[…] were investigating Benghazi, I’d be homing in on that 10 p.m. phone call. That’s the one between President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — the one that’s gotten close to zero attention.
Benghazi is not a scandal because of Ambassador Susan Rice, State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland, and “talking points.” The scandal is about Rice and Nuland’s principals, and about what the talking points were intended to accomplish. Benghazi is about derelictions of duty by President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton before and during the massacre of our ambassador and three other American officials, as well as Obama and Clinton’s fraud on the public afterward.
A good deal of media attention has quite appropriately been lavished on e-mail traffic between mid-level administration officials in the days leading up to Sunday, September 16. That is the day when Ms. Rice, a close Obama confidant, made her appalling appearances on the Sunday-morning political shows. Those performances were transparently designed to mislead the American people, during the presidential campaign stretch run, into believing that an anti-Islamic Internet video — rather than a coordinated terrorist attack orchestrated by al-Qaeda affiliates, coupled with the Obama administration’s gross failure to secure and defend American personnel in Benghazi — was responsible for the killings.
Fraud flows from the top down, not the mid-level up. Mid-level officials in the White House and the State Department do not call the shots — they carry out orders. They also were not running for reelection in 2012 or positioning themselves for a campaign in 2016. The people doing that were, respectively, President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton.
Obama and Clinton had been the architects of American foreign policy. As Election Day 2012 loomed, each of them had a powerful motive to promote the impressions (a) that al-Qaeda had been decimated; (b) that the administration’s deft handling of the Arab Spring — by empowering Islamists — had been a boon for democracy, regional stability, and American national security; and (c) that our real security problem was “Islamophobia” and the “violent extremism” it allegedly causes — which was why Obama and Clinton had worked for years with Islamists, both overseas and at home, to promote international resolutions that would make it illegal to incite hostility to Islam, the First Amendment be damned.
All of that being the case, I am puzzled why so little attention has been paid to the Obama-Clinton phone call at 10 p.m. on the night of September 11.
Even in the conservative press, it has become received wisdom that President Obama was AWOL on the night of September 11, after first being informed by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, in the late afternoon, that the State Department facility in Benghazi was under attack. You hear it again and again: While Americans were under attack, the commander-in-chief checked out, leaving subordinates to deal with the crisis while he got his beauty sleep in preparation for a fundraising campaign trip to Vegas.
That is not true . . . and the truth, as we’ve come to expect with Obama, is almost surely worse. There is good reason to believe that while Americans were still fighting for their lives in Benghazi, while no military efforts were being made to rescue them, and while those desperately trying to rescue them were being told to stand down, the president was busy shaping the “blame the video” narrative to which his administration clung in the aftermath.
We have heard almost nothing about what Obama was doing that night. Back in February, though, CNS News did manage to pry one grudging disclosure out of White House mendacity mogul Jay Carney: “At about 10 p.m., the president called Secretary Clinton to get an update on the situation.”
Obviously, it is not a detail Carney was anxious to share. Indeed, it contradicted an earlier White House account that claimed the president had not spoken with Clinton or other top administration officials that night.
The earlier story better fit Obama’s modus operandi, which is to disappear in times of crisis. His brief legislative career was about voting “present” because he prefers to be absent when accountability knocks. The idea is to be the Obama of Evan Thomas lore: “standing above the country, above — above the world, he’s sort of God.” He reemerges only after the shooting stops and the smoke clears: gnosis personified, here to diagnose our failings. He is not a commander-in-chief for the battle but the armchair general of the post mortem.
In this instance, though, Carney’s hand was forced by then-secretary Clinton. Testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in January, she recounted first learning at about 4 p.m. on September 11 that the State Department facility in Benghazi was under attack. That was very shortly after the siege started. Over the hours that followed, Clinton stated, “we were in continuous meetings and conversations, both within the department, with our team in Tripoli, with the interagency and internationally.” It was in the course of this “constant ongoing discussion and sets of meetings” that Clinton then recalled: “I spoke with President Obama later in the evening to, you know, bring him up to date, to hear his perspective.”
Yes, the 10 p.m. phone call.
[…]
[…] at 8 p.m. Washington time, Hicks spoke directly with Clinton and some of her top advisers by telephone. Not only was it apparent that a terrorist attack involving al-Qaeda-affiliated Ansar al-Sharia was underway, but Hicks’s two most profound fears at the time he briefed Clinton centered on those terrorists: First, there were reports that Ambassador Stevens might be in the clutches of the terrorists at a hospital they controlled; second, there were rumblings that a similar attack on the embassy in Tripoli could be imminent, convincing Hicks that State Department personnel should evacuate. He naturally conveyed these developments to his boss, the secretary of state. Clinton, he recalled, agreed that evacuation was the right course.
At about 9 p.m. Washington time, Hicks learned from the Libyan prime minister that Stevens was dead. Hicks said he relayed all significant developments on to Washington as the evening progressed — although he did not speak directly to Secretary Clinton again after the 8 p.m. briefing.
That is the context of the 10 p.m. phone call between the president and the secretary of state.
We do not have a recording of this call, and neither Clinton nor the White House has described it beyond noting that it happened. But we do know that, just a few minutes after Obama called Clinton, the Washington press began reporting that the State Department had issued a statement by Clinton regarding the Benghazi attack. In it, she asserted:
Some have sought to justify this vicious behavior as a response to inflammatory material posted on the Internet. The United States deplores any intentional effort to denigrate the religious beliefs of others. Our commitment to religious tolerance goes back to the very beginning of our nation.
Gee, what do you suppose Obama and Clinton talked about in that 10 p.m. call?
Interestingly, CNS News asked Carney whether, in that 10 p.m. phone call, the president and Secretary Clinton discussed the statement that Clinton was about to issue, and, specifically, whether they discussed “the issue of inflammatory material posted on the Internet.”
Carney declined to answer.
We now know from the e-mails and TV clips that, by Sunday morning, the White House staff, State Department minions, and Susan Rice were all in agreement that the video fairy tale, peppered with indignant rebukes of Islamophobia, was the way to go.
How do you suppose they got that idea?
And even more importantly — in light of this — when was the stand-down order given.
It is becoming increasingly clear to me that the President and his tight group of advisers were worrying about narrative-shaping, spin, plausible deniability, and being able to string the tragedy out beyond the election. Part of that calculus was to keep military engagement out of the equation and play the attacks down as a spontaneous uprising.
And while they were plotting the political strategy — which Clinton, who has her own political aspirations, would have happily gone along with, the upshot being, she hoped, that her gross incompetence not come to the fore — a couple of brave men died alone, exhausted, unsupported, on a rooftop in Libyan.
— All while Obama and Clinton planned alibis and the cover up.
Did Obama know that the two SEALS had attempted a rescue and were calling for backup? Did he care that the CIA annex was being attacked — knowing that the nature of the facility would allow him keep much of the information classified?
Where is Charlie Gibson to once again ride the cultural referent for scandal, coming to the air and intoning gravely, as he did during Bush’s presidency, “What did the President know and when did he know it?”
(h/t geoff B; more here and here)
Blackbox detectives stories are a gas for [a] reason.
i have my own view on the stand down order which is all Obama had to do was nothing and then nothing could be done.
He always votes present when there is accountable actions being done. He places his real vote well before things happen by making the outcome inevitable through actions taken long before and in secret. His electoral campaigns have always been done that way. Why would he do anything else any other way?
Etc., etc., etc. Source.
Disclaimer: I am unhelpful.
And additionally, nobody hammers the Glen Doherty/JSOC flight from Benghazi. This absolutely nails the lie that “nobody could get there in time to help”.
“. . . from Benghazi.”
“To” though, right? Toward.
Yes, should have been from Tripoli. Sorry, I really need a beer and a cheroot.
Cheer up?
Some particular someone’s Pinto just blew up.
Ty Woods et al who were at the Annex were told to stand down but went to the consulate anyway rescued a significant number of people. They DID help, after being told not to. Multiple orders to stand down were given.
But Tom Donilon?!
Guilty as sin, free as a bird.
Magic wand, you see.
If what I’m saying is in the case then there wouldn’t be an order to “stand down” but anyone who requested that they be allowed to go to the consulate would be told that they had to await approval from higher up.
And such approval would be slow in coming if it came at all because all the standing orders which covered such a contingency, military action on the territory of a sovereign nation, would defer to ever higher authority till they would need, in the end, Presidential approval. Which wouldn’t happen in time because he was not available. Purposefully so.
This could have been set up long before the attack happened and it wouldn’t have even been controversial that no military action could take place without Presidential approval if it was happening on foreign soil which the so called consulate was, as was the annex. It could be worded so that defensive actions by those attacked were approved but additional forces would require higher approval.
This, to me, fits with Obama’s whole way of doing everything.
If what I’m saying is in the case then there wouldn’t be an order to “stand down” but anyone who requested that they be allowed to go to the consulate would be told that they had to await approval from higher up.
This is part of my point. Doherty and the JSOC team were responding to calls for help. They went. People were saved. What about that approval? The CIA either didn’t need it, or listen to it. Clearly there were some fighting men and women who held their comrades in greater esteem than the feckless sack of shit who went to get his beauty sleep.
In this book they write that Ty Woods was told he didn’t have approval to go but after he badgered the COM enough the rescue was either approved or that the COM turned a blind eye to their going without approval.
Sorry, this book.
Were they covering incompetence to save an election or covering criminal gun-running (or worse) to avoid prison?
With this crowd, I vote criminality. Else, why hang the ambassador out to dry?
the feckless sack of shit who went to get his beauty sleep.
Ten bucks says that’s a lie: Obama was way more involved than they want to admit. They’d rather make him out to be disconnected than depraved.
The thought that Obama & Hillary discussed messaging strategy while the attack was till going on, and Woods & Doherty were still fighting for their lives against AQ terrorists, is truly sickening.
This is who Obama is. Wonder if MoDo and the rest of the MSM boot-lickers understand just how cool their “Mr. Cool”, “no drama-Obama” really is. Maybe when they’ve been informed they’ve been under surveillance by the DOJ…
Ten bucks says that’s a lie: Obama was way more involved than they want to admit. They’d rather make him out to be disconnected than depraved.
I’ll take that ten. It wouldn’t take Gustsy Call ten minutes drop all the little people in it. And off for a good night’s sleep without a care in the world.
OT: Any word from leigh lately? That tornado was nasty.
Any word from leigh lately?
No, but I think they’re out east and south of there, awaiting the stormline’s movement through probably.
Okay. I knew she live in the toolies, but I wasn’t sure where.
I don’t have specific knowledge where, but I think she’s mentioned being in Boren’s district (2), and nearby the “lakes” area. So.
“baracky’s leak freakout” in the nyt
Anonymous Obazma administration official on background: “What a Godsend this devastating tornado rip is for us. We needed a change of subject something fierce . . . like the fierce urgency of now.”
[satire, for the humor impaired]
Satire it is, and yet very, very true.
Seconded. He doesn’t govern, but he does love him some campaigning.
He doesn’t govern . . .
On the other hand, as Michael Graham has pointed out, his administration keeps better track of working reporters than it does of Boston jihadis. The fierce urgency of “shut off those whistleblowers NOW!”
Hicks testified that they were on their way to the airport to board a plane and were told they could not leave, as they did not have approval. So while you’re right that they weren’t authorized, they were planning to go anyway and were ordered to stand down. A stand down order was given.
The Benghazi mess will require us to either give up the world stage entirely, which is out of the question, or it will require us to do some serious killing that we may have been able to avoid, if not in fact than at least in scope.
One cannot avoid confrontation with enemies, but one can be forceful enough when it occurs to keep such confrontations to a minimum.
A stand down order was given.
Though in defense of geoffb’s stance, this could merely have constituted a reminder of an existing condition (i.e, a condition obtaining prior to the day in question, even, lacking an affirmative removal of an existing stand in place, expressed in the alternative, an affirmative “go”), right?
Yes, that appears to be exactly what it was. At the same time, it was also an order to stand down given that it aborted their ongoing attempt to head toward the sound of the guns.
– Scandal of the day? Well it’s Monday, so of course.
One can be, but The One has not been. Now we have an enemy who neither fears nor respects us, and our leadership is at least sympathetic to if not outright collaborating with them.
I never thought I’d know how it feels to be Vichy.
One cannot avoid confrontation with enemies, but one can be forceful enough when it occurs to keep such confrontations to a minimum.
Or, as Ender Wiggin used to do: don’t win just this fight, win all the fights that would arise from this one.
IOW, hit ’em so hard they can’t get back up. Because they’re dead.
OT: Any word from leigh lately? That tornado was nasty.
Thanks, all. We’re fine. The tornadoes are hitting the middle of the state and we are up in the northeast about 40 miles from Missouri.
I expect the movie “Ender’s Game” to disappoint me greatly. That way I might be able to enjoy a little of it.
good to know you’re ok l
– Warning to staffers “dazling”.
Thanks, nr. The only time I’ve ever actually been in a tornado was when I lived in Pittsburgh and one decided to tear through Mt. Washington. I watched it through the windows (I just thought it was a just a big storm) and after it stopped, I saw that my yard had my neighbor’s awnings in it and that all the power lines were down and the trees were splintered. It was just like they say, like a freight train running by the house.
“Warning to staffers “dazling”.”
proggtard: “bush did it too”
was that in the 90’s? i remember watching one hit mt wash from my house on troy hill.
Yes. It was in 97.
Sorry. It was June of 98. I was trying to remember how old my youngest was since he was still tiny.
I’ve been frequently returning in my mind to the testimony of the State Dept. Security division woman (sorry, don’t remember her name) in the first round of hearings on Benghazi. She said, in answer to the “why was security denied?” question, that the “policy” was to seek “normalization” or some similar bureau-speak, a policy from “on high” which determined that heightened security presence didn’t look like normalization, therefore remove the heightened security presence.
This pins the responsibility for the deaths squarely on the “higher ups” who decided they wanted this “appearance”. Stephens was sent to Benghazi, said Greg Hicks, in specific agreement with Sec. Clinton to establish a US mission there consistent with ordinary US missions in other nations. Obama doesn’t want the US to appear to be at war with jihadist Islam. He too wants the appearance of normalization. These two fucks are in this up to their necks, and they know it. They knew it the day of the attack, saying to one another in the 10:00 call “uh oh, this isn’t going to look good for us. Our policy made this happen. We gotta do something to tamp it down, and certainly do nothing to ramp it up!”
This is all right there in front of the faces of anyone paying the least attention. The press, of course, refuses that option.
i called honzman’s show on kdka with my eyewitness report
the “policy” was to seek “normalization”
To cut down on the number of personnel who are privy to the gun-running to the MB in Syria.
All that other stuff is just a distraction.
“The press, of course, refuses that option.”
at least huma got a weiner out of the deal
Dead children? Must be time for tornado control…
– Apparently Global warming Tornado’s never get the memo.
Daily Show Creator: Oklahoma Tornado Was Meant For Conservatives
Charlene Lamb.
Of course. They’re too busy selling the fiction that Republican security budget cuts (that never happened) are to blame, as that’s the new talking point.
I don’t want progressives to get hurt or die, I just want them to shut up and get out of my way. They, on the other hand, want us dead.
There is something very wrong with them.
Is the IRS scandal the worst political scandal in American history? I say “yes.”
Shep Smith is such a ghoul. It’s like he wants there to be tons of dead little kids in Moore.
Cranky, you’re more generous than I am about the progressives.
Perhaps the recently retired Gen Ham could be coaxed into discussing the stand down whodunnit.
Years ago on my blog I playfully posted one of those “Republicans will vote on Tuesday, Democrats on Wednesday” things.
A progg commented that Democrats will use their headlights at night, Republicans during the day.
I wanted his side to lose an election, he wanted my side dead.
DiploPundit: Josh Rogin’s Exclusive: Benghazi ‘Scapegoat’ Raymond Maxwell Speaks Out — Duck and Cover!
And from Powerline (including Maxwell’s latest poem on the subject): Hillary Clinton’s designated Benghazi scapegoat speaks out
At “In from the Cold.”
[…] Item: […]
PJM EXCLUSIVE: Ex-Diplomats Report New Benghazi Whistleblowers with Info Devastating to Clinton and Obama
Let’s get a little frank and sense, shall we? Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Hussein Obama murdered innocents in Benghazi for political purposes.. Does the word “murder” resonate in y’all’s minds? Say it! It will set you more free.
Howard Dean: ‘Benghazi is a Laughable Joke’
Fast and Furious/Benghazi investigative reporter Sharyl Attkisson: Something fishy’s been going on with my computers since early 2011
And that dude is still in prison for insulting islam.
Apart from the people who were left to die to cover up whatever covert operation they were involved in, to me, that arrest; coming when it did and why it did, and publicized the way it was by our government, is the biggest scandal of this century. I would like to see someone other than Glenn Reynolds focus on this particularly horrendous fact of this case.
It’s (ahem) unreasonable to believe that any reporter straying into subject matter the White (Mil)house didn’t want reported, wasn’t being watched.
As if we needed yet another reason to despise him and wish for his speedy removal from the Senate:
President Obama’s newest ally: John McCain
I would not be surprised in the least if McCain started actively running running interference for “good man” Obama.
Drudge Editor on Obama Scandals: White House Is Sitting on Something That Has Top Aides Terrified
Rand Paul Stands Up Against Government Greed
I’m a Rand Paul fan. I hope he doesn’t disappoint me later, but he probably will.
I also Stand with Rand.
I give Rand Paul the highest rank I would give to any Republican presidential prospect for 2016: Potentially Acceptable.
That sounds about right, McGehee.
I’m still kinda steamed about his drones for ordinary law enforcement comment.
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