Will you accept the Pentagon as an acceptable source for discrediting the claim?
The Pentagon has dismissed as ?absolutely absurd? and ?comical? Indian media reports that US President Barack Obama will be protected by 34 US warships during his visit to India this weekend.
In a departure from normal practice of not divulging details regarding security arrangements for presidential visits abroad, the Pentagon on Thursday clarified that no armada of warships has been deployed for Obama?s India visit.
?I will take the liberty this time of dismissing as absolutely absurd this notion that somehow we were deploying 10 per cent of the Navy ? some 34 ships and an aircraft carrier ? in support of the president's trip to Asia,? Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said.
?That's just comical. Nothing close to that is being done,? he said.
Further commenting on Indian media reports that the President?s visit will cost 200 million dollars a day for security, Morrell said, ?I think there's been a lot of creative writing that's been done on this trip over the last few days. I've seen other reports with some astronomical figures in terms of what it costs to take these trips.?
How about the Press Secretary for the President of the United States?
White House spokesperson Robert Gibbs, dismissing the Indian media reports, said both the figures of the warships as well as the security cost for the trip were grossly misquoted.
?The Department of Defense has said, as we have, that that's simply not true,? Gibbs said on the reports of 34 warships being used for Obama?s security.
On the cost aspect, Gibbs said the costs were comparable to the costs incurred by Presidents George W Bush and Clinton to the region.
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Man up, WTW...