Security at the Libyan Embassy in Benghazi

[starjack]

I hope they will subpoena her because once her "concussion" is better she will be leaving the job. There is no end to what they will do to keep Obama out of this. She cannot testify on Thursday but shes not in the hospital, and no one saw this fainting take place. There isnt anything they won't do to keep Obama from taking the fall.

Bingo..............

[huntinman]

She slipped on one of the Whitewater documents...

[charly_t]

She slipped on one of the Whitewater documents...

Good one !

[gmhr1]

Bye Bye Charlene Lamb (deputy assistant secretary of state) who we saw at the hearings plus Eric Boswell (state dept security chief) and one unidentified official stepped down today after the bengazhi report came out slamming the State dept. Now lets get Hillary (Lambs boss) and Obama (Hillarys boss)

[Gerry Clinchy]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/19/us...it_th_20121219
The NYTimes reporting on Benghazi

“Systemic failures and leadership and management deficiencies at senior levels within two bureaus,” the report said, resulted in security “that was inadequate for Benghazi and grossly inadequate to deal with the attack that took place.”

Yet the article ends with an inconsistency about what military could have responded had they been given the order to do so ...

On the night of the attack, the Pentagon was able to divert an unarmed Predator drone operating 90 miles away to Benghazi, and the C.I.A. later used it to help plan an escape route for the surviving Americans. But other military forces were too far away or could not be mobilized in time.

There were some forces available that could have arrived before the death of all four victims.

[smillerdvm]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/19/us...it_th_20121219
The NYTimes reporting on Benghazi

Yet the article ends with an inconsistency about what military could have responded had they been given the order to do so ...

There were some forces available that could have arrived before the death of all four victims.

What is your source for this claim?

[HPL]

I will never understand why we didn't at the very least have F18's SCREAMING at rooftop level over the area, breaking every window in the city. I really think that their simple presence would have sent the "insurgents" scurrying. I don't know if we keep F 18's at Sigonella in Sicily, but if we do, that's only about 450 miles from Bengazi, which is less than 30 minutes away.

[Gerry Clinchy]

And this the the sad part ...

By Guy Taylor-The Washington Times
The father of a former Navy SEAL killed in the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, says he learned the details of his son’s bravery not from the Obama administration, but in an email from an American whose life was saved by his son.

Tyrone Woods, 41, was found “slumped over his machine gun, which was caked with blood,” Charles Woods, the former SEAL’s father, said during a telephone interview from his home in Hawaii.

“He had continued to fire until he had no blood left and was unable to fire anymore,” Mr. Woods said.
He did not identify the email’s sender but said he later spoke with the person who “told me how Ty died.”

Washington politics has largely shifted attention from what actually happened nearly three months ago in the Benghazi attack, in which U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, former SEAL Glen Doherty and State Department officer Sean Smith also were slain.

Republicans have accused the Obama administration of attributing the attack to spontaneous protests over a U.S.-made anti-Islam video, and not terrorists, in order to maintain the president’s foreign policy image before Election Day.
The White House and congressional Democrats have accused Republicans of exploiting the situation for political gain.
For family members such as Mr. Woods, the need to know what occurred in Benghazi is as real today as it was the moment they learned that their loved ones had perished.

Some are angry at the Obama administration, and even the most politically neutral among them say they are dispirited by the way the incident has been spun by Democrats, Republicans and news media.

‘Deserve far better’
“The frustration is that all of the energy is focused on who to blame within our own government,” said Kate Quigley, sister of Glen Doherty, who was 42 when he died in Benghazi.

“There’s been so much finger-pointing back and forth, and somebody like Glen was completely bipartisan in his job. What he did was try to save American lives, whether he was protecting Republicans or Democrats, that did not matter,” Mrs. Quigley said in a telephone interview from her home in Marblehead, Mass.

50 years from now the truth may be completely revealed, but it will be too late for the families of these brave men.

[Gerry Clinchy]

What is your source for this claim?

http://sofrep.com/12687/predator-dro...nsulate-libya/

.“The last two casualties occurred well over six hours after the initial attack. It was known early that the U.S. Ambassador to Libya was missing. His whereabouts were only discovered when Libyan hospital officials, who were attending to Ambassador Stevens, found his cell phone and made a call. It is disappointing to hear that our national command authorities failed to try to reinforce the Consulate with timely air assets, and that a consulate located in one of the most dangerous regions in the world was so unsecured.”

We had NOTHING within 6 hours of Benghazi to assist these people? If this is true, then the fault goes also to the Pentagon for such a failure.

According to CBS news, the Pentagon moved a team of special operators from Central Europe to Sigonella, Italy, only a one hour flight away from Libya. There were also fighter aircraft and Specter AC-130 stationed at three air bases in Italy.
CBS quoted retired CIA officer Gary Berntsen who led the team that responded to the Embassy bombings in East Africa. “You find a way to make this happen. There isn’t a plan for every single engagement. Sometimes you have to be able to make adjustments. They made zero adjustments in this. They stood and they watched and our people died.”

We have now heard the President and the Secretary of State both accept the blame. Emerging information indicates that there could have been more done. Real time drone images were being watched in a command post some where and decisions were made not to respond.

The United States maintains a number of robust and highly classified options to deal with such events. I don’t want to read about them in the press, but I do want accountability from the decision makers who had these options and failed to try. Our dead and wounded deserve an honest accounting.

The disaster at Desert One in Iran had an impact on a Presidential election, but its honest evaluation changed the entire Department of Defense for the better. The events in Libya should be examined with the same care.

This from the NY Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/04/wo...anted=all&_r=0
This is simply unconcionable ... they expected to send help from Fort Bragg? That was the best they could do?

I would say that almost anyone on this Forum could have come up with a better plan than that!

Interesting statement here:'

The Pentagon’s national military command center distributed a report around 4:30 p.m., 50 minutes after the assault started, that there had been violence in Benghazi and that the ambassador could not be located.

President Obama was informed about the attack at 5 p.m. by his national security adviser, Thomas E. Donilon, at the start of a meeting at the White House with Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta and Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Libya was not the only worry. There were also protests at the United States’ embassies in Tunisia, Egypt and Yemen.

In the meeting, Mr. Obama ordered the Pentagon to begin “mobilizing all available military assets to respond to a range of contingencies in Libya and other countries in the region,” said Tommy Vietor, a spokesman for the National Security Council.

But the administration was not well positioned to respond quickly.

In view of the fact that Stevens had repeatedly informed his superiors of inadequate security, is there any other explanation for this disaster than gross incompetence? This kind of performance is what is costing taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars? Or did SOMEone resist committing the assets that could have saved some of these lives?

[Gerry Clinchy]

And the beat goes on ...

The four people who were supposedly "reprimanded" for their performance on Benghazi ... three are "on administrative leave" (does that mean they're still collecting a paycheck?) The 4th person, Boswell, the guy in charge, he resigned his position ... but has not left the DOS; perhaps only "moved to another desk".

Does ANYone, at any level, have to accept responsibility for incompetence EVER?