Why Would the US Ask Libya if We Could Enter Their Airspace? (Updated)

This may sound like a small point, but I think it exposes one of the many lies told to the American people in the wake of the Benghazi assault. According to CBS’ Sharyl Atkisson, Secretary of State Clinton requested permission from the Libyan government to enter their airspace at some point during the attack.

Question: Why was the request made at all?

The US used fighter aircraft and armed Predator drones during and after the Libyan revolution. We have been using Predators, at least, in Libya long after the revolution. On the night of the attack, there was at least one Predator overhead along with other recon aircraft. Why would we need to ask the interim and weak Libyan government for permission to do something we were already doing, probably as a matter of routine?

The Obama administration does not have a habit of asking other countries for permission when we use their airspace. To take one prominent example, when the SEALs flew deep into Pakistan aboard US military helicopters, the Obama administration did not ask for permission to fly into Pakistan, land troops in Abbottabad, and take out Osama bin Laden. The Pakistanis were given no warning at all, out of legitimate concern that they would blow the mission and possibly get American troops killed.

The US uses drones to strike terrorists at times and places of our choosing. But the Obama administration asks permission to enter the airspace of a nominally friendly government in order to rescue Americans under attack at the US consulate? In a city right on the Libyan coast? When time was of the essence and lives were on the line, Hillary Clinton was on the phone asking if we may please fly in and help them?

This makes no sense.

More: The story gets even stranger. Fox reports that after Matt Olsen, Director of the National Terrorism Center, called the Benghazi attack in testimony before Congress, the Obama administration reprimanded him.

It was Olsen’s testimony on Sept 19 that broke the dam on the story. After Olsen called Benghazi a terrorist attack, WH spokesman Jay Carney followed suit, saying that it was “self-evident” that it was a terror attack. Prior to that, Carney had said that the administration had “no evidence” that the attack was anything other than the result of a spontaneous protest. Three days before Olsen’s testimony, Ambassador Susan Rice had gone on five Sunday shows and emphatically described the attack as having resulted from a spontaneous protest.

Fox has run another email on TV, but so far not on the web, in which the mortar fire is included in the attack. That email, like the previous ones reported last night, came into the White House Situation Room during the attack. Mortar fire indicates pre-planning and scouting, not a spontaneous protest.