A senior Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee mused this morning about whether the deadly attack on Benghazi wasn’t a blend of terrorist attack and spontaneous mob violence.
The Obama administration has come under heavy criticism for pushing the narrative that the Sept. 11 attack was sparked by an anti-Muhammad video on YouTube, even though it was quickly revealed that Ansar al-Sharia was linked to the assault.
“There is all this discussion as to whether this was a carefully planned terrorist attack or an ad hoc mob whipped up by some recent reason to hate the United States,” said Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) at today’s hearing on Benghazi. “And I think much of our confusion relates to the idea of thinking it has to be all of one, all of the other. Newer press reports indicate that it was some of both. An attack that doesn’t seem to be overly carefully planned, and ad hoc additions from an armed citizenry in Benghazi that includes those that hate us.”
Sherman slammed “unfair attacks” on U.S. Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice for pushing blame on the video.
“She had to rely on the intelligence that was provided. I sat here while Colin Powell provided the intelligence that he had regarding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq,” he said. “Ultimately, State Department personnel have to rely on the intelligence reports they’re given. And Susan Rice’s integrity, capacity and record are beyond question. There is no political reason for the administration to have characterized this attack one way or the other.”
Sherman also doubted whether even a few more security personnel would have mattered.
“We’re here today discussing whether we should have had two or four, or maybe even five security personnel on site,” he said. “It’s by no means clear that that would not have simply led to more deceased security personnel. With the number of guns on Benghazi, the number of militias in Benghazi, it is by no means certain that even five of our finest security personnel could have been successful against this attack.”
More: Top House Intelligence Dem: Whether Rice Lied ‘Not an Issue’
What gets lost in this is that, in reaction to the film/protest story, Obambus and Hildabeast were out there apologizing for it and accepting that it was largely our fault (even though Obambus also scolded the killers saying it was no excuse). CJCS Admiral Freakin’ Mullen was calling that Florida preacher and trying to blame it on him. In retrospect, there is a question whether even the protest against the film was a pretense by Muslim Brotherhood forces who had a 9/11 protest scheduled and were just looking for material.
I’d agree with Sherman that it can be a little of this and that – even if it’s only 5% or 10% film protest – UNTIL he starts defending Susan Rice. And sadly the analogy with Colin Powell is acute. Once a high-ranking official shows himself a dupe, willing or otherwise (we can debate which is worse), he or she is done. Rice is poisoned by her act, and there is no recovery. If Obambus is responsible for her clown act, then it’s on him, but for Obambus to push her forward anyway is outside of the way things work. Nobody will ever believe a word she says, not domestic and not foreign audiences. How can anyone be Secretary of State in that way?
Ah, I forgot the finishing flourish: Just ask Mitt’s father George Romney with his “brainwashing” episode. No recovery. Maybe even for the son.
Don’t let the fact of there having been no mob interrupt your fascinating narrative.
– pretty to think so? (as Papa Hemingway wrote)
Cognitive dissonance has gripped many in the west, and Dems in Congress are especially susceptible, particularly since they are led by a radical fringe.
IF the POTUS said that pigs fly, they would parrot his narrative. So too would the complaint media.
But never mind. Reality has a way of seeping into ones daydreams, even if fierce resistance is at play. Now, if the addled Dem needs some schooling, yours truly would be pleased to educate him – http://adinakutnicki.com/2012/11/11/benghazigate-theory-revealed-at-this-blog-shored-up-by-lt-col-ralph-peters-overall-theory-leading-to-petraeus-resignation-too-commentary-by-adina-kutnicki/
Did I miss something? Has someone come forth with evidence that there was a mob protest at the consulate in Benghazi before the coordinated terrorist attack began?
‘Cause last I heard, no such protest was seen there. Which would kind of throw a wrench into this guy’s speculation.
Bingo, I was thinking the exact same thing…
“Why Can’t Benghazi Be BOTH Terror Attack and Mob Protest?”
I’m pretty sure this would require some actual EVIDENCE that there was a mob protest. Everything I’ve read about this, clearly there weren’t any youtube protesters there at all.
There’s plenty of evidence… lots of video… but no mobs…
Don’t forget the $70,000 worth of ads used to promote the video after the attacks that ran in Middle Eastern countries. It seems that Obama and Hiliary are the ones who stirred the pot by promoting the video trying to get their version to fit the lies they told to coverup their failure to act.
I’ve been in a couple of protests in my time. We didn’t have any mortar crews. We didn’t have any rocket propelled grenades. No government officials were raped and then murdered. Mr. Sherman, was I just not at the right protest demonstrations, or are things different where you come from?
Maybe you weren’t doing it right?
I take it you weren’t part of “just a guy in the neighborhoods’” Weather Underground protests then.
Yeah, they’re planning to rape the USA just like those “protestors” did our dead Ambassador…
How do these idiots get elected and reelected? Next thing you know, this guy will be worrying about Long Island tipping over from all the people there to help with the Sandy clean up.
Americans are for the most part stupid and willing to believe ass-raping liars and looters wearing expensive suits as long as no one interrupts their bread and circuses…
Would someone please quote Rice to Sherman? She said it was a spontaneous protest and was not “pre-planned.” That is, she clearly implied that there was no organization at all, which led to the jokes about ordinary Libyans carrying rocket propelled grenades. Sherman’s words convict Rice rather than defending her.
On five TV shows…
Not to be snarky, but Colin Powell presented an intelligence analysis about weapons programs; he didn’t give a briefing about events that transpired. Rep Sherman talks about the intelligence “community” and the briefings they all received concerning 9/12/2012. What we would all like to know who briefed whom? And lest we forget, live footage from drones and satellites (not to mention audio feeds, emails, and IMs) were all available to President Obama, VP Biden,Sec Penetta, and General Dempsey during the evening of 9/11/2012. And all of those communications were put under lock and key on 9/12 per the President’s direction. Remember, the WH is treating this as a crime.
There is quite a bit of misdirection here. The WH is acting as if they were not involved with the Bengahzi attacks, and that all of thier info is coming by way of the “intelligence community” (but, no names are given). In fact, the main players of this entire fiasco had a front row seat to a massacre. There was no need for Petraeous as the Commander in Chief saw everything. Rice didn’t get her info from the “intelligence community”; she obviously lied as the President knew exactly what went down. If she didn’t lie, then the President set up his own UN Sec.
Rep Sherman is doing what Dems do best- political misdirection.
Well said.
There was some reluctance on the part of the White House to call this a terrorist attack rather than a demonstration that got out of hand. Now we hear from Rep. Sherman (D-Calif.) with his absurd equivocation. It wasn’t a protest, but I don’t think that it was a terrorist attack either. This was a commando raid. Except that the attackers did not use helicopters, it resembled the operation that took out bin Laden. Their goal was not to incite terror, as terrorists do, but to achieve a military objective using small unit tactics on a company scale, and a variety of weapons, including mortars. The attackers’ military discipline is evident in their willingness to take a reported 60 casualties to achieve their objective.
Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.)…2+ months after the fact…
Following Obama’s pretend outrage yesterday on sycophant-in-waiting Susan Rice’s fidelity to the administration lie, the camp followers start dancing in tune.
It’s what they do, wear you out on any topic, any controversy, any outrage.
Next thing you know, Benghazi will be a damn garden party that just got rained out with mortars and missiles.
It was all Bush’s fault…
The early videos of the CIA facility clearly showed the barred and locked area which the ambassador took refuge in while the attack was going on. Clearly this was a pen designed to keep prisoners from getting out, rather than preventing attackers from getting in. The interrogation theory has much merit. We need the truth to be revealed.
Why not a Halloween party that just got out of hand?
Makes as much sense as the good Congressman.
Why can’t you be half-wit and witless at the same time?
Sherman also doubted whether even a few more security personnel would have mattered.
Does Sherman “doubt” that Ambassador Stevens had been describing the deteriorating security situation for months in cables to the state dept., including one sent the day of the attack ? That Stevens had described the compound as indefensible and had detailed the rise of Al Qaeda affiliated groups in eastern Libya, specifically in and around Benghazi ?
Doe Sherman doubt that the state dept. had turned down security requests ?
Or the House testimony about a month ago from the 2 security guys most intimately aware of the deteriorating situation ?
This representative from California is yet another Congressional puke.
You guys are so spitting mad all the time that you don’t bother to come up with a coherent story. I doubt if anybody was very clear on what happened at Benghazi that night. For that matter, since Libya is still a very wild and wooly place, I’m not sure we can ever expect to get a full accounting. Main thing, though, is why anybody would think that it would benefit Obama’s people to make up one story or another. Terrorist groups are a fact of our world that nobody denies, after all; and the unhappiness of Muslims with the video is not a secret either. The situation isn’t like what happened in the run up to the Iraqi war when Bush’s folks told a series of whoppers over a long period of time.
By the way, if you really want better security at diplomatic stations, you might want to stop opposing funding for such improved security instead of trying to starve the State Department. Just a suggestion.
Main thing, though, is why anybody would think that it would benefit Obama’s people to make up one story or another.
Benghazi happened just one week following democrat after democrat huffing over the death of bin Laden at their convention, patting themselves on the back that, in killing one flea bitten sick old man, they’d demolished Al Qaeda.
Inconvenient to have AQ groups killing 4 Americans a week later in a coordinated, planned attack.
There’s a lot more I could type at you, but I get the idea I’d be wasting my time.
You should really only spend time responding to Adult, Intelligent, Mature Human Beings.
Jim Harrison is not an Adult, is clearly Unintelligent, sees no good reason to bother trying to be Mature, and is therefore not worth regarding as a Human Being anymore.
Let the Trolls starve to death, and let the jackals fight over their innards and finally their bones.
Pure idiots I can ignore, but Jim has that irresistible smug air about him.
It’s hard to ignore the self-righteous and preachy know-it-alls.
I know, I’ve been there too.
Now I take what comfort I can knowing that this is the “interweb” and in real life I can trip over his dead body on the street and not recognize him, nor care beyond the obvious public health issues.
I do sometimes wonder, though, are some of these Trolls in fact the same person? And if PJMedia really wanted to make this site more of site for real debate, could they effectively block them by taking advantage of the fact that you or I have to submit our email addresses to post comments.
Touching on the substance of the article, I am not certain I would have given Idiot California Democrat Congressman (I repeated myself at least once there) the free publicity by repeating his remarks, much less acknowledging his existence.
He is the Peanut Gallery. The tragedy and travesty is taking place in the Big Ring that is the White House, and that’s all I need to hear about or discuss.
As usual Dems are delusional or brain dead or both.They will say anything to save their leader. It is this delusion of theirs that is taking country down.
“With the number of guns on Benghazi, the number of militias in Benghazi, it is by no means certain that even five of our finest security personnel could have been successful against this attack.”
If that’s true, then why was the attack made only AFTER the State Department withdrew the additional security force from the Benghazi consulate? While those security forces were there, there were attacks made on the consulate (one of them blew a large hole in the wall) but no major attacks were made with heavy weapons, like mortars or RPGs.
But AFTER this small security detachment was withdrawn, over the protests of our ambassador to Libya, then the attack took place on the anniversary of 9/11. That is too much of a conincidence. Even a small number of Delta Force-style troops could put up a formidable defense of a consulate, or at least hold out until help arrived. But it looks like nobody sent that help and when you decide to let troops twist in the wind like that don’t be surprised if they all end up dead, no matter how good they are.
Rep. Brad Sherman provides a plausible position but omits the most important point. The Benghazi attack, which killed a US Ambassador, occurred at the end of a Presidential campaign in which most people were trying to judge which is the most competent Commander-in-Chief. It is an absolute certainty that all voters went to their election centers without a true accounting on this Casus belli. All Americans can be certain that officials in our government are either liars, or grossly incompetent. They can not quickly deduce that accurate mortar and heavy machine gun fire does not come from a mob. They fumbled as trained US anti terror units were ordered to stand down in an event they could have helped. These people have American blood on their hands, but their identity and position is still unknown. Ambassador Rice may be the best UN ambassador ever to serve, but until her false report is clearly explained, a brick should be place on her career advancement. It is too late for the Presidential decisions by the voters. We were, and are, kept in the dark, and fed nonsense. The question is who and why. Somebody should be fired.
Hard to believe that any rational person thinks the attack on the consulate was a casus belli since there was not and is not any indication that the government of Libya, such as it is, had anything to do with and most Libyans appear to be on our side.
If you are extremely partisan and spend all your time talking to other true believers, you may actually convince yourself that a small-scale incident in a perpetually unsettled part of the world has many political implications. I don’t know if we handled things as well as we could have in Benghazi, but this was at worst a tactical error, not some giant strategic blunder like Iraq that killed hundreds of thousands of people and was supported by months and months of studied lies delivered by high governmental officials. (I assume that Mr. Halls has previously called for George Bush to be hanged, assuming that as a good engineer he keeps his proportions constant.)
It’s perhaps of no interest to you, but I would like to know why the president for two weeks sent his spokesperson on the matter out to talk about protests and videos when he and everyone else in his administration knew full well the attack was about neither. Why did he cast Susan Rice in that role the first place? As he pointed out yesterday, she had nothing to do with Benghazi. No, she didn’t and maybe, just maybe, that was exactly the point. Couldn’t send someone from State, Defense, Intelligence or the White House out there to spin a tale they knew was patently false. The best that can be said about Rice is that she was played for a fool. Perhaps the promise of a promotion is her reward for unwittingly assuming the role of court jester.
And what was going on in Benghazi anyhow? That is perhaps of no interest to you either, but I’d like to know. We’ve heard talk of a detention center and of gun running to Syrian rebels. Whatever the truth is, we’re entitled to it. And we’re certainly entitled to know why we were subjected to such prolonged obfuscation.
We don’t know a heck of a lot, but we do know that the consulate in Benghazi was largely a CIA operation. I’m getting the impression that some Republicans in Congress are backing off from this manufactured scandal because they’re getting briefings about what was actually going on. Of course there may be some who put political advantage above national interest—it’s getting to be something of a Republican specialty—but I’m guessing that this affair won’t make waves for very much longer. That would be a good bet even if there were some there there—it surely wouldn’t be what you lot think—since most of the nation doesn’t buy into your paranoid theories that Obama is really a crypto-Muslim, Communist, anti-American something or other.
The difference between Democratic and Republican foreign policy has been that the Dems get what they want for the nation at low costs in lives and property (Kosovo, Libya) while the Republicans fail to get what they want for the country (Iraq, Afghanistan) and bankrupt us in the process.
Hey, pal, all I want to know is what was going on out there, why those four men were abandoned to die and why the administration with intent and malice of forethought lied about it. I’m not interested in any of your extraneous, irrelevant BS flapjaw. And if you can find someplace where I’ve posited “paranoid theories” about Obama being a “crypto-Muslim, communist, anti-American something or other,” please lead me to it.
Life is too short to waste on Trolls like Jim Harrison.
And wasting the time of people who are clearly and demonstrably his spiritual and intellectual betters is his life’s work.
Ignore him and let him gnash his teeth in frustration.
I value facts.
Killing an Ambassador is a Casus belli.
All Americans went to the polls without knowing that al-Qaeda was involved in a military attack. We do today because Gen. David Petraeus told Congress that was his assessment as the fight continued. We do not why Ambassador Rice misled Americans immediately before the election, but we are certain she spoke falsehoods.
We do know that we had sufficient military assets to overcome the attack, but our people were ordered to stand down.
And the United States of America has expended a trillion dollars in a war in Iraq that lasted ten years without a Declaration of War being passed by Congress.
I do not think there is enough rope to hang all the liars in Washington D. C., if this was legal.
To Rep. Sherman, this is AMERICA and no ones record is “beyond question”. A responsible Republic questions everything!
Rep. Brad Sherman, it wasn’t a mob because there was no mob at Benghazi. Maybe you should actually pay attention to testimony at these hearings.
Because General Hamm ordered a drone with live camera feed, an order which got him fired the very same evening. The camera showed, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that it was a terrorist attack, not a mob protest. This thing most likely happened because at the CIA compound/ annex (NOT consulate) from which they were running guns to the terrorists, they were also holding S-Queda-affiliated prisoners.