Posted on 02/08/2013 4:28:30 PM PST by Kaslin
We didn’t get to this yesterday, but it’s definitely worth watching — especially for the skill shown by Lindsey Graham in his examination of Leon Panetta and General Martin Dempsey. The headline takeaway will be what is remembered most: the revelation that Barack Obama never bothered to keep in touch with his chair of the Joint Chiefs and Secretary of Defense after being informed that an American consulate was under attack from terrorists.
But if that’s all you hear from this, you’re missing the big picture. Graham managed to elicit a number of damaging statements from the two. Not one aircraft had been deployed during the attack; not one boot left the ground outside of Libya. As far as the 281 concurrent threat reports that Panetta and Dempsey claimed kept them from considering Benghazi a special threat, Graham asks how many of those cables came from US Ambassadors stating specifically (as Stevens’ did) that an American installation was incapable of defending itself against a sustained attack and that government buildings nearby were flying al-Qaeda flags — “because I want to know about them, if they do,” Graham adds. Dempsey tries to push that off to State, at which time Graham informs Dempsey that Hillary Clinton claimed never to have seen that cable, even though Dempsey clearly had, which he admits is “surprising.”
Graham then circles back to the lack of action from the White House once the attack was under way:
Lindsey Graham Hammers Leon Panetta & Gen Dempsey on Benghazi and not getting troops there
SEN. GRAHAM: Are you surprised that the president of the United States never called you, Secretary Panetta, and say, ‘how’s it going?’SEC. PANETTA: I — you know, normally in these situations –
SEN. GRAHAM: Did he know the level of threat that –
SEC. PANETTA: Let — well, let me finish the answer. We were deploying the forces. He knew we were deploying the forces. He was being kept updated –
SEN. GRAHAM: Well, I hate to interrupt you, but I got limited time. We didn’t deploy any forces. Did you call him back — wait a minute –
SEC. PANETTA: No, but the event — the event was over by the time we got –
SEN. GRAHAM: Mr. Secretary, you didn’t know how long the attack would last. Did you ever call him and say, Mr. President, it looks like we don’t have anything to get there anytime soon?
SEC. PANETTA: The event was over before we could move any assets.
SEN. GRAHAM: It lasted almost eight hours. And my question to you is during that eight-hour period, did the president show any curiosity about how’s this going, what kind of assets do you have helping these people? Did he ever make that phone call?
SEC. PANETTA: Look, there is no question in my mind that the president of the United States was concerned about American lives and, frankly, all of us were concerned about American lives.
SEN. GRAHAM: With all due respect, I don’t believe that’s a credible statement if he never called and asked you, are we helping these people; what’s happening to them? We have a second round, and we’ll take it up then.
Graham just demolished the entire White House defense on Benghazi in less than ten minutes of cross-examination.
Thread BUMP!
R.I.P. Doherty, Smith, Stevens, Woods. Condolences to their families and friends.
BTTT
SEN. GRAHAM: It lasted almost eight hours. And my question to you is during that eight-hour period, did the president show any curiosity about how’s this going, what kind of assets do you have helping these people? Did he ever make that phone call?
SEC PANETTA: Look, there is no question in my mind that the president of the United States was concerned about American lives and, frankly, all of us were concerned about American lives.
SEN. GRAHAM: With all due respect, I don’t believe that’s a credible statement if he never called and asked you, are we helping these people; what’s happening to them? We have a second round, and we’ll take it up then.
Anyone remember the "Message: I care" snafu of George Herbert Walker Bush? The press elected Clinton on its back .... that and the grocery checkout scanner. And of course during the debate he looked at his watch while Crinton was lying.
So how 'bout it, MediaLiars? Linda asked Lenny The Tool a direct question and Lenny pops this "Message: We care" b.s. that flopped back in 1992.
Panetta is covering for Obama. Its like giving an alibi for a murderer by saying he was with you committing a drug transaction. Obama is going for the lesser of the evils here. He was fully involved but had no intention of saving anyone. All he wanted was all witnesses gone, anyone else killed and all evidence cleared and destroyed.
Obama had to order the “stand down”. He sure wasn’t walking around the WH before going to bed. He was in the Situation room giving orders for the RECON teams to “scrub the scene”. Remember the news org. found some documents. Obams team couldn’t even clean up the scene correctly. Was Stevens raped? Who really knows. Could be a smoke screen. Supposedly, several militants were killed. Who were they? Who cleaned it up. How many were killed and where were they located(two scenes). I think Panetta is stringing this out. There is more to this than “Obama was aloof”.
That's been his mo for years now.
His job responsibilities are always managed by someone else.Someone who actually has a clue what they are doing or Chicagoed their way in to the job.
If we find out who was really in charge which will be a musical chairs affair, we will find out who was really calling the shots that night if anyone.
If you don't order anything and are not there to contact,....did the tree really fall in the forest? MOre deny-ability. How plausible will be the result of the New Media vs. the Old Media. Who can do a better job of truth telling vs. hiding the truth.
BINGO!!
Exactly. If nbcabccbscnnpmsnbc never reported it, it simply never happened. This is how Obama apparently went to bed, played golf, got drunk or take your pick while Bengahzi was going down, the worst dereliction of duty case in modern history by a US president, and won re-election. It didn’t help that the repubs fielded a weak RINO candidate who wouldn’t bring this up for whatever reason (fear of being labeled a racist).
As long as the media propagandists are disseminating their version of events and suppressing the truth, why should we hope there will be change?
Where are the 30 survivors of Benghazi? Are they ok?
It will never happen....we’re stuck with this SOB....And these old s(ummy b@stards in Congress....No one crokes???? There gonna outlive us all!!!!!
Exactly. Look back through the thread (and previous threads) at the questions and relate them to their responses, these hearings, coverage, representation. Control. Control. Control.
Questions not asked, answers not forthcoming.
TREASON...continuous, in real-time, agency-abetted, on display, in-your-face, unchallenged, pre-meditated, unquestioned, ongoing...
Not even questions from Al Gore/Jazeera...(from aljazeera article)...
...David Petraeus, who stepped down from his post as CIA director after the revelation of an extramarital affair, testified on Friday morning at a closed-door congressional hearing about the attack on the US diplomatic mission in Benghazi.
He told lawmakers that he believed all along the deadly attack was "a terrorist attack," according to Peter King, a Republican representative on the House intelligence committee.
"He also stated that he thought all along he made it clear that there were significant terrorist involvement, and that is not my recollection of what he told us on Sept. 14," King said.
Lawmakers say Petraeus told them that CIA talking points written after the attack in Benghazi that killed four Americans referred to it as a terrorist attack. But Petraeus said that reference was removed by other federal agencies that made changes to the CIA's draft.
The attack killed the US ambassador and three other Americans.
His testimony came one day after intelligence officials showed legislators a real-time film of the deadly attack and discussed a timeline of events in sometimes heated closed-door exchanges. The intelligence committees heard from intelligence, FBI and State Department officials.
More questions...not asked.
Source: Al Jazeera And Agencies
Source: Agencies
Some good investigative reporting, eh?
Side note: Quite a scene in Tripoli recently. Check out the fireworks video on this blog...(better than the movies)...
http://khadijateri.blogspot.com
Page 2 of the above bloglink...
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2012
An emotionally charged day
I’m deeply saddened by the attack on the American consulate in Benghazi that resulted in the death of the American ambassador, and other staff members as well as ten Libyans. My condolances to all their family members and friends. All of Libya is grieving. Dismay just isn’t a strong enough word to describe how I felt upon hearing the news.
We spent the day watching the news, keeping up with twitter and facebook, and listening to the sound of drones overhead. In the evening my husband and I took a long walk around the farm, about five kilometres. Drones buzzed above us while in the distance we could hear gunfire from time to time - possibly a wedding?
When we came inside we watched the vote count for the new prime minister. At one point they stopped because someone had put two names on the ballot instead of one. After an argument they started the count over. Exciting to watch, it was a close count! Mustafa Abushagour, Libya’s first democratically elected prime minister won by only two votes.
What a day! It was a day full of emotions; dismay, anger, sadness, disbelief, followed by hope for a better future.
Finally,
we went to bed,
only to toss and turn,
the sound of drones continued
all night long.
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.