Epic Fail: Benghazi-Gate Cover Up
Epic Fail: Benghazi-Gate Cover Up
"Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practise to deceive!"
-- Sir Walter Scott, Marmion
I was six when the Watergate scandal was raging, so its impact was mostly lost on me. It was only later in life that I understood the gravity of a President willfully deceiving the American people and believing he had done nothing wrong in doing this.
However, no one died in Watergate. Lost reputations for sure, along with the lost confidence of the American people in their elected officials; but no one lost their life.
We cannot say the same with Benghazi-Gate. Four dead Americans: Ambassador Chris Stevens, Sean Smith, Glen Doherty, and Tyrone Woods are the result of the Obama administration's malfeasance toward security and intelligence, and their willful deception about the true causes surrounding this terrorist attack.
The legacy media has finally stopped covering for President Obama and has begun to cover the scandal--three weeks after the attack on September 11, 2012. Our legislative body in the form of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform called for hearings, and on Wednesday, October 10, the Committee took over four hours to grill various State Department personnel on the security failures in Benghazi. The testimony given was both revelatory and deplorable. Requests for heightened security were made by top security officer Eric L. Nordstrom, but were denied by the State Department. Nordstrom reflected the fatalism of these refusals when he testified, "The takeaway from that, for me and my staff: It was abundantly clear we were not going to get resources until the aftermath of an incident. And the question that we would ask is, again, 'How thin does the ice have to get before someone falls through?' "
Tragically, we now know the answer to that question. I recommend you view the hearings for yourself here. They are a strong indictment on the divide between the bureaucratic bubble of Washington, D.C., and the actual people who are putting their lives on the line every day.
Sobering.
If you are not up to speed on the full scope of this debacle, this video from Western Journalism gives an excellent overview on the terrorist attack, the cover up, and what is at stake if this is not fully investigated before the election.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dSAl8szc8M]
President Obama, who missed 62 percent of his intelligence briefings in 2011 and 2012, initially refused to acknowledge the Libya tragedy was a terrorist attack, preferring to blame it on an anti-Muslim video, and declaring the administration would gain "justice" for the fallen.
Four weeks later, there is little justice and even fewer answers. Marc A. Thiessen rightly compares the Bush administration's response after 9/11/2001, and the stunning lack of response of the Obama administration toward this crisis.
"Three weeks to reach the “crime scene”? Within days, CNN reporters were able to rummage through the rubble and recover the ambassador’s diary, and Post reporters were able to access and photograph the destroyed diplomatic compound. But the administration can’t get the FBI to the scene for three weeks? It should come as no surprise that the Obama administration is treating the attack as a crime — but it can’t even get the criminal investigation right."
So far, the heavy lifting has been done by investigative reporting: Eli Lake of The Daily Beast, Fox News, Breibart.com, the Daily Caller, and a host of other conservative websites have uncovered what looks increasingly like a concerted effort on the part of the Obama Administration to obfuscate the truth.
Aside from new media and the Congressional Oversight committee, the rest of Washington is giving the appearance of business as usual. And unless directly confronted on the matter, the Obama administration remains in campaign mode. President Obama would rather champion for Big Bird than talk about the breakdown that occurred on his watch. Of course, when anyone from the administration (or campaign) is asked to give an account, they continue to shift the story, and lay blame elsewhere.
In the Vice Presidential debate Thursday night, VP Joe Biden denied that the administration knew anything about requests for heightened security. Hours before VP Biden uttered that stunning lie, campaign stooge Stephanie Cutter blamed the politics of the Romney/Ryan campaign for that fact that Benghazi is even an issue. Fox News' Bret Baier, (who conducted the interview), reminded Cutter that it might be an issue because four people are dead. Deer-in-the headlights Stephanie merely doubled-down on her claim. I would expect nothing less from a woman who makes her living off spin and slander.
On Friday, The Carney undercut the State Department and the Intelligence Community with more dancing and double-talk:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3r8DgoBXdM]
While all of this has been raging, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has remained largely incognito. She emerged Friday to address the Center for Strategic and International Studies. However, her speech did little to bring clarity or direction. From the Boston Herald:
"'We do not have all the answers. No one in this administration has ever claimed otherwise. "'We are providing the best information we have at that time and that information continues to be updated, it also continues to be put into context and more deeply understood through the process we are engaged in,' she said." Secretary Hillary Clinton: US must stick by Arab world's democracies.
The U.S. Intelligence community is not taking lightly these apparent efforts to hang this mess around their neck. In a piece in the UK Daily Mail, it highlights a joint statement by Michael Hayden, ex-CIA director, and Michael Chertoff, former head of Homeland Security. Hayden and Chertoff call out the Obama administration on their thinly veiled attempts to make Intelligence a scapegoat.
"During the Vice Presidential debate, we were disappointed to see Vice President Biden blame the intelligence community for the inconsistent and shifting response of the Obama Administration to the terrorist attacks in Benghazi,' they said in the statement. "Given what has emerged publicly about the intelligence available before, during, and after the September 11 attack, it is clear that any failure was not on the part of the intelligence community, but on the part of White House decision-makers who should have listened to, and acted on, available intelligence. Blaming those who put their lives on the line is not the kind of leadership this country needs." EX-CIA Chief slams Biden for throwing U.S. Intelligence Community under the bus
Brutal. But an even more fatal blow was rendered by Pat Smith, the mother of Sean Smith, when she appeared on CNN decrying the loss of her son's life, and calling out the administration for its obstructionism and cowardice. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3ldyGsZ1Io] When families begin to call for your head, there is bound to be a reckoning, and rightly so. Let's just hope it occurs before November 6.