CIA Director Petraeus Throws Obama Under The Bus: We Weren’t The Ones Who Denied Military Support To Americans Under Attack In Benghazi… All eyes are on you, Barack. Via Weekly Standard: Breaking news on Benghazi: the CIA spokesman, presumably at the direction of CIA director David Petraeus, has put out this statement: “No one at any level in the CIA told anybody not to help those in need; claims to the contrary are simply inaccurate.” So who in the government did tell “anybody” not to help those in need? Someone decided not to send in military assets to help those Agency operators. Would the secretary of defense make such a decision on his own? No. It would have been a presidential decision. There was presumably a rationale for such a decision. What was it? When and why—and based on whose counsel obtained in what meetings or conversations—did President Obama decide against sending in military assets to help the Americans in need?
Republicans Demand Obama Release Surveillance Video Taken During Benghazi Terror Attack… He will come up with some ******** excuse not to. WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican senators are demanding that the Obama administration make public the surveillance video taken during last month’s deadly attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya, which killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans. Sens. John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Kelly Ayotte wrote to President Barack Obama’s defense secretary, CIA director and attorney general demanding that the video be declassified. In the run-up to the presidential election, Republicans have accused the Obama administration of distorting the account of the attack on Sept. 11 that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. Officials first blamed it on a mob set into motion by an anti-Islamic film. Obama administration officials have pointed to U.S. intelligence reports that showed conflicting information. Administration officials did not respond to requests for comment.
AC-130 Gunship Was On-Scene In Benghazi With CIA Officer On Ground Pointing Laser Designator At Target, Obama Admin Refused To Let It Fire… This was buried in a post I did earlier but I really feel like it needs to be pointed out. An armed drone was also circling overhead and did nothing. n fact, at least one member of the team was on the roof of the annex manning a heavy machine gun when mortars were fired at the CIA compound. The security officer had a laser on the target that was firing and repeatedly requested back-up support from a Specter gunship, which is commonly used by U.S. Special Operations forces to provide support to Special Operations teams on the ground involved in intense firefights. The fighting at the CIA annex went on for more than four hours — enough time for any planes based in Sigonella Air base, just 480 miles away, to arrive. Fox News has also learned that two separate Tier One Special operations forces were told to wait, among them Delta Force operators.
Father Of Slain Navy SEAL: “Insincere” Obama “Could Not Look Me In The Eye… Like Shaking Hands With Dead Fish”… I can’t even begin to imagine how pissed off this guy must be. Via Weekly Standard: Charles Woods, the father of Tyrone Woods, who was killed in the 9/11 terrorist attack at the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya, reveals details of meeting Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton at the publically broadcast memorial service for the slain Americans at Andrews Air Force Base only days after the attack. And, in a recent radio appearance, Woods publicly questions who made the call not to send in back-up forces to possibly save his son’s life, as well as the three other Americans killed in Benghazi (which includes the American ambassador to Libya). “When [Obama] came over to our little area” at Andrew Air Force Base, says Woods, “he kind of just mumbled, you know, ‘I’m sorry.’ His face was looking at me, but his eyes were looking over my shoulder like he could not look me in the eye. And it was not a sincere, ‘I’m really sorry, you know, that your son died,’ but it was totally insincere, more of whining type, ‘I’m sorry.’” Woods says that shaking President Obama’s hands at his son’s memorial service was “like shaking hands with a dead fish.” “It just didn’t feel right,” he says of his encounter with the commander in chief. “And now that it’s coming out that apparently the White House situation room was watching our people die in real time, as this was happening,” Woods says, he wants answers on what happened—and why there was no apparent effort to save his son’s life.
White House Tries To Throw The Military Under Bus Over Benghazi… He’d throw his own kids under the bus if he felt it would help him. Via Weekly Standard: Yesterday, the CIA insisted that ”No one at any level in the CIA told anybody not to help those in need; claims to the contrary are simply inaccurate.” The denial is in reference to the report that the CIA held back forces from helping the Americans who were under attack in Benghazi, Libya on 9/11. And today, the White House is making a similar claim. ”Neither the president nor anyone in the White House denied any requests for assistance in Benghazi,” an Obama administration spokesman tells Yahoo’s Olivier Knox. [...] So, since the the CIA says it wasn’t any of their guys, and since the White House is trying to eliminate any blame on themselves, does this mean the order not to help those Americans under siege in Benghazi came from the military? The White House, it would seem, is trying to shift blame in that direction.
Records Show Obama Met With Panetta, Biden 55 Minutes After State Department Notified White House Benghazi Consulate Was Under Attack… The more we know, the worse they look. (CNSNews.com) – President Barack Obama met with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Vice President Joe Biden at the White House on Sept. 11, 2012 at 5:00 PM—just 55 minutes after a State Department email notified the White House and the Pentagon that the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi was under attack. The meeting between Obama, Panetta and Biden had been scheduled before the attack took place, and the Department of Defense is not commenting now on whether the three men were aware when they met that day of the ongoing Benghazi attack or whether Obama used that meeting to discuss with his defense secretary what should be done to defend the U.S. personnel in Benghazi. “Secretary Panetta met with President Obama, as the White House-provided scheduled indicates,” Lt. Col. Todd Breasseale, a Defense Department spokesman, told CNSNews.com on Tuesday. “However, neither the content nor the subject of discussions between the President and his advisors are appropriate for disclosure.” [...] The terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi began at about 9:40 p.m. Benghazi time—or about 3:40 p.m. Washington, D.C. time. “The attack began at approximately 9:40 p.m. local time,” Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Charlene Lamb told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in written testimony submitted Oct. 10.
CBS News: Obama Never Convened Counterterrorism Task Force During Benghazi Terror Attack… You know, because he “decimated” al-Qaeda. Via CBS News: 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 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.” Counterterrorism sources and internal emails reviewed by CBS News express frustration that key responders were ready to deploy, but were not called upon to help in the attack. Another senior counter terrorism official says a hostage rescue team was alternately asked to get ready and then stand down throughout the night, as officials seemed unable to make up their minds. A third potential responder from a counter-terror force stationed in Europe says components of AFICOM — the military’s Africa Command based in Stuttgart, Germany — were working on course of action during the assault. But no plan was put to use… “The response process was isolated at the most senior level,” says an official referring to top officials in the executive branch. “My fellow counterterrorism professionals and I (were) not consulted.”
Hillary Clinton Turns Down Request To Testify In Front Of Congress On Benghazi Next Week… Of course she has nothing to hide. Via PJM: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has turned down an invitation to testify before the House Foreign Affairs Committee next Thursday on the Benghazi attack. A committee update this evening indicated that Michael Courts, acting director of International Affairs and Trade for the Government Accountability Office, will be testifying followed by a RAND Corp. analyst. The committee indicated further witnesses could be added, but the State Department confirmed that Clinton won’t be one of them. “She was asked to appear at House Foreign Affairs next week, and we have written back to the chairman to say that she’ll be on travel next week,” said department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland. She did not answer a question about whether Clinton would be willing to fly back from Australia to address either the Foreign Affairs panel or the Senate and House closed-door intelligence committee hearings getting to the root of the Benghazi scandal. “The Committee plans to hold the second segment of this hearing the week of November 26, 2012 and will request Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton testify before the Committee at that time,” the Foreign Affairs Committee said in an advisory. Committee Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) wrote Clinton on Tuesday to demand that the State Department respond to the panel’s requests for information on Benghazi.
GOP Congressman Vows To Subpoena Petraeus To Compel Him To Testify On Benghazi… <iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/MM2q0aI04Yg?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0"></iframe> Via GWP: “The fact that he’s resigned and had an affair has nothing to do with whether he will be subpoenaed to Congress. I hope we don’t have to subpoena a four star general and a former CIA director. I would hope he would come voluntarily but if he won’t he will be subpoenaed. And none of what happened today is an offense to a subpoena. He’s either a witness in our case in chief or he’s gonna be a rebuttal witness if Susan Rice and others blame him for their failure of intelligence and failure of information. But there is no way we can get to the bottom of Benghazi without David Petraeus.”
Report: Petraeus Pushed Out For Challenging Administration’s Timeline On Libya… Petraeus pushed under the Obama Express? Via Fox News: New reporting by the Wall Street Journal suggests that the Benghazi attack may have played a major role in General Petraeus’ resignation as director of the CIA. This report suggests that Petraeus may have been pushed out of the position because he tried to challenge the Obama administration’s timeline of the attack. According to the report, Petraeus wanted to come out and push harder in defense of the CIA and what it did in Benghazi, but was told not to. Former U.S. Navy Captain Chuck Nash joined America Live to comment on the report, saying, “There have been so many disclosures that all happened after the election to where it’s almost like a news dump on a Friday evening. It just raises suspicion.” Nash continued, “In Washington, there really aren’t coincidences. And so when you look at all of these things and go, ‘Well, that’s coincidence, that’s a coincidence,’ these coincidences are falling daily. This is very unusual, so that raises everyone’s suspicion and reduces the trust level so now everybody’s looking at everything.”
CBS News Obtains Talking Points Given To Susan Rice: Benghazi Attack “Spontaneously Inspired” By Mohammed Film Protests, Omits Terrorism… They knew it was terrorism five days before she was given these talking points. So shady. (CBS News) – CBS News has obtained the CIA talking points given to U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice on Sept. 15 regarding the fatal attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, four days earlier. CBS News correspondent Margaret Brennan says the talking points, which were also given to members of the House intelligence committee, make no reference to terrorism being a likely factor in the assault, which left U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans dead. Rice, who was considered a likely nominee to replace Hillary Clinton as secretary of state, has been attacked by Republican lawmakers for saying on “Face the Nation” (video) on Sept. 16 that all indications were the attack “began spontaneously” – suggesting it likely sprang from a protest against an anti-Muslim video found on the Internet. Protests of that nature had been seen in other Muslim nations in the days and weeks before the Benghazi attack. The CIA’s talking points read as follows: • ”The currently available information suggests that the demonstrations in Benghazi were spontaneously inspired by the protests at the US Embassy in Cairo and evolved into a direct assault against the US diplomatic post in Benghazi and subsequently its annex. There are indications that extremists participated in the violent demonstrations. • This assessment may change as additional information is collected and analyzed and as currently available information continues to be evaluated. • The investigation is on-going, and the US Government is working with Libyan authorities to bring to justice those responsible for the deaths of US citizens.”
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.
White House Denies Editing Al-Qaeda Out Of Susan Rice’s Benghazi Talking Points, Blames The CIA… Under the bus you go. Via Washington Examiner: White House Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes put the blame back on the Central Intelligence Agency when asked about former CIA director David Petraeus’ claim that UN Ambassador Susan Rice’s talking points were edited to downplay al Qaida’s role in the Benghazi terrorist attack. “[T]he only edit that was made by the White House and also by the State Department was to change the word ‘consulate’ to the word ‘diplomatic facility,’ since the facility in Benghazi was not formally a consulate,” Rhodes told reporters today during a press gaggle. “Other than that we were guided by the points that were provided by the intelligence community.” Rhodes did not specifically acknowledge that al Qaida’s name was ever purged from the talking points. “I can’t speak to any other edits that may have been made,” he said. Petraeus told Congress yesterday that he knew almost immediately of al Qaida’s involvement in the September 11 assault, which claimed the lives of four Americans, and that the original talking points produced by the CIA made that clear. “The original talking points were much more specific about al Qaida involvement and yet the final one said ‘indications of extremists,’” House Homeland Security Committee chairman Pete King, R-N.Y., said yesterday after a closed door hearing with Petraeus. “It said ‘indicate’ even though it was clearly evident to the CIA that there was al Qaida involvement.”
GOP Rep Peter King: References To “Al-Qaeda” Were Ommitted From CIA’s Benghazi Talking Points By Someone In The Obama Administration… Now for the million-dollar question, who did it? WASHINGTON — Disgraced ex-CIA chief David Petraeus told lawmakers yesterday that early US intelligence fingered al Qaeda-affiliated terrorists — not crazed protesters — for the deadly attack on the US consulate in Benghazi. But references to “al Qaeda” and “extremist” were omitted from the unclassified talking points once it left the CIA and went to the White House, said lawmakers who heard Petraeus’ bombshell closed-door testimony before the House and Senate intelligence committees. “Nobody knows where it was changed,” fumed Rep. Pete King (R-LI), a member of the House Intelligence Committee. “It was nobody in the intelligence community, so it goes to the Justice Department, State Department, White House — somewhere along the line,” he said.
Once again someone in "the most transparent administration ever" is lying. Where's Hillary hiding this week?
RINO Sen. Susan Collins Blasts Susan Rice’s Handling Of Benghazi After Their Meeting… Via Politico: Susan Rice’s already fading chances of becoming the next secretary of state suffered another serious blow Wednesday courtesy of moderate GOP Sen. Susan Collins. Rice, the U.N. ambassador, will need the support of a handful of Republicans if she expects to succeed Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. But Collins emerged from a face-to-face meeting and blasted Rice’s response to the Benghazi attack — the latest of several Republicans this week to signal that a Rice nomination will have real trouble getting through the Senate. Collins (R-Maine), the top Republican on the Homeland Security Committee, accused Rice of playing a “political role” during the presidential election by going on five Sunday talk shows and incorrectly describing the deadly Sept. 11 assault as something spurred by spontaneous protests rather than a deliberate terrorist attack. And Collins said Rice’s response to Benghazi had an “eerie echo” of the 1998 bombings of two African embassies, which occurred when Rice was an assistant secretary of state for African Affairs. “And what troubles me so much is that the Benghazi attacks echoes the attacks on those embassies in 1998 when Susan Rice was head of the African region for our State Department. … She had to be aware of the general threat assessment and of the ambassadors’ request for more security.”