Sunday, May 19, 2013

Nothing to Benghazi?

The usual Obama apologists are now whining that the Benghazi incident, although certainly tragic, has been inflated into a pseudo-scandal by opponents of the Administration. 

We assert that the Administration wanted to believe, either sincerely or to preserve a critical election narrative, that "Al Qaeda was on the run". Let us review the actions of the Administration regarding the Benghazi attack that we now know (hat tip to Mona Charen):

1. They denied requests for greater security in Libya.
2. Later, they denied that they denied requests for greater security.
3. Later still, they blamed budget cuts for the lack of increased security.
4. They refused to provide military assistance to repel the attack, leaving the defense force present out on a limb.
5. Later, they denied that such military support was available or possible.
6. They have obfuscated the participation and engagement of the President and the SoS in the response to the attack.
7. They suppressed the fact - for two weeks - that it was known quickly after (during?) the event that it was a organized paramilitary style attack, and not a spontaneous protest turned riot. They promulgated this falsehood aggressively by dispatching the UN Ambassador to every major Sunday news programs to repeat it.
8. They publicly embarrassed and discredited the President of Libya by refuting his assertion that it was an organized terrorist attack.
9. Later, they suggested that the President had all along acknowledged publicly that it was an (implicitly suggested as organized) terrorist attack.
10. They blamed the CIA for misinforming them as to the nature of the attack.
11. They lied about the extent to which the original CIA talking points for public discussion of the attack had been revised by CIA at the insistence  the State Department.
12. They ordered diplomats not to cooperate with a congressional investigation.
13. They demoted career diplomatic officers for publicly contradicting the false "spontaneous attack" claim.

Right, there is nothing to see here. Now go watch Dancing with the Stars, Citizen.