Decamp Town Places
Foreign Policy has an article describing how the consulate in Benghazi was being surveilled, photographed and measured for attack. The reconnaissance was noticed, but no significance was attached to it. The apprehensions were duly reported and filed in the round cabinet.
The two unsigned draft letters are both dated Sept. 11 and express strong fears about the security situation at the compound on what would turn out to be a tragic day. They also indicate that Stevens and his team had officially requested additional security at the Benghazi compound for his visit — and that they apparently did not feel it was being provided.
One letter, written on Sept. 11 and addressed to Mohamed Obeidi, the head of the Libyan Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ office in Benghazi, reads:
“Finally, early this morning at 0643, September 11, 2012, one of our diligent guards made a troubling report. Near our main gate, a member of the police force was seen in the upper level of a building across from our compound. It is reported that this person was photographing the inside of the U.S. special mission and furthermore that this person was part of the police unit sent to protect the mission. The police car stationed where this event occurred was number 322.”
The account accords with a message written by Smith, the IT officer who was killed in the assault, on a gaming forum on Sept. 11. “Assuming we don’t die tonight. We saw one of our ‘police’ that guard the compound taking pictures,” he wrote hours before the assault.
But the events of September 11, 2012 worked an epiphany. Suddenly the scales fell from official eyes The attitude of complacency was instantly replaced by what was almost paranoia. The FBI behaved at every moment of its investigation in Benghazi like they had a bulls-eye painted on their backs.
With suspected militants still roaming the streets, FBI investigators only had limited time to check the consulate compound. According to a Benghazi resident who resides near the consulate, the FBI team spent only three hours examining the compound.
During their short visit, FBI agents apparently mapped the compound by gluing small pieces of yellow paper with different letters on it next to each room in the TOC building. Next to the room where the letters and most documents were found, a yellow paper marks it room “D.” Above the paper, somebody has carved a swastika in the blackened wall.
Part of the reason for this about-face was what might be called a loss of confidence in the authorities. The Benghazi police, who were called upon to provide extra security for the consulate did not for reasons that are only now becoming apparent. Their attitude toward the security of the ambassador was also troubling. One of the Libyan officials from whom help had been sought said “‘I did not even know that the U.S. ambassador was visiting Benghazi.’ However, a spokesman for the Benghazi police confirmed that the ministry had notified the police of the ambassador’s visit.” Nor did they apparently receive any of the pleas for more security.
They were deaf to all that.
“We did not receive that letter from the U.S. consulate. We received a letter from Ministry of Foreign Affairs Benghazi asking for additional security measures around consulate during visit of the ambassador. And the police provided all extra security which was asked for,” the spokesman said.
The deafness notwithstanding everything that could be done was done to ensure the ambassador received a warm reception.
The sudden shift from a trusting attitude in their Libyan partners to one of apparent suspicion was probably brought about by a belated realization that not all was what it seemed. The “safe house” to which they retreated proved unsafe. And when the first wave of attacks had stopped the little band of men on the ground believed the worst was over, only to discover that the fiercest attacks were yet to come. Every foothold was rotten. Every handhold came loose. Every place of safety proved a trap.
A story from ABC News describes how various American response assets were kept on ice and finally stood down. “The response process was isolated at the most senior level,” says an official referring to top officials in the executive branch. “My fellow counterterrorism professionals and I (were) not consulted.” The people at the top hemmed and hawed over what to do. In the end they decided they could do nothing.
Counterterrorism sources and internal emails reviewed by CBS News express frustration that key responders were ready to deploy, but were not called upon to help in the attack.
CBS News has agreed not to quote directly from the emails, and to protect the identities of the sources who hold sensitive counterterrorism posts within the State Department, the U.S. military and the Justice Department.
As to why the Counterterrorism Security Group was not convened, National Security Council Spokesman Tommy Vietor told CBS News “From the moment the President was briefed on the Benghazi attack, the response effort was handled by the most senior national security officials in governments. Members of the CSG were of course involved in these meetings and discussions to support their bosses.”
Perhaps someone in the Situation Room that night as the attack unfolded recalled the story of Varus and Arminius. Varus, it will be recalled, was the Roman general who trusted in his German friend Arminius’ instructions to take his three Legions into the Teutoberg Forest to meet some tribal leaders only to discover too late he was leading his entire force into a trap. Neither Varus nor the Legions were ever seen again.
And though things were not quite so bad in Libya the shock must have been enormous. “How could this happen in a country we helped liberate, in a city we helped save from destruction” Hillary sputtered.
In the video below you can see her trying to salvage something of her policy in the immediate aftermath of the attack. She is still clinging to the line that the attack was a rogue event, just some rotten apples; but that her fundamental trust in her allies was sound. But the subsequent furtive behavior of the FBI and (if true) the reluctance to even secure the ruins of the CIA and State Department facilities gave lie to that trust. Perhaps nobody believes the fairytale any more.
But they believed it that night. Early reports suggested that as the attack on the CIA base raged the administration put their trust in ‘friends’. Bret Stephens at the Wall Street Journal wrote, “Libya was a failure of policy and worldview, not intelligence.”
“There was no serious consideration at that hour of intervention with military force, officials said. Doing so without Libya’s permission could represent a violation of sovereignty and inflame the situation, they said. Instead, the State Department reached out to the Libyan government to get reinforcements to the scene.”
They administration reached out — thinking that would take care of things. Something was surely taken care of, but not the men on the ground. Politics and policy had trumped intelligence. It had blinded them to the many warnings. It had lulled them into a false sense of security. It tied the hands of frustrated American security men; it opened the doors not to friends, but to deadly enemies.
And the door is still open wide to foes on a grand basis. Not just the men in Benghazi, but the entire position of American interests in the region lies exposed to the same deadly peril. Smart Diplomacy. Grand Bargains. Leading from Behind. Big Talk By Fools. When is idealism just another name for incompetence?
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When is idealism just another name for incompetence?
When it includes blindness to facts.
And when is reaching out just another phrase for begging?
Hil and O, though, probably think reaching out means ordering. . . how very surprising when one’s orders aren’t followed.
Hillary Clinton. Frequently wrong, never in doubt.
Hillary and Barack (and Bill Clinton, too) share the same kind of egotistical notion that they are infallible and invincible, it’s just the world that has let them down.
Who can forget (but alas, many people have forgotten) Bill’s poignant reaction to the events in Somali in 1993? Run away, run away. That guaranteed that the forces of Salafist Islam would continue. Sure Mohammed Farah Aidid died sometime later, but though the players change, the game remains the same.
Likewise, who can forget Hillary’s own reaction to the death of Moammar Khaddafy (or however you spell his name)? Time and again these people conceive a campaign or action against these people (militant Islam), yet are constantly surprised at the reaction.
And surprisingly, they still don’t get it. Hillary appalled at the savagery of our opponents. This is a war, a long term struggle against an asymetrical enemy force, that will strike where they are strong and we are weak. We fought a war something like this in the 18th and 19th century against a series of Indian tribes and nations in America, from the forests of the Eastern states, across the plains, the deserts, the Rocky Mountains, and it went on for years.
History is not their strong suit, because it might tell them that their personal intelligence and judgement is not infallible or invincible.
Wouldn’t it beat all, if the U.S. asset considered more important than the souls at the CIA annex, the asset that might be in danger if the requested fire support was allowed, was not a human at all, but just the prevailing paradigm?
A ‘violation of sovereignty?” It’s not like there was really a sovereign country at that point.
The left constantly lets legalisms mess up our conduct of war and foreign policy.
They should (but never will) learn that the only law in these places is the law of the jungle.
Neil/5
If Obama is re-elected that is where the country is headed – Brother can you spare a paradigm.
Neil at #5: You just called it. Teh Won had commanded that we would be beloved because of his (and her) fantasies. Therefore reality had to be forbidden.
@Neil #5 To give it a name the prevailing paradigm in the current administration is Postcolonialism. Moreover, today’s progressives are too academic – historically too scholastic. Max Boot, I believe, tells the story of how the well educated young gentlemen officers of the renaissance believed because of their education in Aristotelian physics that cannon balls described a perfect arc of a circle. The more pragmatic men who actually fired early cannons had to learn to aim by experience, not theory. They would be like the souls who died fighting in Benghazi. In all fairness I think the preceding Harvard boy, George W Bush had notions of democracy promotion that were also too theoretical. But unlike our current Harvard graduate he also showed he had some insight into the nature of his enemies when he said that it was like that old poster in the West – Wanted Dead or Alive.
Our government of perverts really thinks we are stupid enough to fall for their half-assed logic.
Let’s see if I got this: These peckerheads are telling us NOW that it would have been and insult, a violation of LIBYAN sovereignty and a serious annoyance to defend against this attack that involved HUNDREDS of attackers in waves lasting half a day…
This is just months AFTER sending thousands of bombing and strafing sorties into Libya, killing many thousands of Libyan nationals without so much as a “by-your-leave” from the United Nations, nor any of those tedious consultations or advising visits to the U.S. Congress. Resulting in the death of the ruling leader who had been pretty wildly popular – regardless of how we thought of him – across the Middle East.
Wasn’t the LEFT opposed to having the U.S. “dictate terms” to other countries, much less impose regime change???
Sure, that was nominally a NATO-led “kinetic action.” (Don’t you just love how the people on the LEFT think all they have to do is find the right words to define what they’re doing, and reality just sort of has to meekly go along with the charade?) But in fact, Obama’s private security team – i.e., the U.S. military – supplied something like 90 percent of the ships, attack aircraft, aircrew, munitions, fuel, mid-air refueling capability, air-traffic control and theater monitoring, communications and control (AWACS.) That’s according to MAINSTREAM NEWS REPORTS during the operation.
And not a one of the useless pukes in the MSM or the LEFT or the Obama administration acknowledges their utter hypocrisy, after shrieking “WAR CRIMES” when GWBUSH invaded Iraq after scores of UN Security Council sanctions, threats, and enabling declarations warning Saddam Hussein of the consequences of his THOUSANDS of violations of the ceasefire agreement that suspended hostilities after the 1991 Gulf War…Oh, Yeah! and the almost unanimous Congressional War Powers Act authorizing the Iraq Invasion. How could I forget that?
And to top it all off, NOW Mr. lying SOBama puffs his chest out and tells us he’s going in and getting every one of those attackers that killed his precious little ambassador that he couldn’t be bothered to even stay up past his beddie time to see whether the guy survived the gunfire, mortars, fires, and explosions. Jesus CHRIST what a piece of work this guy is!
(Hey! I’ve got fund-raising rallies to attend in Las Vegas! You know, IMPORTANT stuff…)
So it would have been a violation of Libyan sovereignty to use American assets to defend DURING the attack, but it’s NOT a problem to send U.S. special forces teams into Libya weeks later to go searching, kicking in doors, raping women and children, torturing innocent bystanders to wring out every last datum on the whereabouts of the bad guys??????????
Please CEASE to bother explaining things with your perfidious pretzel logic.
You lot are a pack of demons.
By the way, does anyone remember that Mr. Wm Jefferson Clinton ordered U.S. and NATO forces deep into Iraq to bomb the crap out of Hussein and his people in SIX DIFFERENT MAJOR MILITARY ASSAULTS during his presidency?
No UN authorization there either.
ScrewtheLEFTISTPROGRESSIVELIARS.
………………..
I’m sorry.
Do I sound annoyed?
The purveyors of smart diplomacy and careerists in Washington have long worked from a position of negotiating “win-win” situations with which to enhance their careers and reputations, smugly concentrating on the “art of the deal.” The problem is that they have carried that mindset into a region where negotiation is a zero-sum game: “I win, you lose.” For the most part, the more observant people on the ground in places like Benghazi realize this.
When dealing with such people, you must first, last, and always negotiate from a position of restrained yet demonstrable strength. When your resolve is tested, you must remove the restraint and teach the bastards a lesson. This administration failed to heed the warnings prior to Sept. 11 2012 and demonstrate that strength by deploying American personnel. The thought of Marines, apparently, offended the sensibilities of the more refined, broad-minded elements within the administration. This administration failed to anticipate the significance of this date and is responsible for having available rapid reaction forces unavailable to respond. This administration failed to respond against those whom they knew to be responsible for this planned military operation against American personnel and interests. This administration failed to carpet that section of Benghazi with Marines or Rangers while the FBI was conducting its investigation. This administration needs a testosterone transplant, and it must frustrate Hildebeast to no end that she cannot provide it.
I believe in “smart diplomacy.” What we have seen demonstrated by this administration is nothing but arrogance, stupidity, spin, and a$$ covering. We need to put Benghazi under the boot, complete our investigation, collect any remaining sensitive materials, and perhaps blow the living hell out of the ten terrorist training facilities reported by Ambassador Stevens back in August, and do so in a visible manner. Horses are optional, but bayonets strongly recommended. This is the first vital step in establishing smart diplomacy in the region. We will respect their sovereignty when they demonstrate that they will respect ours, unconditionally.
Such activities as occurred in Benghazi do not take place without high-level financial support. So I will repeat: identify twenty of these backers, locate them, and terminate them within a 24-hour window in a coordinated operation. Quit messing with the cannon fodder and repeat as needed. It is time to take Obama, Panetta, Hillary, and crew, turn them out, and take the “Kick Me” sign they put on America’s back and shove it where the sun don’t shine. I am so done with them and with anyone who would vote these clowns back into office.
“When is idealism just another name for incompetence?”
When his name is Obama.
a bit O/T
victor and 0bama BFF Turkey’s Erdogan plans Gaza visit
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4300470,00.html
that should really heal the rifts in the MENA.
Just ask Huma – Hildabeasts’s BFF.
Walt – on 0bamacare – is that a paradocs?
we can’t afford that with a para-dimes.
maybe they can all take a long walk off a short pier.
BTW – how does Petraeus get a pass on all this?
BTW – how does Petraeus get a pass on all this?
Maybe whatsisame will suddenly get shunted off the VP ticket at the last moment.
These six members of the Muslim Brotherhood have policy influencing positions in the Obama administration or easy and frequent access to those who do. Obama’s Cairo speech (which had an untruth in almost every line), his State Department policy speeches, and his actions in the MEMA are coherent only in that they all advance the interests of the MB. These six seditious people are the reason why.
Rashad Hussain
Huma Abedin
Dalia Mogahed
Kifa Mustapha
Mohamed Elibiary
Mohamed Magid
Frank Gaffney documents how this happened at The Muslim Brotherhood in America.
Stephen Coughlin gained a reputation in the Bush admin for his accurate predictions about what the jihadis would do next. He briefed regularly on the Hill and to command level officers. He credits his predictive ability to common sense. “If the Salafists, the Muslim Brotherhood and al Qaeda say they are going to do something, and that something is consistent with authorized Islamic law, it’s going to happen.”
Stephen Coughlin was fired by the Obama admin because he would not stop connecting the dots between Islamic law and jihadi terrorism, which is now required by official Obama policy. I think it was Mohamed Elibiary (see above) who bragged publicly about his role in getting rid of Coughlin. Anybody can achieve Coughlin’s level of competence by applying the same reasoning. Understanding the War on Terror Through Islamic Law tells you how to do that.
@14
When the POTUS and SECDEF are in counsel with the Chief of Staff — DCI is out ranked, period.
And, as it has been leaked, the CIA was not in an authority position — not on 9-11-2012 nor on the issue of increasing Steven’s security. That’s Clinton’s turf.
On the record — it’s obvious that the State Department provided, effectively, no bodyguards for the Ambassador at all.
Astoundingly, he was at the mercy of the locals for just about everything.
Do reread Wretchard’s original post to get an idea of how grim that situation became.
“…the consulate in Benghazi was being surveilled, photographed and measured for attack.” –Richard
Yes, I believe that the tentacles of al-Qaeda are out maneuvering the 0bama Administration at every turn.
Whether the Benghazi compound was the HQ for a gun running operation or a politically motivated attempt to kill top al-Qaeda operatives during the run-up to the election – al Qaeda had superior information and acted with a vengeance.
0bama has not “decimated” al –Qaeda in the general sense or literal sense (to kill every tenth man). Al Qaeda is as strong as every as can be seen by intelligence they gathered on the Benghazi operation and the price they extracted with their “accurate mortar fire.”
Further, if the CIA (or contractor operators) killed a meaningful number of men during the firefight(s) where are the bodies? Hauling off or hiding bodies is a difficult task.
From what I can tell, little or no foreign terrorists were killed – even thought there were a squad of fast reaction forces and a heavy machine gun (and I would guess all of the 30+ CIA members were well armed).
If there were foreign terrorist kill and their bodies removed from the scene – and we cannot verify their burial or destruction – the cover-up is deeper.
The Libyans on the ground “helping us” are interlocked with our enemy. The initial reports of suspects being “arrested” rings hollow as does the notion that those “responsible for this attack will be brought to justice.”
0bama and Hillary have lost control of the Libyan operation and it will most likely revert to a terrorist stronghold from which to launch attacks on us.
T2
Cheer up: The Duck of Death held assets of approximately $ 200,000,000,000 plus or minus…
Now his wealth generator is in the hands of Salafists.
What could go wrong?
———-
The best analogy to AQ is the American Green Berets.
Both are elite, cross-cultural ambassadors of the military arts.
It only takes a sprinkling of AQ ‘commandos’ to have an immense impact on muslim populations.
THAT’S the take away from report after report – from AfPak to MENA.
“When is idealism just another name for incompetence?”
To judge by the 75+ year history of the Soviet Union, always.
My mother forwarded to me what purports to be an endorsement of Obama issued by the embassy of Israel in the United States. This is an obvious fraud that Israel should strongly protest but as a last minute hit job it just might work and flip Florida for Obama.
The enemy is desperate and they are playing for the big win. Remember that Hillary and company thought that we should be happy that the locals responded by gathering to hold up signs saying “We love you. Send money.” At best the soft left fellow travelers and careerists were trying to manage a situation rather than respond to a crisis. That is how most dysfunctional bureaucracies without strong managers behave. Problems are lost in the files or you stall until the unhappy person goes away. If someone makes a nuisance of themselves then you have HR dispose of them.
Blindness to the facts Idealism, in their case, implies blindness to truth, because their ideology is based on untruth.
It should not surprise that the majority is often deceived. Can the public discern whether we are on the verge of a wonderful worker’s paradise and a period of unequaled world peace, or, to the contrary, looking into an abyss of economic doom and a world defined by insecurity and instability.
A message such as “let’s just take more money from the rich” might make sense if it were coupled with “let’s cease shoveling money from the treasury” and “let’s reign in our entitlement expenditures”.
Instead we see that our nation seems to have great difficulty discerning whether the future is bleak or full of bounty for all. Startling when you think about it – the common man unable to perceive the trajectory of history.
21.Blast from the Past
“…have HR dispose of them.”
What had Ambassador Stephens done that HR(C) needed to dispose of him?
The “violation of Libyan sovereignty ” excuse was trotted out many weeks ago – the “Streetwise Professor” noted it in a rant on how idiotic the attack response and the failure to secure the facility by the FBI weeks quite a while back. This foolishly misplaced leftist legal reasoning may actually have been what was behind all the dithering by Buraq, Panetta and I smell Valerie Jarrett.
That said – this is not to excuse their behavior in any way – it only goes to show what an out of touch fantasy world these people are living in and how we need to get rid of them muy pronto. They are exceedingly dangerous.
A swastika?
“The sudden shift from a trusting attitude in their Libyan partners to one of apparent suspicion was probably brought about by a belated realization that not all was what it seemed. ” -Wretchard 2012
“The West’s glacial shift from a trusting attitude in their Muslim citizens to one of complete suspicion was never brought about until it was far too late to save them.” -Future historian 2112
Hildabeast in the video knows everything already, more than we know even now, let me say that again, Everything Hildabeast is spewing is a LIE, Hildabeast knew it in the first 24hrs, They knew there was nothing matching the events to the Cover Story, yet they sent Amb Rice around the MSM Propaganda circuit to continue the CIA cover story, What they knew and was counting on to get them to November 6 was, 1. The MSM would keep to the 0bama script no matter what! 2. The vast majority of Americans are 10 second sound bite Zombies and have been dumbed down by the last 50 years of a intentional substandard Public school system. 3. They have gotten enough Americans on the Government Handout wagon that 0bama was at that time still safe in his re-election… Yes it is obvious that the Political head of America lives in a delusional world, one where Life and Death are in movies and happen only to the sick, old or buy clinger on’s with guns…
Sensitive documents found amid the wreckage of the U.S. consulate shine new light on the Sept. 11 assault that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.
Ambassador Chris Stevens:
Villa C, which was used as Stevens’ residence during his stay in Benghazi, is located 50 meters from the TOC building. Here, an open window leads to the safe haven — a sealed-off part of Villa C where Stevens and Smith suffocated to death. On the destroyed bed lay the Aug. 6, 2012, copy of the New Yorker. The magazine’s cover carries a label with Stevens’s name and his diplomatic mailing address.
A few meters to the right is the safe haven’s bathroom. Everything here is blackened by smoke. One of the two white toilets is covered with bloodstains. On the mirror in the bathroom, an unknown person has written a macabre text in a thin layer of ash.
“I am Chris from the dead,” it reads.
To use my favorite George Will quote, “I disagree that the Administration is in disarray; this is what liberal government looks like.”
Or my favorite Peggy Noonan quote, “They would carefully analyze the situation and do nothing, because they would conclude that the correct thing to do would be what Republicans would do, and they could not do that.”
Sean Smith reported the incident of the guard photographing the compound that day in an erie live chat with friends of an online game he was playing remarking as to whethewr he could participate that night just hours before he died.
(12:54:09 PM) vile_rat: assuming we don’t die tonight. We saw one of our ‘police’ that guard the compound taking pictures
http://themittani.com/news/rip-vile-rat
This has been on the web for weeks, and was posted on Sept 12. CNN did refer to the comment, but no one in the media picked up on it at that time as being an important element (remember – the video was the story). We wait nearly two months later when someone finally digs through the rubble.I would have thought after CNN found that diary the place would have been picked clean.
The press has been very disinterested in finding the truth to this story – and the administration very disintrested in telling the truth.
Hillary:
“How Complicated and confounding this World can be:”
To Delusional True Believers in the Religion of The Left
Sean Smith reported the incident of the guard photographing the compound that day in an erie live chat with friends of an online game he was playing remarking as to whethewr he could participate that night just hours before he died.
(12:54:09 PM) vile_rat: assuming we don’t die tonight. We saw one of our ‘police’ that guard the compound taking pictures
http://themittani.com/news/rip-vile-rat
This has been in the news for weeks, and was posted on Sept 12. No one in the media picked up on it at that time as being an important element (remember – the video was the story). We wait nearly two months later when someone finally digs through the rubble.I would have thought after CNN found that diary the place would have been picked claen.
The press has been very disinterested in finding the truth to this story – and the administration very disintrested in telling the truth.
”When is idealism just another name for incompetence?”(W)
———————–
”…don’t mourn too much for Obama, who’s held his own in the cash race by assembling a new, competing coalition of wealthy backers, from the “new hierarchies of technical elites” that Daniel Bell predicted in 1976 in The Coming Of Post-Industrial Society. For that group, Bell wrote, nature and human nature ceased to be central, as “fewer now handle artifacts or things” so that “reality is primarily the social world”—which, he warned, “gives rise to a new Utopianism” that mistakenly treats human nature as something that can be engineered and corrected by instruction from their enlightened betters.
(…)
For the most part, the members of the groups that make up Obama’s Clerisy(British poet Samuel Coleridge defined in the 1830s as an enlightened educated class, made up of the Anglican church along with intellectuals, artists, and educators, that would school the rest of society on values and standards.: ed), like any successful priestly class, embrace shared dogmas: strongly secular views on social issues, fervent environmentalism, an embrace of the anti-suburban “smart growth” agenda, and the ideal of racial redress, of which Obama remains perhaps the most evident symbol. ”
(…)
”The prospect of four years of plutocratic rule under Romney is no cause for celebration for those who would like to see greater social justice and reduced inequality. But it may prove less damaging to the country than allowing Obama’s new, secular priesthood to wreak damage on the economy that could take decades to unwind.”
quotes from : http://tinyurl.com/ctfsb86
enjoy
SF
“Libyan Government?” Ha! Ya mean the rabble who swarmed into place after you assassinated Khadafy? You call that a government? You trust the life of your citizens to someone whose leader you just ran down like a dog and murdered? Trust? Please.
I don’t take it as evidence of an impending Romney win as the area in which I live is very conservative, but I have never seen so many political signs for a single election in the 24 years I’ve lived here: They’re 99/1 Romney-Ryan/Obama Biden. I don’t even want to think about the toxic feelings — incredulity, despair, white-hot rage — that will overtake us if that man is returned to office for another four years. Speaking of rage, read of Rudyard Kipling’s, about another outrage, in an earlier time in the same general neighborhood, offered by Powerline’s Scott Johnson in a post this morning.
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2012/11/benghazi-2012.php
your thread title gave me an image of this administration as one long, sad, and sick minstrel show.
DeCamp Town Races 4 years long,
Doo Dah, Doo Dah.
We’re Sticking to it, by Golly, by Gosh:
In Benghazi timeline, CIA errors but no evidence of conspiracy
By David Ignatius, Published: November 1
A detailed CIA timeline of the assault on U.S. facilities in Benghazi paints an anguishing picture of embattled Americans waiting for Libyan security forces who didn’t come and courageous CIA officers who died on a rooftop without the heavy weapons they needed, trying to protect their colleagues below.
It’s a story of individual bravery, but also of a CIA misjudgment in relying on Libyan militias and a newly formed Libyan intelligence organization to keep Americans safe in Benghazi.
While there were multiple errors that led to the final tragedy, there’s no evidence that the White House or CIA leadership deliberately delayed or impeded rescue efforts…
I’m getting the impression as I read Wretchard’s series of posts on Benghazi that BOTH he and his commenting community here are getting a better and better hold on what happened and why. This isn’t just an ideological echo chamber but an intellectual community developing a line of thinking using the Internet instead of the more technologically primitive tools of civil discourse like universities and public lectures.
Carry on, ladies and gentlemen.
”The press has been very disinterested in finding the truth to this story – and the administration very disintrested in telling the truth.”
A quibble: the press and administration are in fact far, far from being disinterested, ie having no stake in the outcome, as should a judge be in a trial. Their ”interest” is as you said, in not telling the truth, etc.
When is idealism incompetence? When is it deliberate undermining of our true interests?
CNN finds the Ambassador’s diary. Other press finds hard copy e-mails and memorandum?
Why didn’t the administration police up the consulate and annex after the attacks?
I doubt if the safety of the clean-up crew was a consideration.
It is often forgotten today that the “Lost Legions,” to which Wretched refers, were eventually avenged. Many years after Varus and his legions were lost, a Roman general crossed the Rhine on a punitive mission and utterly ravaged the tribal regions. In the process, he located the site of Varus’s slaughter, recovered the legions’ eagles and standards, and honored the Roman soldiers’ remains with a proper burial. This triumph was so admired that he was thereafter known as Germanicus and was a fine example of Roman character and virtue. In what was to become typical Roman fashion, Tiberius saw competent leadership as a threat and had him poisoned while posted in the Middle East. Tiberius was eventually succeeded by Caligula and later by Nero.
Our founding fathers were well aware of history and cognizant of the excesses and weaknesses of Rome and Greece. The government they fashioned was the most enlightened and successful social work ever crafted, unlike that of our social worker, Dear Leader. Thus far, the founders’ work has proven to be self-correcting. Hopefully, we will see yet another example of this remarkable resilience on Tuesday and on January 20, but the “progressives” persist in straining this design margin to its limits to produce debacles like Benghazi while throwing away potential victories like Iraq.
Notice the plural. There’s your problem. An eternal one of determining who is your friend, enemy, trusted source.
maybe my memory is failing me, but I believe Caligula was the son of Germanicus. using the tv mini-series “I, Claudius” as a reference here
Ive noticed as have others that CIA has made it clear that they were not in the security chain for this action. Petraeus is keeping his counsel and powder dry. It has also leaked that State never asked for military relief for the people in Benghazi. Panetta is in the lame excuse business (see the earlier thread with Wolfie). Somebody told the quick reaction elements to stand down. Too many people know who did. If O is rejected on Tues (may it please God) along with very many of the Senate, the halls of government will run with blood. These people dont get their revenge subtly, but with large knives and clubs.
Popcorn, anyone?
d @ 37: It’s a story of individual bravery, but also of a CIA misjudgment in relying on Libyan militias and a newly formed Libyan intelligence organization to keep Americans safe in Benghazi.
I *sincerely* doubt the CIA would ever recommend relying on Libyan etc.
They may have a dismal record and have been much less relied on in recent years (though I wonder, in *very* recent years perhaps someone in the white house might have been the blatant mistake of trusting them for *intelligence* once again? certainly the CIA has been given more _operational_ roles over the last three to ten years, than in the previous twenty).
If by some ill fate anyone in the CIA really did recommend trusting all to Libyan forces, then the organization needs to be beheaded and decimated … yet again. Does anyone really think David Petraeus would ever have made such a recommendation? If so, that would be about enough of him, that would be way more than enough of him. But I tend not to believe it.
There is a good chance that Al Queda will not be a significant presence in Libya after this, Not because of the US but because the Libyans do not seem to want them and they do not have much traction there.
There is no chance that they will not have considerable power including access to advanced weapons and WMD in Syria. They are the best fighters there and are not going to quit when Assad is gone.
From today’s news. Ynet:
“Joining Syrian rebels in the attack were fighters from Jabhat al-Nusra, an al-Qaeda-inspired Islamic militant group made up of foreign jihadis, according to the Observatory. Al-Nusra fighters, who are considered among the most experienced and disciplined among the opposition forces, have led attacks on other airbases in the north in past months.”
Of course we all know that the ignorant goat herders could never learn to fly a plane right?
It takes special effort and insight backed by billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of trained men to construct an edifice where a few hundred armed with weapons dating from the beginning of the last century can bring it down. A careless and inattentive commannder in chief, a delusional secretary of state.
Blithering idiots. Who would ever conceive of a system where the response to a mortar and ak47 attack on a consulate in a country with marginal governance would require high level White house or Cabinet approval?
What happened that day is of interest but meaningless. The decisions and orders in the months previous, the security assumptions, the standing orders. Things can go badly very quickly; best be very afraid. From what I gather the most pressing threat was to the jobs of those in Washington. That someone may die, well not so important.
Oh de camptown girls all sing this song,
Their fault, their fault, not mine.
spindok…
It’s their landing skills that are of note.
I entirely disagree with your weird conclusion that AQ won’t find Benghazi as the perfect hovel.
It is from Benghazi that AQ in Iraq got its most ardent fanatics — going on for years.
Libyan Salafists are a significant component to AQ at this time.
I’d say that they’re number three on the hit parade — with a bullet.
the Libyans are playing the same double game as the Pakistanis. The egyptians are learning to do the same thing.
The libyans and Egyptians are the product of Obama’s policy as Iran is the product of Jimmy Carter’s policies. Hard to say to say what Pakistan except from the genererally from hajj interests in Saudi Arabia.
Here is an interesting article about the the saudi wahabists bull dozing a lot of moslem historical buildings in mecca and medina. and there is no word edgewise in the moslem press.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/damianthompson/100187644/the-saudis-are-bulldozing-islams-heritage-why-the-silence-from-the-muslim-world/
One of many things I do not like is the fact that after 2-d debate Romney received intelligence briefings and stopped talking about Benghazi. May be it is just coincidence and he stopped due to other reasons, but I am suspicious.
@ #9 Lorenz Gude
I thought W went to Yale, not Harvard?
I heard on good authority that President Romney will appoint Bronco Bama as his Ambassador to Libya.
Josh@46:
You dare question the account of professional journalist, Mr. David Ignatius, writing in the WASHINGTON POST?
…you’re on mighty thin ice, my friend.
ignatious looks like the designated apologist at wapo
18. T2costkeeper
They take their wounded and killed off the battlefield – it’s what they do.
And apparently, they have a much more honorable commitment to “not leaving anyone behind.”
As I recall, we used to do that too. Used to.
Now OBE by the millionth Executive Order.
40. batman
When is idealism incompetence? When is it deliberate undermining of our true interests?
Maybe, but I thought that just might be treason.