White House Tries to Throw Military Under Bus

Weekly Standard ^ | OCT 27, 2012 | DANIEL HALPER

[Snuph]

Yesterday, the CIA insisted that "No one at any level in the CIA told anybody not to help those in need; claims tothe contrary are simply inaccurate." The denial is in reference to the report that the CIA held back forces from helping the Americans who were under attack in Benghazi, Libya on 9/11.

And today, the White House is making a similar claim. "Neither the president nor anyone in the White House denied any requests for assistance in Benghazi," an Obama administration spokesman tells Yahoo's Olivier Knox.

Knox reports:

The White House on Saturday flatly denied that President Barack Obama withheld requests for help from the besieged American compound in Benghazi, Libya, as it came under on attack by suspected terrorists on September 11th. ...

Fox News Channel reported this week that American officials in the compound repeatedly asked for military help during the assault butwere rebuffed by CIA higher-ups. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, asked about that report during a press briefing on Thursday, complained of "Monday-morning quarterbacking" and said he and top military commanders had judged it too dangerous to send troops to the eastern Libyan city without a clearer picture of events on the ground. ...

And the CIA has denied that anyone in its chain of command rejected requests for help from the besieged Americans.

But Weekly Standard Editor Bill Kristol, in a post published Friday, doubted Panetta's explanationand said the fault must lie with Obama himself. "Would the secretary of defense make such a decision on his own? No," Kristol wrote. "It would have been a presidential decision."

"He's wrong," said Vietor.

So, since the the CIA says it wasn't any of their guys, and since the White House is trying to ...

[Army Air Corps]

Ping.

[GeronL]

Only the President can give the go/no go on military activity

[skeeter]

They didn’t deny assistance. They just didn’t answer calls for help.

[Travis McGee]

[muawiyah]

I think everybody knows where the buck stops! Still plenty of time to begin impeaching people ~ maybe start with the CIA director and work our way up ~

Remember, this sort of thing can be totally and disastrously ruinous to somebody who is not independently wealthy and who is not the President.

[Obama_Is_Sabotaging_America]

Yep. Reading this article doesn’t shed any light on who the Commander-In-CHIEF is.

[2ndDivisionVet]

[InvisibleChurch]

We’re running out of buses. Better call that kid in New Orleans to bring another one to DC.

[TigerClaws]

quote:
the minute I found out what was happening, I gave three very clear directives. Number one, make sure that we are securing our personnel and doing whatever we need to. Number two, we’re going to investigate exactly what happened so that it doesn’t happen again. Number three, find out who did this so we can bring them to justice. ~ Obama

CIA said not true. General Ham says not true.

[muawiyah]

"It's 3 a.m. and your children are safe and asleep, but there's a phone in the White House and it's ringing. Something is happening in the world. Your vote will decide who answers that call. Whether it's someone who already knows the world's leaders, knows the military. Someone tested and ready to lead in a dangerous world. It's 3 a.m. and your children are safe and asleep. Who do you want answering the phone?"

I'd say the guy who came up with that Hillary Clinton ad saw the future pretty well.

Except the part where she didn't answer the phone either.

[nuconvert]

Liars

[traditional1]

"Neither the president nor anyone in the White House denied any requests for assistance in Benghazi"

So TYPICAL of Leftists....word-parsing.

What this says is they didn't "deny requests"....

What this does NOT say, is that the Requests were IGNORED, so no response was given, and thus no response occurred....nor did Help get sent.

These bastards involved should be HANGED for Treason.

[Walkingfeather]

Sounds like the president just “didnt make himself available” so that no one could give the go ahead order and he had plausible deniability if it went south. That is what happened. Panetta and the rest are covering for him. What has to happen is the congress needs to ask. Was the president actively involved in decision making in the situation room? Yes or no?

[annieokie]

MUST watch the re run of Judge Jennine Pirro tonight if possible. IT WAS ON FIRE.

COL. HUNT, and others I can't remember. Ty Woods father and siblings, Ann Coulter & Pat Caddell.

Jennine was as furious as we are, Col Hunt called Obama a Coward. Pat Caddell nearly in tears at how the MSN's are handling this.

Go set your recorders, DON'T MISS THIS.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Those were the days! Too bad the press hounded Nixon from office shortly thereafter. He was a man of dignity and honor to resign, unlike recent democrats.

[Snuph]

what time?

[RitaOK]

That’s EXACTLY right.

Go after the administration for watching a slaughter and who simply turned down the volume on all voice transmissions, hearing nothing doing nothing.

[gotribe]

They are not similar claims and they are ambiguous.

CIA said: No one...told anybody not to help those in need...
That doesn’t mean they did not deny help. And it doesn’t mean they said to help.

Obama’s mouthpiece said: (No one) denied any requests for assistance.
That leaves the CIA open to blame. And it doesn’t mean the president requested or provided military assistance - essentially they still haven’t answered the question.

[CodeToad]