Recently the tragic anniversary of the Benghazi Attack which took place on September 11th, transpired. Even though authorities had been warned that this symbolic date of another tragedy that occurred at the Twin Towers in New York City in 2001, apparently the coming presidential election too priority over the security measures at the US Embassy in Benghazi, Libya.
Where a short time before an overthrow had taken place that would serve to destabilize the region, the Obama State Department took little heed under the leadership of Hillary Rodham Clinton.Justice still not served!
To date we have no effective investigations that have led to the arrests of those who allowed criminal negligence and traitorous disregard for the safety of American State Department employees overseas in a hostile environment to happen under their watch. Aside from one scapegoat who supposedly planned the attacks from inside Libya, the insiders are untouched! Despite several books written by former special forces personnel who served as CIA contractors in the region or were present in military units tasked with protecting US assets in this hot spot, still the culprits have not been brought to justice even though many are convinced they reside in the White House!
Just what do we know?
What do we know now that we did not know then? Not very much despite special reports from Fox News, about the only media source that has continued to focus on this tragedy based upon the failure of the Obama Administration foreign policy, stonewalling by the White House has continued.
When even former CIA Director, Leon Panetta, tells you in his recent book that he advised the President, who refused to accept the fact that the attacks were coordinated and well-armed thus negating the demonstrators who have gotten out of hand scenario, you can bet a cover-up was involved.CIA Director comes clean
As Panetta pointed out to President Obama, you don’t bring mortars and howitzers to a protest that spontaneously turned violent. You don’t make excuses and label insignificant events like a little known film that might have offended extremist Muslims made by an obscure Christian Producer, who happened to be Egyptian either. For that matter, you don’t arrest and detain that little known film producer Gestapo style and hold him for weeks without proving that he has done anything when it was the incredible bungling of events by the White House themselves that brought about the disaster.
An admiral weighs in
When retired 4 Star Admiral James Lyons revealed his intelligence information on an attempted scheme gone bad as would have been deemed the “October Surprise” that would have restored President Obama’s flagging poll numbers, the reprehensible nature of one of the worst days in US foreign operations ever in history. According to Admiral Lyons, a supposed hostage crisis was to take place with Ambassador Stevens being as the prized possession of his terrorist captives with President Obama taking credit for a brilliant negotiation move that would have averted a messy diplomatic incident. However, the whole situation went awry as Navy Seal body guards doing their duty began inflicting heavy casualties among the culprits who were to carry out their deceptive mission.
As the plot failed
Enraged by what they considered to be a betrayal, Libyan terrorists began their siege of the US Consulate compound in earnest with artillery, heavy assault weapons, and scores of gunmen. This facility, which Ambassador Stevens has pleaded with Hillary Clinton for weeks as being indefensible and had already had a hole blown out of the perimeter walls days earlier was nothing more than a death trap for our Ambassador and the staff of this besieged installation. With his urgent requests for reinforcements denied, the inevitable was most likely anticipated and for reasons not immediately apparent. When the security guards were allowing attackers through the entrances of the compound minutes before all hell broke loose, it is quite obvious that an orchestrated plan was emerging.
Another Fast and Furious?
Ambassador Stevens acting under orders had become a regional arms dealer. He had been coordinating arms distribution to Syrian rebels by trafficking them over Turkish soil to the border. Much like a Middle Eastern version of a “Fast and Furious” gun walking operation that we saw between the US and Mexican borders, our Ambassador had been trying to locate arms that has been shipped to militants in the area. The results however would prove to be even more devastating than the deaths of a couple of US Border Patrol Agents. As not only did the Benghazi consulate fall but another 20 US diplomatic facilities from North Africa to the Middle East came under attack and were burned down!
All Agree
The most infuriating part in all this and a point that all who have released books on the subject who were there and saw what happened are in agreement on one common denominator. This is the damning truth that should never have been overlooked or ignored. Our rescue forces in the region who could have responded by air and ground such as AFRICOM under General Carter Ham, a neighboring CIA post, Naval Air assets in Tripoli and many others were ordered to stand down! Military operations are extremely compartmentalized as lesser commands who inherit the order from higher up only receive their orders from immediate superior officers in a long chain of protocol.
Arriving at the truth
However in all the smoke and mirrors attempted by the Obama White House to redirect responsibility and deflect guilt there is one outstanding fact that has been intentionally glossed over time and time again when the question arises, “who gave the orders to stand down?” The question has been posed, just who gave the order? There is one undeniable fact in all this. Indeed, there was one individual who was authorized to give a stand down order in the course of all the time lines of who knew when and the chronology of the disaster.
The buck stops here!
Only the President had the overriding authority to order the stand down under the emergency situation that existed, was being monitored real time in the White House Situation Room and various other intelligence agencies, had an Army unit that was operating a drone that was filming the attack, and regardless of lame excuses, was providing immediate coverage of the unfolding 7 hour assault. In that long drawn out battle surely response was a viable option! Yet, it was prevented by the order of an executive who made it quite clear what his priorities were when he had a campaign fundraiser to attend packed with celebrities he was just dying to rub elbows with! After all, according to accounts he went to bed to get much needed rest as American lives hung in the balance!
In Part II we will explore the grim ramifications of the White House’s intentional negligence and how it affected the region as well as US interests.