and form the mouth of my own son. WE CAN ONLY LOSE THIS WAR IF WE DONT WANT TO WIN. So shut your PIEHOLE COWARDCRAP |
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Quite frankly, I'm disgusted at the way in which conservative sheeple coddle the military and make every excuse in the book to cover up military errors in judgement. Here's one question that NO ONE HAS DARED ASK; WHERE WAS THE MILITARY ON SEPTEMBER 11, 2001????? How come the skies weren't filled with our planes that day, demanding that the hijacked airplanes land immediately or else? We the sheeple taxpayers are paying a fortune for all that really expensive hardware and I didn't get any bang for my buck that day. Of course, it didn't help that the Commander in Chief of the armed forces just wanted to blithely continue with his photo-op in Florida instead of taking charge of the situation and give the necessary orders to get those bastards out of the skies by any means necessary.
On 9/11/200l I lost any respect I had for the military. They failed us miserably. |
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Deadpan.
Your remark that anti-insurgency works should have had the qualifier "WHEN DONE CORRECTLY"
--And friend, Bush and the Right are as far removed from doing counter-insurgency correctly as you possibly can get.
Let me explain. Back in 2003 your hero Donald Rumsfeld, the former Secretary of Defense from the Twilight Zone, once described the Sunni Iraqi Insurgents as "Dead-Enders who refused to acknowledge that the world around them had changed" . Today the exact same "dead-enders" are presented as the crowning achievement of Bush's latest "surge". The "dead-enders" that were nos supposed to exist in great numbers are now our best hope to defeat al-Quaida in Irsq--- The same al-Quaida that was not in Iraq in the first place!!!
In other words Republican Counter-Insurgency policy requires to first create insurgents where there were none, then ignore them until they become a force, and then after they had kill enough of our American man, ally ourselves with them to fight the terrorists we created in the fisrt place!!!!
Brilliant Counter-Insurgency my friend, Congratulations!!!!! With a mind set like this one, is no wonder we are in a mess in Iraq. |
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We have proved it for over a century. But it takes time and resolve neither of which the left is willing to grant. They claim to hate the brutality and killing of war, but only so long as the U.S. is involved. The bloodbath that follows our bailing out on those who have trusted us we ignore.
The left complains that we have killed over 400,000 Iraqi civilians (Falsely, by the way) but has no concern over the millions who will surely be killed when the Shiites and Sunnis clash when we are no longer there.
The U.S. declared independence in 1776 but it took until 1787 to come up with a workable Constitution, and until the 1860s and a civil war before we eliminated the racism built into that constitution. Then add another century before we made American Apartheid illegal. What business do we have telling Iraq that 5 years is all the time they get to work out their problems?
The fact that some here are calling for the execution of the President only shows how little we've learned from the last 150 years. |
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One of those Military urban legends. I remember one in my early days in the Navy. The legend goes that a salty old Navy Chief was walking along a pier and passed a fresh out of the Academy Ensign. The Chief didn't see the Ensign, and therefore didn't salute him. The Ensign took this as an insult and stopped to berate the Chief. The Ensign had only gotten the words, "you didn't salute me," out of his mouth, when the now angry chief reached in his pocket, pulled out a quarter and flipped it to the Ensign with the parting words "call someone who cares," before walking off.
There are lots of these Urban legends in the Military, and I am sure that the exchange described by The Daily Kos and Think Progress is one too. |
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Dear Right Wingers.
What it all boils down according to Bush, is that the surge is beeing very successful, only that in January of 2009, some new President will be neverthless inheriting the mess in Iraq.
---- With "successes" like this Right Wingers, who needs failure.
I will go to my grave never understanding how can such a lowsy con-man such as Bush was and is, could get away with so much, from so many people for so long.
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Dear Blog.
A few observations in your perceived "demonisation" of Gen. Petraeus by the Left.
First of all Gen. Petraeus's predecessor, Gen. George Casey, and for the most part every retired General in command in Iraq have spoken publicaly against Bush's strategy, and by extension Gen. Petraeus strategy at many different times. The fact that all these Generals are critical of Bush policy, and not Gen. Petraeus implementation of the policy is simply the recognition that in the end it is Bush behind it all.
Let's be honest here will you? With Bush's credibility in Congress at an all time low, Bush has sought to transfer some of the burden of an umpopular war, and the public anger that comes with that to some one else--- Gen. Petraeus is that some one else. Gen. Petraeus much better credibilty is a bonus when it comes to the war's selling job. The old "salespeople" Condi, Cheney, Rummy, or Bush himself are, and I don't think I should have to state the obvios--- percieved as worst than a used car salesman in a juck yard.
As a result of this charade, is not Bush's desicion in Iraq, but Bush "following Gen. Petraeus recomendations". You know Republicans from the Right, if you think that Bush is for a second selling this kind of bull to any one than his so called "base" you most be going delusional. It is in fact an insult to the intelligence of any one with an IQ higher than that of a tomato.
Bush's ploy is so transparent that is laughable, but it some how has to pass as "arguable reality" because of the power of the office this clown holds.
Look, in a month or so you are going to see Gen. Petraeus's boss Admiral Fallon, testifying in Congress. Every one knows that Admiral Fallon does not agree with Bush, or Gen. Petraeus at all. All I ask you is that you give Admiral Fallon the same respect and consideration for his opinion that you are demanding for Gen. Petraeus.
Fair enough?
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be like ignoring Rap and Gangsta music? |
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...but what is the reality?
First off, you have to be smart enough to take sources for what they are. Bloggers are bloggers, not hard journalists which require multiple independant confirmations of a source. So, use your brain already, and take them for what they are. Are they many times correct? Sure. Are they concrete jouralists of record? Well, clearly no.
Second, people want to focus so much effort on how much they hate those terrible lefties, but if we can put aside the messanger for a moment and focus on the message, what is Fallon's opinion?
To start, it is rather odd that you have the MNF Commander and the CENTCOM head NOT testifying together. Casey and Abizaid regular did so together before congress previously. But that doesn't really say much.
Next, you know, there are real reputable sources that are pointing to the same conflict between Petraeus and Fallon:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/08/AR2007090801846.html
And I don't think IPS is there source.
Instead of clouding the waters with so much talk of who you hate and why they are stupid, why not look at the substance and reality of what is being said?
Bloggers aren't journalist. Okay? And Fallon does appear to violently disagree with Petraeus. Clear?
Someone else here mentioned Rather mockingly, refering to the story of Bush's questionable military service. Similarly, everyone jumps on the fact that Killian's Secretary confirmed the memo was a forgery, right? Certainly an important point. Why is it that no one bothers to listen when the same person says that although the memo was fake, it did accurately represent Killian's opinion on Bush?
Let's not lose sight of the forest because of all the trees. |
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Isn't he just the cagey one?I'll take bets on how long it'll take the curr to call for our CinC's execution and then have to return as a caricature of himself.Tiresome little seditionista. |
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Keep up the good work. You are the best poster on HH. You bring clarity to all the politco hack drivel on both sides of the mental ward. |
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Since Bush wants now to take out 30,000 combat troops by next Spring, is it OK Right Wingers if we start calling him a "Surrendercrat" ?????
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Since Bush wants now to take out 30,000 combat troops by next Spring, is it OK Right Wingers if we start calling him a "Surrendercrat" ?????
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Since Bush wants now to take out 30,000 combat troops by next Spring, is it OK Right Wingers if we start calling him a "Surrendercrat" ?????
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Michael Medved has two articles posted on TH about the alleged censorship ABC/Disney is engaging in by not releasing the DVD of "The Path to 9/11" because
of the harm it might cause Hillary's campaign.
This fact filled piece of Medved's is based entirely on Cyrus Norwasteh's claim that an unnamed executive
told him that higher ups at ABC told him that this was the case.
Cyrus said he said they said.
Apparently that's enough for Medved and the learned readers of TH to get their panties in a large knot over.
In this instance,I won't hold my breath waiting for Mr. Barnett's admonishment of the Medved article. |
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Admirals have been known to air adverse opinions about Army generals from time to time.
For example: 'Bull' Halsey was absolutely the only Navy admiral who could work with Gen. Douglas MacArthur. Of course, in MacArthur, we're also talking about the man who recommended all Army units who fought at Bataan and Corrigedor get the Presidential Unit citation...but left out the Navy and Marine units who were also there. Navy admirals largely despised MacArthur. |
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"For facts, the Weekly World News is more reliable than the Daily Kos"
Since when is the Daily Kos a news organization? In fact, does anyone consider Town Hall a news organization? This is typical Dean Barnett outraged by internet white noise - as with the New Republic, bring publicity to a non-story which will now gather steam as if it were true - and it might be true. TNR still stands by their writer - a writer NO ONE would've seen if it were not for Barnett.
PS - I'm with TNR until proven otherwise. |
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So what?
I mean really... ooooo... one member of a government bureaucracy may have called another one a brown noser.
Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if Kos and Co. just cited these stories to amuse themselves with the apoplectic rage and over-reaction that conservative pundits fly into on a daily basis.
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only took them 5 hours to respond... |
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How could anybody mock the general? He is so sweet, so kind, so strong, so brave, so manly in a totally masculine way.
Didnt he keep Mosul from falling to the insurgents? Didn't he train the victorious Iraqi army? Didnt he revive the markets at Dora? And if he DIDN'T do those things, didn't he at least pretend to? And isn't that what counts, ultimately.
Here is a poem I wrote for our hero:
Let us say it again and again out loud
I am a Petraeus-lover and oh so proud
I am a Petraeus-lover and dont you see
Petraeus leads the surge of victory
Petraeus is a smarty-pants, even went to Princeton
But with his toothy smile he is just so winsome
So those who say that Petreaus would betray us
Really want Petreaus to lay us
We love you general!
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...the old You Guys Did It First argument....
Always a classic.... |
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Over 130 million or so registered voters and about a million or two actually visit the blogosphere.
Look at the comments used when the dreaded "liberals" comment in these hallowed threads. Not too far off the mark of what the Kos kids do.
Much of it seems to be a bunch of sort of grown up twenty-somethings snarking back and forth at one another. |
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To have someone you support
Swift-Boated!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I don't know if the story is true or not; I ask myself the same question whenever I catch an earfull of Fox News or Limbaugh.
But your media sources are the Kings of slime, so give me a break and give it a rest.
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Oh wait it is not october yet ... |
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What Patton said was that Eisenhower was the best desk general THE BRITISH ever had since he consistently sided with the Limeys over the Yanks....
This does not diminish your point about Fallon.... |
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A high-level source of mine in the Pentagon cafeteria told me that he found a copy of the report in the trash can. Despite the tomato sauce and pepperoni stains (it was pizza day), he could clearly read that Petraeus called Fallon a "sh*t-for-brains old fool."
So there...I'll put my source up againt IPS's any day of the week. |
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I'll believe it as soon as Dan Rather confirms the authenticity of the source. |
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...who appear to believe that calling someone a "chickenhawk" amounts to an argument. That charge is a little more difficult to make with a serving general (one who as a matter of fact survived a near fatal wound a few years ago during training), so instead they entertain each other with personal attacks and foul insults. For a couple of days, along with blowhards like Biden and Matthews, they seemed for all the world actually to believe that hyping and extrapolating one garbled statement from two days of testimony amounted to a substantive response. They actually believe that they're "debating"!
There's nothing to discuss with such people - because they're not capable of discussion. |
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..who knows a guy, who goes to work on the same bus as the maid of a guy who swears he saw Kos in that restroon and the Minneapolis airport in the stall next to Craig.......
He SWEARS...! It must BE TRUE....!! |
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No. And I dispute the notion that Kos and his slimy ilk are profitably ignorable. These weasels control the purse strings to the Treason Party. Rank and file Dems are ignorant; perhaps intentionally so, of their existence and certainly of their prevalence in the Dem primaries and in the arcane redoubts of American parliamentary tactics. Let them not continue in their blissful state. These cowardly vermin, enamoured as always of slandering the better men on whom they rely for their squandered liberties, are pulling down numberless decent, authentic Americans by the stealth of their attacks. Did we learn nothing from Clinton I? Silence is not complicity but it is a tactical error. The Lefties will never shut up. Ignore them only when the mainstream Dems can do the same. |
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...you've ever seen verbiage like "a$$-kissing piece of chickensh*t" in an official report or meeting notes? There's more fishiness in this story than just relying on anonymous sources and sloppy citations... |
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UNITED NATIONS more than anyone, with upper level management in Portugal and Rome. A kind of PBS,BBC, flair about them.......Was it General Patton that said,"Eisenhour was the best desk general I ever had."..?......Fallon is NO cut and run Admiral, having at one time been accused of being a little too tough against China's military ambitions. |
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For facts, the Weekly World News is more reliable than the Daily Kos. |
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Oh oh, not Killer Babies!
Dude, where do you get this BS.
Tanks that fire air..... O-brother. |
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The author of that article published by a hitherto unknown "news service" turns out to be a leftist revisionist historian. "Gareth Porter challenged the main rationale offered by U.S. President Richard Nixon in 1969 for continuing the Vietnam War, and argued that there would not be a Communist "bloodbath" in South Vietnam after the U.S. withdrew its forces from Vietnam." This from Wikipedia. His work is published by The Nation and the Guardian, among other highly reliable publications. |
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F--- 'UM !
Pipsqueaks of the sewer dweller nomenclature.
Ain't worth all those sentences you dedicate to the,Dean.
Ona More SERIOUS Note: Looks like our little feisty,no $$ payroll Tampa Bay team is gining your Fenway BigBoys fits. :-))) |
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We adults only give credence and credibility to whack job BS like the Kos files he-said/he-said crapola like this particular "revelation".
Who gives a rat's a** what some Pentagon admiral said about Petraeus or not? I mean, really, how picayune and irrelevant to any and everything that matters in life!
Besides, every successful general or admiral who ever lived and defeated his enemy always had jealous rear-guard wannabes stabbing him in the back. Anybody who doesn't understand that doesn't understand military culture. General Grant whupped a** on Lee's army, and for that he was endlessly criticized back in Washington as a mindless butcher and worse by the desk-jockeys who craved the attention and praise that Grant was earning on the battlefield. Thus it always was, and thus it always will be.
Geez, I think too many conservative bloggers spend way too much of their time and energy pointing out the obvious ... i.e., that the nutroots are, well, nuts. So what?
It is good to call out MoveOn for their contemptuous full page, subsidized ad in in the NY Times, and to call out the Dems who gladly take MoveOn's money for not condemning the slander therein.
But if we devote another millisecond to pointing out how nuts the nutroots are, then that millisecond will be a terrible thing to waste. |
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DailyKos, ThinkProgress, RawStory and all those other lefty sewers still think that Bush called the Constitution a "damn piece of paper" based on a story about a guy who heard from a guy who allegedly spoke to three people familiar with the meeting where the comment was allegedly made...reality and fact have no meaning to the BDS-insane |
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this up right quick with a simple: "No, I never said it."
And if he did say it, it is not the first time Army and Navy have had a dust up.
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name calling from the Daily Kos and IPS.
Yes they have no shame, but a four star general in an unpopular war is going to be a lightning rod for the opposition. I am more concerned with Beauchamp (with the help of the New Republic) slandering his fellow soldiers with completely false stories than I am with some dweebs from the Daily Kos having a hissy fit. |
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