Posted on 09/14/2012 6:50:10 PM PDT by Kaslin
As you'll recall, I was very skeptical this morning of initial US government assertions that there was "no intelligence" indicating the deadly Benghazi raid was premeditated or planned in advance. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney repeated this heavily-parsed denial at his briefing today (note that he appears to be reading a verbatim statement), only to give a markedly different answer just 45 minutes later:
Carney Contradicts On Whether There Was Advance Warning Of Embassy Attacks
ABC's Jake Tapper notes that the Defense Secretary briefed the Senate Armed Services Committee on the attack, telling Senators that the US Government believes it was a premeditated terrorist act. At first Carney ducks, suggesting that reporters "wait to hear more from administration officials" (does he not qualify?), then concludes that the violent incidents are "under active investigation." So which is it? No indication of premeditation, or substantial indication of premeditation with an ongoing investigation? I'll repeat the point I made earlier: Administration officials are very carefully denying something that nobody is alleging. They're saying, "no, there was no direct, actionable intelligence that the Benghazi mission specifically was at risk of an imminent attack. False, wrong, bad." But the Independent story said the intel warned of attacks on our diplomatic missions in the region more generally. They're not denying that. In fact, they're taking pains to write out statements that sound like broader denials, but that are actually extremely narrow, by design. Even so, might our government have extrapolated which locations were most likely to be in the cross-hairs based on, say, previous bombings and specific threats? From CNN:
A pro-al Qaeda group responsible for a previous armed assault on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi is the chief suspect in Tuesday's attack that killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya, sources tracking militant Islamist groups in eastern Libya say. They also note that the attack immediately followed a call from al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri for revenge for the death in June of Abu Yahya al-Libi, a senior Libyan member of the terror group. The group suspected to be behind the assault -- the Imprisoned Omar Abdul Rahman Brigades -- first surfaced in May when it claimed responsibility for an attack on the International Red Cross office in Benghazi. The following month the group claimed responsibility for detonating an explosive device outside the U.S. Consulate and later released a video of that attack.
I wonder if this information was in any of the intelligence briefing books that our president supposedly reads cover-to-cover every single day. Even if these seemingly obvious bread crumbs didn't exist -- although we cannot escape the fact that they do -- it's still an enormous scandal that no security reinforcements were provided. If you want an idea of how pathetic our diplomats' defenses were prior to their brutal murders, go back and read these posts. But what about Romney's gaffes?! While we're on that subject, kudos to Obama supporter Kirsten Powers for mercilessly slamming the press over their outrageous and overtly partisan concern-trolling about Mitt Romney's accurate (and eventually echoed by the White House) statement about the Cairo embassy's pathetic response to violent protests. This video is a day old, but it's worth a watch. Powers is en fuego:
The administration is trying to blame a random mob. Obviously bs.
Guy: Your first assumption that there is any “intelligence” in the White House is totally false. Too many examples and not enough time to list them all. Just look around America and the world and you will see them quite starkly in Obama’s failed policies.
Secondly, we can never believe Carney. He is the worst Press Secretary in history, and considering that his competition includes Robert Gibbs, and Scott McClenen?, that is saying something.
You also assume that Obama’s political appointees in the State Department even understand the concept of “intelligence”.
Hell, if the President misses his key daily intell briefings, do we actually believe that his political underlings will attend them or understand them?
This whole administration is one total INTELLIGENCE FAILURE and we keep burying our best and brightests due to it.
If you want to have a cartoon for your next column (which I read on a regular basis), try this image:
Four flag-drapped coffins for our fallen in Libya lined up on a runway with Obama smiling in the background saying “Yes I did”.
Nuff said!
Glad to see others picking up on the “non-denial denials.” The admin is still not denying the Independent article’s claim that there was a threat to missions.
I posted the points about zawahiri’s vids this morning and had a Freeper tell me I was being ‘irresponsible’ for spreading zawahiri’s propaganda.
They are using that movie as an excuse. That way it is the movie’s fault and they have no blame in the uprisings and therefore there are no questions to be asked. “It is the movies fault”. Of course the msm is going right along with it as it gives them an out on asking Obama any tough questions. Just absolutely absurd.
Benson does some really good work. Sometimes it’s just soooo hard to keep it all straight and see what’s really happening because we have a corrupted press without honor. Benson helps to put the pieces together with facts- not just supposition.
I was listening to the news with my iPhone and a headset at lunch today. When I heard his BS comment about this not being about the US or it’s policies (or something to that affect), I developed a sudden case of Tourrettes and blurted out “Bull ****” in a crowded restaurant. Embarrassing.
The true ineptness of this administration is now shown when they can no longer blame Bush for their failings.
I’m with you on that score. The administration is out to lunch.
I don't think the same of 0, however; I suspect he and MB are complicit.
I want to add - does 0 still have and use his Blackberry? Isn’t it conceivable that he does business with MB and the like with it (and outside any scrutiny)?
They were all over Bush for not connecting the dots. The lack of forsight is astounding - it was September 11th - 11 years later.
I doubt it about Obama
They hate him now that he is bragging about getting Osama
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