Another Benghazi Cover-Up (Weekly Update)

Contrary to what the Obama administration had initially claimed in its public comments, top U.S. diplomatic officials knew the U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya, was under terrorist attack on September 11, 2012. This is big. In testimony before the U.S. House Oversight Committee on October 10, 2012, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Charles Lamb let the cat out of the bag. Apparently, the agents within the Diplomatic Security Commander Center in Washington, D.C., knew that U.S. embassy personnel were under a terrorist attack from the moment it began.

Mr. Lamb told the congressional committee the Command Center knew in “real time” that a coordinated terrorist attack was underway against U.S. facilities in Benghazi. Moreover, it was clear to top officials within the Commander Center that the attack had no relationship to a controversial video. But this is not what U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice said during an appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press program on September 16, 2011. The Benghazi attack was “almost a copycat” of spontaneous demonstrations that erupted against U.S. facilities in Cairo, Egypt, in response to the video,” Rice said on the program. But her scenario is in conflict with Lamb’s testimony.

“When the attack began,” Lamb testified, “a diplomatic security agent working in the Tactical Operations Center immediately activated the Imminent Danger Notification System and made an emergency announcement over the PA. Based on our security protocols he also alerted the annex U.S. quick reaction security team stationed nearby, Libyan 17th February Brigade, Embassy Tripoli, and the Diplomatic Security Command Center in Washington. From that point on, I could follow what was happening in almost real-time.”

There is good reason to have faith in Lamb’s testimony. That’s because there was an October 9, 2012, press conference call in which a senior State Department official told reporters “The ambassador walked guests out at 8:30 or so; there was nobody on the street. Then at 9:40 they saw on the security cameras that there were armed men invading the compound.” What this means is that we have now entered the fourth year of a cover-up that demonstrates the Command Center knew a full-fledged terrorist attack was underway almost from the instant it began. Documents from the Command Center could help to further unravel information the administration has sought to conceal.

All this is why Judicial Watch filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the U.S. State Department last October. Thanks to a court order in this lawsuit, the State Department finally started disgorging documents – the first batch of which arrived earlier this week (on January 20).

Despite knowing it was an attack, the State Department, including its Security Command Center, continued to falsely tie “demonstrations” to the Benghazi terrorist assault. The State Department’s January 20 document production contains a press release issued by the Diplomatic Security Command Center, on September 12, 2012, that falsely states that “violent demonstrations took place at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, Egypt, and at the U.S. Special Mission Compound in Benghazi, Libya, resulting in damages in both locations and casualties in Benghazi.”

By the way, I’m not aware of the State Department telling Congress or anyone else about another “security” cover-up we uncovered, which is that there was no licensed security force at the Benghazi special mission compound on the day of the attack. We found those documents in another FOIA lawsuit.

We have now filed 40 FOIA requests, a Mandatory Declassification Review and eight lawsuits against the Obama administration relating to the Benghazi terrorist attack. We are the only non-governmental organization currently litigating in federal court to uncover information withheld by the administration about the events that transpired before, during and after the assault on our fellow citizens in Benghazi.

The House created a Select Committee on Benghazi as the direct result of Judicial Watch’s uncovering emails showing White House orchestration of the knowingly false narrative that the Benghazi attack was due to an Internet video and spontaneous protests. The documents were obtained through a federal court order obtained by Judicial Watch in a separate FOIA lawsuit. Exclusive disclosures by Judicial Watch include photos of the Benghazi compound attack aftermath; various records about security contracts and gaps; documents related to administration’s efforts to lie to Congress and the American people about the attack; and emails with specific reports the State Department was receiving as the attack was taking place (including a State Department email detailing intelligence that Ambassador Stevens may have been alive at a Benghazi hospital).

Judicial Watch also produced an exclusive investigative news story questioning the handling of the Benghazi investigation by outgoing House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rodgers (R-MI).

In the meantime, I understand that the Select Committee on Benghazi held its third hearing (after nine months of operation) on, among other things, why the State Department is ignoring its document requests. “Ugh,” you might say. Just so you know, that hearing was secret. “Double ugh,” you may also say. Don’t worry; we will continue our lawsuits and investigations. Your Judicial Watch will continue to be the best available means to hold the Obama administration (and corrupt alumnae such as Hillary Clinton) accountable for the Benghazi outrage.

We know that the leaders of the mainstream media have largely been co-opted and corrupted by the Obama administration. They will not even attempt to break the high and soundproof stone walls that they have helped to build around Obama’s many scandals. These include Operation Fast and Furious, IRS political targeting, the intelligence agencies illegally spying on Obama’s perceived political enemies, and so on. Breaking the American Pravda embargo against truthful reporting is a lost cause.

But are there no actively serving (or even recently retired) military generals or members of the federal Senior Executive Service who retain a shred of honor? Who will place Duty, Honor and Country ahead of paycheck, pension, and self-promotion? Is there not one real hero left with stars on his shoulders?

Not even one?

13. A CALL FOR ANSWERS

General Petraeus, where is your book? Is your agent planning to release it in a few years to maximize its profits? Aren’t you already making a ton of money sitting on all of those boards? Only a coward and scoundrel (like a certain recent Secretary of Defense) would wait to release a book only after its information was too late to prevent disaster. And knowing what I now know, I would not be surprised to learn that threats had been made against your family in order to ensure your silence. After all, gangsters rule our government today. It’s the Chicago Way.

But General Petraeus, before your book finally comes out, possibly after many years, can you please answer two very simple questions? Put your answers on the public record now, instead of waiting for your book, when it’s too late to matter. As a man of honor, please answer these two questions sooner, rather than later.

1. Where was President Barack Obama on the night of the Benghazi attacks, hour by hour, dusk ’til dawn?

2. Does President Obama’s mysterious MIA status on the night when his “good friend” Ambassador Chris Stevens and the other Americans were being killed relate to his failure to grant “cross-border authority” for an external rescue mission? Necessary permission that only the president, in person, can give? Did President Obama literally hide, so that no external rescue could be mounted? A rescue that might have turned into a “Blackhawk Down” disaster just weeks before the election? General Petraeus, an honorable man would not hesitate to put these facts on the record.

The American people deserve to know exactly what kind of man their Commander-in-Chief is. The fact that years after Benghazi we still don’t know the answers to those questions indicates that we are far along in the process of losing our freedom, with the mainstream media and the intelligence services colluding in the establishment of tyranny.

History will judge us very harshly if we don’t find a way to stop Obama’s Garden of Beasts from fundamentally transforming the United States into a one-party socialist dictatorship, while we watch it happen, helpless to resist. We watch and we wait, like insects already injected with paralyzing poison and wrapped in silk, awaiting the spider.

How can we escape from Team Obama’s web of deceit?

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