Category Archives: Foreign Policy
Stormbringer Gives Some Insight on Benghazi…
STILL SPINNING BENGHAZI: LATEST LIES
Gates: Some Benghazi critics have “cartoonish” view of military capability
Oh R-E-A-L-L-Y-?-?-? How very I-N-T-E-R-E-S-T-I-N-G for you to say that. Well I don’t have a “cartoonish” view of the military – having spent a quarter of a century wearing the war suit in Special Forces and maintaining a close professional association with Special Operations units to this day . . .
. . . let’s go through this by the numbers:
“We don’t have a ready force standing by in the Middle East, and so getting somebody there in a timely way would have been very difficult, if not impossible.”
Not exactly true – we had the Commander’s In Extemis Force (CIF) eight hundred miles away on a training mission in Croatia; less than six hours out by C-130. Perhaps not close enough to respond to the initial assault on the Consulate but they certainly could have made a difference during the follow-on fight at the CIA Annex compound. Closer to the fight, at least four Special Forces operators in Tripoli who were ordered – by somebody – to stand down.
I know about the CIF because that is my old outfit – everywhere we went we were required to bring our go-to-war pallets with full basic load of ammunition. In the event of a terrorist attack on one of the diplomatic missions in our theater, our job was to march to the sound of the guns. To turn off the standing orders requires a direct order from the National Command Authority – i.e the President, the Vice-President, the Secretary of Defense or the Assistant Secretary of Defense. One of those four gave the order to stand down, in other words.
Suggestions that we could have flown a fighter jet over the attackers to “scare them with the noise or something,” Gates said, ignored the “number of surface to air missiles that have disappeared from [former Libyan leader] Qaddafi’s arsenals.”
I’m going to throw out the 15-yard Bullshit Flag here; we know that over 6 hours elapsed from the beginning of the attack to when the CIA operators were killed by mortar fire – from a heavy mortar emplacement they had laser target designators on, and had requested air support hours earlier in neutralizing. They had also given higher HQ 8-digit coordinates on the mortars, as close as it gets in combat targeting. Former Navy SEALs Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods (who died during the second phase of the attack, on the CIA Annex) were “lazing” enemy mortar position. They weren’t doing that for the good of their health – they were doing it because they had reason to believe there were air assets overhead; and they were on the phone speaking to somebody, directing them to laze those targets.
Furthermore, Libya does not have Syria’s Anti-Aircraft-Artillery (AAA) defense-in-depth. Sure, there are shoulder-fired man-portable anti-aircraft defense systems (MANPADS) available – but these are inneffective against a couple of fast-movers flying less than 200′ off the deck with their afterburners on. By the time the zoomies scream on by causing a couple of sonic booms over the bad guys, Hajii would be saying, “Holy Hookah Pipes, what was THAT???” I have personally seen this tactic defuse an attack on a political target in the Philippines.
“To send some small number of special forces or other troops in without knowing what the environment is, without knowing what the threat is, without having any intelligence in terms of what is actually going on on the ground, would have been very dangerous. It’s sort of a cartoonish impression of military capabilities and military forces,” he said. “The one thing that our forces are noted for is planning and preparation before we send people in harm’s way, and there just wasn’t time to do that.”
Again, bullshit. We had actionable intelligence live from the battlefield. Our guys on the ground – to include former Navy SEALs Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods – were tooling around town between the Consulate and the Annex, and were reporting what they saw. On top of that, we had at least one drone, and various reports mention the presence of an AC-130 gunship – which would explain what Doherty and Woods were doing with the lasers.
The Ultimate Rebuttal:
Gates can say what he wants – one aspect of this entire disgraceful affair that nobody is addressing is the relief-for-cause of General Ham, commander of US Africa Command at Kelly Kaserne in Stuttgart, Germany, the evening of the attack, 11-12 September 2012:
Upon notification the attack in Benghazi was taking place, AFRICOM Commander General Ham immediately notified the CIF unit and communicated to the Pentagon that his forces were ready to deploy.
General Ham then received the order to stand down. His alleged response was screw it, he was going to help anyhow. Within 30 seconds to a minute after making the move to respond, his second-in-command apprehended General Ham and told him that he was now relieved of his command.
On October 18 2012, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced: ”President Barack Obama will nominate Army Gen. David Rodriguez to succeed Gen. Carter Ham as commander of U.S. Africa Command and Marine Lt. Gen. John Paxton to succeed Gen. Joseph Dunford as assistant commandant of the Marine Corps.”
It is very intriguing that Ham is immediately reassigned less than eighteen months into a three year tour. Maybe Ham attempted to send a reaction force against orders, or maybe he simply gave his chain-of-command a piece of his mind about hanging Americans to dry. At the very least the CIF and whatever other forces were available could have made those who killed our people pay while they were still on the scene.
Analysis:
What I’m seeing here is somebody trotted out former CIA Director Robert Gates, to assist with the mitigation and spin doctoring of BenghaziGate. Team Obama either has something they’re holding over his head, or – get this – they’re promising him a nice juicy plum. Say, an ambassadorship in London or Rome or Paris, or maybe even a spot on the ticket with the HildeBeest in 2016. Think about it; nothing could give Hillary more legitimacy in the area of foreign affairs and national security than to have a Republican former Secretary of Defense, former Director of Central Intelligence as her running partner?
The kind of people who rise to the top of organizations such as the Department of Defense and the CIA are raging egomaniacs – if not during their rise to the top, then certainly after breathing the rarified air at the top. Dangle a carrot like that in front of them, and a guy like Gates will sell his mother. Selling out his country is small potatoes, in comparison.
Wnat I’m waiting for is to hear what Petraeus has to say about all this – he testified on Benghazi and spouted the party line, and for his troubles the Obamatrons threw him under the bus. It will be very interesting to hear what he has to say if they bring him out, the second time around.
- STORMBRINGER SENDS at http://seanlinnane.blogspot.com/
You Probably Don’t Know The Man Who Writes The Cover-ups for the Lies of Obama…
Ben Rhodes: Obama’s Fixer Behind The Benghazi Cover-Up
Ben Rhodes: Obama’s Fixer Behind The Benghazi Cover-Up – American Thinker
Barack Obama’s “Tower of Fabrications,” as Peter Wehner describes the Benghazi scandal, is beginning to crack. And that crack will soon reveal a central figure behind the cover-up, a man close to Barack Obama for years but generally unknown to the public: Ben Rhodes.
. 
Rhodes has risen from being an obscure and failed fiction writer to formulating foreign and national security policy for Obama precisely because he is willing to his superiors’ bidding regardless of facts. He has a history of using whatever talents he has with the pen to do so.
A few years ago he had drafted the Iraq Study Group report on the causes and mishaps of the Iraq War to focus on Israel – despite the fact that Israel was not part of the scope of the mission the Baker-Hamilton Iraq Study Group was given. Witnesses and experts called by the Committee were appalled. Why did Rhodes distort the record? He seemingly was doing the bidding of his masters who have a history of animus towards Israel. Rhodes had attended Rice University, where the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy is housed; it was headed by Edward Djerejian. Both Baker and his friend Djerejian (a former Ambassador to Syria) have pro-Arab records; criticism of and pressure towards Israel have been hallmarks of their careers. Both Baker and Djerejian played key roles in choosing whom to hire for the Iraq Study Group and how the work was done.
Rhodes may also just be indulging his own pro-Muslim sympathies. He wrote Obama’s infamous Cairo Speech. That paean to the Muslim world was filled with fulsome praise of Islam that were factually incorrect (Rhodes’ post-graduate education, after all, was in fiction-writing and under Obama he seems to have finally found someone who will pay him for writing fiction). The speech avoided references to radical Islam and was filled with platitudes about Islam. The speech highlighted a tougher line towards Israel and “credited” that nation’s founding as due to European guilt over the Holocaust (ignoring 5000 years of history).
Rhodes has gone from writing reports and drafting speeches to playing a key role in formulating foreign and national security policy, according to the New York Times. His closeness to Obama – a man known for his aloofness (“he doesn’t like people” says a former aide) has become well-known.
There is a reason Rhodes is close to Obama.
Everyone in power needs a fixer and, according to the latest revelations, Ben Rhodes is Obama’s fixer.
Read the entire article at The Daley Gator: http://thedaleygator.wordpress.com/
How About This… You Lying Piece of Shit…
Found at Mad Medic: http://maddmedic.wordpress.com/
These Republicans in Congress Make Me Sick. No Convictions, No Principles, No Integrity, No Stand Against Sheer Incompetence and Open Hatred for Israel
Senate Leftists, RINOs Vote To Confirm Pro-Islamist Anti-Semite Hagel As Defense Secretary
Senate Approves Hagel For Defense Secretary After Historic Nomination Fight – Fox News
The Senate approved Chuck Hagel’s nomination for Defense secretary Tuesday, ending a contentious battle that exposed deep divisions over the president’s Pentagon pick.
After Republicans blocked the nomination earlier this month, they ultimately allowed for an up-or-down vote on Tuesday. The margin was historically close, with 58 senators supporting him and 41 opposing in the end.
Though Hagel is himself a former Republican senator, the resistance to his nomination showed an unusual level of distrust among many senators toward the man chosen to lead the Defense Department – at a time when the country is trying to wind down the Afghanistan war, while assessing emerging threats from Iran, Syria and elsewhere in the turbulent Middle East and North Africa.
Republicans had earlier held up the nomination largely over demands for more information from the Obama administration on the Sept. 11 Libya attacks.
But they also raised serious and recurring concerns about Hagel’s record of past statements and votes on everything from Israel to Iran to nuclear weapons.
Sen. John McCain, a leading Republican, clashed with his onetime friend over his opposition to President George W. Bush’s decision to send an extra 30,000 troops to Iraq in 2007 at a point when the war seemed in danger of being lost. Hagel, who voted to authorize military force in Iraq, later opposed the conflict, comparing it to Vietnam and arguing that it shifted the focus from Afghanistan.
McCain called Hagel unqualified for the Pentagon job even though he once described him as fit for a Cabinet post.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid asked what the delaying tactics had done for “my Republican colleagues.”
“Twelve days later, nothing. Nothing has changed,” the Democrat said on the Senate floor. “Sen. Hagel’s exemplary record of service to his country remains untarnished.”
Reid blamed partisanship over Obama’s second-term national security team for the delay. Both Reid and Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, a Democrat, warned that it was imperative to act just days before automatic, across-the-board budget cuts hit the Pentagon.
Hagel will succeed Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and join Obama’s retooled national security team. Hagel’s nomination bitterly split the Senate, with Republicans turning on their former party colleague and Democrats standing by Obama’s nominee.
Republicans also challenged Hagel about a May 2012 study that he co-authored for the advocacy group Global Zero, which called for an 80 percent reduction of U.S. nuclear weapons and the eventual elimination of all the world’s nuclear arms.
The group argued that with the Cold War over, the United States can reduce its total nuclear arsenal to 900 without sacrificing security. Currently, the U.S. and Russia have about 5,000 warheads each, either deployed or in reserve. Both countries are on track to reduce their deployed strategic warheads to 1,550 by 2018, the number set in the New START treaty that the Senate ratified in December 2010.
In an echo of the 2012 presidential campaign, Hagel faced an onslaught of criticism by well-funded, Republican-leaning outside groups that labeled the former senator “anti-Israel” and pressured senators to oppose the nomination. The groups ran television and print ads criticizing Hagel.
Opponents were particularly incensed by Hagel’s use of the term “Jewish lobby” to refer to pro-Israel groups. He apologized, saying he should have used another term and should not have said those groups have intimidated members of the Senate into favoring actions contrary to U.S. interests.
The nominee spent weeks reaching out to members of the Senate, meeting individually with lawmakers to address their concerns and seeking to reassure them about his policies.
Hagel’s halting and inconsistent performance during some eight hours of testimony at this confirmation hearing last month undercut his cause, but it wasn’t a fatal blow.
There was no erosion in Democratic support for the president’s choice and Hagel already had the backing of three Republicans – Sens. Thad Cochran, Mike Johanns and Richard Shelby. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., also switched to support Hagel in the final vote.
From The Daley Gator: http://thedaleygator.wordpress.com/
Thanks for Your Ass-Kissing Questions Senator…
Found at Theo: http://www.theospark.net/
For Hillary and Obama Lying is All They Know – They Cannot Tell The Truth
What Difference It Makes What Happened in Benghazi
Since you asked, Shrillary, Ed Morrissey has a few answers regarding what difference it makes what happened in Benghazi, including:
First, it mattered enough for the Obama administration to send Susan Rice to five different Sunday talk shows to insist that the sacking was a spontaneous demonstration of anger over a months-old YouTube video, while saying that there was “no evidence” that it was a terrorist attack. On one of those appearances, the president of Libya told US audiences the exact opposite — that it was the work of terrorists and that they had a pretty good idea of who they were. If it didn’t matter, what was Susan Rice doing when she tried pushing that meme, which the White House had to abandon within days as leaks within State and CIA made plain that there was no demonstration? …
So it matters because of credibility.
But even more than that,
It matters because [Obama's demented Middle East] policies are going to get more people killed than just the four Americans in Benghazi last September, and already have.
Among many other reasons.
Good thing for Democrats they have the press on their side, and are mostly up against cowering pygmies.
On tips from Zappatrust, A. Levy, and Just TheTip.
Hillary Puts On Quite a Con Show…She is a Commie Liar
BENGHAZI-GATE: Martha Stewart Paid A Bigger Price With Theft (In Prison) Than Hillary Clinton Pays For MURDER
Featured
Posted by The MAD Jewess in Hillary Cliton
BENGHAZI-GATE: Martha Stewart Paid A Bigger Price With Theft (In Prison) Than Hillary Clinton Pays For MURDER, Hillary CLINTON
It’s true.. Martha did her time…
But, Hillary is Teflon. Chris Stevens was a friend of Hillary’s. When it came to die, he sure paid up, didn’t he? Every single GOP senator there deserves to be canned except Rand Paul. This witch played these pansies like a violin. This is why I am so proud to NOT be a Republican. These Repub Senators are weak. They are immoral. The ONLY one with some tenacity was Rand Paul. Paul should run for Prez with Trey Gowdy-2 non-nonsense men. And here is another fact: Hillary Clinton got away with murder because she is a FEMALE. She pretended to be sick. She yelled like the bitch she is and the ‘men’ quivered in fear… She didn’t have to testify for FOUR months. By this time, stupid Americans already forgot about the lives of the 4 men in Benghazi. And, as expected, Democratic Senators asked soft-ball questions, putting party ahead of country.
NO JUSTICE, NO RETRIBUTION. America is EVIL.
When other countries see this, they will shake their fists at evil America. Our debaucherous, sick, demented country who cares nothing for humans. Hell, the world already knows we are sick murderers.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA….I WIN AGAIN!!!
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA…
And, I will be Prez in 2016…..!!! STUPID AMERICANS! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
From The Mad Jewess: http://themadjewess.com/
What Difference Does it Make?
From the Looking Spoon: http://www.thelookingspoon.com/
Hillary Does Not Give A Damn About Benghazi Victims…
Hillary Clinton Has Talked To Only 1 American Benghazi Survivor In 4 Months…
Via CNS News:
In the aftermath of the terrorist attack on the U.S. facilities in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11, five State Department Diplomatic Security agents who were in Benghazi that day and survived the attack were evacuated from the country and taken to Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany.
All five had suffered from smoke inhalation, and one was seriously wonded.
Under questioning from Sen. Ron Johnson in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee today, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton revealed that she has spoken to only one of the survivors who was evacuated from Libya after the Benghazi attack. Presumably, this was on of the five Diplomatic Security officers who was at the mission during the attack.
Clinton also claimed in her back and forth with Sen. Johnson that it would have been inappropriate for her to talk to the surviving State Department officials–who worked for her, and who had valiantly defended the department’s Special Mission Compound in Benghazi against the terrorists–until they had been interrogated by the FBI.
Because Clinton testified that she has only talked to one of the survivors, she could not possibly have even personally thanked–let alone heard the eyewitness accounts of–four of the five Diplomatic Security officers who saw how the Sept. 11 attack unfolded and put their lives on the line to protect Amb. Stevens and the U.S. facility in Benghazi.
From Weasel Zippers: http://weaselzippers.us/
MLK Supported Israel – Obama Does Not
Did you know that Martin Luther King, Jr. was a Zionist?
Shhhhh…don’t tell Barack Hussein Obama.
AUJS THE REV. MARTIN Luther King, Jr. understood the meaning of discrimination and oppression. He sought ways to achieve liberation and peace, and he thus understood that a special relationship exists between African Americans and American Jews. This message was true in his time and is true today. He knew that both peoples were uprooted involuntarily from their homelands. He knew that both peoples were shaped by the tragic experience of slavery. He knew that both peoples were forced to live in ghettoes, victims of segregation.
He knew that both peoples were subject to laws passed with the particular intent of oppressing them simply because they were Jewish or black. He knew that both peoples have been subjected to oppression and genocide on a level unprecedented in history. King understood how important it is not to stand by in the face of injustice. He understood the cry, “Let my people go.”
Long before the plight of the Jews in the Soviet Union was on the front pages, he raised his voice. “I cannot stand idly by, even though I happen to live in the United States and even though I happen to be an American Negro and not be concerned about what happens to the Jews in Soviet Russia. For what happens to them happens to me and you, and we must be concerned”.
During his lifetime King witnessed the birth of Israel and the continuing struggle to build a nation. He consistently reiterated his stand on the Israeli-Arab conflict, stating “Israel’s right to exist as a state in security is uncontestable”. It was no accident that King emphasized “security” in his statements on the Middle East.
On March 25, 1968, less than two weeks before his tragic death, he spoke out with clarity and directness stating, “peace for Israel means security, and we must stand with all our might to protect its right to exist, its territorial integrity. I see Israel as one of the great outposts of democracy in the world, and a marvelous example of what can be done, how desert land can be transformed into an oasis of brotherhood and democracy. Peace for Israel means security and that security must be a reality.”
During the recent UN Conference on Racism held in Durban, South Africa, we were all shocked by the attacks on Jews, Israel and Zionism. During an appearance at Harvard University shortly before his death, a student stood up and asked King to address himself to the issue of Zionism. The question was clearly hostile. King responded, ”When people criticize Zionists they mean Jews, you are talking anti-Semitism.”
From Bare Naked Islam: http://www.barenakedislam.com/
Morsi And Obama are Just Alike – Morsi Has Declared Himself Dictator and Obama Wants to Do The Same
Bait and Switch
No wonder Obama is so eager to be friends with the Islamist dictator Mohamed Morsi. They are both masters of the bait and switch tactic. Morsi duped the willfully gullible into thinking he was something other than Egypt’s Ruhollah Khomeini. Obama pulled this:
The top-ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee accused President Obama of pulling a “bait and switch” this week with the administration’s proposed deal to avert the so-called “fiscal cliff.”
“What [Obama] proposed this week was a classic bait and switch on the American people — a tax increase double the size of what he campaigned on, billions of dollars in new stimulus [i.e., patronage] spending and an unlimited, unchecked authority to borrow from the Chinese,” Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said in Saturday’s weekly GOP address.
Obama has made it obvious to anyone paying attention that he fully intends to go over the cliff — unless of course Republicans accede to his every demand, no matter how detrimental to the economy.
If Congress fails to act within the next 30 days, a bevy of tax increases and severe spending cuts are set to go into effect, potentially unleashing a devastating blow to the precarious U.S. economy.
“If we don’t act by the end of the year, 28 million more families and individuals will be forced to pay the Alternative Minimum Tax, 21 times as many farmers and ranchers will be hit with the death tax, and the average middle-class family would see their taxes go up by at least $2,000,” Hatch said.
Obviously we are going to have to pay the piper sooner or later. You can’t let a Marxist punk flush $trillions that we don’t have down the toilet, reelect him, and then expect there not to be economic agony.
The objective is to make sure Republicans get blamed for the pain, despite being the only ones to attempt to avoid it. Given that the Obama Regime and the “mainstream” media are in effect the same entity, this should be child’s play.
Tip and graphic compliments of Zappatrust.
Four Americans Died…And Susan Rice Wanted America to Apologize?
Found at The Daley Gator: http://thedaleygator.wordpress.com/
We Simply Traded One Dictator for Another Except Mubarak Was Better
EGYPT: In a very Obama-like move, President Morsi declares himself God…and the people are outraged!
Mohamed Morsi declared that any laws or decrees he’s made since he took office June 30, and any made before a new constitution is put in place, are final and cannot be overturned or appealed. Angry protesters filled the streets of Cairo, and set fire to several Muslim Brotherhood offices around the country.
Hey…you voted for a radical Islamist, just like we did, in the United States. You get the government you deserve.
Protesters storm several offices of Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood inappropriately-named ‘Freedom and Justice’ party
CNN Morsi also declared that a 100-man council drafting a new constitution, plus the upper house of parliament, cannot be dissolved. He granted the council two more months to finish a draft constitution, meaning the panel has six months to finish. That means Morsi, who this year took over legislative powers from the military council that ruled after Hosni Mubarak’s ouster, could have at least six months of unchecked rule by decree. The draft constitution would go to a referendum before it is finalized.
Morsi’s moves come three days after the start of violent protests in central Cairo, largely by people angry at Morsi’s government and the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist movement to which Morsi belongs. There also is turmoil in the constitution panel, which has been torn between conservatives wanting the constitution to mandate that Egypt be governed by Islam’s Sharia law and moderates and liberals who don’t.
There’s Lying, Liars, and Then There’s James Clapper
There’s Willful Blindness, Then There’s Willful Stupidity, Then There’s Willful Deception – Meet James Clapper
November, 20, 2012 — nicedeb
James Clapper
I’m paraphrasing Andrew McCarthy’s excellent headline from 2/10/11 at the Corner: There’s Willful Blindness, and Then There’s Willful Stupidity:
James Clapper, the head of intelligence for the United States of America, has explainedto Congress that the Muslim Brotherhood is “largely secular.” It further has “eschewed violence,” decries al-Qaeda as a “perversion of Islam,” and really just wants “social ends” and “a betterment of the political order in Egypt.”
I kid you not.
This is the Muslim Brotherhood whose motto brays that the Koran is its law and jihad is its way. The MB whose Palestinian branch, the terrorist organization Hamas, was created for the specific purpose of destroying Israel — the goal its charter says is a religious obligation. It is the organization dedicated to the establishment of Islamicized societies and, ultimately, a global caliphate.
It’s this genius who has been designated the Regime’s fallguy in the BenghaziGate scandal (he in fact, took credit back on Sept 28: DNI James Clapper on Libya: I Got It Wrong – Not the White House. )
As Ace notes, we’ve suspected this for months.
Now people are saying it was indeed Clapper. Actually they’re saying it was his office — the Director of National Intelligence — and any of several people might have made the changes.
But I will stick with Clapper. He’s proven himself to be a perfect Obama appointee, by which I mean incompetent and eminently malleable in his claims according to Obama’s political needs. Furthermore, we are speaking here of the deaths of four Americans, including an ambassador. We are talking about talking points prepared by the CIA to be given to the US Ambassador for wide dissemination on television. And the US Ambassador was appearing on TV at the order of the White House (which I imagine means the President).
As very senior people are involved on all ends of this, I doubt very much the edit job was done by a convenient subordinate. I would imagine another principal– Clapper himself — made the edits. Either way, Clapper is confirmed to have reviewed the edits, at the very least.
As for the reason for the edits:
…an intelligence source tells CBS News correspondent Margaret Brennan the links to al Qaeda were deemed too “tenuous” to make public, because there was not strong confidence in the person providing the intelligence. CIA Director David Petraeus, however, told Congress he agreed to release the information — the reference to al Qaeda — in an early draft of the talking points, which were also distributed to select lawmakers.
And at this point, you would think CBS News would want to point out that the only thing that was “tenuous” about the whole thing was their bogus story about a spontaneous protest over a stupid YouTube video which actually had zero evidence to back it up. But it would be too much to ask an MSM news outlet to make a giant leap like that.
That is why more hearings are necessary to get to the bottom of this. Let Clapper try to get away with an obfuscation like that in front of the likes of Trey Gowdy, Jason Chaffetz, or Darrell Issa.
The other thing that needs to be discovered – why did Petraeus so dramatically alter his story from what Peter King remembered as clearly pushing the spontaneous protest narrative …to something entirely else.
Via Diane West, after his Sept 14th briefing, ABC reported:
The attack that killed four Americans in the Libyan consulate began as a spontaneous protest against the film “The Innocence of Muslims,” but Islamic militants who may have links to Al Qaeda used the opportunity to launch an attack, CIA Director David Petreaus told the House Intelligence Committee today according to one lawmaker who attended a closed-door briefing.
Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, the top Democrat on the House Intel committee, said Petraeus laid out “a chronological order exactly what we felt happened, how it happened, and where we’re going in the future.”
“In the Benghazi area, in the beginning we feel that it was spontaneous – the protest- because it went on for two or three hours, which is very relevant because if it was something that was planned, then they could have come and attacked right away,” Ruppersberger, D-Md., said following the hour-long briefing by Petraeus. “At this point it looks as if there was a spontaneous situation that occurred and that as a result of that, the extreme groups that were probably connected to al Qaeda took advantage of that situation and then the attack started.”
This is key. On September 14, the top Democrat on the Intell Committee comes out of the Petraeus briefing and tells the press the Benghazi “protest” went on for two or three hours, and how very important that protest was to the conclusion that this was a “spontaneous” attack.
This is the same Petraeus briefing, Fox New reported, that some members found “shocking” given that they saw the intelligence pointing not to a “spontaneous” movie-riot but to a planned terrorist attack.
That was amended last week to:
…he knew almost immediately that Ansar al Sharia, the al Qaeda sympathizing group was responsible for the preplanned attack on the Consulate in Benghazi that killed four Americans. The question of their motivation is where the confusion lies. Initially, there were up to 20 intelligence reports that blamed the YouTube video as the motivation. Those reports were disproven in time, but supposedly not before Petraeus had testified before Congress on the 14th, three days after the attack.
More hearings, please.
Linked by Doug Ross, thanks!
From Nice Deb: http://nicedeb.wordpress.com/
The War for The Minds of Liberals Can’t Be Won
Incidentism
Incidentism isn’t derived from a fear of Matt Damon movies, but from the perception that wars are not won on the battlefield, but in the minds of men. And that perception has a good deal to do with the kind of wars we choose to fight.
The military, whether in the United States or Israel, does not exist to win wars. It exists to win over the people who don’t want it to win a war.
The guiding principle in such conflicts is to use the military to push back the insurgency long enough to win over the local population with a nation building exercise. This program has never worked out for the United States, but that doesn’t mean that generations of military leaders don’t insist on going through the motions of applying it anyway.
In Israel, the last time the military was sent to win a war, was 1973. Since then the military has been used as a police force and to battle militias in Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank. In the Territories, the ideal Israeli soldier was supposed to be able to dodge rocks thrown by teenagers hired by Time correspondents looking to score a great photo. Today the ideal Israeli soldier is capable of visiting an American college campus to dodge the overpriced textbooks hurled at him by the local branch of Students for Justice in Palestine or the International Socialist Organization, while explaining why the IDF is the most moral army in the world except for the Salvation Army.
The ideal Israeli soldier, like his American, British and Canadian, but not Russian or Chinese, counterparts, is supposed to avoid Incidents. That means operating under Rules of Engagement which make firing at an assailant almost as dangerous as not firing at an assailant.
The ideal American soldier is supposed to avoid the Taliban, or as one set of orders urged, patrol in places where the Taliban won’t be found. And that’s sensible advice, because if the goal is to avoid creating an Incident, then avoiding the enemy is the best way to avoid an Incident. Unfortunately the enemy has a bad habit of appearing where he isn’t supposed to be and creating his own Incidents, because Taliban and Hamas commanders are not concerned about being yelled at in a fictional courtroom by Matt Damon. They actually welcome Incidents. The bigger and bloodier the Incident, the more hashish and young boys get passed around the campfire that night.
American soldiers operate under the burden of winning over the hearts and minds of Afghans and New York Times readers. Israeli soldiers are tasked with winning over New York Times readers and European politicians. But some hearts and minds are just unwinnable. And most wars become unwinnable when the goal is to fight an insurgency that has no fear of the dreaded Incident, while your soldiers are taught to be more afraid of an Incident than of an enemy bullet.
They Are Guilty of A Massive Cover-Up in Benghazi and Harry Reid Knows It
Harry Reid Refuses To Allow Senate Panel To Investigate Benghazi…
It’s almost like he’s afraid of the truth coming out.
Via Politico:
If Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid didn’t make it clear enough to Republicans that he opposes a select committee to investigate the Benghazi attacks, he said it again Friday: No way.
In letters to key Republican senators, Reid put his foot down – again – on a special panel to dig into the Sept. 11 assault that killed U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens and three diplomatic aides. A select committee would need a floor vote to be created, and Reid said he wouldn’t permit it.
“I refuse to allow the Senate to be used as a venue for baseless partisan attacks,” Reid wrote in the three-page letter, released Friday evening.
Sens. John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Kelly Ayotte have led the charge for a special committee in recent days; there is also support for the idea in the House. Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) fired off a similar request to Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) earlier this week, but Boehner said he didn’t believe a new panel was necessary.
From Weasel Zippers: http://weaselzippers.us/
Israel Knows Obama Has Thrown Them Under the Bus…
Israeli Official: “We Will Not Capitulate Before Obama”…
Excellent.
TEL AVIV — The state of Israel will not capitulate before President Obama, whose “naive” leadership has hurt the U.S., stated Danny Danon, deputy speaker of Israel’s Knesset.
Danon, a Knesset member from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party, was reacting to the reelection of Obama.
Danon told KleinOnline: “Obama’s victory demonstrates that the state of Israel must take care of its own interests. We cannot rely on anyone but ourselves. Obama has hurt the United States by his naïve leadership in foreign policy, which prefers the Arab world over the Western world, along with Israel. The state of Israel will not capitulate before Obama.”
From Weasel Zippers: http://weaselzippers.us/
Signs From Benghazi – Obama Guilty of Treason
From Billy Bob: http://hellonearth-1.blogspot.com/
Al-Qaeda Alive and Well in Libya Thanks to Obama
RE: Obama’s claim that al-Qaeda has been destroyed, exiled Libyans say, “No Way!” “Barack Hussein Obama actually gift-wrapped Libya, handed it over to al-Qaeda, and we can prove it.”
EXCLUSIVE! Walid Shoebat Bombshell: More leaked documents reveal Obama’s real agenda in Libya.
Shoebat Exiled Libyans stated they have come into possession of some highly classified documents that in their view, “will bring the Obama Administration down.” They were not bluffing; they provided the first installments of official classified documents which we provided in some of our previous reporting. “The rest,” they say, “will be provided when Mitt Romney is in office. His election is our only hope for humanity,” they said.
These documents include evidence of highly sophisticated weaponry provided to jihadists which leads them to doubt that any solutions will take place under what they called “The Obama regime”.
We have come into the possession of an array of records obtained from top-level sources inside the Libyan government. They include passports of Al-Qaeda operatives and identifications of terrorists from many nations—Chad, Egypt and Pakistan to name a few—which are now all camped in Libya as they enter by crossing borders guarded and managed officially by what they called “government appointed Al-Qaeda leaders.”
This explains why the drafts of two letters on September 11th expressing worry that the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi was under ‘troubling’ surveillance and that the Libyan government failed to fulfill requests for additional security. “It wasn’t failure,” these pro-U.S. agents said, “but the Libyan government’s mafia-like system, subordinate to Al-Qaeda and installed with the blessings of the Obama administration that is responsible for the deaths of Americans in Benghazi,” they said.
The wealth of intelligence includes countless documents, which we will soon turn over to the National Center For Intelligence and Counter-Terrorism. They show evidence of bribes [see image to left] by the government to top-officials, weapons dealing, and bank siphoning by al-Qaeda operatives, to include copies of bank transactions that illustrate the subordination of the newly established Libyan government to Al-Qaeda. These included Bin Laden’s personal driver Sufyan Gammou and Abdul Wahhab Hassan Qayed, the brother of the recently assassinated Abu Yahya al-Libi. Qayed was officially put in charge of Libyan border control. This arrangement is responsible for the passage of large amounts of Al-Qaeda operatives into Libya. READ THE REST
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From Bare Naked islam: http://www.barenakedislam.com/
Rush: Hillary’s Testimony Before Congress Was “A Puke Fest”
It was a puke fest. It was unlike anything I’ve ever seen. It was right out of a banana republic. [Bumped]