Please read #17. It all boils down to granting or withholding Cross-Border Authority. Obama mumbling about “do all you can to secure the folks in Benghazi” has a clear acid-test question.DID YOU GRANT OR WITHHOLD CROSS-BORDER AUTHORITY?
Did the rescue forces have to go to Sigonella and wait, because Obama did not grant CBA?
Simple. He did, or he didn’t. Simple. And a clear record will exist. No obfuscation possible. Clear as ice. CBA given, or not given. Please read 17.
Yeah, I got you. Great point, and thanks for making it so clearly. I think I've seen it on other threads as well.
However, true as it is, it is not mutually exclusive with my point.
Obama may actually have given cross-border authority before he left to go watch some TV and hit the sack. He may have been asked about it and said "sure, weren't you listening, I said do what you have to do."
But even as he said that, he also may have said "just check it with the political side before you go forward."
And when they checked with the political people, they either got a direct "no," or the political people told Panetta and Petraeus and whoever else "go ahead if you want, but if it blows up you own it... every finger is going to be pointing right at you."
Thus, Panetta comes out with is stupid "we didn't have clear intelligence and you can't lay on a military operation unless you know in advance that it's going to succeed" jive BS.
No, I disagree. No “mumbling answers” or “see the political side” can give him wiggle room. CBA is a total yes/no pass/fail litmus test.
The key is the 5pm DC-time oval office meeting with Panetta and Biden. “Do all that you can” is not enough. Panetta would return with, “So, you are granting the military cross-border authority to conduct the rescue mission?”
It’s a yes-no question on CBA. Did he give it, or not? It’s a scepter of authority that POTUS carries, nobody else.
Panetta would not be told, “Check with my politicos.” I call BS on that. Panetta is too cagey to be left holding the bag with ambiguous orders. He would not walk out of the Oval Office with explicit instructions, explicity granting or not granting CBA.
And there is a record of it, believe me. These guys go everywhere with aides and coat holders. At the very least formal level, Panetta, to protect himself, walks out of the Oval Office and tells his aides and the generals flocking to him for instructions, “The President has granted you cross-border authority. Save our consulate. God speed, gentlemen.”
It’s a totally historic moment, this waving of the CBA scepter. There is NO ambiguity about it. It is given, or withheld. No middle ground.
The POTUS doesn’t want a jacked-up jet jockey in hot pursuit, (or a lost SEAL Team squad in a rubber boat), to start WW3 by accident. Crossing an international border with a military force, without permission of the nation invaded, is ONLY up to the POTUS and nobody else.
Always, and every time. This is the one crystal-clear issue in this mess.