Judicial Watch Forces Obama Administration to Release Pentagon Benghazi Attack Documents

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that the Obama administration finally turned over hundreds of pages of documents about the military response to the September 11, 2012, terrorist attack on the U.S. Special Mission Compound and other facilities in Benghazi. The documents, which are heavily blacked out (redacted), confirm that the U.S. Military, through its U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) drafted orders for a military response to the attack, specifically “to protect vital naval and national assets.” Other documents suggest that the military, hours after the attack, tied the assault to a group supporting “ an Islamic state” that wanted to attack U.S. interests in Libya in retaliation for a drone strike on an al-Qaeda leader.

The Pentagon produced a total of 486 pages in response to a federal court order in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit Judicial Watch filed against the U.S. Department of Defense asking for “any and all” records produced by the U.S. Africa Command Operations Center concerning the terrorist attack on U.S. facilities in Benghazi, Libya. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia on September 4, 2014, (Judicial Watch v. Department of Defense (No. 1:14-cv-01508)) . Almost all of the documents had been previously classified as secret, and the Defense Department has redacted a large percentage of the material in order to protect “military plans and operations,” “intelligence” activities, and other exemptions.

Included in the production was a September 13, 2012, draft cable, “US Africa Command Request for Forces,” which sought an “ immediate” response from the Joint Chiefs of Staff for “additional forces” for the mission to “provide limited duration military and expeditionary antiterrorism and security forces in support of USAFRICOM commander in order to protect vital naval and national assets.” The planning document was approved by “VADM [Charles] Joseph Leidig, Deputy CDR, Africa Command.” The name of the military’s Benghazi operation was Jukebox Lotus.

The Obama administration blacked out the specific mission information in the final deployment orders for Operation Jukebox Lotus. The orders (EXORD) detail that, ultimately, several components of the military, including Special Operations Forces, were deployed to support limited security and evacuation operations in Libya, including support for “BPT” (Be Prepared To) included, from the U.S. Army in Africa, “BPT support with mortuary affairs.” The Pentagon has previously released other orders with virtually no redactions, including an operation in Libya in 2004 and an Obama administration operation to attack Muammar Gaddafi’s government forces in Libya in 2011.

Other documents show that, early on September 12, 2012, the day after the attack, top Pentagon leadership received intelligence briefing slides reporting that a June 6, 2012, attack on the Benghazi Special Mission Compound was tied to a group promoting an Islamic state in Libya, “came in response to the 5 June [2012] drone strike on al-Qaida senior leader Abu-Yahya al-libi.”

The documents also confirm that the military used a photo from a Twitter post to try to ascertain the status of Ambassador Stevens.

The Obama administration produced no documents showing communications from the State Department to AFRICOM.

The records do show that U.S. military officials were keenly aware of the terrorist threat in the region. “The DIA [Defense Intelligence Agency] terrorism threat level for Libya is significant,” one email message says. “The DOS [Department of State] residential criminal threat level for Libya is high and the non-residential criminal threat level is high. The political violence threat level for Libya is critical.”

Judicial Watch dismissed its lawsuit on February 12, 2015, after it succeeded in finally obtaining these AFRICOM Benghazi documents. The Vaughn index, which describes why the documents have been withheld, is also publicly available for congressional and other investigations into the scandal.

Islamic militants attacked the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi on the evening of September 11, 2012. U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and U.S. Foreign Service Information Management Officer Sean Smith were both killed. Just a few hours later, a second terrorist strike targeted a different compound about one mile away. Two CIA contractors, Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty, were killed and 10 others were injured in the second attack.

“It is extraordinary that we had to wait for over two years and had to force the release of documents that provide the first glimpse into the military response to the terrorist attack in Benghazi,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “There is no doubt that the military considered this to be terrorist attack tied to a group allied with al Qaeda. Why does the Obama administration continue to black out history in these military documents? If there were no embarrassing facts, there would be nothing to hide. This lack of transparency is an insult to those in the military and other deployed U.S. government personnel whose morale has been decimated by the breach of trust caused by President Obama’s Benghazi lies and failures.”

I think we need to go back and look at some of the original questions again.

1. Why did the enemy hit us at this time and place? Seems like a simple question, but now that even the Democrats agree that Benghazi was a planned and coordinated attack, it needs another look. They’ve stalled long enough.

2. Why did the enemy quit firing their mortar at the CIA facility? They were on target. Why didn’t they keep firing? They got tired of killing Americans? Think about it.

3. Where was Obama and what was he doing and saying?

4. How did our CIA people and the rest get out of Benghazi? The enemy is smoking us, and then, magically, “everyone got on a plane and lived happily ever after”. Doesn’t agree with experience.

The big question is.....

Why did Hillary and Obama use US taxpayer provided funds, equipment, personnel and facilities to overthrow the government of Libya?

The documents, which are heavily blacked out (redacted), confirm that the U.S. Military, through its U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) drafted orders for a military response to the attack, specifically “to protect vital naval and national assets.”

Which means that the only thing missing was a CBA order from the -resident. The only one with the authority to issua a CBA.

Only the POTUS had the authority to act!

0bama was notified immediately and automatically when the Benghazi consulate triggered the "Imminent Danger Notification System" alert. He did nothing.

Judge Jeanine Investigates Benghazi Gate Part 4 - 10/20/2012 video 6:53
Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer (U.S. Army ret.), former CIA Station Chief Gary Berntsen and former CIA operative Mike Baker

They confirm everything Col. Hunt said about automatic notifications to the WH and add more details.

Howie Carr interview with Col. Hunt On The Newest Libyan Revelations audio 28:37

There are three scandals here...

1) The inexcusable lack of security.
2) The near inaction and denials of aid when the call for help came.
3) The bizarre "video did it" fraud that the Pres., Sec. State, UN Ambassador and other administration spokesholes perpetrated on the public.

---------------------------------------------------------

Denial of requests for security were a dereliction of duty. The lies and misdirection about the "video" after the attack were fraud and malfeasance under the color of authority. The inaction during the attack was something more than that.

The failure to act during the attack is the direct equivalent of desertion IMO.

ONE man had the authority to act that night.

ONE man deserted his post!

EXCLUSIVE: CIA operators were denied request for help during Benghazi attack, sources say

0bama abandoned his post. 0bama Is A Deserter!

0bama did nothing!!!

Repost from Benghazi e-mail finally answers the basic questions: Who knew what, when? Feb 2012

I believe that the pResident was AWOL therefore no one with the authority to order a cross boarder military action, only the CIC has that authority and I believe he was w/Reggie behind a Do Not Disturb sign. I copied this from a previous post, sorry for any redundancy.

Taken from an interview posted on ABC News website here President Obama Begs Off Answering Whether Americans in Benghazi Were Denied Requests for Help Posted on October 26, 2012. A local Denver journalist, Mr.Clark, pressed again.

“Were they denied requests for help during the attack?” he asked... .

[snip]

“Well, we are finding out exactly what happened,” the president again said. “I can tell you, as I’ve said over the last couple of months since this happened, the minute I found out what was happening, I gave three very clear directives. Number one, make sure that we are securing our personnel and doing whatever we need to. Number two, we’re going to investigate exactly what happened so that it doesn’t happen again. Number three, find out who did this so we can bring them to justice. And I guarantee you that everyone in the state department, our military, the CIA, you name it, had number one priority making sure that people were safe. These were our folks and we’re going to find out exactly what happened, but what we’re also going to do it make sure that we are identifying those who carried out these terrible attacks.”

Everything he says is in past tense. He is cornered and has no teleprompter. I believe he was AWOL after the 6PM email that stated that the attack had stopped and the consulate cleared.

Number one, make sure that we are securing our personnel and doing whatever we need to.

So if the very first "order" was to do whatever we need to. Then why wasn't thank done? Who did he give that directive to? Why didn't he answer the question with "We couldn't get help there in time?" Or whatever the spin is now.

He had the Do Not Disturb sign on the bedroom door of Reggie because this was supposed to be hostage taking for a October negotiation for Stevens release to make him look good for November....

If that is true then it makes sense because no one could give the authority to launch an international cross border military action but the CIC so all they could do was tell them to stand down.

And I guarantee you that everyone in the state department, our military, the CIA, you name it, had number one priority making sure that people were safe.

You lie!

Then we have Panneta's testimony where he cooberates Zippo's first directive and also the fact that he never saw Zippo after that.

Several committee Republicans pressed Panetta and Dempsey about their discussions with President Barack Obama on that fateful day and his level of involvement, suggesting that after the initial conversation the commander in chief was disengaged as Americans died.
Panetta said he and Dempsey were meeting with Obama when they first learned of the Libya assault. He said the president told them to deploy forces as quickly as possible.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., questioned whether Panetta spoke again to Obama after that first meeting. The Pentagon chief said no but that the White House was in touch with military officials and aware of what was happening.
"During the eight-hour period, did he show any curiosity?" Graham asked.
Panetta said there was no question the president was concerned about American lives. Exasperated with Graham's interruptions, Panetta said forcefully, "The president is well-informed about what is going on; make no mistake about it."
At one point in the hearing, Graham asked Panetta if he knew what time Obama went to sleep that night. The Pentagon chief said he did not.

And further more why was Hillary out at 10:00PM to inform us that Stevens was dead and not Zippo, where was he? < /rhetorical >

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