But the real story is that — as we already all knew, but couldn’t yet prove — The White House, the State Department, and our intelligence services knew in real time that the US consulate in Benghazi was under attack by a terrorist offshoot of Al-Qaeda. More, they sat on their hands for 7 hours while four Americans were killed — not even moving to bring assets to bear on the siege, not fighting back in any way. And all of this having had advanced warning of a heightened threat level — and having denied requests for extra security in advance of the attack they then sat there watching unfold.
Now. We can chalk this behavior up to one of several things: first, there’s the Occam’s Razor explanation: this Administration and State Department are feckless and completely out of their depth, and they were literally paralyzed by the very fact of the attack (after all, they’d defeated that thing they won’t call terrorism, so that thing they won’t call terrorism couldn’t possibly be rearing its barbaric head now, so close to the election) and spent those seven hours — and the next two weeks — not trying to find out what happened (as they claimed to be doing) but instead trying to figure out a way to keep a disaster so close to Nov and on the anniversary of 911 from harming them politically.
Second, there’s the conspiracy angle: the reason the Administration and State not respond by moving assets in to assist in defense of the consulate is that they were anticipating the attack and expected a specific outcome that was predetermined. And that outcome, whatever it may have been, they were expecting to be able to bring to bear on the election, a kind of October surprise to reinforce the Dem’s narrative about a “tough on the thing that we won’t call terrorism” President, once again showing his steely resolve and grace under enormous pressure. Like when he made that gut wrenching and difficult decision to go ahead and allow the SEALs snuff out Osama bin Laden. Things went sideways, though, when the Ambassador turned up dead, and the next two weeks was spent flailing away for some sort of plausible explanation for the attack; a scapegoat to distract from the White House’s complicity; and gaining cover from their media accomplices and lapdogs — who helped out by refusing to look into the time line, by conspiring to turn Romney’s reaction to the US Egyptian embassy response into the real story, by publicizing the ludicrous story of a YouTube video trailer (and the First Amendment!) being the cause of the attacks, and by working even during the debates — hell, at the debates, through certain moderators — to rehabilitate the Administration narrative as it kept unraveling by feeding them openings into which they would place plausible deniability, then helpfully “fact checking” those new assertions to suggest that, but of course the President had called the Benghazi attack an act of terror, early on, right after it happened.
— Just not on Letterman. Or at the UN. Or when he and Hillary stood over those caskets and blamed a “shadowy” citizen who abused his First Amendment rights to inflame the Muslim world. All of which took place after Dear Leader was supposed to have acknowledged the attack as a case of Islamist barbarism.
Third, the Administration, having relied on its “perception is reality” normalization agenda to “nudge” the Islamists into not viewing the west as an actual enemy (if we don’t call you terrorists, you won’t act like terrorists!), knew instantly that they were facing a potential political nightmare, a real-time repudiation of their entire foreign policy agenda, and so began working on ways to delay the flow of information — to create a fog, with a number of false leads, a number or distractions and blame shifting — all while claiming to be readying for a detailed and rigorous investigation of the event, which they couldn’t yet speak on because, they’d claim, they didn’t have “all the facts.” The FBI would be involved. We would get to the bottom of this, and the murderers brought to justice (incidentally, I still expect this to happen pre-election; new scapegoats are needed, and whether ObamaCo has the correct bad actors or not won’t matter. What matters is that he kills or imprisons someone). Left out from all this would be the specifics of why Ambassador Stevens was where he was in the first place. I happen to believe this scenario the most likely, but truth be told (and isn’t that refreshing in and of itself?), I wouldn’t put anything past this Administration.
They are determined to keep power. Stories about the election being called already for Obama by some local CBS affiliate to stories of 2200 110-year-olds early voting for Obama in North Carolina, when coupled with the Justice Department’s efforts to stop states from purging their voter roles of ineligible or duplicate voters, make that clear.
But we now have the emails — and while the media will attempt to mitigate the effects (they’ll talk about their being a second email that seemed to contradict the first, etc., and declare that the response, while not “optimal,” was also not unreasonable, given the uncertainty — expecting us to forget that the White House could also see in real time what was happening) — they won’t be able to hold back the information. And they will almost have to raise questions and concerns, or risk losing the very last of whatever credibility they still have with Americans who already distrust them.
If this doesn’t finish off the Fraud-in-Chief, then he’s a vampire — and we’d better spend the next four years in high collars, sharpening our stakes.
Hillary is on Faux News right now saying “We still aren’t certain what happened”. Also, “No one wants to get to the bottom of this more than me.”
Uh oh. That’s Barry’s turf.
Ach. Talking heads are using the Nixon defense: National Security Reasons.
Stevens was in a CIA safe house (not an embassy building, as most assume) dining with an official of the Turkish gubmint, the house being guarded by Libyan nationals. Stevens is assisting with our efforts to arm the Syrian rebels through Turkey.
Al Qaeda and MB-affiliated rebels, that is.
The Turkish official left in peace. Stevens et al. knew the entrances were being watched and communicated same. Then the al Qaeda gang with whom they were negotiating the arms deals returned and laid siege, killing Stevens and three others in the process.
its “perception is reality” normalization agenda to “nudge” the Islamists into not viewing the west as an actual enemy (if we don’t call you terrorists, you won’t act like terrorists!),
That’s the Kabuki they’re selling to the folks back home. In reality, the O-ministration is allied with the Muslim Brotherhood and is arming them and assisting them in their mission to put MB radicals in seats of power all over the Mideast.
Or don’t you believe that the fourth column will collude with the enemy of the establishment they’re trying to collapse—on every an any occasion they can.
I wonder if Stevens weren’t left out to dry on purpose. Let the “video-crazed mob” take him out and no-one’s the wiser.
I think it’s a combination of 1 and 3. They are idiots who thought they had saved the world, and when it came crashing down on them, decided to plant false leads.
No, he was in a safe room in the consulate. The spook shop is what’s referred to as “The Annex” which was the second place attacked. That’s where the SEAL’s died. There were spooks all over, though.
Hillary: “Something posted on Facebook is not evidence in and of itself” even if it’s a claim of responsibility. But apparently, a snippet from an intercepted phone call that bears no resemblance to reality is good enough to base 2 weeks of declaratory statements on.
No, he was in a safe room in the consulate. The spook shop is what’s referred to as “The Annex” which was the second place attacked. That’s where the SEAL’s died.
I stand corrected.
There’s no doubt that hubris played a large role in how Obama handled the situation. They obviously thought they could float the YouTube video story and that their water-carriers would take care of the rest.
But I’m also fairly sure that their apparent naivete about the nature of terrorism is more a pose to placate the empty-headed academics and apologists than their actual mind-set. Obama is cooperating with the MB because they’re going to punish America and Israel for their many sins.
And then?
Immanentize the eschaton!
At what point do the legacy press realize that this ship is sinking, and start trying to reclaim their credibility by asking pointed questions and insisting upon answers? I wanna see somebody take Pablo’s lead, and ask State and the White House exactly what evidence they had that it was all about The Video, since that evidence was obviously much, much more convincing than the e-mails and video and testimony and everything else that’s come to light since The Unfortunate Events.
The big rewards go to whomever moves first, MSM. Which one of you wants to step up and be a Real Journalist?
Exactly, Squid. It’s almost worth reelecting Obarry and simultaneously installing a conservative majority in both chambers, just to watch the impeachment in about January. That’s my kind of chaos.
Anybody here seenthe movie, “Bob Roberts”?
I have, Bill.
“Immanentize the eschaton!”
Or ruthlessly toss off the shackles of stupidity, corruption, and lies of the last sixty years and return to our way back in the golden days. It would be a shame if the left awakened a vicious jingoistic giant instead of toppling it.
Gaffney explains the gun-running angle (emphases mine):
Annnnd….Trump has…nothing.
I mention “Bob Roberts” because I wonder if there’s any price the Progressives won’t pay to retain power. They know what’s at stake. They know what they can accomplish with the “flexibility” Obama would have in a second term.
Link to the 2214 110 year old voters.
Oh, and I don’t know what the fuss is over these Bhenghazi emails. There’s nothing at all about them on nbcnews.com and only one mention in microprint way down the page at cnn.com. If these were really important, I’m sure the media would be all over it. hahahaha.
On the surface, stalling by means of ‘information milkshake’ appears a decent enough account of the public reaction of the O administration to the event of attack.
On spigot into the blender,
off spigot,
on spigot into the blender,
off spigot — whizzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
Leave the undecipherable product sitting in the jar, add new dope later, repeat whizzzz, again leave the mess sitting there to stir later (always stir later).
Whizzzzz again for goodly confusing measure. [But don’t contaminate the jury pool for the sake of justice to the eventual potential captive video-outragees, poor dears. They want social-justice too.]
“Gotta win election at all costs” added to the proposition “we’ll pay (or wriggle out of) whatever costs ensue after we win,” looks, again on the surface, a sufficient motive. But.
But what the hell is Dave Petraeus doing mixed up in this shit? Hey, and where is Dave Petraeus anyhow?
(And does any of that have something to do with Romney’s reluctance to broach the subject t’other night? He is getting intelligence briefings these days.)
Which of course leads back to the more formal question: what the hell was actually going on in Benghazi that necessitated stalling in the first place (enter Gaffney’s account and others); how does Dave Petraeus relate to that ongoing mission; what is about that ongoing mission requiring shame or secrecy or cover-stories turning to cover-up? For that matter, what were the lower level operatives in Benghazi thinking about the mission that necessitated shame or secrecy or cover-stories? Were they uninformed (“that’s above your paygrade”) or were they fully informed and completely onboard?
Well at least Trump didn’t flip out with a divorce filing or something. It’s a stunt but a relatively harmless one.
And more in North Carolina. Machine politics?
Maybe Trump could offer the L.A. Times $5 million for the Khalidi tape.
As to Allred:
The link tying them together is that the Campaigner in Perpetuity was too busy campaigning to be bothered playing Commander in Chief.
After Osama, Obama learned that the way to not make the call is to not take the call in the first place.
Right after President Romney completes the Oath.
I love Bob Roberts. And The Candidate. And Tanner 88.
I love projection. It amuses me.
Absolutely. This is the Obama riding the rancid ghost of Edward Said like a fucking warrior!
This is the Obama riding the rancid ghost of Edward Said like a fucking warrior!
Couldn’t have said it better myself.
No, really. I couldn’t have conjured up the image with a dot of LDS and a quart of mescal gone down the hatch.
Rush has been distracted about the drone over Benghazi. But hey, isn’t it simple enough that a recon-drone was already in Libya at the service of the CIA guys on the ground, either tracking Manpads or tracking particular persons?
A dot of LDS? I’m not sure I wanna know…
President Joe Biden? Yeah, that’s some class A chaos right there…
Meanwhile, Gary Johnson asks us to waste our vote on him…
Let’s think about this, America had recently helped take out a leader who had ruled a country for over 40 years.
That’s a big ‘effing deal.
You can’t tell me the safety of an American ambassador into the region right after that should not be a huge concern to any administration. So when they tried to say they didn’t know about all the worries about safety that were shared in the months before the attack, I CALL BULLSHIT!
THEY KNEW!
It makes me wonder how a person can develop a sense of purpose in life when that life is built upon a foundation of lies?
Heavy medication leading to delusions of grandeur perhaps?
Once the ambassador’s group was confirmed out of the consulate building, a salvo of tomahawks should have been inbound to that location.
I didn’t consider the angle raised by one of the Hot Airheads: the Donald pulled this stunt just to steal Allred’s spotlight, and to drag her down to his level. I have to admin that seeing the two of them linked together like peas in a pod makes me giggle a little.
It’s probably giving the Donald too much benefit of the doubt, of course, but if it were true, it would go a long way toward rehabilitating the little weasel in my eyes. (It would also make me think more fondly of the greedy developer who lives under the weasel.)
Now we know why Mitt blew off the Libya question from Bob Schieffer and upset Barry’s momentum for the rest of the debate. Mitt knew the shit would hit the fan on its own in two days time, so why go there?
Mitt’s not playing along with the Usual Suspects. How upsetting that must be for them.
Meanwhile, I read that Oregon, Oregon! is in play.
Allred was already down at his level. If anything, this elevates her.
A dot of LDS? I’m not sure I wanna know…
Force of habit. ::rotfl::
More likely leigh, Mitt knew Obama was anticipating that he would go after him hard on Libya, and thus was likely prepared with some retort about politicizing the tragic deaths of four brave Americans (think At long last [sniff[ have you no decency SIR?), so why set him up the bomb?
so to speak
That too, Ernst. “Make your time.”
You just know Obama was chain smoking the Newports in the limo after the debate. “That SOB! He didn’t let me use my best lines! Fuck him! Fuck him!” My husband says and I concur, that the Wonce is going to totally lose it some time in the next ten days.
OT: Clint Eastwood makes a new commercial endorsing Romney and pissing on Obama’s “record.”
All we need now is Obama claiming “he will not rest” until these “attackers” are brought to justice. Because THAT means he’s going to blow it off and go golfing with Reggie Love.
I’m tired of giving Obama the benefit of the doubt; I’m just not buying the default “in over his head” excuse people keep making anytime it looks like he’s actually working against America’s interests. Maybe it makes them sleep better but it also helps Obama sleep better, too.
Libby, if he’s in over his head, and I submit that he is, then it’s time for him to go.
No media other than Fox is reporting on this. NBC did a glancing look at it, about 30 seconds worth, and the other alphabets didn’t touch it.
He’s not in over his head. It’s just what YOU expect him to do is not on HIS agenda. He is accomplishing HIS agenda (despite Rush’s hope he fails) in impressive manner, and I have no doubt, given another term, he will achieve great success…in transforming the country.
That’s part of what’s so scary about the sonofabitch —he couldn’t be bothered to even make an appearance of trying to do something to prevent the murder of his ambassador.
We’re way past fuck the mercenaries when we allow political appointees to be murdered because to do otherwise might prove politically inconvenient.
But hey, Dover AFB photo-op!
You should tune into Mikey Medved, LBascom. Tonite’s broadcast was a special on how awful vote-diluting classical liberals and other unsavory teabaggers are. I thought of you.
Staunchly staunch, that Establican nerve of yours.
Here’s what Johnson said:
“Wasting your vote is voting for somebody that you don’t believe in,” an impassioned Johnson said. “That’s wasting your vote. I’m asking everybody here, I’m asking everybody watching this nationwide to waste your vote on me.”
Yeah, that’s me, Establican pragmitist. The nerve, to post a link with no comment of my own…
I mean, I’m sure it was a slip of the tongue, or otherwise came out different than he intended. It was still funny.
I thought it was funny. I knew what he meant, but it came out wrong.
Bret Baier is averring he and his team are re-doing their Benghazi story for to include the new information and to update the story to the exponentially growing changes, re-airing this coming weekend he thinks.
This is funny too.
gr8r_good:
If you are going to quote somebody it is customary to give them credit with a block quote and a link to the place the quote is from. Otherwise you just come across as another “Biden”.
The Donald chose the wrong Obama to target.
Oh, this is a nicely-written BHO postmortem. If indeed he’s sitting on the outside looking in come January 30, that is.
The postmortem serr8d linked was a lot of fun.
Obama tells Rolling Stone Magazine that Romney is a ‘bullshitter’.
Takes one to know one, Barry.
Looks like Drudge has melted down the WS servers.
serr8d, that article is hysterical! Thanks.
President Obama has become Norma Desmond. Heh.