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President Obama's Intelligence Briefing at Five Guys

By Matthew Vadum on 5.31.09 @ 11:00PM

The following is not a story from the Onion.

President Obama cares so much about protecting our nation from external threats and saving taxpayer dollars that he combined a burger run with an important briefing about the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, an intelligence agency within the Pentagon he hadn't previously been aware of.

The Politico reports that some guy in line at Five Guys who happened to work for the intelligence agency let the president know that the agency has something to do with satellite imaging or maps or, you know, whatever.

The transcript provided by the Politico:

Obama: What do you do Walter?
Walter: I work at, uh, NGA, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
Obama: Outstanding, how long you been doing that?
Walter: About six years
Obama: Yea?
Walter: Yes.
Obama: You like it?
Walter: I do, keeps me...
Obama: So explain to me exactly what this National Geospatial...uh...
Walter: Uh, we work with, uh, satellite imagery..
Obama: Right
Walter: [unintelligible] ...support systems, so...
Obama: Sounds like good work.
Walter: Enjoy the weekend.
Obama: Appreciate it.

Note that the president didn't ask Walter what he did at the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency. President Obama asked what the agency did.

View all comments (13) | Leave a comment

Paul Curley| 6.1.09 @ 12:20AM

Dear Mr. Vadum,

I think you're being a little hard on the President. Is it so surprising that he hadn't heard of the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency? I confess I'd never heard of it. Had you?

Scarlett| 6.1.09 @ 1:54AM

Uh, Mr. Vadum and you aren't the President, Mr. Curley. I don't give a flying fig that you guys don't know. The President? Now, that's another matter altogether.

Matthew Vadum| 6.1.09 @ 3:20AM

Actually I had heard of it, Mr. Curley. I even had an idea of what it did.

Charles Martel| 6.1.09 @ 4:16AM

I had to laugh when I read elsewhere the suggestion that Walter's hesitancy in answering was due to his being unsure whether Barry had an adequate security clearance.

Grzmlyk| 6.1.09 @ 8:17AM

You guys are missing the point! It doesn't matter what Obama knows of this world. He is all about the HIGHER truth. Duh! Everyone knows that.

Besides, the dude is hip, the dude is black, the dude is cool. But that's not enough for you conservatives.

Let me ask you a serious question: Where do you get the cajones to hold Him to such a standard? As if he has to know EVERY little thing about his job.

Haven't you seen him shoot hoops? Haven't you noticed how good I feel about myself since I voted for him (inoculated forever against accusations of racism!)?

And I suppose you are going to deny the miracle of, like, totally fixing our economy in, what, just a little over a hundred days? You're just a sore loser because He is going to return the wealth of this nation to its rightful owners.

Eventually you will learn to genuflect before him. And if you don't, there's a few ACORN thugs in a community center near you.

And they know where you live.

ds80| 6.1.09 @ 8:20AM

Geospatial intelligence is not a community that needed organizin', so the teleprompter hadn't yet told him about it.

Just another day in the life of the Noob President.

JS| 6.1.09 @ 10:10AM

I don't know what all the hubub is about. I feel confident, don't you? You can't really expect the President to be up to speed on all things national security, right?

I wonder, did he get normal fries or the cajun spiced ones...

RhondasbecksnotPosh's| 6.1.09 @ 11:31AM

This is amusing, but also begs the question - - while no one wants the Secret Service to lock them up for attempting "death by PowerPoint" against the Prez or others On High, just how extensive an orientation does/should the new guy get after he shows up for work in the Oval Office for the first time? Just thumbnailing all the intelligence agencies and commands rolled in under DOD alone would take a lot of slides...