Benghazi Attack

(Difference between revisions)==Susan Rice spins the story on network television====Susan Rice spins the story on network television==On September 16, 2012 Ambassador Susan Rice showed up on all five major Sunday morning talk shows to push the administration's spin linking the Benghazi murders and a satirical video. Rice told longtime Democratic partisan [[George Stephanopoulos]] of ABC’s ''This Week,'' the attack was “a spontaneous – not a premeditated – response to what had transpired in Cairo” – referring to a demonstration in which a mob breached the embassy compound wall and tore down an American flag. Rice repeated the false claims throughout her morning talk-show appearances on all networks.http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/10/18/171933/obama-administration-officials.htmlOn September 16, 2012 Ambassador [[Susan Rice]] showed up on all five major Sunday morning talk shows to push the administration's spin linking the Benghazi murders and a satirical video. Rice told longtime Democratic partisan [[George Stephanopoulos]] of ABC’s ''This Week,'' the attack was “a spontaneous – not a premeditated – response to what had transpired in Cairo” – referring to a demonstration in which a mob breached the embassy compound wall and tore down an American flag. Rice repeated the false claims throughout her morning talk-show appearances on all networks.http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/10/18/171933/obama-administration-officials.html==Administration supported jihadis responsible for attack====Administration supported jihadis responsible for attack==

The Benghazi Attack was a pre-planned terrorist attack in 2012 on the United States embassy in Benghazi, Libya on the eleventh anniversary of the 2001 September 11 attacks. in which the American ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens, and three other members of his diplomatic mission were murdered:[1][2] Foreign Service Information Management Officer Sean Smith, and private security employees and former U.S. Navy SEALs Glen Doherty and Tyrone S. Woods. Ambassador Stevens was reported to have been brutally raped before his murder.[3] The attack also injured two other Americans.

With 2012 Presidential election less than two months away, the Obama administration downplayed the seriousness and enormity of the attack, initially claiming it was provoked by a comedy video, but the facts disproved that.

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With several U.S.embassies besieged on the anniversary of the September 11 attacks, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney declared authorities had no reason to believe the attack on the sovereign territory of the United States consulate in Benghazi less than two months before the 2012 Presidential election, resulting in the deaths of several Americans, was a terrorist attack.

The unrest that we’ve seen around the region has been in reaction to a video that Muslims, many Muslims, find offensive,

became the official White House line. Between jokes with comedian Jon Stewart on the Daily Show, Obama said the death of Americans was "not optimal".[4] When pressed by reporters, who pointed out evidence that the violence in Benghazi was a terrorist attack, Press Secretary Carney argued “the unrest around the region has been in response to this video.”

On September 16, 2012 Ambassador Susan Rice showed up on all five major Sunday morning talk shows to push the administration's spin linking the Benghazi murders and a satirical video. Rice told longtime Democratic partisan George Stephanopoulos of ABC’s This Week, the attack was “a spontaneous – not a premeditated – response to what had transpired in Cairo” – referring to a demonstration in which a mob breached the embassy compound wall and tore down an American flag. Rice repeated the false claims throughout her morning talk-show appearances on all networks.[5]

Around a week after the attack Obama finally ordered an investigation. The leading suspected jihadis in the murders and terrorist attack were the local Benghazi branch of Ansar al-Shariah, known to have ties to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).[6] A commander of the terrorist group boasted jovially over drinks with reporters for the New York Times in Benghazi[7] as President Obama's investigators failed to interview him.[8]

The attack is said to have been investigated by the State Department, but a more thorough enquiry was done by the Congress. A House committee hearing on September 10 revealed that Ambassador Stevens and others wished additional security for the consulate, but were turned down.

In testimony before Congress on January the 23th, 2013 when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was asked why the Obama administration deliberately put out false information about the attack just prior to the Presidential Election of 2012, Clinton screamed at Senators, "WHAT DIFFERENCE AT THIS POINT DOES IT MAKE?".[9]

? Travel Warning - Libya. U.S. Embassy in Tripoli, Libya (September 12, 2012). Retrieved on October 12, 2012.? President Obama on the Attack in Benghazi. International Information Programs, U.S. Embassy (September 12, 2012). Retrieved on October 12, 2012.? Ambassador Stevens Was Raped Before His Murder, Reports Claim, Assyrian International News Agency, 9-13-2012.? Interview with Jon Stewart of the Daily Show.? http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/10/18/171933/obama-administration-officials.html? http://blogs.ajc.com/political-insider-jim-galloway/2012/10/19/when-an-obama-adviser-called-benghazi-an-al-qaeda-hotbed/?cxntfid=blogs_political_insider_jim_galloway? http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/16/world/africa/election-year-stakes-overshadow-nuances-of-benghazi-investigation.html?pagewanted=2&ref=world? http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/10/frappe-libya-attack/? http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/01/23/senator-calls-for-top-to-bottom-review-state-department-ahead-clinton-testimony/

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Nobody cares about Tiger, and nobody (except defeated Republicans) cares about Benghazi

My answer to Cheri Jacobus is that a) mistakes were made and admitted; b) Hillary emerged from Benghazi with popularity huge enough to win her a presidential landslide.

So c) give it up, Republicans. You lost the election, deal with it; d) nobody cares about Obama golfing with Tiger Woods except bored (and boring) Republicans with nothing better to say, and e) if Republicans want to bang Benghazi forever, Democrats could revisit Bush 43 mocking the CIA warning him about planes flying into buildings before 9/11 or Dick Cheney's role in leaking CIA identities.

But f) that would be a bad idea because it would make Democrats look as ridiculous as Republicans do now trying to exploit the deaths of Americans at Benghazi, though g) we could entertain a discussion about conservative Republicans who voted to cut diplomatic security programs before Benghazi. View Comments

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McCain Goes After NBC Host For Questioning GOP’s Benghazi Conspiracy Theories

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) levied a series of wild accuastions Sunday morning when discussing the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi last September, accusing the Obama Administration of perpetrating a “massive coverup” and NBC’s David Gregory of not caring about the death of American diplomats.

McCain’s outburst came after Gregory asked McCain what, exactly, the Administration was covering up. Taking umbrage at Gregory’s skepticism, the Arizona senator grew confrontational:

MCCAIN: We have had a massive coverup on the part of the administration.

GREGORY: I’m asking you, a coverup of what?

MCCAIN: I’m asking YOU, do you care whether four Americans died? The reasons for that? And shouldn’t people be held accountable for the fact that four americans died — including a very dear man?

GREGORY: You said there is a coverup. A coverup of what?

MCCAIN: Of the information concerning the deaths of four brave Americans.

Watch it:

As Gregory suggests, it’s not exactly clear what McCain thinks is being covered up. Both the lack of immediate military response to the attack on the consulate and the matter of UN Ambassador Susan Rice’s “talking points” on the attack were clearly explained several months ago. Nevertheless, McCain’s colleague Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has threatened to put a hold on the confirmation of the President’s nominees for both Secretary of Defense and CIA Director until he gets “the truth” on Benghazi.

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House GOP leaders request additional Benghazi material

House Republican leaders sent a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday requesting additional information on last year's attacks in Benghazi, Libya, saying an Accountability Review Board (ARB) investigation was incomplete.

Reps. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Edward Royce (R-Calif.), chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, requested all communications received by Clinton and her deputies related to security in Benghazi, documents reviewed by the ARB and video of the assault on the Benghazi compound.

“Unfortunately, the ARB did not address some important questions about the attacks in Benghazi, which we believe may contain crucial lessons learned for other U.S. facilities abroad to follow,” the letter reads, adding that “the number of individuals responsible for the lack of security may be greater than those referred to in the report.”

Clinton, Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources Thomas Nides and Deputy Secretary William Burns have testified before the House and Senate Foreign Relations committees, but none was interviewed for the ARB report.

Republicans have consistently expressed dissatisfaction with the report, which blamed lower-level officials for security lapses in Benghazi and cleared Clinton. Three officials resigned after the report’s release.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is also seeking additional information on the attacks. On Tuesday, he threatened to block the nomination of former Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) unless current Defense Secretary Leon Panetta testifies before Congress.

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Clinton Scolds GOP Senator For Focusing On Whether Protest Sparked Benghazi Attack

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton shot back at a Republican senator during today’s Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on the Benghazi terror attacks, arguing that the Republicans’ focus on whether there was a protest against in anti-Muslim video at the time of the attack is irrelevant.

Much of the politicization surrounding the Benghazi affair centered on Republicans attacking the Obama administration’s initial assessment that the Benghazi attacks may have been sparked by the video protest, a determination that the administration later backed away from.

When Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) asked Clinton why she didn’t make “a simple phone call” to the evacuees to find out, the Secretary of State shot back: “With all due respect, the fact is we had four dead Americans!” she said, “What difference does it make?”:

JOHNSON: Madam Secretary, do you disagree that a simple phone call to those evacuees to determined what happened would have ascertained immediately there was no protest? That was a piece of information that could have been easily, easily obtained. within hours if not days.

CLINTON: Senator, you know, when you’re in these positions, the last thing you want to do is interfere with any other process.

JOHNSON: I realize that. I realize it’s a good excuse.

CLINTON: No it’s a fact. [...]

JOHNSON: Again, we were mislead there was supposedly protests and something spraying out of that, assault spraying out of that. That was easily ascertained that was not the fact and the american people could have known that within days and didn’t know that.

CLINTON: With all due respect, the fact is we had four dead Americans! Was it because of a protest or was it because of guys out for a walk one night decided to go kill some Americans?! What difference at this point does it make?! It is our job to figure out what happened and do everything we can to prevent it from ever happening again,

Watch the clip:

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Senate Panel Faults State Department And Pentagon In Benghazi Attack Report

A bipartisan Senate Homeland Security report to be released today has found that the State and Defense Departments share blame for the security failures that resulted in the death of 5 Americans after an attack on a U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya back in September.

An independent review earlier this month faulted the State Department for failing to adequately respond to security requests prior to the attacks and called for restoring diplomatic security funding Republicans previously cut. While State Department officials have previously accepted responsibility for inadequate security in Benghazi, the new Senate report expands blame to the Pentagon, the Hill reports:

The report also blames the Pentagon, finding that the Defense Department (DOD) had failed to place adequate resources in the region to respond “in the event of a crisis.”

“Although DOD attempted to quickly mobilize its resources, it did not have assets or personnel close enough to reach Benghazi in a timely fashion,” the report concludes.

The Senate report also criticizes the Obama administration’s mixed messages in the aftermath of the Benghazi assault, claiming the White House was “inconsistent” about whether it constituted a terror attack. The inconsistency “contributed to the confusion in the public discourse” about the attacks, wrote Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Susan Collins (R-ME).

“We’re going to solve this,” President Obama said on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday. “We’re not going to pretend that this was not a problem. This was a huge problem. And we’re going to implement every single recommendation that’s been put forward.”

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