Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Benghazi's Smoking Gun? Only President Can Give 'Cross-Border Authority'
PJ Media ^ | November 2, 2012 | Matt Bracken

Posted on 11/02/2012 5:45:37 AM PDT by Travis McGee

click here to read article


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100101-113 next last
To: Travis McGee

BTTT


61 posted on 11/02/2012 9:20:31 AM PDT by JDoutrider
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: Stosh

and 4) He claimed he gave orders for everything to be done that could be done while in reality keeping anything that’s always done from being done.


62 posted on 11/02/2012 10:06:47 AM PDT by butterdezillion
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Travis McGee

Great article. Appreciate your thoughts on my info below.

This article has always troubled me. She says she had a date with the Ambassodor which from what we have been told is ODD. She has free access in and out of Iran. She has done propaganda films? Agent of Iran? Why are they friends? connect the dots.

http://middleeastvoices.voanews.com/2012/09/ambassador-christopher-stevens-as-i-knew-him-a-personal-reflection-47795/#ixzz26rpiylqA

http://manarabiee.com/
Mana Rabiee’s Publications
Sharia Financing Helps US Muslims Achieve Home Ownership Dream
www.voanews.comJune 2012
Authors: Mana Rabiee
Syrians in US May Get Extended Stays
www.voanews.comMarch 19, 2012
Authors: Mana Rabiee
Mana Rabiee’s Projects
Shelters Respond to Hypothermia Alert
January 2012 to January 2012
Team Members: Mana Rabiee
Activists Push for Right to Counsel in U.S. Civil Cases
November 2011 to November 2011
Team Members: Mana Rabiee


63 posted on 11/02/2012 10:14:52 AM PDT by crosslink (Moderates should play in the middle of a busy street)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Travis McGee
Your essay is excellent and your efforts to get the word about CBA are seeing the light of day. Well done!

I do have a few question though. Why did Ambassador Stevens allow himself to be caught in Benghanzi on 9/11? He, by his own words, knew it was Al Qaeda infested. It was his job not to make a splash, because that is undiplomatic, to create splashes. Yet, he and three fellow Americans are dead at Al Qaeda’s hands on 9/11. What was so damned important that he could not or was not allowed to say “NO”. I cannot think of anything, not a thing that was that important.

Three sentences moved me in your essay:

1. And like the former SEALs in Benghazi, General Ham and all of the troops under him would have been straining forward in their harnesses, ready to go into battle to save American lives.

2 and 3. President Obama owns cross-border authority, so he owns the failure to rescue the American heroes who were fighting for their lives in Benghazi for seven hours. More than a hundred gung-ho Force Recon Marines were waiting on the tarmac in Sigonella just two hours away for the launch order that never came.

It is infuriating, heart breaking and tragic that President Barack Hussein Obama broke faith with our Military, CIA and State Department. It is beyond tragic that MSM is complicit with President Barack Hussein Obama and his bad faith.

64 posted on 11/02/2012 10:32:54 AM PDT by Chgogal (Obama helped murder US Navy SEALs.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Travis McGee
Thanks so very much for pinging me. Superb article/column you've written and published at PJ Media!

I'll make certain to post a worthy comment, so I'll wait for my husband to read your awesome article. :)
65 posted on 11/02/2012 10:44:00 AM PDT by onyx (FREE REPUBLIC IS HERE TO STAY! DONATE MONTHLY! IF YOU WANT ON SARAH PALIN''S PING LIST, LET ME KNOW)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: COUNTrecount

Really pathetic movie. Sprinkled with liberal buzz words and a lot of unnecessary foul language. A majority of the theater were laughing throughout as Afflek didn’t know whether he wanted to make a comedy or a historically based serious movie. Many facts were ignored or omitted in order to save time for Afflek’s failing marriage and numerous shots of his super cool beard. This was a perfect example of a cheesy film. I bet they said “Argo ‘F’ yourself” at least a dozen times. Don’t waste your time.


66 posted on 11/02/2012 11:07:07 AM PDT by sanjuanbob
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 59 | View Replies]

To: Travis McGee

^^Once a “real” MSM reporter hears about CBA, there is an outside chance one of them might shout the question to Obama.^^

I am waiting for a reporter to ask when the 9/11/12 5pm conference was scheduled, and how long did it last. We only know that the meeting is on the White House website, but we don’t know if it was on the WH schedule before 9/11. How often does Obama schedule meetings with his DOD at 5pm? Didn’t they have time to talk at the Pentagon, in the Rose Garden, or probably at Walter Reed — all sites that were graced with the O’s appearance on that date.

Did an Aide whisper in Obama’s ear when the attack started, when the O’s were still at Walter Reed? is another good question.


67 posted on 11/02/2012 11:53:13 AM PDT by maica
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Travis McGee

The absolute LAST thing you want to face as an enemy is Force Recon Marines. Having been support staff for them, you don’t get in their way when they are on a mission.

Many years ago, I was a young Marine when I met up with Force Recon. USS Princeton was their jumping off point. We were involved in a giant 85-ship, 7-nation SEATO maneuver off the coast of Formosa (Taiwan). This was Princeton’s first deployment as an Amphibious Assault Ship(LPH-5).

Anyway, one team of Force Recon Marines had a mission to blow up a bridge and set up a radio station. All of a sudden, a young 1st Lt. runs into AirOps to tell the Air Boss that the four Marines were lost. Nobody thought much of it, until the ist Lt. said: “You don’t understand. They have a mission to blow up a bridge and to set up a radio station. And they don’t care where the bridge is.”

Considering that we were operating between Formosa and Red China, it took about two seconds for the Lt.’s statement to sink in. Sixty ships pulled out of maneuvers to find the lost Marines. They were found on an island three days later. They said their radio had been smashed on the rocks and explosives had been placed.


68 posted on 11/02/2012 11:56:26 AM PDT by NTHockey (Rules of engagement #1: Take no prisoners)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Chgogal
Total breaking of the faith. Did you read the end of the article that I sent to PJ Media, that the editor trimmed?

It mentions the 100 Force Recon Marines waiting for the launch order in Sigonella, then the last line is,

Sember Fidelis, President Obama?

He totally broke the faith. "You are on your own. Die quietly, in order not to create a flap for us chomping shrimp and lobster in the White House."

69 posted on 11/02/2012 12:22:16 PM PDT by Travis McGee (www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 55 | View Replies]

To: Hemingway's Ghost

No way in hell! Clearly, Obama preferred that the 25-30 Americans in Benghazi would be better off dying quietly.

The six-man “rescue operation” from Tripoli was only sent because the CIA station chief in Tripoli could send that piticul little team on his own authority, without getting permission from Washington. (And he had to CHARTER a damn airplane to get them there!)

Meanwhile 100+ Force Recon Marines are standing by in Sigonella for the go-order, the same flying time from Benghazi as Tripoli!

By the time the little ad-hoc CIA “rescue team” from Tripoli arrived at the annex, I’ll say it again, they should have met the 100+ Force Recon Marines who had already secured both the annex and the consulate, with supreme U.S. air power above taking out any point targets the Marines couldn’t engage with direct fire.


70 posted on 11/02/2012 12:27:15 PM PDT by Travis McGee (www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 56 | View Replies]

To: butterdezillion
and 4) He claimed he gave orders for everything to be done that could be done while in reality keeping anything that’s always done from being done.

Exactly correct. Spot on.

71 posted on 11/02/2012 12:29:00 PM PDT by Travis McGee (www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 62 | View Replies]

To: crosslink

63 will take a bit of digestion, but thanks for the fresh lead. Never heard of her or it. Just at a glance without going to the links, could be another jihadist mata hari to join the chorus line with Huma Abedin etc.


72 posted on 11/02/2012 12:31:08 PM PDT by Travis McGee (www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 63 | View Replies]

To: Travis McGee
Thank you for your reply, my friend. One more question, if I may:

Meanwhile 100+ Force Recon Marines are standing by in Sigonella for the go-order

Is this speculation, or do we know for a fact that it's true: i.e., we had guys on the tarmac, waiting for the orders to go? If that were the case, would there be formal written orders from the brass at Sigonella to mobilize and stand by for the go decision?

73 posted on 11/02/2012 12:33:59 PM PDT by Hemingway's Ghost (Spirit of '75)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 70 | View Replies]

To: Chgogal

Here is the ending of my article as I sent it to PJ Media.
The editors I suppose decided to keep it on point by eliminating these paragraphs. In the graph after the Petraues mention, they tacked in a short conclustion that I didn’t write. I’m not complaining, it was a good jobo of editing. But here are my thoughts on why Stevens was in Benghazi on 9-11. I’m reposting the Petraeus graph for continuity.

/ / / / / / / / / /

General Petraeus, however, has indirectly blown the whistle. He was probably “used” in some way early in the cover-up with the purported CIA intel link to the Mohammed video, and now he feels burned. So he conclusively said via his public affairs officer that the stand-down order did not come from the CIA. Well — what outranks the CIA? Only the national security team at the White House. That means President Obama, and nobody else. Petraeus is naming Obama without naming him. If that is not quite as courageous as blowing a whistle, it is far better than the disgraceful behavior of Panetta and Dempsey.

But in any event, Ambassador Stevens going to unsecure Benghazi on 9-11 of all days stinks to me of a setup. The ribbon cutting at the new Benghazi school cover story is laughably lame. You can bet that given his own input in the matter, Stevens would have told the Turks, “No, 9-11 is not a good day for us,” and stayed in Tripoli behind many high and thick walls. For him to go to hyper-dangerous Benghazi on 9-11 means the Turks insisted on that day, but why would they care about the meeting date, unless they were in on an assassination plan as the Judas goat?

Alternatively, the order for Ambassador Stevens to meet the Turks in Benghazi on 9-11 might have come down our own U.S. chain of command. Stevens seems to have been wearing two hats as ambassador and CIA arms shipper. His job involved moving between the far more secure embassy complex in Tripoli, the Benghazi “consulate,” and the CIA “annex.” So his orders might have come down either State Department or the CIA channels. I am unclear on his job title and true position, but either the CIA or State sent him his final instructions, and copies of those orders still exist, to be discovered on computer hard drives by future historians.

Ambassador Stevens meeting the Turks at the unsecure Benghazi “consulate” on 9-11 screams out to me of a deliberate setup. The Turkish “diplomats” (or arms shipment middlemen) left the meeting after dark and perhaps flashed their headlights to the Al Qaeda attack team commanders lurking in shadows. A coded text, a word on a phone, meaning, “The Amriki ambassador is there, with minimal security—proceed with the attack plan.” But that is pure speculation on my part. (The smoking gun clue will be the official CIA or State Department message ordering him to Benghazi on 9-11, perhaps using the preposterous “school opening” as a cover story for his later meeting with the Turks.)

I leave that for future investigators and historians. What I know for certain is that the rescue mission stand-down issue revolves around granting or withholding cross-border authority. And that sword of authority belongs 100 percent to President Obama. No weasel words or smokescreens should be allowed to cloud that very basic truth.

President Obama owns cross-border authority, so he owns the failure to rescue the American heroes who were fighting for their lives in Benghazi for seven hours. More than a hundred gung-ho Force Recon Marines were waiting on the tarmac in Sigonella just two hours away for the launch order that never came.

Semper Fidelis, President Obama?


74 posted on 11/02/2012 12:34:53 PM PDT by Travis McGee (www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 64 | View Replies]

To: Hemingway's Ghost

If as has been widely reported the USMC Force Recon company was taking a turn as the in-theater QRF, then there are orders out the wazoo sending them to Sigonella, assuming they started in Germany. I don’t know where or when they were located before Sig on 9-11. But there are orders from the theater commanders such as Ham getting them to the “launch point” you damn betcha.

But they couldn’t cross Libyan air space without an explicit, official execute order, including explicit CBA.

Now that, we shall find no record of, because it was never given. Instead, Obama went to bed to rest up for Las Vegas, (while Ambassador Stevens was missing and possibley about to get the Nick Berg close shave on video.)


75 posted on 11/02/2012 12:38:35 PM PDT by Travis McGee (www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 73 | View Replies]

To: onyx

There ain’t no such thing as a “worthy comment” cop around these parts.


76 posted on 11/02/2012 12:40:24 PM PDT by Travis McGee (www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 65 | View Replies]

To: maica

The fact that even the president’s movements and locations on 9-11 are treated like state secrets is damning in and of itself.

It was reported today that he didn’t even convene the counter-terrrism task force, which was created for incidents like this. I don’t even know for sure that he spent any significant time down in the Situation Room, the “bridge of the Enterprise” in Star Trek terms. Instead, Capt Kirk appears to have been “unavailable” for much of the 7-8 hour Battle of Benghazi.

Gross dereliction of duty like that would get any USN commanding officer relieved of duty in a heartbeat.


77 posted on 11/02/2012 12:44:35 PM PDT by Travis McGee (www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 67 | View Replies]

To: NTHockey

I’ll bet the story behind that story is even wilder than you portrayed. No doubt.


78 posted on 11/02/2012 12:54:23 PM PDT by Travis McGee (www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 68 | View Replies]

To: Travis McGee
Thanks once again! Let me see if understand what's going on:

1. SHTF.
2. The alarm goes out. Once it does, command centers in Germany that control our ops in Africa and Europe lock in in real time, and execute standing orders to get assets into position to pour water on the SHingTF.
3. That done, and I'm assuming that the time it takes to get that done is < the 7-8 hours the battle lasted, the assets are in place, waiting for someone to push the Go button.
4. The Go button is never pushed because given the geopolitics involved (crossing into a sovereign nation's territory with fighting in mind), the only one with authority to push it . . . doesn't.

Is that basically what we're talking about here?

79 posted on 11/02/2012 12:57:28 PM PDT by Hemingway's Ghost (Spirit of '75)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 75 | View Replies]

To: Hemingway's Ghost

Yes, but add in this factor. The QRF, let’s assume it was in Frankfort Germany, (just guessing), only went to Sigonella because CBA was not granted even more quickly. If CBA was given right away, say, by a Reagan or Bush, the QRF would have gone directly from Frankfurt to Benghazi, for either a paradrop or a C-130 landing on a nearby desert road, or in a C-17 preloaded with vehicles.

By the time the jet or prop transports arrive with the troops, USN and USAF jets are already controlling the air space, and are working with Ty Woods to kill everything hostile in sight of his laser.

In this “immediate action” scenario, (direct flight Germany to Benghazi) the Force Recon QRF arrives after the bad guys have already mostly been driven off by U.S. air power, our fighter jets and elint platforms having arrived over Benghazi one hour after the first alarm went out.

The Marines secure the annex and consulate areas, and have meals waiting by the time the ad-hoc CIA rescue team arrives from Tripoli in a chartered twin engine.

Sigonella is only in this story because early CBA was NOT given, so the Force Recon QRF and their planes needed a place to wait around. And they waited all night, and were never sent to Benghazi.

And as we know, this is ALL on Obama. He alone holds the CBA “royal scepter.”


80 posted on 11/02/2012 1:06:16 PM PDT by Travis McGee (www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 79 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100101-113 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson