Panetta Says We Lacked Real-Time Benghazi Intel

IBD EDITORIALS ^ | October 27, 2012 | Staff

[raptor22]

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...

[AFPhys]

“... This type of rescue mission is called a “NEO” operation, for Non-combatant Evacuation Operation. ... 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. ...”

-—<>-—<>-—<>-—<>-—<>-—

YES YES YES!

Yours is the most detailed outline of this process that I have yet seen. I know from my military experience this exists, but was never involved, so you taught me a lot here.

Please try to phone various outlets like Glenn Beck, Hannity, Levin, Rush, etc., and get this read on air. Please be persistent, maybe EMailing them. Perhaps you can get a hold of Hannity through Twitter, also. Give your phone number to them and ask them to give it to other show hosts so you can repeat it more than once. Please spend the time using your experience here to educate all of America, not only FReepers.

Excellent description. Thanks.

[Mr Rogers]

There is no chance in hell that the CJCS was not informed of any assets available and that he did not offer those for use. And only one person could say no.

The CIA & the State Department don’t get to make those decisions. Heck, within minutes of the attacks being reported on the news, any Sq/CC with forces that MIGHT be able to respond started planning TO respond, just in case called. I’d bet a lot of stateside units were told to look at what it might take.

Military force was offered as an option. And Hillary didn’t have authority to say no...

[blueunicorn6]

My original posts got me kicked off of Free Republic for 24 hours. I used some bad language. I’m an old military guy and I became very upset over Panetta’s comments. I really don’t swear unless I think I need to. In the Service, I swore because Soldiers get tired and lazy. Swearing let’s them know they better shape up. When I was a shavetail Second Lieutenant, Captain Francis “NO SLACK!” Andrews locked my heels and dressed me up one side and down the other for not taking care of my Soldiers. He did it in front of my platoon. He was absolutely right and I had it coming. I’ve always tried to take care of Soldiers after that and by taking care of them, I mean getting them home alive. I wasn’t trying to be funny. People need to wake up. I guess everyone’s tired and lazy. I can’t swear or they kick me off. That’s their privilege. Maybe they’re right. Whatever. People have got to start getting mad. Captain Andrews gave me a priceless gift by dressing me down. I wish I could pass it on to Panetta and the admirals and generals.

[GOPJ]

jdsteel, you’re right - people are risking their careers - and this SHOULD be bigger than Watergate - but the MSM isn’t covering this story.

There’s a system in the press about who and what’s important... it’s been years since I heard it so this isn’t exact - or even close. It goes like this:

Deaths that make the front page:

If more than 10,000 people from India, Iran, or Bangladesh

5,000 Russians

1,000 soldiers in one situation

1,000 whites if killed by blacks in crime situations

More than 100 if caused by a natural disaster

10 if the natural disaster happens in New York or Washington DC

One person if gay and killed by a conservative

One person if black and killed by a white conservative

One person if Muslim and killed by a conservative.

[manc]

do they ever stop with their lies and B/S

[upcountryhorseman]

That’s a lie: we had a drone overhead showing realtime
ocurances.

[upcountryhorseman]

That's a lie: we had a drone overhead showing real time
occurrences.

[xzins]

They keep asking why the US gov't is trying to keep this quiet.

The 20,000 missing MANPADS: It was on Free Republic at about the time these men were killed on about 9/12.

Jennifer Griffin reported again yesterday what was discussed on FR over a month ago. Obama allowed the Muslim Brotherhood and their al quaeda pals access to 20,000 manpads, one man anti-aircraft, shoulder-fired missiles with capabilities of defeating current commerical counter-measures. I know the article is here on Free Republic because I participated in the discussion....and I think Lancey did, and I think you did too. (See below)

The American special operators, Woods, Doherty and at least two others were part of the Global Response Staff, a CIA element, based at the CIA annex and were protecting CIA operators who were part of a mission to track and repurchase arms in Benghazi that had proliferated in the wake of Muammar Qaddafi's fall. Part of their mission was to find the more than 20,000 missing MANPADS, or shoulder-held missiles capable of bringing down a commercial aircraft. According to a source on the ground at the time of the attack, the team inside the CIA annex had captured three Libyan attackers and was forced to hand them over to the Libyans. U.S. officials do not know what happened to those three attackers and whether they were released by the Libyan forces. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/10/26/cia-operators-were-denied-request-for-help-during-benghazi-attack-sources-say/#ixzz2AQLj6krm

20,000 missing manpads can bring commercial air traffic to a halt, just about world wide.

THIS is what Obama is trying to hide. It is plausible to assume THIS is what led to NO rescue for these men, and why they were WANTED dead.

A media report on Obama's 20,000 missing anti-aircraft missiles has the ability to bring down Obama.

[DPMD]

Truth to tell, all the deadheads in this administration lack intelligence, real time or not.

[Mygirlsmom]

Panetta says “intel” as though it is some kind of voo-doo unknown to mere mortals. The ONLY piece of knowledge that he needed was to know the consulate was under direct attack and he had that through video, emails, phone calls, and even radio communications. The military has protocols for handling the unknowns while cowards like him and Obama only had to tell the military to execute their protocols.

No kidding - these are the same people who wanted to fry President Bush for taking a few seconds to collect his thoughts in front of a group of children when he was told of the original 9/11 attacks.

Had the clowns in charge now been in charge then, who knows how many more would have died while they were waiting to "perfect their intel"?

[hinckley buzzard]

Richard Nixon was probably the pre-eminent foreign policy president of the last century. He would never had gotten us into this dangerous, precarious adventuristic situation in the first place.

The whole reason this debacle happened is because for president we have a gibbering idiot who thinks he is a genius, trying to "punch above his weight."

Frickin' Obama, man. Just wow. Four whole years of this crap. Amazed we're still alive.

[Scotswife]

I’ve been reading up on this as much as I can.

Right now we already know exactly what we are going to get from the WH.

Now I’m wondering...at what point does congress step up to the plate?
Is Darryl Issa the only one trying to hold these criminals accountable?

Does Boehner still go to work everyday?

What the heck is being done to bring in people who were there - not the egg heads - but the actual people monitoring the video and flying the planes - or preparing the planes?
Where is General Ham?

Why aren’t all the players being hauled before Congress?
This is criminal. This is treason.

There was large number of our military prepared to go in and then told to stand down.
Have they been gagged?

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Like a first-person request from boots-on-the-ground isn't "real-time intel?"

[kingattax]

someone forgot to tell “Lying Leon” that state dept personnel including Lt Col Woods had testified under oath before Congress that there was a real time video being watched by people in the state dept.

Leon and the Brown Clown are goin’ down.

[tcrlaf]

oh bullshit...

Beyond the other plainly obvious means available, NOBODY HAD A SATPHONE? At a Consulate?

[GBA]

There has been some “conspiracy talk” out there about how perhaps it was intended that the ambassador was to be taken hostage and exchanged for the blind sheik.

There is a reason, perhaps several related reasons, why obama and company didn't do anything. Why? What is/was obama doing in Libya?

There are several possibilities, but we do know that obama likes to give guns to bad people.

We may not know who he is, but, by his words and actions, we know who he philosophically aligns himself with and we can see and/or suspect which causes he makes his own.

Hey, America! What is it going to take?!? How much clearer does it have to be???

Our willful blindness seems almost like a divine sort of curse or supernatural manipulation. I pray that we wake up, in time.

[Grampa Dave]

First again thanks for your service active duty and as a “former SEAL”!

You summed up the reality of what happened:

“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.”

LBJ and Carter are role models for the current traitor posing as POTUS. They and the current Poseur POTUS ignored the requests for permission to engage, and good men died.

[presently no screen name]

But what we really need now is for a high-ranking officer with insider knowledge to go public, risk his pension and career,

We had one, one who refused to take orders from the commie, Col. Lakin.

[Grampa Dave]

First again thanks for your service active duty and as a “former SEAL”!

You summed up the reality of what happened:

“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.”

LBJ and Carter are role models for the current traitor posing as POTUS. They and the current Poseur POTUS ignored the requests for permission to engage, and good men died.

[presently no screen name]

Panetta Says We Lacked

Lacked the desire to stand UP when those were told to stand down. POS commie ba**ards!