Friday, March 29, AD 2024 3:46am

Libyan Lie

From day one the Obama administration knew that the Libyan attack on our Benghazi consulate and the murder of our ambassador was an al-Qaeda-linked terrorist attack that had nothing to do with the Mohammed video.

U.S. intelligence officials knew within 24 hours of the assault on the U.S. Consulate in Libya that it was a terrorist attack and suspected Al Qaeda-tied elements were involved, sources told Fox News — though it took the administration a week to acknowledge it.

The account conflicts with claims on the Sunday after the attack by U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice that the administration believed the strike was a “spontaneous” event triggered by protests in Egypt over an anti-Islam film.

Two senior U.S. officials said the Obama administration internally labeled the attack terrorism from the first day in order to unlock and mobilize certain resources to respond, and that officials were looking for one specific suspect.

 

In spite of that, President Obama and members of his administration for days afterwards pretended that the attack was in reaction to the video.  Go here to read a first-rate time line put together by the Washington Post blog.  Why the lie?  Several reasons.

1.  Osama dead and General Motors alive- One of the few foreign policies successes of the Obama administration was the killing of bin Laden.  A successful  al-Qaeda attack on the anniversary of 9-11 undercut this in a huge way.

2.  Now we have to do something?- In the midst of the Presidential campaign the last thing Obama wanted was to admit that this was a terrorist attack.  Such an admission would require that he take action.  In fact Obama has done precious little in the aftermath attack.  More than two weeks after the attack, the FBI still has not examined the attack site at Benghazi.

3.  AppeasementThe Mohammed video bogeyman allowed Obama to do what his preferred policy is to the jihadists:  pretend that if we bend over backwards not to offend Muslims, everything will be sweetness and love between Islam and the West.

4.  Diversion-  Focusing on the video allowed the Obama administration, with the active assistance of unpaid Obama press agents the Mainstream Media, to avoid initially answering embarrassing questions, such as I suggested be asked here.

5.  Because They Can- A Republican President who attempted the types of lies and stonewalling that Obama and his administration have engaged in subsequent to the Libyan attacks, would now be experiencing an unending drum beat of strident criticism from the Mainstream Media that would probably destroy his chances for re-election.  Obama? Most of the Mainstream Media will run perfunctory stories hidden amidst endless stories about Romney gaffes.  It is good to have an obedient media that cares far more about ensuring the re-election of the President than in breaking actual news stories.

Update:  Unbelievable!  The Obama administration is still trying to tie in the Mohammed video with the Benghazi attack.  Ed Morrissey at Hot Air gives us the absurd details:

The perpetrators behind the assault that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi on Sept. 11, 2012, had been looking for an opportunity to attack U.S. facilities in the region for some time, according to an Obama Administration official familiar with the latest intelligence

However, the Administration continues to believe the attack was not pre-planned, but rather was the result of extremists seizing the opportunity presented by protests in neighboring Egypt against an American-made anti-Islamic video.

Members of the Benghazi al-Qaeda affiliate, Ansar al Sharia, “Saw the events in Cairo and took it upon themselves to seize that opportunity to do something,” the Administration official says. “They may have intended for some time to attack U.S. facilities, but they did so at the time they did to take advantage of Cairo.”

Er … sure.  At least the White House now acknowledges that AQ had planned an attack on the Benghazi consulate and the American diplomatic presence “for some time,” a point of information that would never have come to light had CNN not found Stevens’ journal in the still-unsecured wreckage of the facility.  Stevens had warned the administration of the dangers, and as yet no evidence has arisen that State or the White House took any action to address his concerns.

But let’s consider the timing of this attack while musing on this latest spin.  The attack took place on the anniversary of 9/11, and conducted by a terror network that puts great stock in symbolic use of dates.  How likely is it that they just happened to discover a protest outside the US consulate — a protest which Libya says never actually took place anyway — and responded without any preparation at all in an attack with heavy weapons, exploiting it as cover?  I’d say it’s much more likely that AQ knew that protests would be taking place on 9/11 in places like Cairo, either at their direction or in cooperation with other extremist groups, and used it as cover for the attack on Benghazi.

This new spin is absurd, as is the White House attempt to rescue Susan Rice from the credibility destruction she incurred five days later:

UPDATE: Regarding Rice’s statements on Sept. 16, the spokesperson for the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, Erin Pelton, says, “During her appearances on the Sunday talk shows September 16, 2012, Ambassador Rice’s comments were prefaced at every turn with a clear statement that an FBI investigation was underway that would provide the definitive accounting of the events that took place in Benghazi.  At every turn Ambassador Rice provided–and said she was providing–the best information and the best assessment that the Administration had at the time, based on what was provided to Ambassador Rice and other senior U.S. officials by the U.S. intelligence community.”

Balderdash.  While she may have left herself a rhetorical out, Rice clearly communicated that the administration had no reason to believe that the Benghazi attack was terrorist-related, when four days earlier the Obama administration designated it as such.  Either the White House lied to Rice, or she lied to the media.  Either way, Rice should be tendering her resignation now.

 

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T. Sahw
T. Sahw
Friday, September 28, AD 2012 5:35am

“It ain’t lying if it advances the agenda.” Yogi Bubba

bill bannon
bill bannon
Friday, September 28, AD 2012 7:15am

Donald,
This search for the total evil of Obama is going to give you a heart attack…and I mean that literally. It’s already got T. Shaw changing the spelling of his last name. Let’s take Hitler. He was evil but he was not guilty therefore of every sin one could imagine. It was possible for Christians to sinfully slander Hitler by accusing him of sins outside his actual sins. An evil man is not a free target wherein slander no longer applies. Appease jihadists? Obama’s family is permanently in danger from Al Qaeda for the Bin Laden go ahead. I believe Al Qaeda will eventually strike them even decades from now. Obama either gets credit for all the Al Qaeda his people have killed or none of your favorite presidents get credit for anything they did.

WK Aiken
WK Aiken
Friday, September 28, AD 2012 7:35am

“One of the few foreign policies successes of the Obama administration was the killing of bin Laden.”

I’d say that’s credit.

You are correct in saying that attributing sin/guilt falsely regardless of the evil extent of the individual so attributed is wrong. Bearing false witness is a sin, period, and about whom that witness is given has no impact on the sin itself, although it will certainly play a part in any atonement or penance.

But the opposite is also true: it is equally wrong to excuse evils/sins by dint of an outstanding good. Hitler and the Nazis gave the world a number of excellent and still very useful technical advancements (VW Bug, anyone?) but that does not excuse him or them from the atrocities of the Holocaust or the guilt of starting the most costly war the world has ever known.

So, Don did give credit where it was due, but that does not mean he has to give a pass to everything else about this administration that has gone so woefully, dangerously wrong.

bill bannon
bill bannon
Friday, September 28, AD 2012 7:44am

Readers who want more than the Bin Laden kill…go here…

http://abcnews.go.com/politics/t/blogEntry?id=14638964

Greg Mockeridge
Greg Mockeridge
Friday, September 28, AD 2012 9:09am

Libyan Lie sounds like a good song title.

WK Aiken
WK Aiken
Friday, September 28, AD 2012 9:36am

Well, duh. ABC news. Silly us.

T. Shaw
T. Shaw
Friday, September 28, AD 2012 10:29am

“MSM’s so-called journalists do not report and will not so much as ask or investigate anything that does not advance the big liberal lie).

Faked but accurate. For the liars truth, facts, realities, and history do not exist. They are putty in their hands. They use them to make a point, to do good as they see it. And whatever they need to twist or omit is justified by their purity of intentions – and they always have the purest of intentions – Exterminate the unborn! Sanctify sodomy! Sexual exploitation of young women! False but justified.

Hate-filled liars despise facts and truth. They rely on hysterics, insults, lies and weeping and gnashing of teeth to advance their horrid ideas and destructive policies. The state-run MSM and PBR/S also eschew facts and truth, which are not susceptible to their calumnies, distortions, distractions, exaggerations, omissions, and outright lies.

bill bannon
bill bannon
Friday, September 28, AD 2012 11:40am

Readers can check the interview here of Ali Soufan. one of few FBI who spoke Arabic back in the day of 2001 and who actually interrogated terrorists and received the FBI directors award for Excellence in Investigative work. He broke with CIA people on the need for waterboarding and was on O’Reilly refuting a CIA person with whom he disagreed on effectiveness of rapport versus torture. He praises Obama for the kills but also for broadening international contacts in the war on terrorism…hopes that a Romney group would not reverse the latter and gives Obama an A minus with criticsms near the end of the interview:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/09/11/former-fbi-agent-ali-soufan-on-bin-laden-s-death-war-on-terror.html

Phillip
Phillip
Friday, September 28, AD 2012 12:18pm

Except CIA official Jose Rodriquez denies that Soufan was actually effective. In fact he points out how terrorists mocked him.

T. Shaw
T. Shaw
Friday, September 28, AD 2012 12:36pm

If Soufan were impartial, he’d rate Obama F-minus for intelligence: both military and IQ. E.G., the well-planned, organized/inside job diplomatic murders in Libya:

Obama propaganda 24/7 said the Osama slaying was a huge victory: spucatum tauri.

So what if Ali Soufan is/was against water-boarding (it’s one trick pony time again):

I think Instapundit: “A thoroughly documented new report on the impact of US drone campaign was released by NYU School of Law and Stanford University Law School. Entitled “Living Under Drones: Death, Injury and Trauma to Civilians From US Drone Practices in Pakistan”, the report details the terrorizing effects of US drone assaults as well as the numerous, highly misleading public statements from US officials about that campaign. The study’s purpose was to conduct an “independent investigations into whether, and to what extent, drone strikes in Pakistan conformed to international law and caused harm and/or injury to civilians”.

And there is this:

“…American progressives cheered loudly when a similar question was posed by Al Gore in a widely celebrated 2006 speech he gave on the Washington mall denouncing the Bush/Cheney assault on civil liberties:

“‘If the president has the inherent authority to eavesdrop on American citizens without a warrant, imprison American citizens on his own declaration, kidnap and torture, then what can’t he do?’

“What has always amazed me about that is that, there, Gore was merely decrying Bush’s mere eavesdropping on Americans and his detention of them without judicial review. Yet here Obama is claiming the power to decide who should be killed without a shred of transparency, oversight, or due process – a power that is being continuously used to kill civilians, including children – and many of these same progressives now actually cheer for that.”

Lesseee: Ali Soufan – Muslim?

Dulce Islami inexpertis.

T. Shaw
T. Shaw
Friday, September 28, AD 2012 12:40pm

Bill,

“Yogi Bubba” was a play on Yogi Berra (“It aint bragging if it’s true.”).

You’re correct. I could not possibly have more disrespect for the racist autocrat currently slumming in the White House.

philip
philip
Friday, September 28, AD 2012 12:57pm

It is very hard to Trust Obama, his administration.
The double speak flows….well like bung-lava!
“We will draft a sensible conscience clause…”, “the Savings from not being in Afganistain…”, I’m upset.
Trust is important, and my trust in his words and actions are low. His “trust account is empty” and I agree with Don’s 5 points.

bill bannon
bill bannon
Friday, September 28, AD 2012 2:02pm

Donald,
I don’t think “countries” that are newly forming have perfect riot prevention techniques or terrorist preventions techniques…since even the US has had its riots and terrorist incidents.
Here’s Judge Napolitano of Fox interviewing Soufan and at the end calling his book “great”. O’Reilly also interviewed him on Fox and that interview was respectful too. This Fox…Fox…not the NY Times..

http://video.foxbusiness.com/v/1160137357001/eyewitness-to-the-war-on-terror/

Michael Paterson-Seymour
Michael Paterson-Seymour
Monday, October 1, AD 2012 4:26am

Sounds awfully like the darling of conservatives, Leo Strauss.

Art Deco
Art Deco
Monday, October 1, AD 2012 5:58am

Sounds awfully like the darling of conservatives, Leo Strauss.

I am not sure what you meant by this, but Leo Strauss in this country is a bogey in a deeply stupid discourse. This man, now nearly 40 years deceased, was a philosophy professor with almost no involvement in political discussion at any level. There were a couple of subcabinet officers in the Bush Administration who had taken a couple of courses from him during their undergraduate years and a widely admired critic of higher education (Allan Bloom) was a student and disciple of Strauss. That is the extent of the conduit of his ideas to contemporary Republican politics. It has not prevented the addle-pated in the palaeo nexus from positing some high level cabal of initiates manipulating public policy (with William Kristol as the exalted cyclops). Unless you are pleased to be mistaken for a latter-day manifestation of the tendencies that gave you the John Birch Society, I would suggest you not bring up the name Leo Strauss.

Dante alighieri
Admin
Monday, October 1, AD 2012 8:41am

By denying Strauss’s influence Art and Don are demonstrating their complete allegiance to Strauss, because as we all know true Straussians are the ones most adamant in denying his influence. The fact that few outside of higher educational circles even claim to know who the man is therefore a sure-fire sign that the man’s philosophy completely permeates modern society.

(That was sarcasm for the sarcasm impaired.)

Rozin
Rozin
Monday, October 1, AD 2012 9:23am

“The so-called Libyan government can’t even protect our FBI agents to go to the attack scene in Benghazi two weeks after the attack.”

Then how is CNN wandering around Bengazi picking up the odd diary left behind by the movers? The Admin has no intention of investigating this or any other inconvenient terror attack. They are in the process of accelerating the release of terrorists from Gitmo. They are going to keep the FBI in Tripoli until 2013 or 2017 depending.

As I said somewhere else, there is also the issue that the Libyan government is permeated with Al Qaeda types as well as Brotherhood types.

t shaw
t shaw
Monday, October 1, AD 2012 9:52am

Philosophy prof? Clueless clowns making up stuff about stuff.

Last Phil class I attended was a final x in May 1970. The clueless clown asked me “Are you in the right place?” I was and I wasn.’t. I passed the useless required course and got my three vacuous credits.

Bottom line Obama and stooges are 24/7 lying.

Michael Paterson-Seymour
Michael Paterson-Seymour
Tuesday, October 2, AD 2012 3:07am

I was being flippant.

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