Posted on 09/12/2012 5:43:52 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
But what about Romney’s gaffes?
The consulate where the American ambassador to Libya was killed on Tuesday is an “interim facility” not protected by the contingent of Marines that safeguards embassies, POLITICO has learned ...
A senior administration official Wednesday called the Benghazi consulate “an interim facility,” which the State Department began using “before the fall of Qadhafi.” It was staffed Tuesday by Libyan and State Department security officers. The consulate came under fire from heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades at about 10 p.m. local time on Tuesday. By the time the attack ended several hours later, four Americans were dead and three others had been injured.
The Benghazi consulate had “lock-and-key” security, not the same level of defenses as a formal embassy, an intelligence source told POLITICO. That means it had no bulletproof glass, reinforced doors or other features common to embassies. The intelligence source contrasted it with the American embassy in Cairo, Egypt – “a permanent facility, which is a lot easier to defend.” The Cairo embassy also was attacked Tuesday.
There’s not even a pretense of an excuse made there. Whether it’s S.O.P. to deploy Marines to “interim facilities” or not, this was no ordinary facility. It’s an unfortified building in a volatile Muslim city that’s been targeted by jihadis before — and it’s 9/11. Obama had no qualms about sending Marines to Benghazi today to reinforce the building; there’s no reason to think he couldn’t have sent them sooner. So what’s the excuse? Or is he simply counting on the media not to ask him this question? Because if so, I’ve got to tell you — that seems like a smart bet at this point.
Speaking of our concern-troll press corps, here’s Chris Matthews summing up the narrative du jour by insisting that “The tragedy in Benghazi that cost Ambassador Stevens his life unfortunately has been overshadowed by the desperate reach by Mitt Romney to secure political advantage.” Top American diplomat killed by jihadis on September 11th at a consulate with no Marine protection = page two. Romney hitting Bambi hard on it = page one. I’ll leave you with two thoughts. One: Matthews can play dumb all he wants but Romney’s statement about the administration sympathizing with the attackers in Egypt was a perfectly apt way of describing that filthy press release from the Cairo embassy yesterday afternoon. And no, it’s no excuse that the embassy released that statement before protesters stormed the compound later in the day; they emphatically stood by their statement later in the afternoon. Unless Matthews is suggesting that the president can’t be held responsible for official U.S. embassy declarations (special rules for The One, as usual), I don’t know what his objection is.
Two: Since we’re floating in a sea of pious leftist bilge today about politicizing attacks on the U.S., read this Washington Free Beacon report on candidate Obama referring to a specific attack on U.S. troops in July 2008 to criticize Bush on the war. That pattern doesn’t start with The One, either: Philip Klein pointed earlier on Twitter to this 2004 report noting that “On a day when seven U.S. servicemen were killed in a suicide bombing attack in Iraq, [John] Kerry termed the war in Iraq ‘catastrophic.’” Good, hard campaigning on a seminal foreign-policy issue, or disgraceful politicization of American grief? If you’re a concern-troll journalist, the candidate’s party affiliation will get you 95 percent of the way to an answer.
Also... Benghazi was NOT the consulate. Me thinks he was removed from US soil for the killing. Not a coincidence.
Every American interest should have been fortified on September 11th, every year.
There were warnings about America being attacked everywhere in the world.
There may be some confusion here. Our Libyan embassy wasn’t attacked, it’s in Tripoli, the capitol of Libya. That’s where the ambassador is stationed and protected by a Marine Detachment.
This attack was in a consular office of which there are many in every country. They are lightly protected as they offer visas and trade assistance and are mainly staffed by locals.
I have a question Hillary and O:
Remembering that jihadists are everywhere AND remembering that they are into that terror thing AND remembering that 9/11 is a sacred day of remembrance for all American patriots.....
Why are any soft targets like our hundreds of consular offices OPEN ON 9/11?
Is it too much to ask that we declare a State Department holiday for that day?
Do you think that on the next 9/11 we will again be a PUNCHING BAG for the world’s nut case jihadists?
The left continues to believe that if you are just nice enough to these radicals they will in turn be nice to you. It does not work that way.
As I understand it, Stevens was sent to a “safe” house that it sounds like the attackers knew about.
Wonder if Fast and Furious, north Africa division played a part in these deaths?
I agree. This was planned. The CIA brought this crowd to power in Libya, but they don’t seem to really know who they are dealing with. The CIA has dropped the ball.
I wonder if a foreign govt is sponsoring interests in Libya.
I agree. The USA embassy should have been fortified and protected. But then so should the defenseless USS Liberty in 1967 in a war zone, and instead LBJ the lying Texan did nothing to call in USA defense and air support forces when it was attacked by Israel for many hours. Instead they threw it to the wolves just as they threw the Ambassador to Libya. Perhaps he was a sacrificial lamb too.
We have worthless cowards in leadership that have no intention of protecting US forces abroad.
“This attack was in a consular office of which there are many in every country. They are lightly protected as they offer visas and trade assistance and are mainly staffed by locals.”
You, of course, would be correct if this consulate was in say Switzerland. However, in these volatile hot spots, surrounded by hostile savages, there should be a well armed force allocated sufficient to repel any uprising.
I don’t consider people like Mathews fellow Americans who I have a policy disagreement with any more. I consider them my enemies and they are not welcome on my property or near my family. They are lying filth.
Technically you’re correct it is officially US Diplomatic Mission.
However, missions are referred to as consulates as they do the same thing and are under the authority of the Ambassador.
>> Every American interest should have been fortified on September 11th, every year.
Americans should strike ME targets every year on 9-11.
Reports this morning said that two of the our Americans killed were Marines, but I’ve still heard no names or other information on the victims thought to be Marines.
I was wondering when the “USS Liberty theme” trolls would show up. Reaction time is a little slower than it used to be...
Almost all of the coverage so far of this travesty has been shallow and just misses the obvious.
First...It was not the ‘EMBASSY’ in Benghazi that was attacked, there is no US Embassy in that city. Tripoli is the capital of Libya and where the embassy is located. The ‘US consulate’ building is in Benghazi, and since we had NO presence in that city before the ‘Arab Spring’, we had to find a building to house the consulate in the time since Gaddafi was ousted. Just watching on TV. the consulate building is not defensible like an embassy is because the building was obviously not designed to repel attacks. No large walls around the complex, and since it was not the EMBASSY, no US Marines were tasked with providing protection. The ‘locals’ were hired to provide protection and that was a terrible, deadly decision that resulted in the death of the Ambassador. Second, anyone who has studied Al Qaeda KNOWS that eastern Libya has provided many of the highest ranking members of the organization. Saudi Arabia and Bin Laden provided cash and the figurehead, but Egypt and especially the area around Benghazi provided much of the operational leadership and foot soldiers for the movement when it was at its height before 9-11. A good link for a primer on the Libyan history of Al Qaeda is here... http://www.npr.org/2011/03/30/134987883/looking-at-the-history-of-al-qaida-in-libya Third, the attack happened on 9-11 not because of a video by some goof in California, but because Ayman Al Zawahri put out a video eulogy to Abu Yahya al Libi. In the video, released ON 9-11 (not in July like the California goofs), evil Ayman calls for Libyans to attack any US interests in the country. That is no coincidence, two days before 9/11/2001, the Lion of the Panjshir, Ahmed Shah Massoud (leader of Taliban enemy Northern Alliance)was assassinated by two Al Qaeda disguised as reporters. Al Qaeda killed Massoud in return for permission from Mullah Omar to attack America and hide out in Afghanistan. Zawahri sent the signal and his Libyan chapter obliged. Fourth, why did the US Ambassador leave Tripoli to help evacuate the consulate without adequate force protection? Three of those killed were his security detail, but that seems woefully inadequate in a country like Libya, especially given the fact that the security at the consulate was not American private security or Marines, but rather local corrupt Libyans. Fifth, how could we ever even set up a consulate in Benghazi and not use our soldiers to guard it? That is an epic lack of judgement and whoever made that decision has blood on their hands. It would be akin to opening a consulate in Yemen and not using our soldiers to protect our diplomats. Sixth, speaking of lack of intelligence, our POTUS misses more intelligence briefings than he attends. That is unforgivable, it would be no matter who is in the White House. The tragedy was totally forseeable, and illustrates the folly of our POTUS and his leading from behind theory of diplomacy.
Finally, in June of this year, a jihadi almost took out the British ambassador with an RPG, the same kind of weaponry that was used to attack the consulate.
” They are lying filth.”
You are exactly correct. Thank you.
You are welcome.
Incredible, reading how 'secure' not. . .were our people.
What WAS Obama thinking. . .
“Wonder if Fast and Furious, north Africa division played a part in these deaths?”
I doubt even Obama would be that reckless.
This incident leaves him looking like an impotent, bungling, incompetent fool.
Ambassador murdered in cold blood on September 11th on Obama’s watch, after the Empty Chair provided unconstitutional military support to the Libyan revolutionaries.
Hideous, hideous legacy.
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