The Non-October Surprise, He Knew!
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Today's big news it that the White House was informed of that attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi was the work of Ansar al-Sharia, an al-qaeda affiliated group.
An e-mail received at the highest levels of the government, including the White House situation room received this e-mail.
For weeks following this terrorist attack, the Obama administration led the American people to believe this was the result of an anti-Islamic video that virtually no one saw, up to the point, the White House started blaming this video. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton even cut a commercial for Pakistani television to run there and ostensibly calm the Muslim world.
We are now six weeks since this terrorist attack, and new, damagind details are emerging that could be detrimental to the president and his bid for a second term. I have been on-line all morning conducting an informal view of 30 different news websites. I tried to cover all of the major sites both considered liberal and conservative.
Everyone of the liberal websites that I personally visited either didn't have this story on the cover or anywhere on their site. The conservative ones all had it prominently displayed at either their top story or "just below the fold."
Imagine if the roles were revered and President GW Bush was still in office. This would lead every newscast, website, radio broadcast and most likely school announcement. The bias in this election cycle from the media has been breath taking to this point, but now a clear line has been crossed. It has reached the level of media malpractice.
It is not a secret that I am not a fan of President Obama, nor his administration, but this goes beyond that distinction. Based upon this series of e-mails, this, to me, rises to the level of dereliction of duty for the sitting president.
I don't want an investigation as to what occurred here, that is evident to most rational people. What I want is for people to lose their jobs. What I want is people to be prosecuted for this dereliction of duty. What I want is an explanation of why the US government lied to the citizenry. What has occurred is unacceptable and cannot and should not be tolerated by the people of this country.
This is a big deal folks. A really big deal.
This is the first time a U.S. Ambassador has been murdered for over 30 years. We now know that the White House knew what was going on almost in real time, not only the e-mail says that, but we also know there was a drone overhead for a good portion of this attack. We also know that there were soldiers in the area that could have assisted in defending our Consulate, which is US sovereign soil and potentially saved lives. Why weren't they allowed to deploy?
I am willing to listen to the rationale for the government lying to us, the people who make the government possible. But now that the narrative is unravelling before our eyes, can we get to the truth? Even so, will the mainstream media report it accurately? Is this something that will come out after the election?
There are so many questions surrounding this scandal and the people deserve answers. Four Americans were killed and the Obama White House lied.
I will speculate that President Obama's mantra of Bin Laden is dead and GM is alive has much to do with the lack of transparency. After watching the presidential debate on Monday, I was shocked that this topic didn't come up. But after watching all three presidential debates and the vice presidential debate, I was not surprised.
I am angry that politics have been lowered to the point that a sitting president would be willing to lie to the public while four people are dead at the hands of the very terrorists the administration claims is, "on their heels." I am upset that the media is not reporting this in a manner that informs the American public. I am disgusted with a do nothing government that is afraid to admit its mistakes. I am mortified of what this government can and will do at this point.
America is an exceptional place to live, we are the leaders of the free world. It is high time our government realizes this and comes clean with the truth surrounding Benghazi-gate. f you agree with this statement, then you have a duty as a citizen to demand the truth from our government. I am mad as hell and I am not going to take this cover-up from a government that claims to be transparent. What's next with this group of clowns at the helm.
At least we can fix it through the electorate in 13 days.
Kim Lemrick
12:53 pm on Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Where were you during the last 50 years Kurt? Do you honestly think this is something that is exclusive to this administration? If the answer is "yes" than you either haven't paid attention or weren't aware of it until now. The reason it's not primary news on most sources is more likely related to this being not new. These things have happened so often in most of the last 50 years (at least) that the American people are sanitized and bored with these stories. The "news business" is one of profit (mostly) and most American's aren't going to be shocked or even care that much, that the White house was dishonest about what happened. After 8 years of Bush's constant lies...we're pretty used to it. *yawn*
Has it occurred to you that for security purposes, lying was necessary? It might not have been, but I do think it is possible. While we as Americans have a sense of "we have a right to know everything all the time", that's not the case. We not only do not have a right, we should not always be in the know. It's not always in the best interest or greater good of the mass for us to know all things at all times. The US Military, CIA and the US gov't are operating strategic secret operations all over the world, all the time. Who knows what was really happening. Eventually we will, but until then, No...I don't see a need to panic about it.
STW
1:20 pm on Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Kim, They have less then two weeks to go and this is the best the can come up with. (a.k.a. extreme right, or Faux News followers, or worse, Rush Limbaugh followers). Kurt is trying to make up a story and it failing to hold traction. If he wants, we can always bring up WMD, and the lack of them in Iraqi. How many died there, Kurt? If we wanted to read Faux News, we'll go to their wed site.
Peter Danbury
1:44 pm on Wednesday, October 24, 2012
The author writes as if a few brief emails clear everything up and confirm the conspiracy-line that Fox News has been pushing. Not so fast. Were the eyewitness reports that day, indicating that the attacks were in part motivated by that anti-Islam Youtube video, accurate or not? The emails shed no light on that, let alone confirm that that was just so much White House spin and coverup. One of the big weaknesses in that line of reasoning is that it presents two stories as mutually exclusive which are in fact perfectly compatible. It plainly was a terrorist attack, as the President acknowledged the next day in the Rose Garden. And it may also have had something to do with that YouTube video, as was evident in this report the day after: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/13/world/middleeast/us-envoy-to-libya-is-reported-killed.html?pagewanted=all As for Ansar Alsharia, they denied responsibility the day after claiming it. Even if they'd stuck to their first claim, we would still not know, short of a full investigation, whether to believe them. And, as Kim points out, it is quite possible that there are secrets worth keeping about ongoing operations there.
Kurt Shea
2:05 pm on Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Yeah, this is about what I expect from some readers. I guess time stamped e-mails and a drone overhead showing no protests aren't enough for some people. As for having a right to know, every news organization was clamoring to know everything about Iraq as it was unfolding. As far as I am concerned, we took out the biggest WMD in Iraq, his name was Saddam Hussein, guilty of genocide. As for secrets, I agree that some things should be kept out of the light of day, but when a sitting president lies to the faces of the American people it is a problem. Kim, love your tired old line about Bush, yeah, cause we haven't heard that one for 12 years or so now. I thought you liberals liked the socialist campaign meme of "Forward." Have a nice day, and as always, thank you for the feedback.
Kim Lemrick
5:34 pm on Wednesday, October 24, 2012
You're right, when a sitting president lies to the faces of the American people it is a problem. Just as it was for ALL of the previous presidents. They are called Politicians Mr. Shea. It's in their job description, why is this shocking to you? And yes, Bush told so many lies it was hard to keep track of them all (and Clinton told his share as well). I just wonder if the lies told by Democrat Presidents are the only ones that are of concern to you? :-)
Craig Thorsen
9:25 am on Thursday, October 25, 2012
It sounds like Kurt Shea is suggesting that US President Obama didn't have enough Horses and Bayonets in place.
Joyce Denn
10:33 am on Thursday, October 25, 2012
The article to which you link, Kurt, contradicts your "conspiracy" theory; from the article:
'"They were a part of the many different reports we were receiving that day," one of the White House officials said of the e-mails. "There are always multiple and conflicting reports in the initial hours of an attack. That's why you have an investigation."...
It is common for one or more claims of responsibility to follow high-profile attacks on U.S. targets, and intelligence officials analyze them for validity before declaring any legitimate. For example, groups make false claims to seek publicity and raise their profile.
Analysts examine a group's history, whether it made previous claims that were legitimate, whether it has the capacity to carry out such an attack, and whether known members of the group participated in the attack in assessing the validity of claims of responsibility.'
In other words, intelligence officials were following standard procedure; no one wants to make premature allegations before the evidence has been analyzed. Seriously, you'll have to do better than this if you want to come up with an "October Surprise".
Kurt Shea
10:49 am on Thursday, October 25, 2012
Thank you all for the feedback. I am not suggesting a conspiracy at all in my post. My point is this, the White House knew about the attack in pretty much real time. They then lied to the American public about the cause of the attack, a little watched video. If this were George Bush in the White House, your opinions would be very different. But since it is the anointed one in the White House, he can do no wrong and let's give him some time to get his story straight. This is a big story, but apparently Ambassadors getting killed and then sexually assaulted isn't that high on people's self absorbed list of priorities these days. I bet many of the people who heard Romney say the word "binder" in the second debate were more upset by that than our sovereign territory being over ran. All I can say is wow to that. For the record, if it was Bush in office, I would have written the exact same article.
STW
11:11 am on Thursday, October 25, 2012
"The anointed one". Love it. Just glad the network media is on the right side, or should we say the Left side? With their help, the President has a good chance of re-election. If that doesn't work, maybe a activist judge will help him.
Linda Stanton
10:09 am on Sunday, October 28, 2012
Thanks Kurt for standing up for what it right! Rational people are saddened and angered over the assassination of our Ambassador Chris Stevens in Libya, as well as, 3 of the US Embassy staff. The cover up has revealed what many of us have known for a long time, that Obama and the Democrats will make up any lie or excuse to win an election. I received a quote in my email today attributed to Benjamin Franklin and it sums up Obama very well: "He that is good at making excuses is seldom good for anything else". Keep up the fight and don't let the negative, misguided posts and comments get you down.
Kris Janisch
8:28 am on Sunday, November 18, 2012
Just seeing if you saw this Kurt. http://patch.com/A-z9Cw