Posted on 10/27/2012 7:02:53 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
On Saturday afternoon a White House spokesman emphatically denied that President Obama had denied requests for help during the Benghazi attack. "Neither the president nor anyone in the White House denied any requests for assistance in Benghazi," wrote National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor in an email to Yahoo News.
That rebuttal follows a TV interview on Friday in which Obama avoided responding to a question about whether CIA operatives were told to "stand down" during the Benghazi attack.
KYLE CLARK, KUSA-TV, Denver: Were they denied requests for help during the attack?
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, we are finding out exactly what happened. 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.
In a separate radio interview on Friday, Obama pushed back on Fox News allegations that he lied about the administration's response.
"I've always been straight with the American people," the president told Philadelphia radio host Michael Smerconish.
"What's true is that the intelligence was coming in and evolving as more information came up," Obama said, explaining why his administration's explanation had changed in the hours and days after the attack.
when will it be rebroadcast?
I am almost sure when he said this in the debate he said he directed that our personnel around the world or something to that effect were to be secured. I didn’t take it to mean specifically at Benghazi but more the ambassadors in other countries in the middle east.
The WH excuse might be that they trusted the ‘friendly’ Libyan security forces to repel the attack. Never mind that the drone video would have shown that they had run away, or were blocked out by the hostiles’ trucks.. No doubt, they were peeved at the YouTube video, blew off the Americans and went home...’</sarc>.
The CIA said they didn’t deny requests for help. Who’s left?
Maybe it was the social Security Administration- if Obama's got them ordering ammunition, maybe he put THEM in charge of diplomatic security. /s
Do we know if there were any ROE’s in effect that would have required Obama’s input in order for the contingency plans to be carried out?
Seems to me like there were 2 kinds of refusals:
1. the refusal to allow assets to be present in Libya, in the event that they would be useful. All the excuses for this fail, though, because drones DID fly into Libyan airspace, and they could just as easily have been armed as not. As I understand it, the protocol is to send assets immediately so all options are available, and then as more info comes in adjust the contingency plan accordingly. But even though there was no problem with crossing into Libyan airspace (as evidenced by the drones being sent), the normal protocol of making assets available was refused by Panetta if not Obama - and yet (if the rumors are true) Africom leader Ham defied orders.
2. the refusal to let already-available assets fire on already-marked targets in order to save those in the CIA annex, including the 2 former SEALs. That is where it seems to me like Obama must have given a standing order that they were not to engage to save those at risk.
Again, I hope somebody corrects me if I’m misunderstanding anything.
Sorry I did not put that in before, still time for everyone to go set their DVR's.
As mad as we are getting on these threads, so are they, they are our spokesmen and in as much pain as we are.
DO NOT MISS THIS SHOW. Judge Jennine Pirro.
If I understand the likely scenario, the military would have scrambled immediately, and General Ham would have notified Obama and Panetta that he was ready to go.
All he needed was authorization to cross international borders. Ham wasn’t asking for help. Obama declined to cross international borders. Technically, that was not declining a request for help.
Ya gotta parse all these weasel words. Remember Clinton? It all depends on what the definition of is is? Same thing here.
Susan Rice was Sandy “docs in my socks” Berger’s aide. She figured prominently in the Sudan pharmaceutical bombing case in Clinton’s time.
Sorry I omitted that. It will re air at 11:00 p.m Central, on FOX News channel
Exactly, we had to secure all the other embassies that were getting besieged, after all the publicity that the administration created for the Mohammed video.
Consider it that good and important.
“...if, after first finding out, why would he ask for an investigation, during an action in progress...”
You are spot on! His statements on his ‘3 actions’ are not consistent. Maybe someone in tomorrow’s Sunday Media circus will laser in on this.
No matter how red-handed they are caught.
But Obama did approve the drones to cross international borders. If he was going to allow that asset, why not allow other assets? He didn’t have to use them all if the intel eventually came in saying it was dangerous, but if you aren’t sure what’s going on wouldn’t you make sure you were prepared for any eventuality? Why just send in a scope to watch, and not have any options to use for whatever you end up seeing?
She's more involved than she's let on.
What in the heck is up with Drudge today? Are they going to put this new information up at some point?
Consider, ladies and gentlemen, the most famous Agatha Christie mystery of them all, "Murder on the Orient Express".
Ponder the murder of a wealthy passenger as the famous train roars through the middle of the European night.
There are 12 suspects among the train's fellow travelers who had reason to kill the tycoon.
However, no one but Hercule Poirot knows that each of the 12 entered the sleeping victim's cabin at different times, each quickly stabbing him once before slipping out the door.
The deed was planned in this manner so that nobody would ever know who was technically the guilty killer...the killer whose thrust caused the actual fatality....
No one but Poirot knew who dunnit.....and he never revealed this knowledge to anyone for reasons of his own.
Now read the above article about the "stand down" order again.....
Is it a possibility that in the face of denials all around emanating from numerous high and mighty suspects and agencies, we'll never know THE perpetrator who actually issued the fatal "stand down" order???
((( shiver )))
Leni
[Former Ambassador to Gabon] Wilson claimed President Bush lied about whether Saddam Hussein was seeking yellowcake uranium from Niger, and Wilson knew it because the CIA sent him there. The Senate report says, if anything, the truth is the opposite of what Wilson claimed. But that doesn't seems to bother the Kerryites, who yesterday hailed Wilson's "integrity" and said he's still very much a part of the team that Kerry hopes will make him commander in chief. "Joe Wilson has served for many months as an informal adviser to the Kerry campaign and continues to do so," said Kerry foreign policy adviser Susan Rice...... --- New York Post , July 29, 2004
Also noter that Rice is vouching for Amb. Joe Wilson here....and Amb. Wilson is noted for spending the evening dining with Saddam Hussein's ARMS BUYER on the eve of Saddam's invasion of Kuwait.
Read the wording carefully .... (the is lawyer speak
quote “Neither the president nor anyone in the White House denied any requests for assistance in Benghazi”
um... yeah ... technically the 2nd in command that releaved the general that was going to disobey orders (from the white house) and help, denied the request for assistance!
This is tricky Clinton type talk.
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