Benghazi Was Obama's 3 a.m. Call

[Vel]

Wow, I bet Hillary never realized when she made that commercial that not only would Obama fail that 3 a.m. phone call, but that he would drag her down with him.
********************************************************

October 1, 2012, 7:17 p.m. ET
Stephens: Benghazi Was Obama's 3 a.m. Call
Libya was a failure of policy and worldview, not intelligence.

The hour is 5 p.m., Sept. 11, Washington time, and the scene is an Oval Office meeting among President Obama, the secretary of defense, the national security adviser and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi has been under assault for roughly 90 minutes. Some 30 U.S. citizens are at mortal risk. The whereabouts of Ambassador Stevens are unknown.

What is uppermost on the minds of the president and his advisers? The safety of Americans, no doubt. So what are they prepared to do about it? Here is The Wall Street Journal's account of the meeting:

"There was no serious consideration at that hour of intervention with military force, officials said. Doing so without Libya's permission could represent a violation of sovereignty and inflame the situation, they said. Instead, the State Department reached out to the Libyan government to get reinforcements to the scene."

So it did. Yet the attack was far from over. After leaving the principal U.S. compound, the Americans retreated to a second, supposedly secret facility, which soon came under deadly mortar fire. Time to call in the troops?

"Some officials said the U.S. could also have sent aircraft to the scene as a 'show of force' to scare off the attackers," the Journal reported, noting that there's a U.S. air base just 450 miles away in Sicily. "State Department officials dismissed the suggestions as unrealistic. 'They would not have gotten there in two hours, four hours or six hours.'"

The U.S. security detail only left Washington at 8 a.m. on Sept. 12, more than 10 hours after the attacks began. A commercial jet liner can fly from D.C. to Benghazi in about the same time.

All this is noted with the benefit of hindsight, and the administration deserves to be judged accordingly. But it also deserves to be judged in light of what it knew prior to the attack, including an attack on the mission in June and heightened threat warnings throughout the summer.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444592404578030202508251578.html?mod=rss_opinion_main

 

[PLYMCO_PILGRIM]

Wow, I bet Hillary never realized when she made that commercial that not only would Obama fail that 3 a.m. phone call, but that he would drag her down with him.
********************************************************

October 1, 2012, 7:17 p.m. ET
Stephens: Benghazi Was Obama's 3 a.m. Call
Libya was a failure of policy and worldview, not intelligence.

The hour is 5 p.m., Sept. 11, Washington time, and the scene is an Oval Office meeting among President Obama, the secretary of defense, the national security adviser and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi has been under assault for roughly 90 minutes. Some 30 U.S. citizens are at mortal risk. The whereabouts of Ambassador Stevens are unknown.

What is uppermost on the minds of the president and his advisers? The safety of Americans, no doubt. So what are they prepared to do about it? Here is The Wall Street Journal's account of the meeting:

"There was no serious consideration at that hour of intervention with military force, officials said. Doing so without Libya's permission could represent a violation of sovereignty and inflame the situation, they said. Instead, the State Department reached out to the Libyan government to get reinforcements to the scene."

So it did. Yet the attack was far from over. After leaving the principal U.S. compound, the Americans retreated to a second, supposedly secret facility, which soon came under deadly mortar fire. Time to call in the troops?

"Some officials said the U.S. could also have sent aircraft to the scene as a 'show of force' to scare off the attackers," the Journal reported, noting that there's a U.S. air base just 450 miles away in Sicily. "State Department officials dismissed the suggestions as unrealistic. 'They would not have gotten there in two hours, four hours or six hours.'"

The U.S. security detail only left Washington at 8 a.m. on Sept. 12, more than 10 hours after the attacks began. A commercial jet liner can fly from D.C. to Benghazi in about the same time.

All this is noted with the benefit of hindsight, and the administration deserves to be judged accordingly. But it also deserves to be judged in light of what it knew prior to the attack, including an attack on the mission in June and heightened threat warnings throughout the summer.
Stephens: Benghazi Was Obama's 3 a.m. Call - WSJ.com

In hindsight, with the information coming out that they (the administration) knew what was up in advance and it wasn't a spontanious attack, you are making a good point.

 

[Murf76]

Wow, I bet Hillary never realized when she made that commercial that not only would Obama fail that 3 a.m. phone call, but that he would drag her down with him.

That's what you call poetic justice.

Seriously though... Barack Obama went to bed that night not know Chris Stevens' fate, only knowing that he was missing. IOW, he SLEPT through his 3am phone call.
Then, instead the beehive of activity we'd expect to see at the White House during an international crisis with national security and intelligence types coming and going, he gives a short, misdirecting speech on the Benghazi attack, then an interview with 60-minutes for his election campaign, and flies to Vegas for a stump speech. Next day, it was off to Colorado and another stump speech.

And from Hillary Clinton, who's up to her neck in this... nothing. Not a word of apology from either of them for the incompetence which has lead to the deaths of our ambassador and three other Americans, the sacking of our consulate, or the on-going attacks on our embassies.

 

[Vel]

Wow, I bet Hillary never realized when she made that commercial that not only would Obama fail that 3 a.m. phone call, but that he would drag her down with him.
********************************************************

October 1, 2012, 7:17 p.m. ET
Stephens: Benghazi Was Obama's 3 a.m. Call
Libya was a failure of policy and worldview, not intelligence.

The hour is 5 p.m., Sept. 11, Washington time, and the scene is an Oval Office meeting among President Obama, the secretary of defense, the national security adviser and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi has been under assault for roughly 90 minutes. Some 30 U.S. citizens are at mortal risk. The whereabouts of Ambassador Stevens are unknown.

What is uppermost on the minds of the president and his advisers? The safety of Americans, no doubt. So what are they prepared to do about it? Here is The Wall Street Journal's account of the meeting:

"There was no serious consideration at that hour of intervention with military force, officials said. Doing so without Libya's permission could represent a violation of sovereignty and inflame the situation, they said. Instead, the State Department reached out to the Libyan government to get reinforcements to the scene."

So it did. Yet the attack was far from over. After leaving the principal U.S. compound, the Americans retreated to a second, supposedly secret facility, which soon came under deadly mortar fire. Time to call in the troops?

"Some officials said the U.S. could also have sent aircraft to the scene as a 'show of force' to scare off the attackers," the Journal reported, noting that there's a U.S. air base just 450 miles away in Sicily. "State Department officials dismissed the suggestions as unrealistic. 'They would not have gotten there in two hours, four hours or six hours.'"

The U.S. security detail only left Washington at 8 a.m. on Sept. 12, more than 10 hours after the attacks began. A commercial jet liner can fly from D.C. to Benghazi in about the same time.

All this is noted with the benefit of hindsight, and the administration deserves to be judged accordingly. But it also deserves to be judged in light of what it knew prior to the attack, including an attack on the mission in June and heightened threat warnings throughout the summer.
Stephens: Benghazi Was Obama's 3 a.m. Call - WSJ.com

In hindsight, with the information coming out that they (the administration) knew what was up in advance and it wasn't a spontanious attack, you are making a good point.

The article also shows that they really had no idea what to do when it happened either. The tone tells me that covering this up was almost the first things they thought of.

********************************************************
Let's review:

The U.S. ignores warnings of a parlous security situation in Benghazi. Nothing happens because nobody is really paying attention, especially in an election year, and because Libya is supposed to be a foreign-policy success. When something does happen, the administration's concerns for the safety of Americans are subordinated to considerations of Libyan "sovereignty" and the need for "permission." After the attack the administration blames a video, perhaps because it would be politically inconvenient to note that al Qaeda is far from defeated, and that we are no more popular under Mr. Obama than we were under George W. Bush. Denouncing the video also appeals to the administration's reflexive habits of blaming America first. Once that story falls apart, it's time to blame the intel munchkins and move on.

It was five in the afternoon when Mr. Obama took his 3 a.m. call. He still flubbed it.

Stephens: Benghazi Was Obama's 3 a.m. Call - WSJ.com

 

[WillowTree]

A sad day for America. Obama failed us.

 

[Vel]

Wow, I bet Hillary never realized when she made that commercial that not only would Obama fail that 3 a.m. phone call, but that he would drag her down with him.

That's what you call poetic justice.

Seriously though... Barack Obama went to bed that night not know Chris Stevens' fate, only knowing that he was missing. IOW, he SLEPT through his 3am phone call.
Then, instead the beehive of activity we'd expect to see at the White House during an international crisis with national security and intelligence types coming and going, he gives a short, misdirecting speech on the Benghazi attack, then an interview with 60-minutes for his election campaign, and flies to Vegas for a stump speech. Next day, it was off to Colorado and another stump speech.

And from Hillary Clinton, who's up to her neck in this... nothing. Not a word of apology from either of them for the incompetence which has lead to the deaths of our ambassador and three other Americans, the sacking of our consulate, or the on-going attacks on our embassies.

I couldn't believe that he blew off the meetings he should have been having on 9/12/12 in order to go to Vegas. I also can't believe that so much of the media didn't immediately call him on it. We've had Old Glory ripped down and replaced at 4 U.S. embassies and the most important story of the day was that Romney was too quick to defend America.

 

[High_Gravity]

Benghazi was a nightmare.

 

[Conservative]

welcome to 3.5 hours ago

http://www.usmessageboard.com/politics/251215-benghazi-was-obamas-3-a-m-call-and-he-let-it-go-to-voicemail.html

 

[Plasmaball]

no it wasn't his 3am call. Well it literally might have been given the time difference, but seriously it wasn't.

A 3am call is China is about to launch a nuke at us.
You people have zero perspective. Everything is an emergency and OMG to the extreme.

 

[Murf76]

Wow, I bet Hillary never realized when she made that commercial that not only would Obama fail that 3 a.m. phone call, but that he would drag her down with him.

That's what you call poetic justice.

Seriously though... Barack Obama went to bed that night not know Chris Stevens' fate, only knowing that he was missing. IOW, he SLEPT through his 3am phone call.
Then, instead the beehive of activity we'd expect to see at the White House during an international crisis with national security and intelligence types coming and going, he gives a short, misdirecting speech on the Benghazi attack, then an interview with 60-minutes for his election campaign, and flies to Vegas for a stump speech. Next day, it was off to Colorado and another stump speech.

And from Hillary Clinton, who's up to her neck in this... nothing. Not a word of apology from either of them for the incompetence which has lead to the deaths of our ambassador and three other Americans, the sacking of our consulate, or the on-going attacks on our embassies.

I couldn't believe that he blew off the meetings he should have been having on 9/12/12 in order to go to Vegas. I also can't believe that so much of the media didn't immediately call him on it. We've had Old Glory ripped down and replaced at 4 U.S. embassies and the most important story of the day was that Romney was too quick to defend America.

Yup. That's the part that got all over me. I looked at internet photos of Chris Stevens' lifeless body, the smoke on his face where it was obvious he had choked on it, and literally felt sick to my stomach. I'd have puked on my shoes if I had tried to smile and laugh through a stump speech all the while KNOWING that I'd failed to adequately protect these men who were there in my service. The guy has no conscience. None. At 3am, Barack Obama was asleep.

 

[Foxfyre]

Obama has been failing us for going on four years now. He has done some things well and almost all of those were continuing Bush policies even though he and his adoring audience still blame Bush for all the things Obama has not done well.

But the thread title is "Benghazi Was Obama's 3 a.m. Call." If only Obama's surrogate media would be honest about that. Benghazi was not only Obama's 3 a.m. call, but based on the way he and his administration handled it, it should have been his Watergate, his stained blue dress, his Iran Contra, and his illegitimate child. Remember how the media constantly, for days and days and days repeated that clip of George Bush continuing to read to the children after he was notified of a plane crash into the World Trade Center?

We now know, no thanks to the MSM, that Obama had been almost immediately briefed that it was a terrorist attack on our consulate, and that everything that he, Administration representatives, including the U.N. Ambassador, the Secretary of State, and the Press Secretary among others, told us for the next several days was an intentional lie.

Can you imagine how George Bush would have been crucified by the MSM if he had told the same lie, and then with 10 of our consulates and embassies under attack or threat across the Mideast, had boarded a plane to go to a campaign fundraiser? But how much have you heard about that in the MSM? Except maybe on Fox? And that is even in addition to the fact that we now know they knew well in advance that there was insufficient security and did nothing about it.

 

[PLYMCO_PILGRIM]

no it wasn't his 3am call. Well it literally might have been given the time difference, but seriously it wasn't.

A 3am call is China is about to launch a nuke at us.
You people have zero perspective. Everything is an emergency and OMG to the extreme.

Gosh we are such jerks for being upset over our presidential administration's lack of actions leading to americans getting killed when it could have been avoided if they only reacted to the intelligence they had and beefed up security @ our embassies on 9/11.

 

[Plasmaball]

no it wasn't his 3am call. Well it literally might have been given the time difference, but seriously it wasn't.

A 3am call is China is about to launch a nuke at us.
You people have zero perspective. Everything is an emergency and OMG to the extreme.

Gosh we are such jerks for being upset over our presidential administration's lack of actions leading to americans getting killed when it could have been avoided if they only reacted to the intelligence they had and beefed up security @ our embassies on 9/11.

who said you can't be upset? i am just saying its not that OMG extreme that you people want to try to pretend it is.

Look i get it. Had this been Bush or another righty the left would be doing the samething. Treated this as a national crisis. Its not.

 

[Vel]

Benghazi was a nightmare.

Yes it was and it if anyone had been paying attention and doing their jobs, it never would have happened.
**************************************
A House committee probing the attacks in Benghazi that killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens says Washington officials denied requests for additional diplomatic security.

12:38PM EST October 2. 2012 -

WASHINGTON (AP) -- American diplomats in Libya made repeated requests for increased security for the consulate in Benghazi and were turned down by officials in Washington, leaders of a House committee said Tuesday.

In a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Chairman Darrell Issa and Rep. Jason Chaffetz said their information came from "individuals with direct knowledge of events in Libya."


House committee: Requests for security in Libya denied

 

[BreezeWood]

Here is The Wall Street Journal's account of the meeting:

"There was no serious consideration at that hour of intervention with military force, officials said. Doing so without Libya's permission could represent a violation of sovereignty and inflame the situation, they said. Instead, the State Department reached out to the Libyan government to get reinforcements to the scene."

"That the local security did so well back in June probably gave us a false sense of security,"

the Wall Street Journal employs Carl Rove for editorial commentary on a regular basis and is an extension of the Fox News bias partisanship.

the Administration should have had enough security forces on site rather than worrying about Libyan sovereignty but that was more their mistake than believing the Libyans would have responded better than they did as previously they did respond accordingly.

 

[Murf76]

no it wasn't his 3am call. Well it literally might have been given the time difference, but seriously it wasn't.

A 3am call is China is about to launch a nuke at us.
You people have zero perspective. Everything is an emergency and OMG to the extreme.

Gosh we are such jerks for being upset over our presidential administration's lack of actions leading to americans getting killed when it could have been avoided if they only reacted to the intelligence they had and beefed up security @ our embassies on 9/11.

who said you can't be upset? i am just saying its not that OMG extreme that you people want to try to pretend it is.

Look i get it. Had this been Bush or another righty the left would be doing the samething. Treated this as a national crisis. Its not.

Those guys are DEAD, Plasma. And they didn't have to die. Barack Obama can't bring them back to their families, neither can Hillary Clinton. This isn't some little gaffe where nobody got hurt.

A child could have predicted that Libya wasn't safe. But this administration didn't need one. They had recent anecdotal evidence and intelligence to tell them so. Yet they still FAILED to act. And after all that, they've done everything in their power to paper over their incompetence.

If the argument is 'what the heck, it's only four dead guys', consider how this incident has EMBOLDENED our enemies. It's still too soon for us to see the full consequences of this debacle.

 

[Foxfyre]

no it wasn't his 3am call. Well it literally might have been given the time difference, but seriously it wasn't.

A 3am call is China is about to launch a nuke at us.
You people have zero perspective. Everything is an emergency and OMG to the extreme.

Gosh we are such jerks for being upset over our presidential administration's lack of actions leading to americans getting killed when it could have been avoided if they only reacted to the intelligence they had and beefed up security @ our embassies on 9/11.

who said you can't be upset? i am just saying its not that OMG extreme that you people want to try to pretend it is.

Look i get it. Had this been Bush or another righty the left would be doing the samething. Treated this as a national crisis. Its not.

I'm sorry, but I see the viscious and premeditated murder of Americans as important enough to pay attention to. If Obama was so dishonest and incompetent in his handling of that, how much confidence would we have if it had been notice of an attack on our homeland as well? Perspective is important, but so is principle. The Bible teaches us that those who are faithful in small things can be trusted with big things and vice versa. Whether or not, one is religious or a Bible believer, that is a lesson all should learn early on regarding their personal relationships, their larger affiliations, and their government. And the media is NOT treating bad stuff on the Left with the same intensity or in the same way it treats bad stuff on the right.

 

[Plasmaball]

Gosh we are such jerks for being upset over our presidential administration's lack of actions leading to americans getting killed when it could have been avoided if they only reacted to the intelligence they had and beefed up security @ our embassies on 9/11.

who said you can't be upset? i am just saying its not that OMG extreme that you people want to try to pretend it is.

Look i get it. Had this been Bush or another righty the left would be doing the samething. Treated this as a national crisis. Its not.

Those guys are DEAD, Plasma. And they didn't have to die. Barack Obama can't bring them back to their families, neither can Hillary Clinton. This isn't some little gaffe where nobody got hurt.

A child could have predicted that Libya wasn't safe. But this administration didn't need one. They had recent anecdotal evidence and intelligence to tell them so. Yet they still FAILED to act. And after all that, they've done everything in their power to paper over their incompetence.

If the argument is 'what the heck, it's only four dead guys', consider how this incident has EMBOLDENED our enemies. It's still too soon for us to see the full consequences of this debacle.

People die all the time, and if Obama and his people screwed up, great take them to task over it. Is it OMG 3am worthy? No. Thats my point. Thats really my only point.

I seriously don't give a shit.

 

[Vel]

Gosh we are such jerks for being upset over our presidential administration's lack of actions leading to americans getting killed when it could have been avoided if they only reacted to the intelligence they had and beefed up security @ our embassies on 9/11.

who said you can't be upset? i am just saying its not that OMG extreme that you people want to try to pretend it is.

Look i get it. Had this been Bush or another righty the left would be doing the samething. Treated this as a national crisis. Its not.

Those guys are DEAD, Plasma. And they didn't have to die. Barack Obama can't bring them back to their families, neither can Hillary Clinton. This isn't some little gaffe where nobody got hurt.

A child could have predicted that Libya wasn't safe. But this administration didn't need one. They had recent anecdotal evidence and intelligence to tell them so. Yet they still FAILED to act. And after all that, they've done everything in their power to paper over their incompetence.

If the argument is 'what the heck, it's only four dead guys', consider how this incident has EMBOLDENED our enemies. It's still too soon for us to see the full consequences of this debacle.

They had the diplomats and staff ASKING for more security and having their requests DENIED!!!

You know, we all come on this board and we play politics but this is not and should never be part of the political game. We got those people killed because someone was more worried about the politics instead of the reality.

 

[Vel]

who said you can't be upset? i am just saying its not that OMG extreme that you people want to try to pretend it is.

Look i get it. Had this been Bush or another righty the left would be doing the samething. Treated this as a national crisis. Its not.

Those guys are DEAD, Plasma. And they didn't have to die. Barack Obama can't bring them back to their families, neither can Hillary Clinton. This isn't some little gaffe where nobody got hurt.

A child could have predicted that Libya wasn't safe. But this administration didn't need one. They had recent anecdotal evidence and intelligence to tell them so. Yet they still FAILED to act. And after all that, they've done everything in their power to paper over their incompetence.

If the argument is 'what the heck, it's only four dead guys', consider how this incident has EMBOLDENED our enemies. It's still too soon for us to see the full consequences of this debacle.

People die all the time, and if Obama and his people screwed up, great take them to task over it. Is it OMG 3am worthy? No. Thats my point. Thats really my only point.

I seriously don't give a shit.

How many embassies need to be under attack before you consider it 3 a.m. worthy?