It’s not just photos that may have been taken by the White House photographer. There are numerous paper trails that would shed new light on Obama’s activities after the attack began.
Consider this: when terrorists began their assault on the U.S. consulate, that would have generated a CRITICOM message from NSA, and that reporting would have continued throughout the night. CRITICOM traffic, previously known as a FLASH/CRITIC, must be delivered to the POTUS and other senior officials within 10 minutes.
To date, I’m not aware of any journalist who has pursued the CRITIC timeline on the night of the attack. Likewise, there should be Secret Service logs that track the President’s movements within the White House.
My personal theory: Obama met with SecDef Panetta and JCS Chairman Dempsey at 5:30 pm. They probably told him there were few military options and the situation would probably end badly. So, he decamped for the residence quarters and made himself unavailable for the rest of the night. Meanwhile, the minions began looking for a scapegoat, which led them to the infamous “Mohammmed” video.
“Mr. President. We have been contacted by the people attacking the embassy in Benghazi. They say that they want weapons, night vision equipment, armored vehicles and money. They will release the ambassador after you agree to their demands.”
“Tell them we need time.”
“Mr. President.....they say they have killed the ambassador. They say they will begin killing the CIA personnel unless their demands are met.”
“Tell them we agree to their demands.”
“They want to be sure that this is your decision. They want you to blame this on a video.”
Benghazi’s Smoking Gun? Only President Can Give ‘Cross-Border Authority’
Here is my comment posted on the IBD article, FWIW.
Even after all of this time, the lack of an external (forces coming from outside Libya) Benghazi rescue attempt still boils down to something called Cross-Border Authority. Only the POTUS can grant CBA, nobody else on earth can give it. The battles in Benghazi lasted for over 10 hours, and nobody in Washington could know if it might last another 10. It could have been a protracted “Black Hawk Down” situation.
But if Obama hides, disappears, then no CBA can be granted. No CBA, no external rescue. This is why the only pitifully small rescue force came from Tripoli—those forces were already in Libya and not subject to CBA. They could be sent on the order of the acting ambassador. But even an F-16 supersonic fly-over required CBA. It was not granted, and so there was no fighter-jet fly over, much less AC-130s Specter gunships, or other theater rapid response forces that were ready to launch.
Obama broke the faith, his obligation to send a rescue force to Americans under siege in battle.
While “his good friend Chris” and the other Americans were dying, our commander-in-chief was literally HIDING, so that nobody in the situation room could pin him down to either grant or refuse CBA. Anytime you hear about “stand down orders” in relation to external rescue forces, you know the reporters are still not on the right track. No “stand down order” needs to be given to prevent an external rescue mission. It’s a matter of not granting CBA, not issuing “stand down orders.”
WHEN WHEN WHEN will these lazy and stupid reporters ever figure out the right questions to ask? Obama’s whereabouts are “unknown” because he was in hiding.
A “Black Hawk Down” battle in Benghazi raging just weeks before the election would have sunk his chances. Instead, he “wrote off” the embattled American team in Benghazi, preferring them to be massacred, as long as he could escape the blame for the attacks.
Instead granting CBA and sending rescue forces, the first instinct of Obama, Jarrett and Hillary was to shift the blame for the attack onto the obscure “Mohammed video,” which they probably had kept on ice as an option for when things might go disastrously south in the Middle East. Injecting a “false narrative” as a cover story was their immediate choice. Hence Susan Rice and the false video narrative.
They let the Americans die. Obama hid like a coward, to avoid being put on the spot to grant CBA. WHEN will one of you genius reporters ever learn to ask the right questions????
Personally, I think he was stoned on cocaine or something else.
Barry was getting boned up the arse By Reggie while Benghazi was happening.
He was super HIGH, right..?
So our guys simply fought until they died.
Oh, that's easy.
It's b/c Obama was in Valerie Jarrett's office looking over his holdings. He couldnt be expected to leave b/c Valerie was setting up yet another offshore account for him, and he had to jot down the secret account number.
The republican leadership support the O, so they will do nothing.
Benghazi ping.
Let Republicanprofessor know if you want on or off this list.
Sorry for the late ping; I just found it.
Sharyl is an extremely brave woman.
I hope she has a good bodyguard.