New Benghazi Film: “We Need Immediate Assistance, We Are Overrun”
[guest post by Dana]
How desperate these times must be, because I am hoping that the release of a major motion picture about Benghazi will help keep Hillary Clinton, President Obama, and their gross mishandling of the attack at the diplomatic compound in the public eye. This lest it slowly fade from view, without anyone ever being held accountable.
I watched the trailer for Michael Bay’s 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi, due to be released in January, 2016. It looks like it will be an intense, action-filled movie. And, at least one writer believes that the film will also have an unwanted and unwelcome impact on Hillary Clinton. Here’s hoping so.
Two long weeks ago, Hillary Clinton was declared the undisputed winner in her face-off with Republicans on the House subcommittee over the part she played during the Benghazi attacks of September 11, 2012. But that was before an Optimus Prime–sized hole was blown right through her campaign’s and the media’s narrative that Benghazi has finally been put to rest.
The bomb was the release of two new trailers for 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi, director Michael Bay’s action-heavy portrayal of events (already labeled “Bayghazi” by the Internet), which hits theaters January 15. Its pop-culture treatment of events that night will have people talking and debating in a way that all the Fox News specials and C-SPAN hearings in the world couldn’t.
The recently released trailer has shown that no matter how scarce the names “Hillary Clinton” and “Barack Obama” are in the film, their involvement in what’s depicted is unmistakable. The film is based on the Mitchell Zuckoff bestseller of the same name, which deals primarily with events on the ground that night, and the efforts of a small group of operators and security forces to extract their fellow Americans from the attacks.
…
Politics look likely to be almost completely excluded, but the trailer shows that referencing Clinton or failure of leadership that night directly may not be necessary. It still has the potential to once again rock a campaign that three years later is still trying to explain the fallout from that night, and rightfully so.
Examining the scenes in the trailer alone points to a failure of leadership extending up the chain of command, which ends with Mrs. Clinton’s State Department and Barack Obama’s apparent delinquency while resting for a campaign stop the next day, a campaign stop he did not cancel. The film will most likely lay blame on a big, mysterious, and complicated bureaucratic system of red tape that led to a string of intelligence failures without ever showing faces or revealing names. The problem with this narrative is that the people ultimately in charge of those failures are named Obama and Clinton.
Trailer #1:
Trailer #2:
–Dana
Hoping that Clinton-loving Hollywood unintentionally draws unwanted attention on the woman who somehow missed 600 requests for extra security at the annex in Benghazi.
Dana (86e864) — 11/7/2015 @ 8:27 pmas an international laughingstock and a hyper-indebted whorestate what’s 110% committed to losing wars, allies, and “greatest loser” contests, failmerica could do much much worse than President Hillary
don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good you guys
vote for the skank
just grip the lever and pull
done and done
happyfeet (831175) — 11/7/2015 @ 8:44 pmNever.
Dana (86e864) — 11/7/2015 @ 8:48 pmoh? I’ve heard tell in these parts that if it’s Hillary vs. Mr. The Donald we’re gonna vote for a tasty pumpkin roulade
happyfeet (831175) — 11/7/2015 @ 8:53 pmbut of course all the memos, these i do not get
which is not to say i do not enjoy the varied and magnificent seasonal flavours
happyfeet (831175) — 11/7/2015 @ 8:54 pmlooks a little like black hawk down, another tale of brave warriors, betrayed by democrats, and as it turned out, it was AQ’s first debut,
narciso (ee1f88) — 11/7/2015 @ 8:54 pmHillary! – willing to lie to you about everything.
Bugg (fa64ec) — 11/7/2015 @ 8:54 pmLooks like a good movie.
John Hitchcock (7475b9) — 11/7/2015 @ 9:36 pmShame it has to be a true story.
But, but, but, according to Sir Hilary, Amb. Stevens was joking about needing the extra security.
Bill H (2a858c) — 11/7/2015 @ 10:20 pmI guarantee you we will all be utterly amazed at the lengths the Clinton campaign and her fawning media followers will go to downplay what is portrayed on the screen. It will be shameless, it will be aggravating, but it will be successful for the see-no-evil Hillary! voter.
JVW (738b08) — 11/7/2015 @ 10:23 pm600 requests?? I did not know that. Then again, maybe all those requests were filtered through Blumenthal. Yah, that’s the ticket. That’s why they were so funny. That Sidney, he can turn anything into a laugh.
Bill H (2a858c) — 11/7/2015 @ 10:23 pmWell, he doesn’t need the security now.
John Hitchcock (7475b9) — 11/7/2015 @ 10:23 pmI hope this movie works wonders.
mg (31009b) — 11/7/2015 @ 11:35 pmPerhaps the USA needs a murderous manipulating monster for President. Bound to be better than the fool now in office.
Fred Z (5db617) — 11/8/2015 @ 7:30 am“Two American feminist bloggers have been awarded a Nobel Prize in social science for their work leading to the discovery of nanoaggressions — tiny acts of discrimination 1000 times smaller than microaggressions and invisible to the naked eye.
In a November 2013 blog post, Lehdi and Hader named this phenomenon nanoaggressivity and theorized that bursts of bias zipping through men’s neural networks at lightening speeds might be causing them to emit ghostlike, sexist particles that actually demean women, even as men themselves are unaware of them.”
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 11/8/2015 @ 7:40 amBen Affleck had Hillary’s personal email.
Ambassador Chris Stevens, Hillary’s supposed good friend and Libya policy pointman,not so much.
Bugg (fa64ec) — 11/8/2015 @ 7:53 amIt won’t name names, but it will heighten public awareness of this “Benghazi controversy” that 99% of the public knows nothing about. Much like “The Killing Fields” did regarding Pol Pot and Cambodia.
Now, if we could only get some accurate films make about Hugo Chavez or Che.
Kevin M (25bbee) — 11/8/2015 @ 10:48 amPerhaps the USA needs a murderous manipulating monster for President. Bound to be better than the fool now in office.
Been there, done that. Mixed results.
Kevin M (25bbee) — 11/8/2015 @ 10:50 amIf Citizens United had gone the other way, does anyone doubt that this film would be banned?
Kevin M (25bbee) — 11/8/2015 @ 10:51 amSpeaking of narratives, Dr. Carson burst one preferred by the journal.
narciso (125429) — 11/8/2015 @ 12:35 pmLike I was saying before, Somalia was The debutof leading figures in as like The late mhammed atec and Mohammed mokkawi, both involved in the plane plot, they left it to ksm to recruits and train the operatives.
narciso (125429) — 11/8/2015 @ 12:55 pmI have to calm myself down when this subject comes up. I don’t appreciate the myriad ways Prom Queen’s administration insults my intelligence. And my integrity. And everything I thought and believed I stood for.
A thought and belief that carried me through schools where I saw lots of others quit.
Like AOCS and SERE. Which in no way makes me special. Being someone special is a lot harder. I’m mebbe qualified to be the stewardess on a C-130 carrying Army Rangers. Now that my mad skillz with the mighty, mighty AWG-9 are no longer in demand.
I was never in a paid flight status, by the way. So I didn’t even have that.
There was no way I was going to quit. I had modest goals, I set out and achieved them, there was no way I was going to let my dad the Senior Chief, my former employer and father of my friend the Silver Star Marine, my parish priest who captured 11 NORKs at the point of his .45 down. And we let these guys down, and I want to know why. And who did it. I was just a small cog in a very large machine but I deserve an answer.
I’m not going to bring up the reams of evidence that was available AT THE
TIME and relitigate the whole Benghazi farce to prove why, as Hillary! et
al were greeting the caskets at Andrews, I knew with certitude every word
vomiting forth from their mouths was a lie.
I knew that when Panetta spewed what is now widely mocked (deservedly so) as the Panetta rule. That as SecDef he couldn’t risk sending in a relief force because he lacked intel.
WTH?!?! I was intel. Panetta had SEALs, Doherty and Woods, on the objective. There were other SPECWAR types with them, although I don’t know their exact backgrounds. I’m guessing Army. You can not have better sources of real-time information than those guys.
As far as the risk goes, I would have happily taken my precious arse and what little infantry-type (ship’s reaction force) and weapons training we stewardesses on C-130s get in between serving coffee and handing out air-sickness bags and joined them myself.
Alternatively, imagine what a bunch of testosterone fueled sailors would do to Ansar al Sharia if they were informed that the only thing standing between them and meat market socializing and booze at “four floors of whores” on Orchard Road in Singapore were the camel jockeys firing on an embassy just an easy helo flight from the boat. Or whatever is the Med equivalent, as I was a WESTPAC sailor. Finish business with them, then they can trade their sea bag full of laundry in for some, something something.
Whatever works for you.
By the way these gents did actually win out, and that can’t be said enough. All I would have had to do is get close, and draw fire. Then after they finished saving themselves they could have come to my aid. On the way to the airport.
So, OK, I’ve already written more than I set out to write. And my blood pressure is off the charts. But I want to present two bits of evidence, and hopefully someone who thinks the Benghazi committee is purely a partisan exercise will attempt to address the questions that the conflict naturally highlights.
Ben Rhodes email, 14 September 2012:
http://www.judicialwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/1919_production-4-17-14.pdf#page=14
Whoa, pilgrim! From the WH on 10 September:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/09/10/readout-president-s-meeting-senior-administration-officials-our-prepared
The preezy told us on the 10th of September he was totes all over the security situation. What was left undone that he had to rectify on the 14th?
I’m confuzzled. As I’ve pointed out before, Libya is about as close you can
get to a NATO base without joining NATO. Yet, there was nothing available?
Hopefully the fanbois of this administration can fill me in on what security measures Tiger Beat undertakes other than farting out gas in the form of press releases.
Steve57 (ccc381) — 11/8/2015 @ 1:20 pmAnd Scott mcewen’s book about the seals outlines six different methods that we could have responded to assault, from special forces to missiles from sigonella.
narciso (125429) — 11/8/2015 @ 1:29 pmSeriously. On 10 September 2012 the WH was assuring everyone that “everything possible to protect the American people, both at home and abroad” had been done. On the 14th Ben
Rhodes is putting together talking points that claim “we have significantly increased security at our diplomatic posts around the globe.”
How is it possible to go beyond “everything possible?”
Is nobody besides me curious?
Steve57 (ccc381) — 11/8/2015 @ 1:29 pmThose six ways, are they in addition to my assault force of NSF-Basic trained and highly P.O.d teenagers or were they six other ways?
I’m thinking one or two liberty calls in Benghazi and the terrorists would lay low in the hope we’ll entirely forget the Middle East ever existed.
Steve57 (ccc381) — 11/8/2015 @ 1:39 pmhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/828923.stm
She would have eloped with me, but I had already passed out.
Steve57 (ccc381) — 11/8/2015 @ 1:42 pmI’d show up for church services after leaving port and the chaplains would just look at me and laugh.
Steve57 (ccc381) — 11/8/2015 @ 1:45 pmTrue story. When I got to my first squadron I discovered I already had a callsign. “Holy.” Because the message to the squadron letting them know I was showing up had mangled my last name until it rhymed with Toledo.
Doesn’t matter. I show up, tell the that my name is nothing like Toledo, and they’re like, It’ll work.
So I’m walking around the boat with the “Holy” affixed to my flight jacket. And sailors keep coming up to me wanting to make confession. At first I’d tell them that despite the name tag I wasn’t their chaplain. To my eternal shame and no doubt my damnation I eventually stopped arguing and heard them out.
Then I’d top their stories. Most of them. There are a few I won’t repeat here. But short of turning up dead in a field in Thailand I could usually come up with a story.
That freaked them out.
Steve57 (ccc381) — 11/8/2015 @ 2:02 pmSunday matinee… http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=8eb_1446888260
Smoke ’em when you see ’em!
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 11/8/2015 @ 2:52 pmwhat is never, for a 1,000, Alex,
narciso (ee1f88) — 11/8/2015 @ 3:42 pmhttp://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2015/11/fools_rush_in_when_will_they_ever_learn.html
Sorry. I didn’t mean to kill the conversation. I have the same effect at parties, where my social skills don’t exactly work out well for me either.
Unless the party is heavily attended by strippers, smoke jumpers, and Bureau of Land Management surveyors.
Steve57 (ccc381) — 11/8/2015 @ 4:16 pmno, your tales, really liven up the place, others I imagine would make it even more unpossible to go through the filter,
unfortunately, they let him out,
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/11/08/author-of-ben-carson-hit-piece-i-was-in-guantanamo-for-12-hours/
narciso (ee1f88) — 11/8/2015 @ 4:19 pmI’ve never been struck by artillery, coronello, but there are some high notes on that vid that I don’t think I could hit. Ever, no matter the damage.
Steve57 (ccc381) — 11/8/2015 @ 4:27 pmNot that sheeple review and analyze global events in far off failed states in preparation to vote their bottom line might just come into play:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-11-04/global-trade-freefall-china-container-freight-record-low-us-rail-freight-tumbles-tru
It’s beginning to look like direct payments to John and Jane Q are the only hope for the Borg now.
DNF (755a85) — 11/8/2015 @ 4:30 pmit’s not as bleak as they portrayed:
http://andrewgelman.com/2015/11/06/what-happened-to-mortality-among-45-54-year-old-white-non-hispanic-men-it-declined-from-1989-to-1999-increased-from-1999-to-2005-and-held-steady-after-that/
narciso (ee1f88) — 11/8/2015 @ 4:38 pmOK, narciso, we’ll see.
Then there was the story of Airman Favorite. He showed up at the base one Friday and immediately went to Tijuana and got rip roaring drunk. And bought a switch blade. So he comes back to Miramar hammered, goes to the E-club and passes out at the bar. The tarbender calls security, who wake him up and ask for his ID. He reaches into his pocket and…
…whips out his brand new switch blade knife on the shore patrol.
Somehow he doesn’t wind up in the brig. So the next day, Saturday, he gets royally drunk again but this time stays on base. And that evening he stops by the phone center to
call his mom or girlfriend or something. We still don’t know. He didn’t know.
This is back before cell phones, where like prisoners sailors had to go to a place on base where there were banks of phones for them to use at exorbitant prices per minute.
But it was closed.
His “friend,” he said, got upset and ripped the railing from alongside the stairs and tried to break into the phone center. ‘Ceptin’ when shore patrol shows up, again, there’s just Airman Favorite by his lonely self. With what’s left of a railing in his hands and shattered glass all over the concrete. NOW, he winds up in the brig.
On Monday he gets to meet the skipper of his new squadron.
So we go on cruise and a couple of months later Airman Favorite gets off restriction. Just in time for liberty across the perfume river in Olongapo.
Natch he gets rip roaring drunk, and this time he hijacks a jeepney full of paying customers. And leads the entire Filipino constabulary on a merry chase until he crashes the jeepney. Then he takes on the Filipino national police force with a broom.
The Filipino cops beat the living crap out of that guy. With their Escrima skillz, and drunk as Airman Favorite was, he didn’t stand a chance. Which was no doubt best for him, as he avoided the years in prison that certainly would have been coming to him had he so much as scratched a Filipino cop.
A couple of weeks later we pull into Diego Garcia and for the good of all involved the former Airman Favorite and the Navy parted ways.
I hope nobody recognizes themselves here. But if you do, for the love of all that is holy, lay off the sauce.
Steve57 (ccc381) — 11/8/2015 @ 4:58 pmThen there was the year we won the Pac Fleet Boola-boola and the TARPs derby and would have gotten the trifecta for having the best fighter car at the Tomcat Follies but VF-2 showed up with a rented tank and crushed our Sedan De Ville. Keg and fender-mounted tap and all.
Steve57 (ccc381) — 11/8/2015 @ 5:06 pmso Top Gun was tame, compared to your exploits,
narciso (ee1f88) — 11/8/2015 @ 5:16 pmI wonder if there is any mention of the secret Navy Crosses awarded to the guys who ran to the sound of guns.
In a unique battlefield commendation, a Marine Corps member of Delta Force has been awarded the nation’s second-highest military honor for coming to the defense of Americans last year at a CIA annex in Benghazi, Libya.
Delta Force, a counterterrorism unit in the secretive Joint Special Operations Command, has been thought of as a strictly Army outfit. But it does take on qualified commandos from other services.
The Washington Times has reported that two Delta Force members were among a seven-person rescue team sent from the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli to Benghazi on the night of Sept. 11, 2012. Their mission: rescue diplomats, security personnel and CIA employees pinned down by terrorists about a mile from the U.S. diplomatic mission where Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and aide Sean Smith were killed by al Qaeda-directed militants.
The Times can now report that one of the Delta Force members was an Army soldier and the other a Marine.
Anybody else heard about this ? I thought not.
The soldier was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, and the Marine received the Navy Cross for heroism.
Well done, even if secret.
Mike K (90dfdc) — 11/8/2015 @ 5:16 pmI had a great skipper when I left active duty and joined the reserves. I was actually fully functional as an O-3, and most reserve O-3s are not, so I was something of a selling point for the command. Other than that we just sat around and worked on how we were going to praise ourselves in our Fitness Reports. And my skipper was a great FITREP writer.
I remember one of my friends going to him with writer’s block. He couldn’t think of anything to put in his FITREP. So the skipper asks, “Well, what do you do here on drill weekends?”
He says, “I just sit around talking to my active-duty friends on the phone.”
Skipper says, “Let me think about it.”
He later comes back with a bullet that says, “Recognized command expert in telecommunications with world-wide applicability.”
I still don’t know why I’m not an admiral, what with that kind of loving attention and support.
Steve57 (ccc381) — 11/8/2015 @ 5:17 pmSteve, one of my Marine Corps flyer friends had the call sign “Fokker” The other was “Dodger.” Both flew in Gulf War I and Fokker had the most sorties of any pilot in Viet Nam. His flight suit is in the Smithsonian.
Story is here.
Mike K (90dfdc) — 11/8/2015 @ 5:23 pmWOW! 719 sorties. The Lord is good.
felipe (56556d) — 11/8/2015 @ 5:32 pmMarines and Delta Force? That’s… hard to believe.
I’m not going to say it’s unpossible. In a former life, when I was stewardessing on C-130s, I met a couple of Marines who had done tours with the British Royal Marine Commando types. And believe it or not there are things that happen that no one tells me about. But I have never heard about Army SF and Marines cross-pollinating like this.
Steve57 (ccc381) — 11/8/2015 @ 5:32 pmwhat would be great is if the failmerican military you know
accomplished something in the last 20 years
you know
besides spending a crapload of money
losers.
happyfeet (831175) — 11/8/2015 @ 5:38 pmwell one could have been force recon, and the other ranger detailed to Delta,
narciso (ee1f88) — 11/8/2015 @ 5:44 pmveteran’s day is coming up
key veteran’s day fact: fedex is open on veteran’s day
whereas the failmerican post office will be closed
plan accordingly
happyfeet (831175) — 11/8/2015 @ 5:47 pmHillary doesn’t see what the big deal is about 4 deaths in Benghazi. After the 86 men, women, and children gassed, shot, and incinerated in Waco what difference does 4 more make?
ropelight (45bbf9) — 11/8/2015 @ 5:55 pmMike K, I was privileged to meet this gent when he was mucking about with III MEF and I joined him in Belleau Wood for a whirl down Cambodia way.
http://homeofheroes.com/valor/02_awards/silverstar/6_PostRVN/05_grenada.html
He wasn’t much of an aviator after losing large chunks of his limbs, but he was still one hell of a man. I’ve never seen anyone work out harder in a gym. But then, that’s what it took to remain in his beloved Corps.
He retired as a full Coronal.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1588316/posts
He wouldn’t know me from Adam. I haven’t seen him for twenty years. But I would know him.
Steve57 (ccc381) — 11/8/2015 @ 5:55 pmHillary doesn’t see what the big deal is about 4 deaths in Benghazi. After the 86 men, women, and children gassed, shot, and incinerated in Waco what difference does 4 more make?
the whirl’s more or less kept spinning without all 90 of them
it’s easy to overstate the importance of cheap cable news fodder
pro tip: cancel your cable
happyfeet (831175) — 11/8/2015 @ 6:04 pmCaptian Seagle also deserves the gratitude of a greatful nation in attition to recognition for his courage and bravery.
ropelight (45bbf9) — 11/8/2015 @ 6:11 pmMaybe one of the Army types can weigh in here. But I don’t believe Rangers are ever detailed to Delta Force. That would be jumping up a couple of levels, past Green Beret. And as I’ve said, I have never heard of a Recon Marine, now a Marine Raider, or for that matter a SEAL ever being Delta Force. It’s just not a pick-up team. It would take almost a career in Army special forces to make it to Delta Force, if ever. It’s the top of a very special pyramid, and how can somebody from another service no matter their lifetime of SPECWAR experience fit in at that level?
It just wouldn’t work. At least, I can’t see it working. SEAL Team Six (thanks, Prom Queen, for telling the world) and Delta Force are probably the closest analogues. But they’re two different breeds of cat entirely. Delta Force gets ambushed and they revert to their former infantry life forms. At least until the last few years you couldn’t get into Army special forces unless you were (If I remember correctly) an E-6 with some sort of infantry MOS. SEALs didn’t have that wellspring of experience to draw on, but on the other hand if you needed a combat swimmer you needed a SEAL. Hands down.
I just can’t see Delta Force, the most elite of the Army’s elite, oh-by-the-way opening its ranks to people who haven’t spent decades learning their tactics, techniques, and procedures.
Steve57 (ccc381) — 11/8/2015 @ 6:14 pmAgain, maybe someone with direct experience can weigh in. I know it’s entirely possible to join DEVGRU (again, thanks Tiger Beat, you @$$hat) in a support or administrative job as a previous unknown. But as an operator? No, I don’t think so. The operators are hand-selected. From what I’m told. How are they going to know which Green Beret or Raider to select? They’ve never worked with them. Maybe an operation or an exercise here and there, but not long term.
The other guys in the other services are outside the community, unsteeped in doctrine. DEVGRU and Delta Force are the military’s premiere anti-terrorist forces. At that level, you have to know the playbook. No matter how individually excellent you might be, that’s not the place to learn a new playbook.
Steve57 (ccc381) — 11/8/2015 @ 6:30 pmThe line forms here.
Steve57 (ccc381) — 11/8/2015 @ 6:31 pmwell it was just a possible speculation, seeing as Delta is Tier 1, one could be detailed from another service,
narciso (ee1f88) — 11/8/2015 @ 6:51 pmSteve57, FWIW:
Despite being a unit of the US Army, Delta Force selects members from all the services. There are SEALS, Green Berets -> Rangers, Force Recon, Combat Controllers, etc. One might even find a Coastie or two. Or so I have been told.
Pons Asinorum (c001db) — 11/8/2015 @ 7:05 pmthe film will also have an unwanted and unwelcome impact on Hillary Clinton. Here’s hoping so.
Absolutely pathetic that it comes down to hoping the appropriate public reaction to such a debacle will be, well, appropriate.
I came across a quasi-news site and the entry on the Congressional hearings on Benghazi and Hillary had the tagline of something along the lines of “huh? what was that BS all about?!” Another website touted the tagline pushing the idea that Hillary came out the winner in the Congressional hearings.
Even if Hillary were a staunch conservative Republican, I’d still find this episode involving her, Obama and murdered Americans to be inexcusable and even sickening. But, then again, I don’t pray at the altar of partisanship and ideology the way liberals do.
Mark (f713e4) — 11/8/2015 @ 7:15 pma better film would be on why bush and the noe-cons needed a second pearl harbor to make people forget the republicans on the supreme court stealing the 2000 election.
beni (802d3e) — 11/8/2015 @ 7:17 pmPerry, you’re ridiculous.
John Hitchcock (ca4970) — 11/8/2015 @ 7:20 pmOne good thing about the loser Perry of Delaware:
John Hitchcock (ca4970) — 11/8/2015 @ 7:21 pmHe’s been reduced to that of a drive-by pre-troll-amino acid.
Perry is a MIHOP truther!!! And a vile douchenozzle
JD (b3cb62) — 11/8/2015 @ 7:27 pmit’s like a secret handshake with these people
http://www.newsbusters.org/people-organizations/reid-epstein
narciso (ee1f88) — 11/8/2015 @ 7:51 pm@55, anything is possible. Which is why while my instincts were against it I didn’t say it was unpossible that a Marine was somehow a part of Delta Force.
http://www.uscg.mil/epm/docs/SEALApplicationInstruction.pdf
I think the USCG got two members through BUD/S back in 2010 before this crap got shut down. There may be Coasties on Delta Force, but if there are they’re learning their SPECWAR warriorship someplace other than Coronado.
Which is not outside the realm of possibility. Very little is. And like I said, lots of things are happening that no one tells me about.
I still don’t see how somebody could transition from the Navy or Marines into an Army outfit like Delta Force. Air Force, maybe. But the SEALs and Raiders would have to unlearn and relearn a lot, in my limited experience. Not like it couldn’t be done. I imagine the FBI HRT recruits from all the services, and they certainly weld them into a single team. I just don’t see how it would be optimal, especially if in the case of the Delta operators they would later transition back to their former service.
As opposed to getting out and then working for the FBI as a second career, full time.
Steve57 (ccc381) — 11/8/2015 @ 7:58 pmI just handed out pens to the SEALs so they could do their mission planning, poured coffee, made copies, and looked good in a skirt. What do I know?
Steve57 (ccc381) — 11/8/2015 @ 8:01 pmI remember a bit of wishy washiness in the footnotes of a certain report about the stand down order–I think it might have been in a Senate report.
Anyways while trying to find that –stumbled on this.
Witness testimony from Mike Morrell–a Deputy CIA director at the time.
It was not until 18 September, when CIA received the Libyan Government’s assessment of video footage from the State Department facility’s security cameras that showed the front of the facility just before the attack – with no sign of protesters – that it became clear that we needed to revisit our analysis. It is important to note that on 18 September, the Libyans did not provide the video; they only provided their assessment of the video.
That’s squirelly as hell. CIA had to wait a week for the Libyans to tell them this?
Remember it was these security cameras that were put up after the first attack on the Consulate, about a month prior IIRC–that allowed Charlene Lamb to watch and hear the attack in real time from inside the security room– stateside –in Washington DC at the State Department.
Danube River Guide (76b104) — 11/8/2015 @ 8:05 pmLink to Mike Morrell’s complete testimony:
http://intelligence.house.gov/sites/intelligence.house.gov/files/documents/MorellSFR04022014.pdf
Danube River Guide (76b104) — 11/8/2015 @ 8:06 pmif you’ve seen ‘Rules of Engagement’ you know the dodge, this feed, had to go to DS headquarters, yet we’ve never seen more than a frame or two, in some of the wanted posters,
narciso (ee1f88) — 11/8/2015 @ 8:08 pmActually he goes by Michael Morrell and he was hired by CBS.
In January, 2014, Morell joined CBS News as a contributor in intelligence and national security. wiki
CBS the same place where Ben Rhodes’ (–Obama’s Deputy National Security Advisor) brother is President of CBS–David Rhodes.
Danube River Guide (76b104) — 11/8/2015 @ 8:14 pmhappyfeet –
While I’m sure you’re trolling with your 5:38 PM comment, I’m going to mention one thing the American military accomplished in the last 20 years:
Freed the Iraqi people from a tyrannical dictator.
Now, that didn’t turn out so well in the end, because now the Iraqi people are under a tyrannical religious-fanatic regime (ISIS), and worse off than they were under Saddam Hussein (who, for all his many faults, was at least neutral on religion and would let non-Muslims practice their preferred religion in peace as long as they didn’t protest his rule.)
But I ask you: did that happen while the US military was around to do something about it? Or did that happen after somebody, not naming any names, pulled the military out WAY before he should have?
Robin Munn (109155) — 11/8/2015 @ 8:14 pmthat’s not all, as they said in the ginzu knife commercials,
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/03/24/revolving-door-ties-between-consultancy-govt-raise-questions-about-benghazi/
narciso (ee1f88) — 11/8/2015 @ 8:18 pmDanube River Guide (76b104) — 11/8/2015 @ 8:05 pm
…without reading the complete testimony…perhaps he was weaseling around a refusal, on the part of Libya, to go along with “blame the video”? IOW, they were not waiting for the Libyans to tell them what was in the video, but rather tell them if Libya would play along with the video story.
I don’t remember what Libya said about this. If they did go along with the video excuse, my theory dissipates into thin air, and I will be confused along with you.
kishnevi (28fa9f) — 11/8/2015 @ 8:22 pmwhy does this matter,
http://gawker.com/state-department-finds-thousands-of-philippe-reines-ema-1724560491?trending_test_
narciso (ee1f88) — 11/8/2015 @ 8:25 pmthere was an official, a former member of the libyan fighting group, that made it seem like the attack was conducted by former qadaffi men, that fellow was dismissed within the week,
narciso (ee1f88) — 11/8/2015 @ 8:27 pmAs I was sitting in a Loves truckstop waiting for my turn to take a shower, I “got to see” some of that CBS Sunday morning crapola. The clowns actually said the CNBC debate moderators weren’t doing anything wrong, and the Republicans just couldn’t handle hard-hitting questions.
John Hitchcock (1e66e5) — 11/8/2015 @ 8:46 pmhttp://intelligence.house.gov/sites/intelligence.house.gov/files/documents/MorellSFR04022014.pdf
Steve57 (ccc381) — 11/8/2015 @ 8:55 pmFormatting error. Sorry.
Steve57 (ccc381) — 11/8/2015 @ 8:57 pmThis is the Deputy Director of the CIA talking. Capisce? He just had two contractors in his employ killed in Benghazi. An entire “annex” overrun.
Does anyone have trouble understanding how insane this “business-as-usual, morning reading package”BS is on multiple levels?
Steve57 (ccc381) — 11/8/2015 @ 9:03 pmLike it would have taken a carrier pigeon, teams of Plains Indians working with smoke signals, and maybe the Pony Express a couple of days to bring this information to Morell’s attention?
Who here has had the lobotomy to believe this crap?
Steve57 (ccc381) — 11/8/2015 @ 9:07 pmIt’s this footnote Senate Intelligience Committee Report
13
According to informal notes obtained from the CIA, the security team left for the Annex without the formal approval of The Chief of Base,seeattachmentstoe-mailfromCIAstaff toCIAstaff-
However a Memorandum for the Record, “Events of 11-12 SEP 2012 at Benghazi Base, Libya,”
Danube River Guide (76b104) — 11/8/2015 @ 9:34 pmspecifically states that the Chief”authorized the move” and the Chieftold the Committee: “We launched ()UT [Quick Reaction Force] as soon as possible down to the State [Department] compound.”
Memorandum for the Record, “Events of 11-12 SEP 2012 at Benghazi Base, Libya,” September 19,2012, p. 1; and
September 23, 2012.
Yep, I’m also getting formatting errors
Having a hell of a time getting that footnote to paste in the right order.
Danube River Guide (76b104) — 11/8/2015 @ 9:36 pmSo an admiral is sitting in his office one day, and he’s looking out the windows, and starts to wonder. “How much is two plus two?” He puzzles about it for a while, then decides to rely on his trusty staff. So he naturally calls in his Chief of Staff. An aviator with a YUUUGE overcompensating wristwatch.
“COS,” sez the admiral, “How much is two plus two?”
“No fair,” sez the COS. “I only took this job because I was told there’d be no math.”
The admiral kicks him out, tells him to send in the N6. Surely the COMMO will know. And maybe he does. But he needs to show his work, and after five minutes of watching the guy write out a lengthy theorem without ever approaching the result admiral gets tired of it all, kicks him out too, and in desperation calls in the N2.
So the intel ossifer, Mike Morell, comes in. “Spy” the admiral says, “how much is two plus two?” Conspiratorially, Morell raises his finger to his lips asking for silence. He looks out the door to make sure the secretary isn’t listening, goes to the windows and closes the blinds, and whispers into the admiral’s ear, “How much do you want it to be.”
I know the type. Well.
Steve57 (ccc381) — 11/8/2015 @ 9:36 pmKishnevi
Oh that –really could be . I completely forgot about that. Cripes–didn’t the Libyans say something to the media–first–before the Americans did–about it not being a spontaneous protest?
Danube River Guide (76b104) — 11/8/2015 @ 9:39 pmI recall the Libyan President on at least one Sunday show saying that the Benghazi attack had been a planned terrorist assault on our diplomatic compound. And Susan Rice accusing him of lying. While Susan Lice was herself spewing lies.
I don’t recall any Libyan official ever giving any credence to the vidoe story.
Steve57 (ccc381) — 11/8/2015 @ 9:49 pmSpeaking of recalling events, the CNN presstitute Alysin Camerota was attempting to Voxsplain how vetting works considering Carson wasn’t having any of her BS. And she brought up Obama’s composite girlfriend in an attempt to claim she and her fellow presstitutes had vetted Obama.
Which is a laugh.
But here’s how I recall events.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2012/05/obama-new-york-girlfriend-was-composite-122272
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/05/obamas-composite-girlfriend-how-politico-and-drudge-created-fake-news/256666/
As I remember it, nobody reported on it until Obama was safely in his first term. And then only to say it was “fake” news and to circle the wagons around their dreamy preezy.
Nobody vetted Obama. Nobody said word one about Obama’s composite girlfriend when he was a candidate.
The whole BS story about how the LHMFM needs to vet Carson and his West Point story is itself a lie.
Steve57 (ccc381) — 11/8/2015 @ 9:56 pm#80 Steve57
Well just recently–could have been today I saw Michael Morrell on CBS sort of backing that Politico report which declared in the title that key Hillary emails did not contain classified intel.
Think the editor took some poetic license with the title because the actual report said that only two emails out of four were cleared. Also said that only forty emails had been reviewed out of something like 30,000.
Anyways there was an interesting paragraph buried in the middle of the Politico article:
In an Aug. 11 memo to 17 lawmakers, McCullough said the two emails “include information classified up to TOP SECRET//SI/TK/NOFORN.” The subject of the emails has never been publicly confirmed, but published reports have said one refers to North Korea’s nuclear program and another to U.S. drone operations. The acronym “SI” in the classification marking refers to “signals intelligence,” and a footnote in McCullough’s memo references the work of the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, which oversees U.S. spy satellites.
The article said something like the two emails were cleared because they became classified later on, but you would think Hillary could figure out those two subjects were sensitive.
Danube River Guide (76b104) — 11/8/2015 @ 9:58 pmnarciso
I have to hit the hay–but thanks for the link regarding Morrell and that Beacon group. cripes.
Danube River Guide (76b104) — 11/8/2015 @ 10:35 pmDanube River Guide, I’m going to keep saying it until I’m blue in the face. Hillary! is a singularly unaccomplished woman. Among her lack of accomplishments is discovering or inventing new areas of classified information. If it’s classified now, it was classsified when Eleanor Roosevelt still roamed the Earth and Hillary! wouldn’t have needed to conduct a seance to talk to her.
There is no such thing as “Classified now, but not classified at the time.”
As far as Morell goes (I refuse to spell his name correctly, not that I ever cared) he’s one of those guys you hope to meet in the fleet. If you know what I mean.
I already spilled it; I spent 20 years as an intel officer in the Navy. And the thing is, intel failures are rare. I’ve seen a lot of commanders fail to use the intel, and then turn around and blame us for letting them down. And we have to choke it down and take it and not fight back. Although on the carrier we record all our briefings, so when an operator comes back and says “Intel didn’t tell me” we have the video to prove, “Yeah, we told you.”
Our unofficial motto was, “If we couldn’t take the blame, they wouldn’t keep us around.” We were and are the all purpose excuse for every bad decision ever made.
I give you the second gulf war as exhibit A. Not that I believe that was a bad decision per se. I was cozy with NCIS at the time given I was recalled under the general rubric of “force protection.” And we were looking at the same stuff, and sort of glancing at each other sideways wondering if Bush2 was being told something we weren’t being told. We were fine with pulling the trigger, just that we would have made a different public case for doing the deed.
I’m actually pretty good at the analysis business.
How do I know this maritime patrol aircraft from the notional country of Narnia is warming up for an out of area patrol as opposed to just a functional check flight? I can’t tell you. Just that it’s coming out to take a look at the battle group. And by the way one of Narnia’s submarines has left port, Shangri La. I just know. Effin’ magic.
That destroyer?
Forwarded without comment:
http://acronyms.thefreedictionary.com/HULTEC
Maybe I know that boat.
And I don’t want to be wrong because if I am I’m swimming with the sharks same as everyone else.
What all this is leading up to is, I’ve seen a couple of intel O’s make seriously bad calls. The kind of bad calls to the point ships have to do emergency break-aways during UNREP to evade non-existent Russian BEARs because no-load didn’t convert Zulu to local time. The kind of bad call which means you don’t get promoted from O-2 to O-3. Generally, if you can fog a mirror you make that cut, but some people screw it up. On the other hand, it’s far more common for a commander not to use the intel. As the old saying goes, you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink. And one of the cardinal rules in iNimitz. Which creates a market for types like Mike Morell.
The operator fails to act on the intel. The operator screams “Intel failure!” And the next thing you know a weasel like Mike Morell has an article published in Proceedings about how intel is letting the warfighters down something scandalously. “How much do you want two plus two to be, admiral?”
Yeah. See you in the fleet, buddy.
Steve57 (ccc381) — 11/8/2015 @ 11:20 pmWhat was your ship’s emergency break-away song?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YybLOFKPwfM
I can’t make this one out.
Steve57 (ccc381) — 11/8/2015 @ 11:29 pm*…And one of the cardinal rules in iNimitz…
That was supposed to read “And one of the cardinal rules in intel is that you never recommend a course of action.”
You leave that up to Bull Halsey or Chesty Puller. Or whoever.
Steve57 (ccc381) — 11/8/2015 @ 11:31 pmI think they’re playing Men at Work’s Down Under.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zx1zYCYQu6w
I almost feel like I’m letting my side down, but I’m drawing a blank.
Ahh well, the diggers were basically family, anyways.
Steve57 (ccc381) — 11/8/2015 @ 11:47 pmhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vE8qNuMCmyE
The Bunker Hill is still with us. She hasn’t been retired like a derelict like me. And I hope you all can appreciate the horespower your eyes are feasting upon.
As an aside, look at that wake. Gorgeous.
http://valor.militarytimes.com/recipient.php?recipientid=21640
What actually happened was, a Japanese plane hit his boat and started a raging fire. Wood steered his boat into the wake of the SOUTH DAKOTA, which like the BUNKER HILL was showing a rooster tail to everything on blue water. And, he doused the fire. And then formed back up, without breaking stride.
Out. F***ing. Standing.
Steve57 (ccc381) — 11/9/2015 @ 1:23 amI always kept that nugget of naval lore tucked away, just in case. You are gone but not forgotten Captain Wood.I
Steve57 (ccc381) — 11/9/2015 @ 1:29 amOr did that happen after somebody, not naming any names, pulled the military out WAY before he should have?
what difference does it make
the failmerican people elected him twice
this is who they are
the cost/benefit just isn’t there with all this crap
good christ if a foreign country raped our treasury as brutally and viciously as the US military does it would be an act of war
happyfeet (831175) — 11/9/2015 @ 1:56 amThen we have the terror network nasr mehdi who tried to slip into Sicily in the deluge, caused by the Libyan catastrophe.
narciso (ee1f88) — 11/9/2015 @ 5:14 amSicilians vs Mohammedans
John Hitchcock (44c781) — 11/9/2015 @ 5:40 amSounds like a great cage match, except the Sicilians are Junkyard Dog and the Mohammedans are Butterbean.
Pons Asinorum (c001db) — 11/8/2015 @ 7:05 pm
I know next to nothing about it, but it was my understanding also that no one applies for Delta, they get picked from whatever branch of the service they are in by the Delta people.
MD in Philly (not in Philly at the moment) (deca84) — 11/9/2015 @ 6:09 amI read the book.
MD in Philly (not in Philly at the moment) (deca84) — 11/9/2015 @ 6:17 amOne thing I learned, as I recall, was that the defenders of the compound flashed their laser (or whatever it is) to help guide the reinforcements in. That was thought to be how they were accurately targeted by the mortar that made a direct hit, and it had been speculated that the only reason to do that was to paint a target for something overhead that didn’t fire. So there is apparently no evidence for the idea that there was something in the sky that was told to not fire,
going along with the idea that nothing was told to respond.
What do you want to bet that the critics completely pan and smear the movie thus limiting the audience that will see it?
David M (d90e30) — 11/9/2015 @ 7:02 amDavid M,
Critically acclaimed box office bust.
Critically panned box office hit.
Those two happen very often. And it’s an action movie with lots of stuff blowing up, so that will get crowds out.
John Hitchcock (44c781) — 11/9/2015 @ 7:24 amIt is my cursory understanding that the proper functioning of a capitalist market system requires open access to information such as prices without supports, cost of goods, value added, yada yada:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-11-09/paul-craig-roberts-rages-another-phony-jobs-number
Your government lies because its good for you. You may proceed on the basis of unicorn stardust to purchase that new house on a no-money-down ARM because everything will be wonderful if millions of ‘tards just like yourself behave as expected by your betters. It’s for the children.
DNF (755a85) — 11/9/2015 @ 9:11 amSteve57 (ccc381) — 11/8/2015 @ 1:20 pm
The preezy told us on the 10th of September he was totes all over the security situation. What was left undone that he had to rectify on the 14th?
Nothing that caused anyone to be fired or reassigned.
Nobody ever gets fired in the Obama Administration (except sometimes for political reasons, and not really even then)
http://www.wsj.com/articles/impeaching-the-irs-director-1445975237
Sammy Finkelman (3a0a59) — 11/9/2015 @ 9:15 am@ MD in Philly — 11/9/2015 @ 6:09 am
That’s my understanding too, MD.
Pons Asinorum (c001db) — 11/9/2015 @ 9:50 amIMHO, the more publicity Benghazi gets, the better. For one, it shines a light on Hillary’s incompetence. Not just on Benghazi, but on the whole Libya debacle, where we went to war (an utterly unauthorized war – unlike Iraq, which, good idea or not, was authorized, including by then-senator Hillary Clinton) for no good reason, and in so doing made things vastly worse. The Republicans IMHO would be well advised to point this out, loudly and often.
Of course, the RNC and the rest of the GOPe won’t be involved in slamming Clinton over Libya. Why? Because they can’t, due to the inconvenient fact that two of the current Republican presidential candidates (both of whom were senators at the time, and still are) backed Hillary’s war on Libya. The fact they did so as senators is very important, because it gave Hillary and the Obama admin the “bipartisan” excuse to, amongst other things, violate the war powers act.
The two Republican senators now running for president who backed Hillary on Libya? Lindsey Graham and Marco Rubio.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/marco-rubio-libya-and-need-regime-change_556054.html
And the above is IMHO why the RNC (the GOPe) is avoiding having a foreign policy themed debate; it’d hurt the GOPe candidates. I guess somebody figured out that a defacto campaign pitch of “if you like Hillary’s foreign policy record, vote Rubio or Graham” is not a great vote-getter in the Republican primaries.
Foreign policy is usually a Republican strong suit. It’s beyond pathetic that the RNC is taking this issue off the table to protect its favorites at the expense of everyone else. It’s also a great way to loose the general election, via nominating a candidate who dare not criticize Hillary on foreign policy debacles like Libya. It’d be worse than the Romneycare/Obamacare issue that hounded Romney in 2012, and look how that turned out on election day.
Arizona CJ (331a26) — 11/9/2015 @ 12:07 pmI’ve mentioned this before. It wasn’t much of a prediction. Predicting the FBI would leak details of the Hillary! emailgate investigation was like predicting sunrise in the morning. And it’s no longer a prediction.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGez5jUPBkc
The intel community is outraged that Hillary! might just get away with these crimes. Apparently so are the FBI investigators. It looks like Comey may be about to get his J. Edgar Hoover freak on. I just don’t think Obama can prevent nature from taking its course. He’s pissed off the wrong kulaks.
Monica Crowley says her anonymous sources (but authorized by Comey; I’d bet my life) tell her that they have an open and shut case Hillary! violated the Espionage Act and is guilty of obstruction.
Not even the democrat on the panel, Eboni Williams, is defending Clinton. Even she acknowledges the violation is clear. She does what she has to do for her side, though, and claims that Hillary!’s negligence just won’t rise ot the level of “gross negligence” and Loretta Lynch won’t prosecute on that basis. It may be true that Loretta Lynch won’t prosecute Hillary!, and that she’ll ignore the Mt. Everest of evidence of Hillary!’s guilt, but it’s also absurd. Her email server is the very definition of gross negligence. As soon as Hillary! decided to conduct all her official business on an illegal server she was committed to the course of gross negligence. Gross negligence doesn’t even capture the breathtaking level of negligence that server represents.
In any case they still have the obstruction charge. That server is also exhibit A for obstruction. There is no legitimate reason for that server to exist. It is the physical representation of Hillary!’s malevolence and malfeasance in office.
If Hillary! isn’t guilty of gross negligence and obstruction, no one has ever been guilty of gross negligence and obstruction. And failing to prosecute the Arkansas grifter is going to cause Prom Queen far more problems then having the DoJ prosecute. The FBI and the intel community will see to that.
Steve57 (ccc381) — 11/9/2015 @ 12:32 pmI can’t believe our country has sunk to this level where a person as corrupt and vile as Hillary! not only hasn’t been indicted but can run for President with no problem. What the hell has happened to this country? She’s really the very best the democrat party can put up as a candidate? Or an old broken down socialist?
Rev. Barack Hussein Hoagie™ (f4eb27) — 11/9/2015 @ 12:41 pmIt is astounding that the only way to stop Hillary! voters from putting Hillary! in the WH would be to send her to prison.
Note I didn’t say sending Hillary! to prison would stop Hillary! supporters from voting for her.
You could put Hillary! on death row and they’d still vote for her.
Steve57 (ccc381) — 11/9/2015 @ 12:56 pmhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKosd0xJadE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiZFXkmofgI
These people vote! And breed!
Steve57 (ccc381) — 11/9/2015 @ 1:06 pmIt shouldn’t have come to requesting help. After assassination of the regime, Libya was an active theater of war. Obama, and perhaps Clinton, chose them as sacrificial trophies.
n.n (ebdd61) — 11/9/2015 @ 2:14 pm