I believe that this statement is carefully parsed.
It doesn’t exclude Panetta. Who enacts Obama’s orders.
Here is the basic fact - the standing orders were to save American lives. If a rescue mission didn’t take place, then SOMEONE gave the order to stand down. Which can only come from Panettta or Obama.
“...the standing orders were to save American lives.”
How do we know this?
Did the standing order include the authority to take assets across the border into Libya?
In something like this, obama doesn’t have to formally deny a request. He simply does nothing and lackeys do NOT have the authority to grant or deny. So doing nothing is exactly the SAME as an order with no FORMAL order that can be traced back to ANYONE.
Yes, I think you could be correct. This could all be set up on Panetta to take the fall. There were lots of stories that 0zer0 wouldn’t make the call on taking out 0sama, and Panetta essentially went around 0zer0 to get Seal Team 6 in the air and on the ground, and only then inform 0zer0 it was going down.
If true, it might explain why Panetta felt like he could take command of this situation also. Remember 0zer0 went to bed after the attack, so that shows 0zer0 (and probably Jarrett) thought this was just a protest, and as such 0zer0 voted “Present” when watching the real time video and getting real time intelligence. That would be expected given his narcissism and world view. Since no decision was made, that left Panetta to make the call, and he chose to stand down.
It just shows what a completely evil narcissist 0zer0 is. He let those people die, and then when it started blowing up, the WH went to full cover up and blame mode. That explains 0zer0 contradictions later when he said “When I realized this was an attack, I did 3 things...Gave an order to help protect our personnel, Ordered and investigation, Ordered us to hunt down those responsible...blah, blah, blah.” That only makes sense if he did this several days after the attack, and that would only make sense if 0zer0, during the time of the attack, actually made the decision that this was a protest, and therefore did nothing.
So in his twisted narcissist world, he can now say he didn’t actually deny help to the embassy. That way he does what he does best, look out for himself. He truly is evil.
“”Neither the President nor anyone in the White House denied any requests for assistance in Benghazi during the attack,” National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor told The Hill via email.”
Hmmm, was the denier physically outside the white house?
(Sneaky weaselwords :( )
the standing orders do not include crossing a recognized international border.
Obama himself had to make/approve that specific order. If he did not grant cross-border authority, he de facto denied help to the consulate in Benghazi.
That statement that they (the WH) did not deny a request for rescue is heavily parsed.