Dizzying Benghazigate Developments

by Bill Schanefelt


When one walks through the woods and picks up a dead log, two things usually happen -- myriad strange creatures scatter about, and, often, the log crumbles. 


A similar thing occurred a few weeks ago when the 60 Minutes piece of fiction on Benghazi starring Lara Logan and Dylan Davies aired -- new items, new characters, new lies, and new narratives scurried out, and both what was left of an iconic TV program's reputation and the entire "official" version of events crumbled.


Of the things that scurried out was a renewed (or awakened) push by some in Congress to get testimony from eye-witnesses.


Last week Catherine Herridge, Chief Intelligence correspondent for FOX News Channel (FNC), appeared on Special Report, and showed part of her interview with Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R-Ga.) in which Mr. Westmoreland said, based on testimony before the House Intelligence Committee, that when Tyrone Woods and his team arrived they found one agent in the closet of the consulate (sic) and others unarmed and "not kitted up" and there "hadn't been any shots fired from our side."


That testimony directly contradicts all previous accounts including the vaunted State Department ARB and Senate reports and every news article describing the "immaculate confrontations" between the agents and the intruders, the actions of diplomatic security agent David Ubben, and the reports and reporting about the entire sequence of events within the compound that night.


I first began to look into Benghazigate when I read about the implausible series of bloodless, point-blank, armed encounters between the occupants of the compound and the intruders, and have written extensively about the affair here, here, here, and here.  An illustrated and detailed piece may be found here.


Those posts describe the events surrounding the attack on the Diplomatic Compound in Benghazi on 9/11/12, and they reflect then-current reporting on and "official" descriptions of those events.


Much has changed since they were written and new revelations and, perhaps, truths are emerging, and this post will just cover one aspect of those new accounts -- the initial actions in the compound.


Readers are asked to think, particularly, through the implications of Mr. Westmoreland's statement about the agent "in the closet" of the main building.


We have been told that Agent Ubben retreated with Amb. Chris Stevens and information management officer Sean Smith to the secure area of that main building and remained there with them until the smoke from the fires that the intruders set in the building forced him to exit the building through a window in the secure area.


The narrative then had him, improbably, climb out and in of the window in an attempt to extract Stevens and Smith before he, supposedly, went up a ladder, under automatic-weapons-fire, to the building's roof where he was found by Woods and his team.


How could he have been found "in a closet" if there is any truth at all in the "official" narrative?


At least one news report over the last year said that the Libyans who entered the building to loot it (after the intruders and Woods' team departed the compound) found Ambassador Stevens in a closet thereby explaining why Woods' team could not find the body of Stevens and how Ubben and Smith became separated from Stevens.  That separation supposedly happened before Ubben became separated from Smith and which was before Ubben supposedly began his efforts to find Smith and Stevens by toing and froing through the window.


The possible answer to the question posed above is that in one or another scenario, Ubben never did the toing and froing, and that he and Stevens and Smith entered separate closets or one closet to escape the heat and smoke.  Ubben and Smith could then have been found in separate closets or the same closet by Woods and his team.


We'll have to await further revelations to learn what really happened, but some of the truth is beginning to come out, and, as I noted here, the graves of the reputations of a lot of people will grow both in number and depth.


If, as reported by Rep. Westmoreland, Agent Ubben was found in a closet by Woods and his team, and if the other agents were found as reported, and if the weapons of the other agents had not been fired, then absolutely nothing in earlier reporting and "official" accounts can be believed, perjury was committed before Congress, and, sadly, Admiral Mullen, co-author of State's ARB report, has been duped or is complicit in the lies.


Ms. Herridge's full piece can be found here (caution -- autoplay) at about the 0:30 mark:

Ms. Herridge also comments on reports of the hearing here:

New classified testimony on Benghazi by five CIA employees shows the administration's initial narrative about a protest gone awry was "indefensible," according to a lawmaker who took part in two classified sessions before the House Intelligence Committee.

A most interesting exchange on the subject, with particular attention to comments by Mike Rodgers, (R-MI), between John Batchelor and Aaron Kline may be found here at about 0:19:01.


Many new questions that beg for answers emerge from this discussion (Note: Mr. Kline's [sometimes questionable] persistent referrals here and elsewhere to the military's lack of response and gunrunning operations can be very speculative, but he has some very good sources in the Middle East.)



Bill Schanefelt is retired, his profile may be found on LinkedIn, and he may be argued with at bilschan@hotmail.com.

Source: http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/11/dizzying_benghazigate_developments.html

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.