Posted on 09/29/2012 11:12:59 AM PDT by Starman417
What did they know and when did they know it?
ABC News yesterday:
Panetta today said that the attack that killed four Americans on the anniversary of 9/11 was not only carried out by terrorists — it was pre-meditated.“As we determined the details of what took place there and how that attack took place,” Panetta told reporters, “it became clear that there were terrorists who had planned that attack.”
Duh:
For nine days, the Obama administration made a case that virtually everyone understood was untrue: that the killing of our ambassador and three other Americans in Benghazi, Libya, was a random, spontaneous act of individuals upset about an online video—an unpredictable attack on a well-protected compound that had nothing do to with the eleventh anniversary of 9/11.These claims were wrong. Every one of them. But the White House pushed them hard.
~~~ Intelligence officials understood immediately that the attacks took place on 9/11 for a reason. The ambassador, in a country that faces a growing al Qaeda threat, had virtually no security. The two contractors killed in the attacks were not part of the ambassador’s security detail, and there were not, in fact, “many other colleagues” working security with them.
The nature of the attack itself, a four-hour battle that took place in two waves, indicated some level of planning. “The idea that this criminal and cowardly act was a spontaneous protest that just spun out of control is completely unfounded and preposterous,” Libyan president Mohammad el-Megarif told National Public Radio. When a reporter asked Senator Carl Levin, one of the most partisan Democrats in the upper chamber, if the attack was planned, Levin said it was. “I think there’s evidence of that. There’s been evidence of that,” he responded, adding: “The attack looked like it was planned and premeditated, sure.” Levin made his comments after a briefing from Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta.
Representative Adam Smith, a Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, agreed. “This was not just a mob that got out of hand. Mobs don’t come in and attack, guns blazing. I think that there is a growing consensus it was preplanned.” And according to CNN, Undersecretary of State Patrick Kennedy “has said that the attack appeared to be planned because it was so extensive and because of the ‘proliferation’ of small and medium weapons at the scene.” Not only was the attack planned, it appears there was no protest at all. Citing eyewitnesses, CBS News reported late last week: “There was never an anti-American protest outside the consulate.”
So we are left with this: Four Americans were killed in a premeditated terrorist attack on the eleventh anniversary of 9/11, and for more than a week the Obama administration misled the country about what happened.
ABC News:
The White House first suggested the attack was spontaneous — the result of an anti-Muslim video that incited mobs throughout the region.“Let’s be clear, these protests were in reaction to a video that had spread to the region,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said on September 14.
When ABC News pressed Carney on whether that included the Benghazi attack, in which U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other American men were killed, Carney said, “we certainly don’t know. We don’t know otherwise. We have no information to suggest that it was a preplanned attack.”
On THIS WEEK on September 16, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said, “our current best assessment, based on the information that we have at present, is that, in fact, what this began as, it was a spontaneous – not a premeditated – response to what had transpired in Cairo. In Cairo, as you know, a few hours earlier, there was a violent protest that was undertaken in reaction to this very offensive video that was disseminated. We believe that folks in Benghazi, a small number of people came to the embassy to – or to the consulate, rather, to replicate the sort of challenge that was posed in Cairo. And then as that unfolded, it seems to have been hijacked, let us say, by some individual clusters of extremists who came with heavier weapons… And it then evolved from there.”
White House officials acknowledge that assessments have changed over time as intelligence has been confirmed, but they insist that no information was given in bad faith and there was no attempt to downplay the attack.
Yet that seems to be exactly what took place. If they didn't have enough information to comment, then they should have simply said so. Instead, they misled the public into the "blame-video" belief that the Benghazi attack was not an act of terrorism on the 11th anniversary of 9/11, but a spontaneous, angry reaction to the YouTube video, "The Innocence of Muslims", by the Perpetually Outraged. Those who planned the attack which killed Ambassador Chris Stevens, former Navy SEALs Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods, and Foreign Service Officer Sean Smith, are said to have taken opportunistic advantage of the video flare-up; but this isn't really known. What does appear to be the case, however, is the Obama Administration seizing political opportunism to blame the consulate attack on the video protest and divert attention.
(excerpt) Read more at floppingaces.net...
Innocence? More like guilty as hell.
Where?
Ask yourself why the ambassador was that far from the embassy when the terrorist attack went down. I suspect the ambassador was negotiating arms assistance for Syrian rebels.
Ask yourself why the ambassador was that far from the embassy when the terrorist attack went down. I suspect the ambassador was negotiating arms assistance for Syrian rebels.
And 47% still want him/them. I think I will throw up now.
Well said. GOD help us.
Rice sure gave a pretty detailed account of the moment by moment description of events progressing during the “mob action” ( during her account on the Sunday show) especially since the administration, by her later account, really was only going on “what we believed at the time”
Any decent police detective would have laughed in her face over these bald faced lies.
If we had anything more than a truly do nothing congress right now, Hillary, Rice and Obama would be scheduled for House testimony no later than Monday! This is a national disgrace that congress will not do it’s duty! Cowed by political correctness. (they’re women, women of color and a black president).
Why bother to deny that it was a terrorist attack?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.