Fox News: Benghazi consulate warned 3 hours before attack of militia gathering arms

Hot Air ^ | November 2, 2012 | Ed Morrissey

[maggief]

Remember how the White House insisted for more than a week that there was “no evidence” that the sacking of the Benghazi consulate was anything more than a spontaneous demonstration over a two-month-old YouTube video that “spun out of control”? Fox News this morning reports that cables from the consulate itself made clear that they expected an attack from local militia groups in the hours before the terrorist attack that claimed the lives of four Americans, including Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens. They also told the State Department that they had reason to believe their local security was gathering intel for the attack:

If this is the case, then why wasn’t the FEST team ready to intervene? Actually, as Allahpundit noted last night, the military and CIA did have their teams ready. Now it appears that the State Department, at least, had three hours’ notice of radical Islamist activity in the city “gathering weapons and gathering steam,” plus a very big warning about consulate security being compromised. Yet while the attack took place, no one gave the order for a military intervention. Even hours into the attack, the White House didn’t go any farther than order an evacuation effort at the Benghazi airport.

This “spontaneous demonstration” story is falling apart. And it’s interesting to see how it’s falling apart, too. Earlier, the White House tried to lay off the failure on the intel community, which sparked a flurry of leaks showing that the intel community had warned of this issue and wanted to respond during the attack. This week, the White House has started to shift blame to State, and now we’re seeing these leaks showing that State knew exactly what was going on.

[maggief]

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/appt/2012/09/197186.htm

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
PUBLIC SCHEDULE
TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 11, 2012

SECRETARY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON

12:00 p.m. Secretary Clinton meets with Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and National Security Adviser Tom Donilon, at the White House.
(MEDIA DETERMINED BY WHITE HOUSE)

[Incorrigible]

 

[Jay777]

Warnings Sent 3 Hours Before Attack (Video)

[Hotlanta Mike]

“The cover-up won’t last much longer.”

[barryobi]

This is the last piece needed to destroy Obama before the election.

12:00 p.m. Secretary Clinton meets with Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and National Security Adviser Tom Donilon, at the White House.
(MEDIA DETERMINED BY WHITE HOUSE)

According to FoxNews, Stevens cabled the State Dept in Washington DC about the ‘police’ office seen photographing the consulate. The guys was seen at 6:43 local time which would have been 12:43 am DC time.

Now we find out that three hours before the attack started, Stevens cabled the State Dept warning of an impending attack. If the attack was at 9:40, the cable would have gone out about 6:40 which is 12:40 DC time. This was RIGHT when Donilon, Panetta, and Hillary were meeting! Also, by 12:40 pm DC time, the embassy siege in Cairo would have been ongoing for two hours, meaning the situation certainly would have been topic A on Hillary, Leon, and Tom’s agenda.

There is no longer any deniability available to these criminals. We now know they could have set in motion evacuation plans for our people in Benghazi three hours before the attack. They chose to do NOTHING.

There are no excuses for this lack of action. The only possible motive for not doing anything was the political considerations, it would look bad to evacuate our personnel.

I will never forget the look on Hillary’s face in the rose garden on 9/12. I knew then she was guilty of something terrible. Obama can lie and pass off any story without a flinch, but Hillary’s face told me something was very wrong here.

[MestaMachine]

It’s called premeditated murder. There is no other word for it. Murder. Flat out.

[crosslink]

This is the smoking gun. They were told an attack was going to happen. THEY DID NOTHING. This is criminal and will end many careers.

[Chuzzlewit]

if zero wins, this will impeach him, then we will be stuck with Biden.

[GreenHornet]

“The cover-up won’t last much longer.”

It only has to last until Wednesday.

[Truth29]

This is a smoking gun, but the media wet blanket is still mostly intact. I wonder what percentage of Rat voters have never heard of Benghazi or would vote for Obama no matter what is disclosed?

[Real Cynic No More]

The only possible motive for not doing anything was the political considerations, it would look bad to evacuate our personnel

Nope. Intentionally holding back additional security lends significant credence that it was a kidnapping attempt gone awry.

[Las Vegas Ron]

This is the smoking gun. They were told an attack was going to happen. THEY DID NOTHING.

Maybe the did nothing because it is what was supposed to happen??

Pat Robertson R-KS was on with Greta last night and made an interesting remark. They were discussing the man that was arrested in Turkey with bad papers and was a suspect in the Consulate attack and who was subsequently handed over to Tunisia.

Tunisia will not grant us access to him and his remark was that this man was the only witness to what happened.

Wha?? What happen to the 30 some odd people that were saved?

Were there really 30 people saved??

/Tin foil hat

[Las Vegas Ron]

lends significant credence that it was a kidnapping attempt gone awry.

Or an assassination.

Not saying your theory is incorrect but it seems to me that killing the "Ambassador" was the motive of the attackers not kidnapping.

JMO

[BlatherNaut]

There are no excuses for this lack of action. The only possible motive for not doing anything was the political considerations, it would look bad to evacuate our personnel.

Apparently they decided it was politically preferable to allow them to be annihilated by Al Qaeda forces (and their true mission in Benghazi concealed) and then blame their loss on a video.

Obama: "We leave nobody behind". Thus speaks the leader of the most corrupt and inept administration in U.S. history.

[butterdezillion]

My computer doesn’t let me see video. Has Fox News seen copies of the cable that Stevens sent? Do we know what urgency level it had, or what the protocol would be?

Stevens had previously said that the compound couldn’t withstand a planned attack and that there were AQ training camps in the area. He had also said that they were not getting adequate support from the Libyan government. We now know that the police was headed by an Islamist with ties to Ansar al Islam and AQ but the CIA would surely have known that already. Stevens’ staff knew that the police were not protecting them as requested. And the photo-taking by the police on the morning of 9-11 was causing worry enough that Sean Smith mentioned it to his gaming buddies online; it was on their minds and was actionable intelligence regarding police involvement in an anticipated attack.

If Hillary got that message and did nothing to get her people out of there immediately, this just about had to be pre-planned in coordination with the Obama regime, IMHO.

[kevkrom]

It’s called premeditated murder. There is no other word for it. Murder. Flat out.

At the very least, depraved indifference.

[TurboZamboni]

Obviously the State Dept. has bigger concerns- like making sure the UN monitors our elections.

[bytesmith]

if zero wins, this will impeach him, then we will be stuck with Biden.

---

Somehow, I can't see Congress having enough testicular fortitude to impeach Zero the Black. The press is so hung up on protecting the cretin.

[nanetteclaret]

Assassination: a subset of murder.

From Merrimam-Webster dictionary: “to murder (a usually prominent person) by sudden or secret attack often for political reasons.”