Thursday, October 18, 2012

The Balance of Terror-ism

Because Candy Crowley thought her "fact-checking"  was so important that she ought to break the role of moderator and interject, one will have to draw up a timeline to clarify things.


December 2011: Patrick Kennedy, the under-secretary of state for management, issued a memo stating that five security agents should man the Benghazi embassy as it only had three or four agents guarding the post.


March/July 2012: Eric Nordstrom sent two cables to the State Department headquarters requesting additional security agents but received no responses.



This was testimony given at a congressional committee investigating what happened in Benghazi by Eric Nordstrom, a security officer at the American embassy in Libya. The committee also heard testimony that a State Department official, Charlene Lamb, wanted to keep the number of security agents "artificially low".


September 11th, 2012: American Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, Sean Smith, Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods were killed and two more Americans were injured when rocket-propelled grenades and other weapons were launched at the Benghazi embassy. Footage from closed circuit cameras revealed a planned attack, not a demonstration or riot over a Youtube video depicting the life of Mohammad.


September 12th, 2012: Obama addressed the media in the Rose Garden:


I want people around the world to hear me, to all those who would do us harm, no act of terror will go unpunished..."

He did not use the word "terrorism" nor did he attempt to identify the assassins.


Again, he did not use the word "terrorism" or even "terror attack":


I strongly condemn the outrageous attack on our diplomatic facility in Benghazi, which took the lives of four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens. Right now, the American people have the families of those we lost in our thoughts and prayers. They exemplified America's commitment to freedom, justice, and partnership with nations and people around the globe, and stand in stark contrast to those who callously took their lives.

I have directed my Administration to provide all necessary resources to support the security of our personnel in Libya, and to increase security at our diplomatic posts around the globe. While the United States rejects efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others, we must all unequivocally oppose the kind of senseless violence that took the lives of these public servants.

On a personal note, Chris was a courageous and exemplary representative of the United States. Throughout the Libyan revolution, he selflessly served our country and the Libyan people at our mission in Benghazi. As Ambassador in Tripoli, he has supported Libya's transition to democracy. His legacy will endure wherever human beings reach for liberty and justice. I am profoundly grateful for his service to my Administration, and deeply saddened by this loss.

The brave Americans we lost represent the extraordinary service and sacrifices that our civilians make every day around the globe. As we stand united with their families, let us now redouble our own efforts to carry their work forward.


September 13th, 2012: Obama attends a political fundraiser in Las Vegas.


September 16th, 2012: A Youtube video was blamed for the attack and various riots throughout the Middle East. UN Ambassador Susan Rice called the video a "spontaneous reaction" on the part of offended Islamists:


“This is a response to a hateful and offensive video that was widely disseminated throughout the Arab and Muslim world,” Rice said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “Obviously our view is that there is absolutely no excuse for violence and what has happened is condemnable. But this is a spontaneous reaction to a video and it’s not dissimilar but perhaps on a slightly larger scale than what we have seen in the past with the [Salman Rushdie's novel] ‘Satanic Verses’, with the [2006 Danish newspaper] cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad.”




September 18th, 2012: Obama appears on the David Letterman Show.


September 20th, 2012: a commercial put out by the State Department denouncing the video claimed to be the source of violence in Benghazi and elsewhere was run in Pakistan.


September 25th, 2012: the word "terrorist" is mentioned only once in Obama's speech to the UN General Assembly and it is not in reference to the events in Libya.


October 10th, 2012: Lt.-Col Andrew Wood testified that Stevens requested that he (Wood) and his security team remain. Nordstrom testified that Lamb  told him not to request an extension for that team again and Wood testified that, despite shootings in Benghazi and Tripoli, the State Department ignored requests to beef up security. Wood was eventually asked to not "...even ask for DoD support".


October 11th, 2012: White House press secretary Jay Carney defends the White House when it changed its story on Benghazi from violent reactions to a video to a planned attack:


In a tense and occasionally combative press briefing on Wednesday, White House press secretary Jay Carney attempted to portray the Obama administration’s changing narrative of the deadly Sept. 11 attack in Benghazi as a natural product of the fog of war, rather than a deliberate misdirection.

American ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans died in the assault, which U.N. ambassador Susan Rice later called a “spontaneous” reaction to a YouTube video insulting Islam. The State Department and investigators have since revealed that there were, in fact, no protests or demonstrations about the video in Benghazi prior to the attack.

Under fierce questioning by the White House press corps, Carney blamed intelligence agencies for the administration’s false claims about the incident.


October 16th, 2012: Hilary Clinton takes the blame for the events in Benghazi.


Moderator and CNN reporter Candy Crowley wrongly defends Obama when Presidential candidate Mitt Romney calls him out on the events in Benghazi.


These are the events.


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