As the White House tries to run out the clock on the Benghazi investigation, they keep pushing this line:
“Neither the President nor anyone in the White House denied any requests for assistance in Benghazi during the attack,” National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor told The Hill via e-mail.That's technically correct because, as I've speculated, they gave no response at all. Now CBS News is reporting tonight that the White House did not convene the very agency designed to respond to terrorism: "Key task force not convened during Benghazi consulate attack"
CBS News has learned that during the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. Mission in Benghazi, the Obama Administration did not convene its top interagency counterterrorism resource: the Counterterrorism Security Group, (CSG).The White House is now pushing this "ongoing investigation" nonsense as if it takes weeks to collect a bunch of emails and tell the American people what happened in the Oval Office that night.
"The CSG is the one group that's supposed to know what resources every agency has. They know of multiple options and have the ability to coordinate counterterrorism assets across all the agencies," a high-ranking government official told CBS News. "They were not allowed to do their job. They were not called upon."
Extra - Instapundit and Hot Air.
More - Foreign Policy: "Troubling surveillance before Benghazi attack."
And - Brietbart: "Of course, no investigation is really necessary as far as the decisions made on the night of the murders of our ambassador, two former Navy SEALs, and a fourth American. The administration knows precisely what happened – who gave the stand-down order, and who refused to authorize military intervention. They just don’t want to release that." Yeah, and don't hold your breath for a press conference.
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Oops! Oh, well. No poop would ever stick to the wall, if people didn't try flinging it.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/11/01/173372/us-says-help-was-sent-to-benghazi.html
WASHINGTON — A CIA security team rushed to the U.S. consulate in Libya’s eastern city of Benghazi less than 25 minutes after receiving the first call that the mission was under attack, while a second squad was dispatched by air from the capital, Tripoli, according to a timeline released on Thursday by U.S. intelligence officials.
The timeline is the most detailed accounting to date of the U.S. response to the attack on the consulate and was released to rebut news reports that U.S. officials had delayed a rescue.
“The officials on the ground in Benghazi responded to the situation . . . as quickly and as effectively as possible,” said a senior intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity. “There were no orders to anybody to stand down in providing support.”
To repeat: Obama did nothing.
To repeat and repeat and repeat and repeat and repeat and repeat.
Yes, to repeat, Obama did nothing and now he's saying nothing and taking no blame.
It's only realistic to see that the GOP's version of the Benghazi story is springing a few leaks. But to the extent that their criticism has merit that deserves to be heard, maybe, just maybe, the right shouldn't have squandered its credibility on four years of ludicrous, 24-hour, over-the-top attacks against the teleprompter-dependent radical socialist who killed the economy because he's not one of us.
Fox has turned its Benghazi talking points and open questions into an October-long miniseries, but they've gotten absolutely no traction on it. Go figure.
I realize it's facile and fun to dump on Fox, the GOP and Dick Cheney. But Obama can clear up all these leaky and meritless stories - and put that damn Fox News in it's place - by speaking.
Instead: crickets from the C-in-C.
I realize it's facile and fun to dump on Fox, the GOP and Dick Cheney.
Quite the reverse. Don't address the tactics and rhetoric that have made each successive GOP complaint more and more ignorable. Don't address the holes in the blockbuster Libya story that "the MSM won't touch" (and check out this link from CBS News). And don't address the fact that President Obama has no political need to "clear up" anything, when his electoral position has improved, not declined, since Benghazi-gate - beginning with Romney's overreach in debate #2. A stumble that klutzy, and absolutely needless, doesn't happen without the Fox echo chamber pushing strident, exaggerated narratives to the Pauline Kael sewing circle. You live by the Drudge flashing siren, sometimes you die by the Drudge flashing siren. But saying so is "attacking the messenger," so don't address any of it.
Seriously, don't. The left would very much appreciate that you didn't.
Obama would have lost to a credible candidate leading a sober party. Instead, you get to go to bed by 10 o'clock next Tuesday. Facile and fun enough for you?
Ha-ha! I agree, I'll be in bed by 10'o clock Tuesday, EST. Well, that's not entirely true. I'll be watching MSNBC for the suicide watch.
Keep your eyes on the prize: Candy Crowley's "take a bullet" moment, the Drudge Report and Fox News. Anything to avoid any answers on Benghazi.
The White House must be enormously proud of that State Dept. official who came out today to say...nothing. Even the Washington Post is saying this Administration is stonewalling on Libya. And that will be my response to all further comments, at least on the thread of this post: what is the Administration's explanation of events on 9/11/12?
Obama has not had a formal press conference in eight months. What happened on 9/11/12?
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