The deaths of Americans including Ambassador Stevens, Sean Smith, Glen Doherty and one other, in Benghazi last month demonstrates, once again, the absolute inadequacy of the current US administration's grasp of matters of state.
Even as the House of Representatives began hearings yesterday to figure out what happened, the usual bafflegab and bs was on display for all to see.
Despite overwhelming reports that Hillary Clinton's State Department was told more security resources were needed in Libya, evidence shows that, time and again, those requests were denied. Meanwhile, MIC and his minions continue to cover-up, deflect (Big Bird anyone?) and generally flat out lie.
From FrontPage Mag:
Revealed: Extreme Negligence in Benghazi
October 11, 2012 By
"[T]he attack ... was the latest in a long line of attacks on Western diplomats and officials in Libya in the months leading up to September 11, 2012. It was clearly never, as Administration officials once insisted, the result of a popular protest. In addition, multiple U.S. federal government officials have confirmed to the Committee that, prior to the September 11 attack, the U.S. mission in Libya made repeated requests for increased security in Benghazi. The mission in Libya, however, was denied these resources by officials in Washington."
"An American ambassador [was] killed in a terror attack that the administration covered up," KAS' Liz Cheney told Sean Hannity last Tuesday, "after it ignored the threats he was reporting back to Washington."
Moreover, the president's boast that "al Qaeda is on the path to defeat" apparently has not reached al Qaeda terrorists operating in Africa, among other places. Released in August, a defense department-sponsored study found al Qaeda deepening its network in Libya. A recent Washington Post piece quoted the head of the U.S. Africa Command, Gen. Carter Ham, who told journalists gathered in Senegal in July that the U.S. and other governments had "missed an opportunity to deal with AQIM [al Qaeda in the Islamic Magreb] when they were weak." And in the preceding months, CNN reported that Gen. Ham had been making the case that AQIM, in CNN's words, "poses an increasing concern and that the group is operating unconstrained in a large portion of Mali and coordinating with other extremist elements across North Africa."
Stephens: Benghazi Was Obama's 3 a.m. Call
Libya was a failure of policy and worldview, not intelligence.
Why won't the Libya story go away? Why can't the memory of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and his staff be consigned to the same sad-and-sealed file of Americans killed abroad in dangerous line of duty? How has an episode that seemed at first to have been mishandled by the Romney camp become an emblem of a feckless and deluded foreign policy?
The story-switching and stonewalling haven't helped. But let's start a little earlier.
The hour is 5 p.m., Sept. 11, Washington time, and the scene is an Oval Office meeting among President Obama, the secretary of defense, the national security adviser and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi has been under assault for roughly 90 minutes. Some 30 U.S. citizens are at mortal risk. The whereabouts of Ambassador Stevens are unknown.
What is uppermost on the minds of the president and his advisers? The safety of Americans, no doubt. So what are they prepared to do about it? Here is The Wall Street Journal's account of the meeting:
"There was no serious consideration at that hour of intervention with military force, officials said. Doing so without Libya's permission could represent a violation of sovereignty and inflame the situation, they said. Instead, the State Department reached out to the Libyan government to get reinforcements to the scene."
So it did. Yet the attack was far from over. After leaving the principal U.S. compound, the Americans retreated to a second, supposedly secret facility, which soon came under deadly mortar fire. Time to call in the troops?...
Prepare to get REALLY angry, and go read the whole chilling account here.
The attack on Benghazi may have come as a surprise to MIC and his minions - or at least that may be the public spin - but again, there were signs and repeated warning prior to this tragedy that MIC chose to ignore..We all have seen how little regard he has for his Military experts, and this is borne out in a report from CNN:
September 24th, 201210:21 AM ET
A general's warning about militants in Libya
By Barbara StarrJust three months ago, the four-star chief of the U.S. Africa Command warned of a growing threat from al Qaeda and other militant groups in Libya.
"There is a real concern in Libya. As Libya is coming out of the revolution and forming its new government, there very clearly are those who wish to undermine the formation of that government," said Gen. Carter Ham in a speech to senior military and civilian officials from Africa, Europe and the U.S.
"We see some worrying indicators that al Qaeda and others are seeking to establish a presence in Libya," Ham warned. Ham often worked closely with the late Chris Stevens, the U.S. ambassador to Libya, killed in the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi.
Ham has been trying to establish the initial stages of a military relationship with Libya, but the effort has been slowed by the presence and influence of armed militias, such as those suspected of being involved in the attack. Ham noted back in June the problem of bringing even more mainstream groups under the control of the central government....
Read the rest here.
Not only did the Obama administration unequivocally prove their incompetence - and people died as a result - their lies since September 11, 2012 continue to dishonour the honourable men who lost their lives in service to America that day.
Spin spin spin...
From the Weekly Standard:
Permanent Spin
Oct 1, 2012, Vol. 18, No. 03 • By STEPHEN F. HAYESFor nine days, the Obama administration made a case that virtually everyone understood was untrue: that the killing of our ambassador and three other Americans in Benghazi, Libya, was a random, spontaneous act of individuals upset about an online video—an unpredictable attack on a well-protected compound that had nothing do to with the eleventh anniversary of 9/11.
These claims were wrong. Every one of them. But the White House pushed them hard.
U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Susan RiceNEWSCOM
Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, appeared on five Sunday talk shows on September 16. A “hateful video” triggered a “spontaneous protest . . . outside of our consulate in Benghazi” that “spun from there into something much, much more violent,” she said on Face the Nation. “We do not have information at present that leads us to conclude that this was premeditated or preplanned.”
On This Week, Rice said the consulate was well secured....
Go read the rest here. . It ends with a Jay Carney snark.....where he proves - once again - what a loyal water boy, but terrible liar - he is..
Truth: We have seen how little regard this current administration has for the truth as we have watched Fast and Furious - Brian Terry, anyone? We have seen MIC rush to mics and cameras to claim credit for heroic acts not of his doing (ObL?). We have seen him host press conferences on the White House lawn with actors primed to push his ObamaCare monster.
Spin spin spin. It IS the Obama way.
Time is long overdue for him and his ignorant, callous, lying cohorts to spin right out of the People's House.
America and Americans can no longer afford any more Obama spin cycles.. Period.
Obama's Lies Unravel in Congressional Hearing on Libya 9/11 Attack
by Joel B. Pollak 10 Oct 2012
Today's congressional hearing on the Sep. 11, 2012 attacks across the Middle East, that killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans in Benghazi, have destroyed the Obama administration's lies about the event. There was not enough security in Benghazi, despite repeated requests; there was no preparation for the attacks, despite intelligence and warning signs; and the assault in Libya had nothing to do with an anti-Islamic video, as President Barack Obama and his appointees had claimed for weeks.
On the eve of the hearings, the State Department claimed not to have linked the Libya attack to an anti-Islamic video made in the United States--although Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did so in television advertisements the State Department produced for Pakistani television, and UN Ambassador Susan Rice told the media over and over again that the attacks had been part of a spontaneous demonstration of outrage across the region. Numerous requests for additional security in Benghazi had been ignored by the diplomats at Foggy Bottom.
[...]
What is clear is that the attacks on the anniversary 9/11 took the Obama administration by surprise; that the administration placed too much confidence in the removal of Osama bin Laden, as well as the President's own personal popularity, in declaring that Al Qaeda was in retreat; that the first impulse of the administration was to attack freedom of expression in the U.S., as well as the political opposition; that the administration never lived up to its most basic security responsibilities in Libya; that it lied for weeks about the most serious terror attack against the United States in years; and that it is lying still, in an attempt to minimize political fallout.
The entire cover-up is falling apart--and today's congressional hearings are likely just the beginning.
There is much more here.
These congressional hearings may be just the beginning of the unravelling of the Libyan ball of lies, but it is obvious to anybody paying attention that for this administration this is just 'business as usual.' This latest disgrace and blot on the international reputation of America is but another in a long line of outrageous total disregard by this administration in their sworn duty: to protect Americans, and American interests around the world. This begs the obvious question: HOW MANY more deliberate lies; how many more instances of dereliction of duty; how many MORE American citizens will die - because the politicians think they are above the law, and the moral code of decency - before the American people throw these liars out of office?
EPIC fail - again.
