Panetta is just another Clinton era liberal retread.
He aided and abetted the lies and cover ups of Clinton and now does the same for Obama.Panetta cannot be trusted any more than any other democrat.
Posted on 10/27/2012 7:29:20 AM PDT by raptor22
Edited on 10/27/2012 8:13:21 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
Despite real-time video, emails to the White House and desperate cries for help, our defense secretary says we didn't send rescue forces to our Benghazi consulate because we didn't know what was going on.
In a statement bordering on the Kafkaesque, Leon Panetta told a news conference Thursday that four Americans, including our Libyan ambassador Chris Stevens, were left to die without a rescue attempt by nearby U.S. military forces because there's "a basic principle here, and the basic principle is that you don't deploy forces into harm's way without knowing what's going on, without having some real-time information about what's taking place."
That would seem to sum up the Obama administration's assessment of and story line about the Middle East — it has no real-time clue about what's going on. Osama bin Laden is dead, but Islamofascism is very much alive, and to send an ambassador and his diplomatic mission into harm's way without so much as a Marine security detachment with bayonets is unconscionable.
Excuse us, Mr. Secretary, but your administration had a drone over the consulate on Sept. 11...
(Excerpt) Read more at news.investors.com ...
Bullcrap Leon, you had military assets aloft (drones and AC-130 Spectre) on the scene!
Panetta is lying to cover his a$$. How do I know?
Long ago I was a SEAL officer and I attended many joint and combined operational planning meetings in the USA, abroad, and on ships at sea. This type of rescue mission is called a “NEO” operation, for Non-combatant Evacuation Operation. Every embassy and consulate has and practices all kinds of emergency evac plans, in concert with the US military.
For example, Marines and SEALs practice NEO ops prior to deploying on every float, as a VERY high priority mission. They involve full dress-rehearsals, with civilian role players, helos, landing craft, rounding up stranded stragglers, opfor ambushes, role-playing “angry mobs,” fighting your way to LZs or even beaches while protecting a gaggle of civilians down to babies etc. Conducting successful NEO ops is a TOP TOP TOP military and state department mission priority. I cannot emphasize this enough. NEO ops are planned and practiced over and over and over.
When the alarm goes off worldwide that an embassy or consulate is being attacked, the entire U.S. military swings into rescue mode, without waiting for any orders from the White House. The military does all of the operational planning and begins to execute the rescue op.
The one thing they CAN’T do is cross an international border without permission from POTUS. So the US Military will be inbound full-steam-ahead to make the rescue, and all they need from POTUS is a “proceed” order. In this case, they got a “stand down” instead.
This is at the POTUS level, it is not a decision taken at State. State and the military (JCS) should be in the Situation Room with POTUS soon after a critical incident like this begins, so all decisions can be made in real time. (I have heard nowhere that POTUS went into the Situation Room at all. Apparently he went to the Oval Office briefly, but not down to the Situation Room, where the “war planning” screens, full staffs and commo tools are all located for dealing with a major crisis.)
But if POTUS punts after a brief Oval Office meeting with Dempsey and Hillary and goes upstairs to the family quarters....the stranded Americans will die.
Only POTUS can give the order to cross international borders. Only POTUS can allow US warplanes to give air support to Americans battling on the ground in a foreign country. If POTUS makes himself unavailable, the Americans will die.
Even the VEEP or Secretary of State cannot make that call. The VEEP can only do it if the POTUS is determined to be medically unable to perform his functions. If the POTUS goes upstairs and turns off his phone, there is nothing anybody can do about it. Nothing. And the besieged Americans will die.
On Friday an anonymous Pentagon insider (”Doug”) called into Rush with a lot of new details about this disgraceful fiasco. But what we really need now is for a high-ranking officer with insider knowledge to go public, risk his pension and career, and tell the truth.
The blame for this humiliating and shameful national disgrace is pointing directly at the POTUS, and America needs to know why the inbound rescue operation was aborted.
Four Men Left Behind!
Wouldn’t the calls for help include a state we of the situation? Local militia types with AKs. About 30-50.
And the greatest military power in the world has to wait for more info? Go save the Americans in peril.
This was a stand down order by Obama and his top advisors because had the mission failed it’s Iran/Carter Round 2.
So they sat it out, let Americans die, and headed off to Vegas the next day.
Our new battle cry for these traitors should be “You Lie!”
Poin-cettia is a slimy little tur...er...slimy little Obama with the IQ of a slime mold.
And those are his good points.
BOMBSHELL: US Troops Wouldn’t Have Been Painting Targets on Ground Unless There Was Air Support..
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2950841/posts
Obama, Panetta are callous cowards.
(and not the civil side)
Leon: it’s called MOVEMENT TO CONTACT. I know the Army trains for it. Evidently, those Army generals never learned this.
They DID know what was going on. People were telling them there were going to die SOON and they needed help. So, what did they tell them, "Sorry, we need some REAL-TIME information."?
The ex-military guy who called in to Rush’s show yesterday, explained it very well. The Situation Room knew immediately, from classified communications that haven’t even been mentioned by the WH, what was going on. Special Ops teams were ready to go and they were not given the orders by the CIC.
Damn him!
Panetta is just another Clinton era liberal retread.
He aided and abetted the lies and cover ups of Clinton and now does the same for Obama.Panetta cannot be trusted any more than any other democrat.
Panetta is a liar for the commander-in-chief. He will do anything and say anything to protect his boss. He is disgusting.
There was an armed predator zone. Would that be laser sighted?
Hour after hour these heroes fought expecting their nation would have their back.
I had a “what did he say” moment the other day on Fox News, when O’Reilly made a statement giving Panetta credit as a good and honest man. Did O’Reilly forget this was Clinton’s Chief of Staff?
Panetta is full of baloney. One of those deadly unarmed, World War Two era, propellor driven State Department DC-3s flew into the Benghazi airport during the flight. They couldn’t send in our multi-million dollar heavily armed jets? Maybe we should buy some Cessnas for the really tough missions.
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