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Fmr. NSC Spokesman Tommy Vietor: Obama Was Not In The Situation Room During Benghazi Attack
RealClearPolitics ^ | 5/1/2014 | Bret Baier and Tommy Vietor

Posted on 05/02/2014 7:28:06 AM PDT by mojito

BRET BAIER: People on the ground testified that they knew where the ambassador was, that they were military in their precision. It was not guys coming to protest. They had mortars and heavy weapons.

TOMMY VIETOR: Bret, a couple of things. I was in the Situation Room that night, okay. We didn't know where the ambassador was definitively.

BAIER: Was the president in the Situation Room?

VIETOR: No. And the fact that your network at one time reported that he watched video feed of the attack as it was ongoing is part of what I think is a pattern of inaccurate --

BAIER: Where was the president?

VIETOR: In the White House. Let me finish my initial statement. The notion that we could, you know, divine motives from a drone feed I think is wrong. And I also think this idea that the military had the capability to rescue those individuals but chose not to is I think extremely unfair to the military. And Admiral Mullen said basically the opposite.

BAIER: In the ARB report.

VIETOR: Right.

BAIER: Where was the president?

VIETOR: In the White House.

BAIER: He wasn't in the Situation Room?

VIETOR: At what point in the evening?

BAIER: Any point in the evening.

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


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: benghazi; benrhodes; jaycarney; libya; obama; situationroom; susanrice; vietor
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To: mojito
barry was on the set....perparing for his cameo role.... in a hollywood movie/


21 posted on 05/02/2014 7:41:17 AM PDT by MeshugeMikey ( "Never, never, never give up". Winston Churchill)
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To: mojito
The CINC (POTUS) not being in the situation room, or OP Center in military terms, during an attack on the United States is dereliction of duty pure and simple.

Any Commander would be relieved of command in a heart beat.

In this case the only option is impeachment. I know.....never happen with GOP-e running the show in the House. However, the process could start now, probably take many months to come up for a vote and conclude when the Republicans take control of the Senate in 2014. Conviction is another issue. At least this Marxist being impeached would be fine with me.

22 posted on 05/02/2014 7:45:55 AM PDT by mosaicwolf (Strength and Honor)
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To: mojito

He was Chooming.


23 posted on 05/02/2014 7:48:53 AM PDT by Iron Munro (Malaysia Flight MH370 Black Box signals reported in Bermuda Triangle)
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To: mojito
The White House Situation Room. For reference only. This photo was NOT, I repeat NOT, taken on the night Benghazi was attacked. Obama was not in the Situation Room that night.

As noted by others, this is not a big room. If Obama was there everyone else would know it and remember it. Those who were there were, we assume, concerned with what was going on in Libya and what could/should be done to help the Americans in Benghazi whose lives were clearly at risk. Obama was concerned with HIS ELECTION and the required PR plan to avoid the consequences of his foolish policies that led to the death of 4 Americans. PR always comes first with Obama.


24 posted on 05/02/2014 7:49:50 AM PDT by InterceptPoint
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To: mojito

Little Tommy is a preening cocksure little prick who thinks his WH job accords him respect and awe. He unconvincingly, arrogantly, in a name/place dropping kind of way, spews out rebuttals that are about as believable as Jay Carney tap dancing around the Press Room.

I’ll bet the little twit gets some good action from all the DC secretaries and aides (don’t know male or female), etc. using his ‘former’ job as a come on.

He has no real basis for being where he is other than being a lying slick-talker. Where else can a press van driver graduate to a job as spokesman for the NSC. And it isn’t publicized now about where he works or who pays him.

The real point in fact why the administration has this “former” NSC spokesman out there now lying and dissembling is that he is not a public employee who can be legally held responsible for LYING as a government employee!


25 posted on 05/02/2014 7:50:24 AM PDT by Gaffer (Comprehensive Immigration Reform is just another name for Comprehensive Capitulation)
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To: mojito; Travis McGee

Meanwhile, the American MMS mediots continue to publish more stuff on words spoken by a senile pro basket ball owner.


26 posted on 05/02/2014 7:55:09 AM PDT by Grampa Dave ( Herr Obama cannot divert resources from his war on Americans!)
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To: mosaicwolf

Everyone was AWOL that night...Hillary was in Asia, but a traveling SecState has access to all forms of secure communications, including video-teleconferencing, from her plane or at the local U.S. Embassy. Yet, her “communication” that night consisted of a brief phone call with Barry around 10 pm eastern time.

And what about General Dempsey and SecDef Panetta? They provided the initial update in a scheduled meeting with the President at 5 pm, but where were they in the hours that followed?

In fact, Congress missed a golden opportunity yesterday when they were questioning General Lovell. He should have been asked about several things, including (a) When was the secure VTC established between AFRICOM HQ in Stuttgart, and the national nodes in D.C. (State, White House, Pentagon) and who was running the show at those various locations.

Lovell has sketeched an outline of a national command authority that made the conscious decision to ignore a terrorist attack while four Americans died. You’d think the GOP would have the guts to fill in the details. But then again, a lot of prominent folks in the Grand Old Party (McShame, Lindsey Graham) were on-board for the arms running operating out of the consulate, so the Republican establishment doesn’t want the investigation to go “too far.”


27 posted on 05/02/2014 7:57:17 AM PDT by ExNewsExSpook
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To: FlingWingFlyer

:: Wasn’t Barry packing to go to a fundraiser in Vegas while Americans were being murdered in Benghazi? ::

Was Barry packing to go? Only Reggie knows for sure!


28 posted on 05/02/2014 7:58:42 AM PDT by Cletus.D.Yokel (Catastrophic Anthropogenic Climate Alterations - The Acronym explains the science.)
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To: Cletus.D.Yokel

Oh come on, everyone can take one look at Nero and clearly see he isn’t the packer. He’s the suitcase.


29 posted on 05/02/2014 8:29:58 AM PDT by VRWCarea51
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To: SMARTY

That might be the Bin Laden photo.


30 posted on 05/02/2014 8:31:58 AM PDT by PghBaldy (12/14 - 930am -rampage begins... 12/15 - 1030am - Obama's advance team scouts photo-op locations.)
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To: VRWCarea51

Used to be I found the phrase “pitchers and catchers report” the most re-assuring sentence of spring.

Now, I’m not so sure.


31 posted on 05/02/2014 8:35:55 AM PDT by Cletus.D.Yokel (Catastrophic Anthropogenic Climate Alterations - The Acronym explains the science.)
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To: mojito
Tommy Vietor started working for Barack Obama when he was still Senator Obama--well before he became a presidential candidate--and until Friday, the 32-year-old Vietor hadn't stopped. His first job for Obama was as the driver of a press van, and he rose up the ranks through the 2008 campaign, and then the White House press office, to become the National Security Council spokesman.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/power-players/tommy-vietor-journey-obama-van-driver-national-security-122803525.html

32 posted on 05/02/2014 8:42:54 AM PDT by Abby4116
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To: mojito

Pat Robertson, Dr Dobson and Franklin Graham are NOT afraid to call this President what he is.

Pat said about a week ago that this guy has to go


33 posted on 05/02/2014 8:43:37 AM PDT by Friendofgeorge (Sarah Palin 2016 OR BUST)
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To: eartick
And we Americans know what we have to do...take this POS traitor/socialist/communist/marxist/muzzie sympathizer DOWN HARD, along with the rest of his cockroach ilk.
34 posted on 05/02/2014 8:44:04 AM PDT by itssme
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To: onedoug
obozo has BLOOD ON HIS HANDS...We the People know what we have to do...destroy this POS b/4 he destroys US and all we value in this country.

We know what we have to do, so let's rally round and win this for the Constitution, our Liberty and Freedom!

35 posted on 05/02/2014 8:48:08 AM PDT by itssme
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To: mosaicwolf

Another poster this thread, without irony, claimed it made “no difference where he was.” There’s an eerie ring to that.

My reply would be that here was a CINC in the WH who knew that in real time a terrorist attack was occurring on a US diplomatic facility and that lives were at risk, but he couldn’t be bothered to monitor events - as they happened - from the Situation Room and make decisions that could have at least made the effort to come to the aid of our men on the ground.

I cannot imagine any other president who would not have been in that room, even the hapless Jimmy Carter.

This is dereliction of duty, as you state. And of course, it begs the question: what was so important that Barry couldn’t be there.

Many on this thread, myself included, believe he was, shall we say, “amusing” himself. We’ll see if we ever get an answer to this question, but at least it’s being asked.


36 posted on 05/02/2014 8:49:34 AM PDT by mojito (Zero, our Nero.)
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To: mojito
Let's play a game: it's called "Where's Barry?"

"Where's Barry, dude?"

37 posted on 05/02/2014 8:52:37 AM PDT by who knows what evil? (Yehovah saved more animals than people on the ark...www.siameserescue.org.)
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To: Abby4116
Ah, another one of those attractive young white men who always seem to attach themselves to this president.

And this one a long-time loyalist and sycophant.

Good to know.

38 posted on 05/02/2014 8:54:31 AM PDT by mojito (Zero, our Nero.)
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To: RinaseaofDs

The invasion of Crimea and Bengazi are related only that Putin sees that America is weak because of our leaders and especially because of the Boy King.

The Mexican excursions across our southern border has been going on for decades. This is not an Obama thing. It goes way back. I remember tracking a Zeta military group within a half a mile of the Falfurrias airfield in ‘05. We found a military ID that had been dropped at their cold camp.

And the camel humpers as well have been coming across the southern borders in droves and NO ONE does shitte about it. This is how the Boy King will launch the attack in my book.


39 posted on 05/02/2014 9:47:12 AM PDT by eartick (Been to the line in the sand and liked it)
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To: Cheerio

Ex-AFRICOM Brig. General: Military Should Have Responded to Benghazi Attack

Posted By Daniel Greenfield On May 1, 2014 In The Point

General Lovell also served as the Deputy Commanding General of Joint Task Force ODYSSEY GUARD with the mission to plan for any potential United States military missions in Libya following the fall of the regime of Moammar Gadhafi. Joint Task Force ODYSSEY GUARD was instrumental in providing support to the Department of State as it reopened the United States Embassy in Tripoli.

Parts of retired Air Force Brigadier General Robert Lovell’s testimony are technical having to do with AFRICOM, but he makes one very important point. The Obama side on the Benghazi side has repeatedly claimed that there wasn’t enough time to do anything. But that’s a retroactive argument.

If you do nothing, then you’re rolling the dice that the enemy might finish off your people before you could have done something and then you have an excuse.
Instead of a military response to Benghazi, Obama absurdly enough sent in the FBI.
Lovell’s testimony is the first from a member of the military who was at Africa Command at the time of the attack. Lovell was deputy director for intelligence at Africa Command.

Lovell did not question the Pentagon claim that it could not have scrambled forces in the region quickly enough to have prevented the deaths of the Americans. Lovell said no one at the time of the attack knew how long it would go, so could not have determined then that there was no use in trying.

“As the attack was ongoing, it was unclear whether it was an attempted kidnapping, rescue, recovery, protracted hostile engagement or any or all of the above,” Lovell said.
It’s not just about the timeline. It’s about the fact that Obama and Hillary refused to even try and that their response was to shift blame and send a scapegoat to prison for offending Muslims.

Cummings broke in with his buffoon act again.
“Why are you testifying that the U.S. military did not try to save lives,” Cummings asked.

Lovell said he was not disputing that information.

“We should have continued to move forward with whatever forces we had to move forward with,” Lovell said.

He described a sense of desperation while attack unfolded when asked by Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, how the military responded during the attack.

“We sent a drone overhead,” Lovell said, almost mumbling. “It was desperation…. There was a lot of waiting for State Department for what it was that they wanted.”
Which means that it really came down to what Hillary wanted.

“We didn’t know how long this would last when we became aware of the distress nor did we completely understand what we had in front of us, be it a kidnapping, rescue, recovery, protracted hostile engagement or any or all of the above,” Lovell said. “But what we did know quite early on was that this was a hostile action. This was no demonstration gone terribly awry.”

But the lie had to be told anyway.


40 posted on 05/02/2014 9:58:55 AM PDT by Dqban22
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