The Shores of Tripoli
Well, Benghazi, anyway. My New York Post column today examines the unfolding mess that is the Libyan situation:
How is the Obama White House going to fit the entire State Department and the intelligence community under the bus?
Last month’s Benghazi fiasco saw four Americans — including our ambassador to Libya — murdered by elements of al Qaeda in a military-style assault timed to coincide with the 11th anniversary of 9/11.
The weeks afterward saw the administration blaming a video that, even the White House now admits, had nothing to do with it. And the months before the attack saw Washington adamantly reducing security in Benghazi — despite pleas for reinforcements from the folks on the ground.
Yet President Obama’s top spokesman — and Vice President Joe Biden, in last week’s debate — have been busy pointing fingers of blame at State and the IC.
It won’t work. Neither Foggy Bottom nor the intel community’s legion of spooks, analysts and secret-keepers is likely to go quietly.
And that’s an understatement. Behind the scenes — in Langley, Fort Meade, Anacostia, and elsewhere in the Intelligence Community — spooks and analysts are sharpening their knives for the Obama administration, which, having chosen to pick a fight both with the IC and the Clintons, apparently has some sort of death wish.
The national media’s still doing its level best to keep Benghazi off the front pages, but its effort is doomed to failure. It’s worth repeating: our ambassador to Libya was (it now seems) lured to Benghazi and assassinated; that night, Barack Hussein Obama, evincing not the slightest interest in or sympathy for Chris Stevens’ fate, flew off to Las Vegas for a fundraiser. Instead, his increasingly desperate administration issued a squid-ink fog of confusion, blaming an obscure YouTube video for what the IC knew almost immediately was a terrorist assault on American soil. And then, when that legend collapsed, blamed the State Department and the IC for letting it down.
They knew it because — and perhaps this is just the thriller writer in me — there may have been double agents within State or the IC itself who lured Stevens back to Benghazi with a false sense of security, and thus to his death.
This shouldn’t surprise anybody; after all, in Afghanistan, trusted locals shoot our troops in the back on a near-weekly basis. And it certainly explains the comment, which went largely unremarked by incurious newspaper stenographers and DNC media flunkies, by a State Department regional security officer, Eric Nordstrom, that “the Taliban is on the inside of the building” — by which he meant Foggy Bottom.
Further, one of the ambassadorial duties, especially in third-world backwaters like Libya, is the supervision of the local CIA operation. (In real countries, that oversight is usually delegated to a consul general.) It should come as no surprise that Stevens would be actively working with Agency personnel, especially given that the “safe house” to which the consular staff tried to flee was also the CIA station.
So the real question is not political — what did the president know and when did he know it? — but geo-political. Someone in State, or its Bureau of Intelligence and Research, or in the IC (and most likely the CIA) very likely burned Chris Stevens and sent him to his death.
If the administration has a better explanation for what really happened, we’d all be very happy to hear it.
UPDATE: Hillary Clinton says the buck stops with her, sort of:
Lima, Peru (CNN) — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday tried to douse a political firestorm around the deadly assault on a U.S. diplomatic mission in Libya, saying she is responsible for the security of American diplomatic outposts.
“I take responsibility” for the protection of U.S. diplomats, Clinton said during a visit to Peru. But she said an investigation now under way will ultimately determine what happened in the attack that left four Americans dead…
Clinton said President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden are not involved in security decisions.
“I want to avoid some kind of political gotcha,” she added, noting that it is close to the election.
In other words: shut up, she explained.
The Islamist-in-Chief’s anti-American bent has been exposed six ways to Sunday, and that was way before Bengazigate! However, said exposure was more subtle in nature, despite all his pyromaniac skill sets blowing up all over the Middle East; the fiscal house on fire; plus Fast & Furious front & center.
The fact of the matter is that 4 dead Americans – an ambassador included – brought his OVERT penchant for lying into focus, hence, he has become the Liar-in-Chief.
Most importantly, people are beginning to realize that his backing of one Islamist horse over another,thereby, pushing aside Middle East strongmen, has very bloody consequences. And upending Libya was as disastrous as removing Mubarak.
After all, who is taking their places, other than the Muslim Brotherhood Mafia & AlQaeda, their twin cousins? http://adinakutnicki.com/2012/10/07/further-untangling-of-the-video-the-islamist-in-chiefs-tailor-made-excuse-for-islamic-murder-mayhem-where-the-truth-lies-addendum-to-unraveling-the-video-commentary-by-adina-kutni/
Michel has great arms and Obama has great abs. Food stamps and Obama phones for everyone.
Keep an eye on this, it is about damage control for Obama. This is about keeping the Jackson’s silent about what they know about the Obama’s And how Patrick Fitzgerald and the Tribune protect Obama..
Latest Jackson Jr. probe clouds political, legal future
http://touch.chicagotribune.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-72918139/
As Obama’s cover story comes down, the curtain goes up on the USAO’s cover-up of J.J., Jr.’s role in the Blago story
http://illinoispaytoplay.com/2012/10/05/as-obamas-cover-story-comes-down-the-curtain-goes-up-on-the-usaos-cover-up-of-j-j-jr-s-role-in-the-blago-story/
Every day and in every way Clint Eastwood’s assessment of Obama and Biden is vaidated.
That’s easy. Just get Hillary to stand up so she can take the fall. There she goes.
BUT, doesn’t she have a boss, or is it that she reports to no one but the American people? Did she run for her office, be elected, or was she appointed by an overseer? Who is her boss? Who is this boss who selected somebody who says she is responsible for the poor security and deaths of four young adults? If she is responsible, what kind of boss would leave her in a position that makes her responsible for her employees serving in dangerous surroundings?
So Hillary’s “taking responsibility” without resigning or even taking a cut in pay. What, then, does “taking responsibility” mean? Depends on what the meaning of “responsibility” is, I guess.
“So Hillary’s ‘taking responsibility…’”. Go back and read/listen to what she says. She’s not providing any new information except her personal comments regarding politics, election and “gotcha” remarks.
Hillary has thrown Obama under the bus by making this statement on the eve [timing is everything] of the town hall meeting where he has to give the performance of his political career to stay in the running.
If Obama doesn’t refute her statement he will be seen as weak especially in light of Harry Truman’s famous statement, “the buck stops here” at the president’s desk; not a cabinet member
Any statement he makes will have to be made before the town hall tonight or it certainly it will be brought up there.
Hillary has repaid Obama’s for defeating her in 2008 with interest!
Touche!
The “Touche!” was for you. Linked to wrong comment. All in the family Clinton joke
Hillary took “full responsibility” just like Bill did for Waco and then he didn’t want to talk about it anymore, because it was under investigation.
She went on to boast that she has 60,000 employees (can’t keep track of what all of them are doing) worldwide and…..it was the security personnel were responsible for this debacle. This was not a mea culpa.
Who was watching and listening to the event as it occurred?
Who was it that blamed the video in front of the caskets?
Who was it that put Susan Rice out on the talk shows?
Who was it that went to lunch during Netanyahu’s UN speech?
Why did she wait until she was in Peru to make this statement?
I talked with my son last night, who worked for Academi(Blackwater) for about 18 months in Afghanistan. He has info from his former employers that the State Dept. solicited & received bids from Academi for security in both Egypt and Libya, but never heard back. Instead, State hired some half-assed fly-by-night outfit from Great Britain that used employees whose only experience was body-guarding celebrities.
They tried to work on the cheap. Hillary & Obama lied and people died.
Chris Stevens knew a bit too much about Chicago’s gay scene, and Obama’s participation in it.
Bingo!
He was a koolaid drinker, like all the rest. He probably thought those poor ayrabs were just misunderstood, like he was.
When almost the whole cabinet is lesbian, what do you expect?
Dimes to doughnuts, Obama is a salami smoker, too. We have now suffered through the first gay administration in history.
See why God doesn’t like them? They corrupt so easily. They can’t be trusted.
3% telling the other 97% what they can or cannot do. Why do we let them? I don’t.
It’s just bizarre!
You can screw whomever or whatever you want, but to insist that I think it’s normal is WAY over the line.
Finally, some who are not willing to be thrown under the bus. Dear Liar pushed too far here.
Well, it just occurred to me why the marines were not in Benghazi. Since it wasn’t for the lack of money, I think it has to do with that neo-imperialist male dominated Marine Corp Hymn about bringing good order and discipline to banana and date palm republics through warfare, from the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli. No sense confusing the folks, domestic and foreign, with using the marines to do basic diplomatic security in a peaceful environment, and, admittedly, the classic marine culture does leave a bad taste in contemporary domestic liberal thought. Not to waste a crisis for General Electric, instead of private male mercenaries now is the time to inculcate some feminine cultural changes in the Marine Corp, and embassy duty has all those infrastructure accoutrements–civilized quarters and bathrooms– fit for Marine Corp princess platoons. Simply make all embassy security a requirement of the new kinder and gentler Marine Corp, specifically female based embassy units. In that way the marines can be further gender integrated with more duty assignments for females. For the first time host countries will see a modern military female role model from a soft power nanny state as a possible alternative to their patriarchal societies. To better achieve that vision of how the world should be, perhaps the new Marine Corp Hymn could be We Are The World?
In the face of stark evidence to the contrary, we seem to have a deep-seated need to continue to cling to the idea that Obama’s actions and more specifically his foreign policy stance are not under his conscious control, but represent instead the emanation of some desperately heart-rending cri de Coeur from deep within his maimed psyche.
Bull shit!
He was raised as a Muslim, he’s read all the monstrously-dubbed “holy” texts, he’s been wearing the Shahada on his wedding ring finger for 30 years, he knows the real deal.
The truth is indeed terrible, but we need to come to grips with it.
“…he’s been wearing the Shahada on his wedding ring finger for 30 years…”
Pardon my ignorance but I’m not sure what this means. I am not a troll and am absolutely aligned with the Conservative mindset. Can anybody help me?
According to Cindy Simpson writing at AT, this information was originally confirmed by WND:
http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/10/what_not_to_wear_presidential_edition.html
The first pillar of Islam:
“La ilaha illa Allah wa-Muhammad rasul Allah”.
There is no god but God and Muhammad is his prophet.
Hope that answers your question.
Coeurmaeghan in 29 Palms, CA
Brigitte Gabriel has referred to this as “the Islamic salvation prayer,” describing it as the equivalent of the Christian’s, “I accept Jesus into my heart as my Lord and Savior.”
“It’s worth repeating: our ambassador to Libya was (it now seems) lured to Benghazi and assassinated; that night, Barack Hussein Obama, evincing not the slightest interest in or sympathy for Chris Stevens’ fate, flew off to Las Vegas for a fundraiser.”
You know, in all of this, NOBODY seems to have mentioned, let alone confirmed, why are ambassador was in Benghazi to begin with? If the city was so dangerous that even the British ambassador and the Red Cross pulled out, what was he doing there, especially on the anniversary of 9/11? Even the Libyan government could not guarantee his safety because it knew how powerful the Islamist militia groups were there. So why did our ambassador go there, especially with almost no security or bodyguards? The State department hired out a British security firm to provide some unarmed guards to look after the ambassador, but these men certainly were not equipped to hold off, let alone defeat, a large armed attack against the consulate.
There are so many questions on this and Obama and Biden are not saying a word. Obama has not even had a press conference on this, which is in and of itself shameful. We’ve lost our first ambassador in over 30 years and Obama doesn’t even think it rates a press conference or a speech to the American people. But he DOES seem to have time for countless campaign stops and speeches. I’m just disgusted by this man. Not just because of his politics, but because we have four dead AMERICANS here an nobody in that White House seems very anxious to find out why it all happened. Just shows you that the White House is filled with a bunch of bums (and I could have used a much stronger noun).
It’s been reported that the Benghazi so-called safe-house was actually a CIA office. The two security guards were there to protect the classified intel. The Ambassador went there to oversee the destruction of documents and e-mails about info on the hostiles in the area when things got hot. The hostiles knew this, that is why they attacked it. Mr. Stevens and the Seals were “collateral damage” trying to cover the State Dept. and the W.H. butt. That’s what Obama means by “Leading from behind”. When the bullets start flying, the politicians are behind you, using you as a shield to protect themselves.
“How is the Obama White House going to fit the entire State Department and the intelligence community under the bus?”
It’s a very big bus!
“They knew it because — and perhaps this is just the thriller writer in me — there may have been double agents within State or the IC itself who lured Stevens back to Benghazi with a false sense of security, and thus to his death.”
False sense of security? He followed orders to go there kicking and screaming every step of the way for more security to protect him.
As to Hillary being responsible, Yes, it was her job, that is why she gets the big bucks. As Sec of State she would be responsible for the safety and security of those under her. Of course any decisions such as this would probably have been included in the resident’s security briefings That he felt weren’t worth his precious time to attend.
Someone should ask Obama, “If money was the problem, why were more Marines stationed at the embassy in Paris than at the consulate in Benghazi? Is Paris really that dangerous?”
Well, yeah!
It’s chock fulla’ Muzzies!
More than Libya, I’ll bet.
But I think they’re in Paris to protect against the Jews and Israeli spies, which the Froggies (and the Obamites) think are WAY more dangerous than all the Ayrab scum burning their cities down.
I’m not surprised. I don’t usually look to the French for anything approaching reason or logic.
Ditto, Obamaland; the fantasy kingdom.
Geeze….. the intrigue….. Let me throw my two cents worth of conspiracy theory and wonder if the ambassador got “John Clarked” for being a double agent himself.
the American public deserves answers to this fiasco, starting with who told the ambassador to lie to the news outlets about the cause of the Act of War on the US Embassies that resulted in 4 US CITIZENS MURDERED,
This while we were being snowed about a video, that they knew wasn’t the casuse of the problem.
And then while obozo says we must not denigrate religion, he says nothing about Crucifix in Urine. Strange how that works,
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