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An Ambassador Died. Obama Lied.
Townhall.com ^ | October 2012 | Mona Charen

Posted on 10/02/2012 11:47:31 AM PDT by Kaslin

"Bush Lied, People Died" they chanted. When the intelligence about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq -- information that was believed by the intelligence agencies of our major allies; that was described by the Clinton-appointed head of the CIA as a "slam dunk"; and that was agreed to by heads of state and leaders of the Democratic and Republican parties -- turned out to be badly mistaken, George W. Bush was branded a liar.

Even Democrats such as Bill Clinton, Al Gore, John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Tom Daschle, and Ted Kennedy, who had warned about Saddam's WMD program on various occasions, quickly scurried to the "Bush lied, people died" slander when the intelligence proved inaccurate.

Neither Bush nor Secretary of State Colin Powell lied about Iraq. They received bad information. Error is part of the human condition. So is venality, and that is what marked the Democrats' scurrilous attacks on Bush when the intelligence failure came to light. They could have reasonably criticized Bush for not being more skeptical of intelligence reports, but no, they resorted to slurs.

On the 11th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, an al-Qaida-linked band of terrorists attacked our consulate in Benghazi, Libya and killed our ambassador and three other Americans. President Obama and his entire administration denied that the attack had anything to do with the anniversary of al-Qaida's greatest victory, attributing the attack to spontaneous rage at an Internet video. On September 13, White House spokesman Jay Carney said, "The protests we're seeing around the region are in reaction to this movie. They are not directly in reaction to any policy of the United States or the government of the United States or the people of the United States." They stuck to this story for more than a week, even as evidence accumulated that it was false.

If it were a simple matter of bad information, the administration had ample opportunities to modify its initial response to the tragedy. As Eli Lake reported in The Daily Beast, intelligence agencies were confiding within 24 hours that the attacks seemed pre-planned. Intercepts showed that an al-Qaida affiliate boasted of its success to another al-Qaida group on September 12. "There was very good information on this within the first 24 hours," an intelligence official told Lake. Skeptical Republicans with military experience like John McCain and Mike Rogers also observed, in those first hours after the attack, that RPGs are not usually carried to "spontaneous" protests.

Nevertheless, five days after the attacks, and long after it was clear that the consulate (along with a safe house half a mile away) had been targeted by terrorists, U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice toured five Sunday morning TV shows to deliver the administration's line that the murder of our diplomats was a case of mob violence that had been "hijacked by extremists." Appearing on ABC's This Week, 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." Jay Carney repeated that spin at White House briefings.

Except that, as CBS reported, there was never any protest at all in Benghazi about the Internet movie. It was a straight-up terror attack. Only on September 20 did Carney finally acknowledge the obvious -- "It is, I think, self-evident that what happened in Benghazi was a terrorist attack. Our embassy was attacked violently, and the result was four deaths of American officials."

Why would the administration attempt to deceive the world about a terror attack?

Two possibilities suggest themselves. The Obama administration has substituted a bumper sticker, "Osama bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive," for a foreign policy. They've been hoping that the death of bin Laden would be seen as total victory over Al-Qaeda and jihadism. A brazen and successful attack against Americans in Libya, including the first assassination of an ambassador in more than three decades, undercuts that self-satisfied narrative, suggesting that, while bin Laden is dead, bin Ladenism is very much alive.

The second explanation is that this administration has relied on the supposed appeal of Barack Obama's persona in place of American military and diplomatic strength. That appeal is proving chimerical, and the administration will go to great lengths to disguise that reality.

But whatever the rationale, the facts are clear: The administration purposely misled the country, and has so far not been held accountable.


TOPICS: Editorial
KEYWORDS: 2012; 2012election; bhofascism; bhoislamism; democrats; elections; foreignpolicy; libya; nobama2012; obama; obamatruthfile

1 posted on 10/02/2012 11:47:40 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

“A brazen and successful attack against Americans in Libya, including the first assassination of an ambassador in more than three decades, undercuts that self-satisfied narrative, suggesting that, while bin Laden is dead, bin Ladenism is very much alive”

It also proves that W wasn’t out to lunch (as ALL the MSM trumpeted) when he said he didn’t care about Bin Laden; he was after the AQ infrastructure. Too bad we didn’t have someone to pick up where he left off...


2 posted on 10/02/2012 11:53:13 AM PDT by jessduntno ("Socialism only works...in Heaven where they don't need it and hell where they have it." - RR)
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To: Kaslin
Obama denied (security)
The Ambassador Died
3 posted on 10/02/2012 12:00:35 PM PDT by SC DOC
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To: Kaslin

They ALL should be shot as traitors.

that’s not just for the “somethingawful” website that thinks are comments are worse than the terrorists actions.


4 posted on 10/02/2012 12:03:43 PM PDT by longfellow (Bill Maher, the 21st hijacker.)
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To: longfellow

OUR not are. sorry.


5 posted on 10/02/2012 12:05:03 PM PDT by longfellow (Bill Maher, the 21st hijacker.)
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To: Kaslin

Obama doesn’t care about gay people.


6 posted on 10/02/2012 12:16:51 PM PDT by vpintheak (Occupy your Brain!)
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To: Kaslin

Greg Gutfeld has rightly pointed out on THE FIVE that the question that needs to be answered is where did the
administration get the information that the video had caused the uprising?

It has been reported that on the day of the attack, this particular video had less than 400 hits. We are to believe then, that the administration had no source for this intel, they obviously knew about the video and pretended to have read the minds of the demonstrators and attackers.


7 posted on 10/02/2012 12:23:53 PM PDT by wayoverontheright
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To: Kaslin
I've been saying the title of this article for weeks.

Between the Libya lies and the Mexico/F&F lies (Holder & 0 lied, Mexican's died), I pray 0 sinks.

The blood of these victims are on his hands.

8 posted on 10/02/2012 12:28:53 PM PDT by Jane Long (Soli Deo Gloria!)
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To: SC DOC

You have to ask yourself why the free spending kenyan denied additional security when intelligence indicated al queda was active in the area. Perhaps Stevens was one of 0bama’s former butt boys and Hussein had a tiff with him?


9 posted on 10/02/2012 12:31:17 PM PDT by The Sons of Liberty ("Get that evil, foreign, muslim, usurping bastard out of MY White House!" FUBO GTFO!)
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To: vpintheak

That arrogant pos only cares about himself and no one else


10 posted on 10/02/2012 12:36:05 PM PDT by Kaslin (Acronym for OBAMA: One Big Ass Mistake America)
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To: Kaslin

11 posted on 10/02/2012 12:43:31 PM PDT by pabianice (washington, dc ..)
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To: Kaslin

Who will be the sacrificial lamb? Will it be Hillary? Hell no! After what Bill did for Obama at the convention, Obama has to look for some lackey to blame all of this on.


12 posted on 10/02/2012 12:50:53 PM PDT by r0tten
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To: Kaslin

Of course, if GW Bush had gotten his head of out of his ass, and fought back against the smears & lies against him regarding the faulty intelligence (also coming from French & British intelligence) then maybe he could have countered the media & demoRAT lies & smears. Instead dumb ass doofus GW Bush allowed these traitors to pummel him for 8 years, and the only time GW Bush’s dander got riled, was when he would criticize conservatives, against Harriet Miers or his amnesty proposal. Plus GWB gave us 0dumb0 by default and failed to call out 0dumb0 as a threat to America when he had the chance. Thank you once again dumb ass GWB, for the gifts that you keep on coming our way.


13 posted on 10/02/2012 12:57:22 PM PDT by rcrngroup
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To: Kaslin
Richard Miniter was on C-SPAN this last weekend talking about his new book which came out in August, I think. It's where we learned that Obama let slip three earlier chances to take out Osama because of Valerie Jarrett's opposition.

More importantly, Miniter talked about how the intelligence community was aghast at the way Obama went on TV to announce the killing of Osama hours after it happened. He should have kept quiet for as long as it took to analyze the captured documents, pinpoint leading figures in the al Qaeda network, and eliminate them--before they knew that Osama was dead. That might have taken a couple of weeks or a month, but so what? Obama could still have gone on TV afterwards to announce Osama's death, but in the meantime we could have destroyed al Qaeda. Al Qaeda's current strength is the result of Obama's vanity and irresponsibility in rushing to take credit for the raid.

Somebody should find a way to publicize this--not very many people saw the C-SPAN interview.

14 posted on 10/02/2012 2:46:32 PM PDT by Verginius Rufus
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