Revelations from Benghazi are damning for Obama
This election’s “October surprise” may turn out to be the truth about something that happened in September.
Remember the rush by the Obama administration to blame the deadly attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, on a reaction to a movie trailer offensive to Muslims? Well, like everything else in the Obama administration, that story had an expiration date. Here’s ABC News’ Jonathan Karl explaining:
For those who can’t/won’t watch the video, here’s the relevant section from Karl, citing a “senior State Department official”:
At the time [of the Benghazi killings], as you recall, we were told it was a protest that went bad and became an attack. Now we are told there was no protest going on outside that embassy. The first indication that they heard anything outside the walls of the … consulate compound was an explosion from gunfire.
Read that again: “There was no protest going on outside that embassy.” It’s not that the protest isn’t what led to the murders of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans; it’s long been suspected that the alleged protest was used as a diversion, created or merely convenient, by the terrorists who wanted to kill Stevens. Rather, there was no protest to begin with.
This is a damning revelation for Obama, who repeatedly invoked the video in his public remarks about the attack. It’s all the more so because Obama’s response to Mitt Romney’s statement about the attack in Benghazi and same-day protest in Cairo, Egypt, was that the Republican has “a tendency to shoot first and aim later.”
Kind of like blaming a non-existent protest based on an obscure movie for sparking the death of our ambassador, Mr. President?
Combine this news with another story reported this week for the first time:
A U.S. security officer twice asked his State Department superiors for more security agents for the American mission in Benghazi months before an attack that killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans, but he got no response.
The officer, Eric Nordstrom, who was based in Tripoli until about two months before the September attack, said a State Department official, Charlene Lamb, wanted to keep the number of U.S. security personnel in Benghazi “artificially low,” according to a memo summarizing his comments to a congressional committee that was obtained by Reuters.
The consequences of this action, quite obviously, were most grave and tragic for Stevens, the other three Americans killed, and their families.
But these stories also ought to have serious ramifications in the presidential election. A president who is touting his competence and foreign-policy success has a lot of explaining to do about incompetence and a tragedy overseas.
– By Kyle Wingfield
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176 comments Add your comment
Robert
October 10th, 2012
3:34 pm
Where has the AJC been the last 4 years when the GOP declared war on the American People who elected President Obama in a landslide victory in 2008. Where was AJC during the 2010 mid-term elections when the GOP unleashed the homegrown terrorist group(s) known as the “tea party” (klansmen, skinheads, militia’s, birthers, etc.) against the American People (elderly, women, minorities, gays & lesbians, Muslims & Jews, etc.).
The American People
getalife
October 10th, 2012
3:35 pm
The behavior and patriotism from the right should be documented in a movie called “Unhinged”.
No shame, no honesty, no reality and no patriotism.
How do you sleep at night?
Bruno
October 10th, 2012
3:36 pm
In a sane America, this would end the gop party.
In a sane America, there wouldn’t be a Democrat Party in the first place.
@@
October 10th, 2012
3:37 pm
Not a problem, Kyle.
Just pointed out that Moroni doesn’t know what he/she is talking about and AmVet, as usual, is selective in his outrage.
I also suggested that he zip his pants up.
Bruno
October 10th, 2012
3:38 pm
GOP unleashed the homegrown terrorist group(s) known as the “tea party” (klansmen, skinheads, militia’s, birthers, etc.)
Robert–Drinking and blogging don’t mix. Just sayin’……..
JamVet
October 10th, 2012
3:42 pm
Biloxi???
No friggin’ way, B!
I haven’t been there since my USAF days in 1972/3.
It was a total redneck shiitehole back then. Seriously. This was before the empty “Support the Troops” slogan caught on. Nasty, nasty beaches and some of the people were just as bad.
The Klan type locals would drive around in pick up trucks and look for airmen to beat up. It happened several times while I was there. While working extra duty in the base hospital, I met a guy who had his jaw broken when he got sucker punched in town.
The base brass tried halfheartedly to catch the thugs, but there wasn’t much they could do.
Perhaps it has gotten a bit better, but F Mississippi.
Can we find something closer?
LOL!
JamVet
October 10th, 2012
3:46 pm
B, I found a good one that we can take Dusty to.
She’ll feel right at home…
http://tinyurl.com/8u3h29g
Hillbilly D
October 10th, 2012
3:46 pm
Perhaps it has gotten a bit better, but F Mississippi.
Good thing Mr. Nix ain’t here to see that.
JamVet
October 10th, 2012
3:55 pm
HD, ain’t that the truth!
It’s all good, he rags on my birth state too!
BTW, I think that you should come to the big city and join Bruno and I for a concert soon…
Dusty
October 10th, 2012
3:58 pm
Bruno
Nope, it is no surprise that blog personalitites are not always the same as the “real person”.
I have even read and seen “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”!!!!!!.
Doesn’t really matter though. I think of this place as an exchange for political viewpoints and little else.. That iis what makes it interesting. .
Hillbilly D
October 10th, 2012
4:02 pm
it is no surprise that blog personalitites are not always the same as the “real person”.
There are exceptions to that. I’m pretty much the same here as the real world. I just don’t have the energy to create another personality. I do let a few things pass here that I wouldn’t face to face, though.
Dusty
October 10th, 2012
4:13 pm
OH good, Hillbilly. I don’t want you to change. Stay just like you are!!
Rafe Hollister, suffering through Oblamer's ineptocracy
October 10th, 2012
4:21 pm
Bruno, thanks for the correction. I got the lyrics from a S&G webpage, but you are right, no Garfunkel.
I liked the song you posted, but at the time, the subject was Obama slipping in the polls.
Rafe Hollister, suffering through Oblamer's ineptocracy
October 10th, 2012
4:23 pm
I think of this place as an exchange for political viewpoints and little else..
But, I come here for your poetry, Dusty! I would add one of those smiley things if it wasn’t too much trouble.
md
October 10th, 2012
4:38 pm
” Where was AJC during the 2010 mid-term elections when the GOP unleashed the homegrown terrorist group(s) known as the “tea party” (klansmen, skinheads, militia’s, birthers, etc.) against the American People (elderly, women, minorities, gays & lesbians, Muslims & Jews, etc.). ”
You are aware that the “American people” participated in that 2010 election…..right? Tells me they wanted a sane path on spending………..
Bruno
October 10th, 2012
4:43 pm
Jam: The Klan type locals would drive around in pick up trucks and look for airmen to beat up.
HD: Good thing Mr. Nix ain’t here to see that.
HD–Are you sure those Klansmen weren’t relatives of joseph??
BTW, I think that you should come to the big city and join Bruno and I for a concert soon…
HD–Consider that a standing invitation. Maybe we could get the whole blog band back together.
4theusa
October 10th, 2012
5:12 pm
It is so tiresome to hear news these days that is never about the actual facts. Everything has to have happened because of ( insert anti-partisan blame lie here ).
JDW
October 10th, 2012
5:19 pm
@Kyle…rather than spending a whole bunch of time on this just let me say.
Followed by shame on you…
From Jay’s bit that sums it up quite nicely…
“So on what basis do Republicans believe that the attack on our Benghazi consulate in Libya, or the confused and confusing series of incorrect explanations that followed, constitute some major political scandal when the infinitely more serious attacks on New York City and Washington did not? And if a scandal does exist, why don’t Republicans share in the blame for having insisted on hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts to embassy-security programs in the last two fiscal years?”
md
October 10th, 2012
7:10 pm
“So on what basis do Republicans believe that the attack on our Benghazi consulate in Libya, or the confused and confusing series of incorrect explanations that followed, constitute some major political scandal when the infinitely more serious attacks on New York City and Washington did not”
Maybe because the President himself made a big deal out of “shoot first, aim second”……one reaps what one sows……
Lil' Barry Bailout - Vote American
October 10th, 2012
8:23 pm
Cheesy Grits, there is no need to see President Romney’s birth certificate, as there is no credible reason to doubt his citizenship or his status as a Real American.
The difference between being a mere citizen and being a Real American is the difference between Obozo and President Romney.
Vote American.
Lil' Barry Bailout - Vote American
October 10th, 2012
8:25 pm
Well, md, for one, Our President Bush didn’t lie about the 9/11 attacks. Obozo lied about Benghazi.
Americans expect the truth from their presidents.
JDW
October 10th, 2012
8:32 pm
@LBB…”Americans expect the truth from their presidents.”
Except in the case of WMD’s and torture right LBB
Lil' Barry Bailout - Vote American
October 10th, 2012
9:54 pm
Our President Bush didn’t lie about WMD’s or torture.
You need to familiarize yourself with the meaning of the word.
Obozo knew there was no protest when he blamed the attack on a home movie.
Obozo lied.
Doug B
October 11th, 2012
8:45 am
Kyle, you’re going to have to explain to me what exactly the Obama administration gained by ” telling a falsehood” for me to believe that’s what they were doing. I tend to think that they are finding out more as they go and so the story is becoming more clear. I don’t see how the administration would gain from this “falsehood” so I don’t believe it is one. If you have some other angle to the “falsehood” please explain. Otherwise, you are just politicizing the situation.
Major Hutch
October 11th, 2012
10:34 am
As a Marine Officer who has participated in Embassy security missions, I can say with certainty the Obama administration was derelict in its duty to protect our Ambassador in Libya. Marine Corps Anti-Terrorism teams are able to deploy in hours to support U.S. Embassies. State Department and the Administration only had to request them. Additionally, the lies by the President and the attempt to cover this scandal up is far worse than Watergate. Four Americans died.
2012 Tuesday: What, exactly, can Obama do to win tonight? | Kyle Wingfield
October 16th, 2012
11:14 am
[...] for security matters. (Not to mention Clinton didn’t take responsibility for Obama’s inaccurate statements about why the attack happened.) There’s also the fresh bankruptcy of a manufacturer of [...]