Benghazi : A Scar on America Because Obama Put Re-election above Duty

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta came off very badly in the Benghazi report : "[N]o asset was ever ordered to respond to Benghazi and the decisions made -- and not made -- coupled with a lack of urgency in Washington, DC, delayed the response even, in some instances, with an ambassador missing." ~~~~~ In 2013, Panetta said nothing could have gotten to Benghazi in time : "The reason is because armed UAVs, AC-130 gunships, or fixed-wing fighters with the associated tanking, armaments, targeting and support capabilities were not in the vicinity of Libya and because of the distance, would have taken at least 9 to 12 hours if not more to deploy. This was, pure and simple, a problem of distance and time." ~~~~~ But, Gowdy told America in his Tuesday press conference : “The mortar attacks could have taken place at 7:15 a.m. or 9:15 a.m. or even at lunch time on the twelfth. Because at the time those two Americans were killed, not a single wheel of a single US military asset had even turned toward Libya.” ~~~~~ Gowdy's comments were not directed at military service personnel but at Panetta and Clinton and their staffs. The report details military readiness stymied by orders to change clothes while Panetta, Clinton and the White House worried about offending Libya instead of ordering troop deployment. ~~~~~ The report also states that the one asset that did deploy to Benghazi was a team of CIA security officials from Tripoli, who apparently were deployed without the knowledge of Panetta or other officials. So, it was US Intelligence, often Obama's scapegoat for his own errors, that actually tried to help their trapped fellow Americans. ~~~~~ Then-United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice has been severely criticized by Americans for her appearances on Sunday talk shows after the attack, calling the assaults spontaneous. But the comments also irritated officials inside the State Department, who had not been asked to help her prepare. Rice’s remarks, officials said, appeared to be divorced from reality. The report offers this account of emails among senior Libya desk officers and other State officials : “I think Rice was off the reservation on this one." / "Off the reservation on five networks!” / “[White House] very worried about the politics. This was all their doing." ~~~~~ Of course, the underlying reason was political -- leading Obama/Clinton/Panetta to lie about a video and the impossibility of deploying troops to save an American diplomatic compound in a very unstable Libya. Obama was in a tight re-election campaign. Polls showed GOP candidate Romney ahead. Libya was dangerous because it refuted Obama's campaign claim that terrorism was defeated. This may be why repeated calls for greater security by US diplomats and US Intell in Libya were ignored by Hillary. Romney pointed out the Obama "error'' in suggesting terrorism was on its knees. And, then came the political nightmare, Benghazi -- al-Qaida linked islamic terrorists with mortars and rockets killed US Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans, the diplomatic compound and annex were burned and sacked -- how to reply without making Obama a one-term President. The cover-up was cooked up in a White House meeting of Obama, Clinton, Panetta and WH senior advisors. The story would be that an anti-Moslem video set off a spontaneous protest. They already knew this was a lie. But, no troops were deployed until they were satisfied they had saved Obama. The result was that no troops got to Benghazi until the compound was a smoldering ruin and four Americans were dead. NOBODY has been able to show that this is not the reality of Benghazi. ~~~~~ Dear readers, Trey Gowdy told reporters on Tuesday : “I am at peace that we have more information than the other committees had, and we could have had more had we had just a tiny bit of cooperation from the other side.” Hillary Clinton's long ago answer : "What difference does it make." It makes a difference because "the attacks remain a scar on the United States," says a Supplement by two Republicans on the House Committee. Tomorrow.