Obama Knew Benghazi Was Terrorism and Did Nothing
IBDEditorials.com
Credibility: When President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton stepped into the Rose Garden the morning of Sept. 12, they likely knew the attack on our Benghazi consulate the day before was organized by terrorists.
They knew because they were likely privy to a flurry of emails among administration officials discussing the attack in real time. Yet they said nothing about what they knew and, worse, had done nothing to mount a rescue despite American forces being less than an hour away during the seven-hour blitz.
According to Fox News, 300 to 400 national security figures received these emails in real time almost as the raid was playing out and concluding. These people work directly under the nation's top national security, military and diplomatic officials.
The first email was sent at 4:05 p.m. Washington time, about 25 minutes after the attack began, with the subject line "U.S. Diplomatic Mission in Benghazi Under Attack (SBU)" It read: "Embassy Tripoli reports approximately 20 armed people fired shots; explosions have been heard as well. Ambassador Stevens, who is currently in Benghazi, and four COM (chief of mission) personnel are in the compound safe haven."
In the flurry of emails that fateful day and night, there was no mention of a protest turned violent by a little-seen, months-old Internet video trailer. But in a third email, sent at 6:07 p.m. to a distribution list that included the White House Situation Room and titled "Update 2: Ansar al-Sharia Claims Responsibility for Benghazi Attack (SBU)," was this gem: "Embassy Tripoli reports the group claimed responsibility on Facebook and Twitter and has called for an attack on Embassy Tripoli."
Granted, false claims of responsibility for terrorist acts are often made and must be verified. But no mentions of the real-time heads-up were made by Obama, Secretary of State Clinton, Press Secretary Jay Carney or U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice. Instead they proceeded for weeks to pursue a lie agreed upon: that a video offensive to Islam prompted the assault that killed our Libyan ambassador and three other Americans.
We already knew the CIA station chief in Libya had reported to Washington within 24 hours of the deadly attack that there was evidence it was carried out by militants, not a spontaneous mob upset about an American-made video ridiculing Islam's Prophet Muhammad.
How could emails be sent to the White House Situation Room in real time describing a terrorist attack on sovereign U.S. territory in which four Americans were killed as it happened, and as a drone flew overhead recording the truth of the carnage, and the president and secretary of state insist that it was all about a video and there was no evidence to the contrary?
Could it be the cover story was necessary so no one would ask the obvious question of why a rescue or relief mission was not mounted? Retired CIA officer Gary Berntsen, who commanded counterterrorism missions targeting Osama bin Laden and led the team that responded after the bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa, believes help could and should have been sent.
Within an hour's flight from Libya, at the large naval air station in Sigonella, Italy, and at bases in nearby Aviano and Souda Bay, were fighters and AC130 gunships that can be extremely effective in dispersing crowds or responding to a terrorist assault.
"You find a way to make this happen," Berntsen said. "There isn't a plan for every single engagement. Sometimes you have to be able to make adjustments. They made zero adjustments in this. They stood and they watched and our people died."