by Matthew Holzmann
Tomorrow,
Congressman Darrell Issa, the president's bête noire, will hold
additional hearings on the assault on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi. He
claims to have whistleblowers who will testify and add critical context
to the events of September 11, 2012.
One of them, Mark I. Thompson, a former Marine and now the deputy coordinator for operations in the State Department's counterterrorism bureau, is set to testify that his agency was frozen out of the decision making process from the earliest moments of the crisis.
Thompson says that he was also frozen out of the post- crisis investigation, which caused two State Department officials to resign, purportedly for poor security planning in Libya and elsewhere. Other failings of various government agencies were found in the Accountability review Board's findings included the fact that the Benghazi Consulate was in a commercial office building that could not be defended and that security staffing was inadequate. The report then goes on as well to blame the Libyan government. It goes on to say:
"Hooray for the Bureaucrats", basically.
Nowhere does the report discuss the response mechanisms, agencies, decision making processes, or the individuals responsible for the disastrous response to the assault. In short, the scope was so limited and the witness list so limited as to make the report appear to be a whitewash.
We do know that on September 11, the President was informed almost as soon as the Consulate was attacked at @ 3:30PM Washington time. He then absented himself at approximately 5:00PM and requested that he be updated.
The battle went on for 5 hours and ended only when the American staff ran low on ammunition and were mortared. By that time they had been begging for reinforcements from any source. Hundreds of jihadis died that night but the odds were insanely against our people.
Naval Air Station Sigonella in Sicily is the second largest Navy Security Forces facility in the world. There is a marine training group on base. It is only 460 miles from Benghazi. Only yesterday afternoon, the Washington Post reported that a special operations team was stood down in the Libyan capital, Tripoli. That team would have been ferried to Benghazi by the Libyan Air Force.
It is difficult to know what to believe when a wall of lies obscures the truth.
The President and Secretary of State Clinton and our U.N. Ambassador were all over the media the next morning claiming that an obscure video caused the rampage. As Ambassador Susan Rice was busy on the talk shows blaming the video, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was in the studio recording a video apology to the Pakistani people for the video which was broadcast across that nation the next day.
The only problem was that the CIA and State Department security team and the Libyan government and other sources all blamed Islamist jihadis for a well planned and executed attack whose primary purpose was to commemorate 9/11/01.
The Big Lie was continued at Andrews Air Force Base when the bodies of those slain were returned and met by the President and Secretary of State. They had the audacity to lie to the families of the victims about the response and the true nature of the assault.
The Big Lie was continued in the weeks after Benghazi. CIA documents released afterwards reported that all references to terrorism or Al Q'aeda were purposely deleted from all reports as reported in the Weekly Standard last November. More whitewash.
The President stood in front of the General Assembly of the United Nations in October and lied about Benghazi. What is more, everyone in the room knew that he was lying. That same week he went on "The View" and stated the investigation was proceeding. The Daily Beast had the Administration dead to rights as well. All of this in real time.
The FBI was commissioned to investigate the assault. After arriving on the "crime scene" a week later, and after journalists and locals found singed classified documents and had compromised the site the FBI pursued one lead in Egypt and then gave up. The investigation was cosmetic because the Administration did not want a real investigation.
On November 15, the Left Wing of the Democratic Party held a photo op with Ambassador Rice supporting her assertions that the cause of the attack was the video. The New York Times had a remarkably accurate report on the attack on September 12, the day after. As this is the President's favorite paper maybe he should have read it before giving Ms. Rice her talking points.
The President suppressed Benghazi for political purposes. He does not believe in the concept of Islamist radicalism, it seems. It is not just the fiasco in handling the attack, for that is what it was. We were warned long beforehand. We even removed a heavily armed security detail put in Libya for exactly the chance of a terrorist attack just weeks prior to Benghazi.
It is that the President of the United States used all of the tools of power and conspired with his colleagues to propagate the Big Lie. It is a clear case of perjury. Of conspiracy. Of obstruction of justice.
In 1972 even Republicans were taken aback as the Watergate conspiracy unfolded before the country. A president was forced to resign. The Senate asked "What did he know and when did he know it?"
Now, confronted with the unnecessary deaths of four valorous citizens, a President stands before us having been responsible for the minimization of the threat from Al Q'aeda; for leaving the helm at 5:00pm as the victims were still fighting for their lives; for blaming an obscure video; for creating a mythology about that video; for altering official documents to cover up the reasons for the attack; and for covering up that attack in the face of all of the facts.
What kind of man does this? What kind of Secretary of State did this? What kind of Administration engages in the most base lies?
And what kind of People accepts this conduct?
One of them, Mark I. Thompson, a former Marine and now the deputy coordinator for operations in the State Department's counterterrorism bureau, is set to testify that his agency was frozen out of the decision making process from the earliest moments of the crisis.
Thompson says that he was also frozen out of the post- crisis investigation, which caused two State Department officials to resign, purportedly for poor security planning in Libya and elsewhere. Other failings of various government agencies were found in the Accountability review Board's findings included the fact that the Benghazi Consulate was in a commercial office building that could not be defended and that security staffing was inadequate. The report then goes on as well to blame the Libyan government. It goes on to say:
"Washington - Tripoli - Benghazi communication, cooperation, and coordination on the night of the attacks were effective, despite multiple channels of communication among Washington, Tripoli, Benghazi, and AFRICOM headquarters in Stuttgart, as well as multiple channels of communication within Washington itself.
Embassy Tripoli served as a lifeline to Benghazi throughout the attacks, marshalling support from Washington, Stuttgart and elsewhere, including quickly organizing the charter plane that sent the seven-person reinforcement team to Benghazi. At the direction of AFRICOM, DoD moved a remotely piloted, unarmed surveillance aircraft to Benghazi, which arrived over the SMC shortly before the DS team departed. A second remotely piloted, unarmed surveillance aircraft relieved the first, and monitored the eventual evacuation of personnel from the Annex to Benghazi airport later on the morning of September 12"
"Hooray for the Bureaucrats", basically.
Nowhere does the report discuss the response mechanisms, agencies, decision making processes, or the individuals responsible for the disastrous response to the assault. In short, the scope was so limited and the witness list so limited as to make the report appear to be a whitewash.
We do know that on September 11, the President was informed almost as soon as the Consulate was attacked at @ 3:30PM Washington time. He then absented himself at approximately 5:00PM and requested that he be updated.
The battle went on for 5 hours and ended only when the American staff ran low on ammunition and were mortared. By that time they had been begging for reinforcements from any source. Hundreds of jihadis died that night but the odds were insanely against our people.
Naval Air Station Sigonella in Sicily is the second largest Navy Security Forces facility in the world. There is a marine training group on base. It is only 460 miles from Benghazi. Only yesterday afternoon, the Washington Post reported that a special operations team was stood down in the Libyan capital, Tripoli. That team would have been ferried to Benghazi by the Libyan Air Force.
It is difficult to know what to believe when a wall of lies obscures the truth.
The President and Secretary of State Clinton and our U.N. Ambassador were all over the media the next morning claiming that an obscure video caused the rampage. As Ambassador Susan Rice was busy on the talk shows blaming the video, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was in the studio recording a video apology to the Pakistani people for the video which was broadcast across that nation the next day.
The only problem was that the CIA and State Department security team and the Libyan government and other sources all blamed Islamist jihadis for a well planned and executed attack whose primary purpose was to commemorate 9/11/01.
The Big Lie was continued at Andrews Air Force Base when the bodies of those slain were returned and met by the President and Secretary of State. They had the audacity to lie to the families of the victims about the response and the true nature of the assault.
The Big Lie was continued in the weeks after Benghazi. CIA documents released afterwards reported that all references to terrorism or Al Q'aeda were purposely deleted from all reports as reported in the Weekly Standard last November. More whitewash.
The President stood in front of the General Assembly of the United Nations in October and lied about Benghazi. What is more, everyone in the room knew that he was lying. That same week he went on "The View" and stated the investigation was proceeding. The Daily Beast had the Administration dead to rights as well. All of this in real time.
The FBI was commissioned to investigate the assault. After arriving on the "crime scene" a week later, and after journalists and locals found singed classified documents and had compromised the site the FBI pursued one lead in Egypt and then gave up. The investigation was cosmetic because the Administration did not want a real investigation.
On November 15, the Left Wing of the Democratic Party held a photo op with Ambassador Rice supporting her assertions that the cause of the attack was the video. The New York Times had a remarkably accurate report on the attack on September 12, the day after. As this is the President's favorite paper maybe he should have read it before giving Ms. Rice her talking points.
The President suppressed Benghazi for political purposes. He does not believe in the concept of Islamist radicalism, it seems. It is not just the fiasco in handling the attack, for that is what it was. We were warned long beforehand. We even removed a heavily armed security detail put in Libya for exactly the chance of a terrorist attack just weeks prior to Benghazi.
It is that the President of the United States used all of the tools of power and conspired with his colleagues to propagate the Big Lie. It is a clear case of perjury. Of conspiracy. Of obstruction of justice.
In 1972 even Republicans were taken aback as the Watergate conspiracy unfolded before the country. A president was forced to resign. The Senate asked "What did he know and when did he know it?"
Now, confronted with the unnecessary deaths of four valorous citizens, a President stands before us having been responsible for the minimization of the threat from Al Q'aeda; for leaving the helm at 5:00pm as the victims were still fighting for their lives; for blaming an obscure video; for creating a mythology about that video; for altering official documents to cover up the reasons for the attack; and for covering up that attack in the face of all of the facts.
What kind of man does this? What kind of Secretary of State did this? What kind of Administration engages in the most base lies?
And what kind of People accepts this conduct?
Matthew Holzmann
Source: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2013/05/the_benghazi_big_lie.html
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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