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The Other Benghazi Scandal
The Weekly Standard ^ | May 25, 2013 | TOD LINDBERG

Posted on 05/25/2013 1:44:58 PM PDT by don-o

The complexity of Washington scandals as they unfold usually involves many moments at which it is possible to lose sight of the forest for the trees. Two such instances have come into sharper relief in recent weeks. One is that we still have no good explanation for U.N. ambassador Susan Rice’s talking points for her round of talk show appearances the Sunday after the 9/11/12 attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi. A second is that focusing on the question of whether the loss of four lives there could have been avoided is actually a clever diversion from a serious inquiry into the adequacy of the response to the crisis as it unfolded.

Thanks to the solid reporting of The Weekly Standard’s Stephen F. Hayes among others, we now have a pretty good picture of how the CIA-prepared “talking points” about the events in Benghazi evolved. A document that initially fingered extremist Islamist groups eventually transmogrified into pabulum that would not contradict Rice’s storyline about an attack triggered by protests over an anti-Islam movie trailer. The White House was heavily involved in brokering the interagency catfight provoked by the CIA’s ham-handed exercise in blame deflection.

What we still lack, more than eight months later, is an adequate account of why Rice came to seize tenaciously on the film trailer, which had served as a pretext for earlier demonstrations in Cairo, as the best explanation for what was already known to have been a coordinated attack by jihadists on the diplomatic compound in Benghazi.

From the hundred pages of redacted email printouts the administration finally released, however, it looks like we do now know of a document that might hold some answers, though we do not yet know its contents.

(Excerpt) Read more at weeklystandard.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: benghazi; navyseals; obamaspeople; terrorism; threatmatrix
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Subtitle: Did we really do all we could have to respond to the attack?
1 posted on 05/25/2013 1:44:58 PM PDT by don-o
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To: don-o

No.

But what’s worse is we made a concerted effort to get them killed.


2 posted on 05/25/2013 1:48:26 PM PDT by bgill (The problem is...no one is watching the Watch List!)
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To: don-o

Can you imagine if Condoleeza Rice had said “what difference does it make”? The media would NOT have given the pass which Hillary Clinton was given when she made that inane comment.


3 posted on 05/25/2013 1:48:30 PM PDT by Dilbert San Diego
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To: don-o
From the article

The U.S. embassy in Tripoli, meanwhile, chartered a plane to dispatch a security team of seven to Benghazi. They arrived at about 5:00 a.m., in time for an intensified attack on the annex that left two more Americans dead from mortar fire.

I have seen a timeline that says this team arrived at 0100 or 0115. Haven't I?

4 posted on 05/25/2013 1:55:13 PM PDT by don-o (He will not share His glory, and He will not be mocked! Blessed be the Name of the Lord forever!)
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To: don-o

5 posted on 05/25/2013 1:59:07 PM PDT by JoeProBono (Mille vocibus imago valet;-{)
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To: Dilbert San Diego

The media is almost completely in the tank for Obama.

I used to think it’s because so many of them admired him so much. But now I’m beginning to think its the pall of fear so many must feel. This administration will stop at nothing to get what it wants. And that begins with a positive story from the MSM.

Many in the media must be secretly terrified knowing the full power of the federal government can be turned on them and their family at any time.

It would give me pause for thought if I were a “reporter”.


6 posted on 05/25/2013 1:59:43 PM PDT by kjo (+)
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To: don-o
Hillary & Rice also lied about the Cairo uprising being triggered by the YouTube video. This was concocted to bolster their Benghazi lies.. More background, buried in this story here:

http://dailysoapbox-mydailysoapbox.blogspot.com/2012/11/why-didnt-cnns-international-arm-air.html

7 posted on 05/25/2013 2:05:06 PM PDT by GeorgeWashingtonsGhost
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To: kjo
Timeline: Military Response to Benghazi Attacks

DOD timeline places arrival of team at 0130 not 0500.

8 posted on 05/25/2013 2:05:53 PM PDT by don-o (He will not share His glory, and He will not be mocked! Blessed be the Name of the Lord forever!)
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To: don-o

Interesting. Now it’s Learjet? The first reports were that they flew in on a C-47. Doesn’t matter too much as the point is the same. A Learjet doesn’t have sophisticated countermeasures, and it doesn’t fly near as fast as an F-16. We need to hear from the people who were there. FREE THE BENGHAZI 40!!!


9 posted on 05/25/2013 2:18:30 PM PDT by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer")
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To: blueunicorn6

The Benghazi 40 are hostages.


10 posted on 05/25/2013 2:21:50 PM PDT by Toespi
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To: bgill

Aw, ya think?

What is lurking in the background, with nobody willing to give it a name, is an operation so “black ops”, that its revelation would totally destroy any credibility the Current Regime in the White Hut has in regards to their dedication to the best interests of the United States of America.

In an exchange that could only benefit the Muslim Brotherhood, the supply of weaponry and arms that had been sent into Libya, were supposed to be retrieved, and with the aid of the Turkish Islamist government, diverted to Syria where they would be applied to the downfall of the Bashar al-Assad regime.

Now Bashar al-Assad is a son-of-a-bitch, and he isn’t even OUR son-of-a-bitch. Taking him out, however, only assures that a regime even less friendly to Israel will assume power in that benighted and tormented land. And the new proprietors will surely use the supply of arms in a direct effort to support Hezbollah in the separate suppression now going on in Lebanon, and a renewed assault on Israel.

It is a complicated chess game, with multiple layers and players with shifting allegiances, to which Ambassador Stevens was only a pawn, given up quickly in exchange for shifting the emphasis away from the move that was being covered.

The Current Regime in the White Hut is a particularly inept player, a knife fighter facing vipers and scorpions armed with automatic weaponry and with the threat to use chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.

Even Indiana Jones would have trouble with odds like that stacked against him.


11 posted on 05/25/2013 2:23:23 PM PDT by alloysteel (If you want to see the true measure of a man, watch how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.)
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To: annieokie; penelopesire; maggief; Protect the Bill of Rights; thouworm; SE Mom; Nachum; onyx; ...
When will they say it? When will they call it what it was? It was treason. It was murder. Who will have the moxy to come right out with it?

Anyone wanting on or off this ping list, please advise.


12 posted on 05/25/2013 2:24:21 PM PDT by MestaMachine
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To: don-o

It is good to remember Doolittle’s Raiders this Memorial Day Weekend. Their mission was to bomb Japan and show the Japanese that their homeland could be attacked by the United States. In order to increase the range of their aircraft, they removed the defensive machineguns and ammunition their aircraft normally carried. I believe they also removed some of the armor the planes normally carried. They attacked without any fighter support. They attacked without any reconnaissance going in ahead of them. They attacked without aerial refueling aircraft nearby. They attacked without a friendly airport near to refuel. They attacked not knowing for sure what enemy defenses they faced. They attacked a modern, industrialized nation at war and on alert. THEY ATTACKED. I don’t remember all the details of what happened to these brave Americans after they dropped their bombs on Japan. I believe some of them were executed by the Japanese. They were Americans, and they kept coming. I am proud of them and the people who commanded them. I am ashamed of the American military and civilian leaders who did nothing to try and help the Americans in Benghazi.

“Hang yourself, brave Krilon, for we fought at Arques today, and you were not there.”


13 posted on 05/25/2013 2:36:28 PM PDT by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer")
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To: TigersEye; maggief

You may want to tweet or email this author you links and information. I can not find an email. Maggie can you find an email for the author?


14 posted on 05/25/2013 3:03:29 PM PDT by crosslink (Moderates should play in the middle of a busy street)
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To: don-o

Where are the shoulder to air Manpads??? That is the story, too.


15 posted on 05/25/2013 3:05:56 PM PDT by Zuben Elgenubi
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To: Toespi

Wow!
Confirmation?
I’ve been wondering where they are, if anyone has seen or talked to them.
Links supporting that or just commonsense conjecture.

I put NOTHING past this administration


16 posted on 05/25/2013 3:16:46 PM PDT by boxlunch
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To: crosslink

Email domain for The Weekly standard is.....

@weeklystandard.com


17 posted on 05/25/2013 3:47:18 PM PDT by superfries
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To: Toespi

Hostages of who?


18 posted on 05/25/2013 3:54:10 PM PDT by OwenKellogg
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To: superfries

Thanks, I was looking for his direct email. Most reporter have them but most conservative writers do not due to all the idiots that harass them. I know some on this forum have them available.

Thanks again


19 posted on 05/25/2013 3:55:48 PM PDT by crosslink (Moderates should play in the middle of a busy street)
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To: superfries

Thanks, I was looking for his direct email. Most reporter have them but most conservative writers do not due to all the idiots that harass them. I know some on this forum have them available.

Thanks again


20 posted on 05/25/2013 3:55:48 PM PDT by crosslink (Moderates should play in the middle of a busy street)
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