Patterico's Pontifications

Ding.

Patterico (83033d) — 10/1/2012 @ 7:50 pm

Was that wrong? Should they not have done that? Because if they had known that that kind of behavior was frowned upon, of course they wouldn’t have done it.

Dustin (73fead) — 10/1/2012 @ 7:55 pm

Well if they had apprehended AAS, it wouldn’t have mattered;

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2012/10/01/FBI-Protocol

narciso (ee31f1) — 10/1/2012 @ 8:06 pm

Treason is what got an ambassador and Marines killed. Treason is what will go unpunished in this despicable administration. Despicable is anyone even thinking about giving this traitor another four years.

PatriotRider (b38003) — 10/1/2012 @ 8:08 pm

Mistakes were made. Heads will roll.

Over there somewhere, I think…

Mojo (a29e97) — 10/1/2012 @ 8:14 pm

What difference does it make? The election is already over.

Ag80 (b2c81f) — 10/1/2012 @ 8:14 pm

3. Oh.My.God

gary gulrud (dd7d4e) — 10/1/2012 @ 8:23 pm

The Manchurian’s only hope now, after blanket pardons, is to resign quickly and get Bite Me to pardon him in turn.

Then the new Admin has to obey the law and tradition.

gary gulrud (dd7d4e) — 10/1/2012 @ 8:45 pm

When you think about it, in death Brian Terry and Ambassador Stevens have a lot in common. In order to protect the president’s re-election and hide his administration’s lies and egregious blunders, an honest accounting of the details and true circumstances under which they were targeted and killed must be kept from the public. It is absolutely shameful. These men of service deserved more respect and better treatment from their government both in life and in death. They were sacrificed for bad policy coupled with incompetence. Their families and friends and the American people deserve to know the truth.

elissa (05951f) — 10/1/2012 @ 8:57 pm

when you have lost CNN…

Obumbles is a SCOAMF.

redc1c4 (403dff) — 10/1/2012 @ 9:01 pm

There is an additional commonality, elissa, both the Libyan govt and Mexico, are nominal allies, to which the Obama administration has funnelled arms
against their political rival, or the criminal faction,

narciso (ee31f1) — 10/1/2012 @ 9:02 pm

______________________________________________

If Obama were a conservative guilty of this much blatant dishonesty and dangerous gameplaying — not to mention the gall of his campaigning like a twit in the midst of such appalling events, running over to chat with the women on the View and then flying out to Vegas (or visa versa) — I’d still be no less irritated with and contemptuous of him.

I know this isn’t a hypothetical too, because when Romney — similar to a guest exhibiting poor etiquette at a party — continued to cluck at the British for their security operations at the Olympics in London, I was annoyed with him. And what he did wasn’t a fraction as bad as what Obama is doing.

Mark (6d5e0d) — 10/1/2012 @ 9:15 pm

No, having actually carried through an Olympics in the aftermath of a terror threat, puts him in a different position.

narciso (ee31f1) — 10/1/2012 @ 9:17 pm

“No, having actually carried through an Olympics in the aftermath of a terror threat, puts him in a different position.”

narciso – Plus, as I recall it was the American press, not the British press, that magnified Romney’s comments into gaffes. No agenda visible.

daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 10/1/2012 @ 9:22 pm

Romney has to hit Obama hard with this at the debates, relentlessly so. And at this point, choose his buzz words carefully – they have to be powerful and stick.

#3, amazing link. It’s so ironic the FBI hasn’t even been on the scene yet to work the investigation (not that it has been secured…), yet news outlets have been and even removed the ambassador’s journal…

Dana (292dcf) — 10/1/2012 @ 9:22 pm

Actually it was a pile on, across the pond, with a few exceptions. This is likely the pressure of CAIR, ISNA, one of whose leaders is running a Syrian rebel faction, but amplified thtough Think Regress and the kind of alarmism Spencer Ackerman
threw out earlier in the year.

narciso (ee31f1) — 10/1/2012 @ 9:29 pm

_____________________________________________

3. Oh.My.God

Exactly. The level of political correctness illustrated by the contents in narcisco’s link to breitbart.com is so absurd, that it borders on parody. Even I might have assumed such sheer lunacy and idiocy would not have been possible in the real world. That a formally stated policy of the type of insanity that led to Nidal Hasan and the Fort Hood massacre could only have come from the fevered imagination of an anti-Obama propagandist.

And speaking of the FBI and CIA, who’d have thought it would come down to this, or what seems to be merely another parody, at least to an observer a few years ago. Or a time when he or she might have surmised such a scenario was both a bit of sarcasm and a slippery-slope hypothetical dreamt up by the “Vast Rightwing Conspiracy.”

Mark (6d5e0d) — 10/1/2012 @ 9:50 pm

4. Treason is what got an ambassador and Marines killed.

Comment by PatriotRider — 10/1/2012 @ 8:08 pm

SEALs. They weren’t Marines. Neither was the ex-Air Force guy working for DoS.

Nothing against Marines. But no Marines or former Marines were killed in Benghazi. The men who were killed who were ex-military no doubt were proud of the uniforms they wore, and should be remembered for having worn them.

They weren’t Marines.

Steve57 (c8ac21) — 10/1/2012 @ 9:59 pm

They also have names, in addition to having worn their uniforms. The Air Force vet was Sean Smith, the former SEALs were Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods.

Steve57 (c8ac21) — 10/1/2012 @ 10:06 pm

Of course we all know that Obama and Ms. Sara Power and her R2P are responsible for Libya’s predicament today.

They saw they had a chance to get rid of a bad guy–after all, he disarmed b/c he was afraid of Bush–so why not off him and get the credit?

They left the place a Mad Max nightmare. And they put Chris Stevens right in the middle of it.

Eric Holder's Brain (e1d89d) — 10/1/2012 @ 10:18 pm

It’s a coverup, and when even CNN knows it, you can’t cover it up any longer:

I suppose that’s why I keep harping on the fact our erstwhile allies bugged out based upon what they took to be actionable intelligence.

Note: I’m not slamming them when I refer to them as “erstwhile.” I’m slamming us for having elected a vile President who can’t be trusted.

In the past we were allies, at least to the extent we consulted with each other. If anyone ruined that relationship it was us.

In any case, this current incompetent seems to get away with a lot by arguing that no one could have done better. And the world of intel is supposed to be some sort of black box no one can scrutinize.

In this case it’s easy. A lot of people did better than us. No black box to it. So how come we’re the only f***ups who got an ambassador killed, Mr. President?

Steve57 (c8ac21) — 10/1/2012 @ 10:25 pm

Carter 0, Khomeini 56, needs to be overturned.

But Barry Stanley Soetero Barack Hussein Robinson Obama will not be the one to do it

nk (875f57) — 10/1/2012 @ 10:50 pm

http://pjmedia.com/instapundit/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/ROMNEYDISTRACT.jpg

Colonel Haiku (247462) — 10/2/2012 @ 5:22 am

when you have lost CNN…
Comment by redc1c4 — 10/1/2012 @ 9:01 pm

— And this would be a big deal IF anyone still watched CNN.

Icy (a8d089) — 10/2/2012 @ 6:33 am

My WAG, without all these fancy computers, turned out to be right, AQIM just doesn’t have the wherewithal to run this operation, but bin Qumu, and his sponsor, Bel Hadj/Al Dosadi, spent years running foreign fighters into Iraq.

narciso (ee31f1) — 10/2/2012 @ 6:51 am

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/kyle-drennen/2012/10/01/bbcs-katty-kay-laments-mideast-crisis-making-it-harder-obama-attack-ro

narciso (ee31f1) — 10/2/2012 @ 7:11 am

Andd when you’ve confused John Stewart

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/jon-stewart-tears-into-obama-admins-contradictory-uncoordinated-response-to-libya-attack/

narciso (ee31f1) — 10/2/2012 @ 7:13 am

25. My WAG, without all these fancy computers, turned out to be right, AQIM just doesn’t have the wherewithal to run this operation…

Comment by narciso — 10/2/2012 @ 6:51 am

Dude. I humbly suggest you recalibrate your Wild A** Guess O meter. The Obama admin’s stubborn refusal to admit the existence of reality has greatly reduced the degree of difficulty required to pull this s*** off.

Steve57 (c8ac21) — 10/2/2012 @ 7:29 am

Well if you don’t hear from me, like the guy in ‘Enemy of the State’ which sent the package to
Will Smith, you’ll know.

narciso (ee31f1) — 10/2/2012 @ 7:40 am

‘Heck of a job, Phillippe’

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2012/10/breaking-after-libyan-consulate-was-bombed-twice-this-year-obama-administration-bragged-our-security-worked/

narciso (ee31f1) — 10/2/2012 @ 8:02 am

Greetings:

I was re-reading Mark Bowden’s “Black Hawk Down” the other day and came across a reference to President Clinton flying off to the West Coast immediately after the Battle of the Black Sea in Mogadishu to give a couple of his timeless political speeches.

There’s nothing new under the Democratic sun.

11B40 (5cd907) — 10/2/2012 @ 8:41 am

This just isn’t a foreign policy election in any imaginable way shape or form I don’t think. If people aren’t voting against food stamp for his vicious rape of our common prosperity then a few dead state department flunkies aren’t gonna move the dial.

happyfeet (b5795c) — 10/2/2012 @ 9:42 am

Again, why has the FBI not even landed in Bengazi to begin their investigation? Could we the administration be so cynically desperate that they are stonewalling a formal investigation until *after* the election?

At this point in time it seems the only sensible answer: the more uncovered, the more obvious it becomes to whom the blame should be assigned.

Dana (292dcf) — 10/2/2012 @ 10:48 am

Comment by Dana — 10/2/2012 @ 10:48 am

I don’t remember who I heard, but Hewitt or Rush or someone had this idea. They said the FBI people they knew were long on integrity and would find the truth and would not cover it up.

MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 10/2/2012 @ 11:48 am

MD,

Then why are they not there already? News reporters are and have been. The crime scene is so contaminated now it’s probably useless. So in order for them to do an investigation and do it with integrity, they have to be there to get it started.

So who is preventing this from occurring? And why?

Dana (292dcf) — 10/2/2012 @ 12:27 pm

Didn’t they pull everyone out of Benghazi? Sounds like the FBI will keep investigating from Tripoli.

JD (ab8eee) — 10/2/2012 @ 12:48 pm

It’s like the Terrorist version of Appalachin

http://hotair.com/archives/2012/10/02/video-benghazi-suspect-freed-from-egyptian-prison-after-mubarak-fall/

narciso (ee31f1) — 10/2/2012 @ 12:51 pm

JD,

According to this, the State Dept. One of the reasons the State Department has given for not discussing events surrounding the terrorist attack that killed Ambassador Stevens was that the FBI was investigating and they would have no comment until the bureau had completed its work, and that there is an “open investigation on the death of these four Americans”.

However, CNN later came out with this report,

More than two weeks after four Americans — including the U.S. ambassador to Libya — were killed in an attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, FBI agents have not yet been granted access to investigate in the eastern Libyan city, and the crime scene has not been secured, sources said.

“They’ve gotten as far as Tripoli now, but they’ve never gotten to Benghazi,” CNN National Security Analyst Fran Townsend said Wednesday, citing senior law enforcement officials.

Last Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters that an FBI team had reached Libya earlier in the week.

“In fairness to the secretary, it may be that she wanted to be coy about where they were in Libya for security concerns. That’s understandable. But the fact is, it’s not clear they’ve been in Libya for very long,” Townsend said on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360°.”

“They had difficulty, and we understand there was some bureaucratic infighting between the FBI and Justice Department on the one hand, and the State Department on the other, and so it took them longer than they would have liked to get into country. They’ve now gotten there. But they still are unable to get permission to go to Benghazi.”

A combination of bureaucratic infighting and a non-cooperative host nation has torpedoed any investigation.

The article also states that the site has never been secured, so it is unlikely to produce anything helpful to advance the investigation – as well as locating witnesses and the problem with so much time having elapsed.

These articles are a week old, so I’m not sure if any progress has been made. I can’t find anything.

Dana (292dcf) — 10/2/2012 @ 1:02 pm

They say, the third is enemy action;

http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2012/10/al_qaeda_ally_orches.php

narciso (ee31f1) — 10/2/2012 @ 1:08 pm

So who is preventing this from occurring? And why?
Comment by Dana — 10/2/2012 @ 12:27 pm

Who would have to order the FBI to go in? That same chain of command can not tell them.

I believe that CNN obtained his diary on site several days after the event, didn’t they? Sounds to me like a pretty unsecured site.

Since F+F seems to be the evil that the most cynical thought it was, some cynical would say they were supposed to take Stevens alive to trade for the Blind Sheik, and mistakes happen. That would be pretty wicked and devious, but in light of F+F, who knows.

MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 10/2/2012 @ 1:09 pm

Well, now that we have evacuated Benghazi completely, and walked away from the consulate, I doubt there can be much of an investigation. Because we all know the best way to investigate a crime in Cleveland is to have a team on the ground in St Louis.

JD (ab8eee) — 10/2/2012 @ 1:14 pm

MD, see my 1:02 links.

Dana (292dcf) — 10/2/2012 @ 1:22 pm

There’s crime in Cleveland?

AD-Restore the Republic/Obama Sucks! (b8ab92) — 10/2/2012 @ 1:23 pm

Considering this new player, al Ahmed, was a member of the Gamaa Islamiya, that’s not a crazy supposition, MD.

narciso (ee31f1) — 10/2/2012 @ 1:29 pm

Dana- I think we are probably in agreement on how much to trust official statements from representatives from this administration.

I must say, though, it is encouraging to see evidence that the majority of Libyans want a rational government and are opposed to Islamic fanatics. At lest that is what I gather from the anti-militia protests.

MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 10/2/2012 @ 1:30 pm

Comment by narciso — 10/2/2012 @ 1:29 pm

Yes, unfortunately it isn’t crazy, is it? I can’t say it was original, though. Can’t remember if I heard it directly somewhere else or what. It should be anathema to think we would even trade “hostages” with terrorists, let alone to think one hand would be setting it up.

MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 10/2/2012 @ 1:32 pm

Yes, Magarief has been ‘true blue’ despite the fact it might have been easier, to blame the Tape, so has
the Tuniaian President, Mrckouki (sic), it’s only in Egypt, that we got a total goose egg.

narciso (ee31f1) — 10/2/2012 @ 1:33 pm

That was the scenario in the december ’98 and Aug. 2001, PDB’s just in case you were wondering.

narciso (ee31f1) — 10/2/2012 @ 1:34 pm

45. I must say, though, it is encouraging to see evidence that the majority of Libyans want a rational government and are opposed to Islamic fanatics. At lest that is what I gather from the anti-militia protests.

Comment by MD in Philly — 10/2/2012 @ 1:30 pm

So much more is possible. And could be realized, if only we had a pro-American administration at the helm. Instead of the anti-American oligarchy we have now.

Steve57 (c8ac21) — 10/2/2012 @ 3:14 pm

So, summing up, the various AQ/Taliban/AAS outfits, used the ‘look squirrel’ to carry out attacks on three allied targets, the American school in Tunis,
Camp Bastion, and the Benghazi consulate.

narciso (ee31f1) — 10/2/2012 @ 4:30 pm

So the Consulate was bombed a couple of times leading up to 9/ll and the Embassy repeatedly asked for agumentation to the security detail and were rebuffed at every turn.

Seems like State was begging for an incident of this magnitude.

gary gulrud (dd7d4e) — 10/2/2012 @ 6:37 pm

Over at PowerLine they have a blurb about Dept. of State employees asking Issa to investigate the goings on.

MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 10/2/2012 @ 6:55 pm

In follow-up to Issa’s (& Rep. Chaffetz) request to Clinton, apparently they will have to wait until after the election for any answers. Not that the election has anything to do with this…

Yesterday, Representatives Darrell Issa and Jason Chaffetz sent a letter to Hillary Clinton requesting more details about the events preceding the attack in Benghazi:

Based on information provided to the committee by individuals with direct knowledge of events in Libya, the attack that claimed the ambassador’s life was the latest in a long line of attacks on Western diplomats and officials in Libya in the months leading up to Sept. 11, 2012. It was clearly never, as administration officials once insisted, the result of a popular protest. In addition, multiple U.S. federal government officials have confirmed to the committee that, prior to the Sept. 11 attack, the U.S. mission in Libya made repeated requests for increased security in Benghazi. The mission in Libya, however, was denied these resources by officials in Washington.

Issa and Chaffetz requested that the State Department answer a few questions by October 8, including what was known prior to the Benghazi attacks about other attacks that had occurred and if there had been requests for additional security and how those had been responded to.

But Clinton’s letter in response indicates that Issa and Chaffetz won’t get their answers until November at the earliest. From Foreign Policy’s ‘The Cable’ blog (emphasis mine):

“I appreciate that you and your committee are deeply interested in finding out what happened leading up to and during the attacks in Benghazi, and are looking for ways to prevent it from happening again. I share that commitment,” Clinton wrote in the letter, obtained by The Cable.“Nobody will hold this department more accountable than we hold ourselves — we served with Chris Stevens, Sean Smith, Glen Doherty, and Tyrone Woods.”

Clinton said that the State Department’s Accountability Review Board will begin work this week and the letter revealed the names of all five board members. In addition to former Deputy Secretary of State Thomas Pickering, who will lead the board, the other members will be former Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen (ret.), Catherine Bertini, Hugh Turner, and Richard Shinnick.

Clinton asked Issa to withhold any final conclusions about the Benghazi attack until the review board finishes its work and reports to Congress, which could come as early as November or as late as early next year. She pledged to work with Issa’s committee and asked him to submit any requests for information or witnesses at hearings to the State Department’s Office of Legislative Affairs.

(Hat tip: Powerline)

It certainly appears that the Obama administration is doing what it can to prevent this matter from becoming an election issue. Nonetheless, Issa and Chaffetz are scheduled to have a hearing on this October 10.

Dana (292dcf) — 10/3/2012 @ 8:54 am

Yeah, right, Hillary will get right on this – and I’m the Queen of the May.

The Obama Administration:

The competence of Carter, the integrity of Nixon!

AD-Restore the Republic/Obama Sucks! (b8ab92) — 10/3/2012 @ 8:59 am

40. Who would have to order the FBI to go in? That same chain of command can not tell them.

Comment by MD in Philly — 10/2/2012 @ 1:09 pm

I’m sure I’m making an obvious point that you’re well aware of, Doc, but I’m going to go ahead and say it anyway. The FBI has no jurisdiction abroad. It can only act if the local government allows it to act.

Which is another ridiculous aspect of this cover-up. There is no FBI investigation. There can’t be. The FBI has no law enforcement or investigatory powers in Libya. Obama can not will it otherwise.

I’ll tell you about other things that won’t happen. Arrests and trials. To even announce you’re imagining such future possibilities would be to see Libyan officials laugh in your face. Hey, I agree they’ve been straight shooters throughout all this. They, unlike our own government, haven’t lied to us.

Our own government would be lying to us if they claimed they could ever produce a defendant. Because there is no way in hell the fragile Libyan government could ever withstand the backlash if they allowed a muslim to be extradited to stand trial in the US.

It’s delusional. And as long as I’m cataloging this administrations various foreign policy delusions consider this:

“How can this happen in a country we help liberate, in a city (Benghazi) we helped save from destruction?”

That’s Hillary! the day after our ambassador was assassinated.

Apparently it never occurred to the brightest woman in the world that involving the United States in the centuries-old pattern of tribal warfare in North Africa might actually, I dunno, involve the US in the centuries-old pattern of tribal warfare.

Like Qaddafi’s side would just cease to exist.

I’m thinking there’s a reason for this. So there’s a name I don’t think should be forgotten. Huma Abedin. Hillary!’s deputy chief of staff and confidante courtesy of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Definitely a subject that needs to be looked into, now more than ever.

Steve57 (c8ac21) — 10/3/2012 @ 9:37 am

Like Qaddafi’s side would just cease to exist.

I probably should point out that if you’re going to involve yourself in tribal or clan warfare, you should be aware that you only really win if and when the other side ceases to exist or admits defeat.

This was one of the issues we had, for instance, fighting the Japanese. In the culture of warfare that developed in Japan, there was no surrender.

Not until the Emperor announced “we’re done; stick a fork in us.” Then the same people who fanatically went to war for him would stop fighting.

A gross oversimplification, but probably a useful rule-of-thumb to keep in mind when contemplating battle with people like Qaddafi’s tribe and allies who realize that to stop fighting while on losing terms means only torture, humiliation, and ruination.

Steve57 (c8ac21) — 10/3/2012 @ 9:46 am

There has to be some secret source of disinformation that the Administration accepted.

Now I read they want to go after the people responsible (with drones) and that will be a complete coverup.

As I said, I think the Moslem Brotherhood did it (as well as paid for the video). I will go further and say that behind the Moslem brotehrhood is Saudi intelligence.

They say in Libya it was a group called Ansar al Sharia (that being the only known armed Ismaic group around Benghazi) but these people cannot be taking direction from Al Qaeda in Mali.

U.S. policy will be nothing but failure, again and again, if the U.S. government takes direction and advice from the man who probably killed Vincent foster, Saudi Arabian National Security adviser, chief of intelligence and would be king, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, who had a secret unscheulded meeting with Bill Clinton and Sandy Burglar sometime in July 1993, according to a story leaked to fred Barnes of the new Republic and published on page 10 of the March 14, 1994 issue of the New Republic – at the very same time other Foster case leaks were taking place.

A leak that said don’t generalize.

A leak that gave an explanation for that meeting (airplane sales) that doesn’t add up.

Vincent Foster was found in Ft Marcy Park, the nearest piece of federal property (in fact across the street) to the Saudi Arabian Ambassador’s residence, then undergoing renovations, which was also used as an office.

Sammy Finkelman (d22d64) — 10/3/2012 @ 3:25 pm

Chris Stevens was apparently one of the more capable U.S. diplomats, so Saudi intelligence would have a reason for assassinating him.

The whole video is big red herring which seems to have worked with this Administration, at least for a while.

Sammy Finkelman (d22d64) — 10/3/2012 @ 3:27 pm

10/1/2012

Even CNN Now Wondering How Obama Administration Portrayed Bengazi as a Mob Action

58 Responses to “Even CNN Now Wondering How Obama Administration Portrayed Bengazi as a Mob Action”

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