In what may very well be a first in American history, it is now clear that the Obama Administration deliberately sent out a senior official, UN Ambassador Susan Rice, to lie to the American people about what transpired in Benghazi, Libya on September 11, 2012.
We addressed this briefly a week ago but in the meantime more information has come to light which shows that Rice was not merely misinformed, she was lying to set a narrative that would protect the administration from the effects of its own epic, if not criminal, incompetence.
Let’s review the sequence of events helpfully compiled by the Washington Post in a rare occurrence of random journalism against the interests of the Obama administration. Take your time, the post picks up at the end of the chronology.
The story on September 12: It was an act of terrorism.
Hillary Clinton: “Yesterday, our U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, was attacked. Heavily armed militants assaulted the compound and set fire to our buildings. American and Libyan security personnel battled the attackers together.
Barack Obama: “No acts of terror will ever shake the resolve of this great nation, alter that character, or eclipse the light of the values that we stand for.”
Unnamed Senior Official: “Frankly, we are not in a position to speak any further to the perpetrators of this attack. It was clearly a complex attack. We’re going to have to do a full investigation.”
The story on September 13: It was the movie.
Jay Carney: “I think it’s important to note with regards to that protest that there are protests taking place in different countries across the world that are responding to the movie that has circulated on the Internet… We also believe that there is no justification at all for responding to this movie with violence.”
The story on September 14: Yeah, buddy, it was the movie.
Barack Obama: We’ve seen rage and violence directed at American embassies over n awful Internet video that we had nothing to do with. [One can’t help but being appalled that this particular lie was told at the casualty transfer ceremony at Dover AFB.]
The story on September 14 morphs: We didn’t know.
Jay Carney: “I have seen that report, and the story is absolutely wrong. We were not aware of any actionable intelligence indicating that an attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi was planned or imminent. That report is false.”
The story on September 16 merges: We didn’t know and yes it was the movie.
Susan Rice: “It began spontaneously in Benghazi as a reaction to what had transpired some hours earlier in Cairo, where, of course, as you know, there was a violent protest outside of our embassy sparked by this hateful video… We do not have information at present that leads us to conclude that this was premeditated or preplanned.”
The story on September 16 adds a soon to be non-operative detail.
Susan Rice: “We had a substantial security presence with our personnel and the consulate in Benghazi. Tragically, two of the four Americans who were killed were there providing security. That was their function. And indeed, there were many other colleagues who were doing the same with them.”
The story on September 16: The Libyans don’t get the memo.
Mohamed Yusuf al-Magariaf, president of Libya’s General National Congress: “The way these perpetrators acted and moved, and their choosing the specific date for this so-called demonstration, this leaves us with no doubt that this was preplanned, predetermined.”
The story on September 17: We’re going to investigate, yeah, that’s right, we’re going to investigate.
State Spokescritter Victoria Nuland: “I don’t think we know enough. I don’t think we know enough. And we’re going to continue to assess. She gave our preliminary assessment. We’re going to have a full investigation now, and then we’ll be in a better position to put labels on things, okay?”
Jay Carney: “Well, you’re conveniently conflating two things, which is the anniversary of 9/11 and the incidents that took place, which are under investigation and the cause and motivation behind them will be decided by that investigation.”
The story on September 19: That was a fast investigation. It was terrorism. But it was opportunistic and we didn’t know.
Mathew Olson, National Counterterrorism Center: “I would say yes, they were killed in the course of a terrorist attack on our embassy….The best information we have now, the facts that we have now indicate that this was an opportunistic attack on our embassy. What we don’t have at this point is specific intelligence that there was a significant advanced planning or coordination for this attack.”
The story on September 20: It was definitely terrorism. But it was opportunistic and we didn’t know because, you know, the video.
Jay Carney: “It is, I think, self-evident that what happened in Benghazi was a terrorist attack… we have no information at this point that suggests that this was a significantly preplanned attack, but this was the result of opportunism, taking advantage of and exploiting what was happening as a result of reaction to the video that was found to be offensive.”
The story on September 20: CBS doesn’t get the memo.
Margaret Brennan: “Witnesses tell CBS News that there was never an anti-American protest outside of the consulate. Instead they say it came under planned attack. That is in direct contradiction to the administration’s account.”
The story on September 20: Obama throws Carney under the bus. We’re investigating and, you know, the movie.
Barack Obama: “Well, we’re still doing an investigation, and there are going to be different circumstances in different countries. And so I don’t want to speak to something until we have all the information. What we do know is that the natural protests that arose because of the outrage over the video were used as an excuse by extremists to see if they can also directly harm U.S. interests.”
The story on September 21: Clinton is still using yesterday’s memo.
Hillary Clinton: “What happened in Benghazi was a terrorist attack, and we will not rest until we have tracked down and brought to justice the terrorists who murdered four Americans.”
The story on September 24. For the first time we have the same story on a different day. Of course, Hillary Clinton is a professional at doing this.
Hillary Clinton: “As we all know, the United States lost a great ambassador and the Libyan people lost a true friend when Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed in the terrorist assault on our consulate in Benghazi.”
The Story on September 25: We are still investigating. And it was the video or maybe not.
Barack Obama: “We are still doing an investigation. There is no doubt that the kind of weapons that were used, the ongoing assault, that it wasn’t just a mob action. Now, we don’t have all the information yet so we are still gathering.”
Barack Obama: “That is what we saw play out in the last two weeks, as a crude and disgusting video sparked outrage throughout the Muslim world.”
The Libyans still haven’t received the memo.
Mohamed Yusuf al-Magariaf, president of Libya’s General National Congress: “It was a preplanned act of terrorism directed against American citizens.”
The Story on September 26: It is al-Qaeda and somehow they are coming to where we overthrew governments during the Arab Spring.
Hillary Clinton: “For some time, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb… And they are working with other violent extremists to undermine the democratic transitions underway in North Africa, as we tragically saw in Benghazi.”
Jay Carney: “But it is certainly the case that it is our view as an administration, the President’s view, that it was a terrorist attack.”
I suppose at some point we will be told what to believe by the Washington Post and New York Times but it is humorous to watch them at least to have to make a attempt to investigate the incredible sequence of events since September 11, 2012. We know that two of President Obama’s “bumps in the road,” our ambassador and an embassy staffer in Benghazi, believed an attack was imminent and that their civilian guards. There is substantial evidence that the US received an intelligence warning about 48 hours in advance that an attack was likely.
There is hope that this travesty will not go away quietly. A group of Republican senators and the American representatives on the House Armed Services Committee have demanded that Ambassador Rice explain her egregious performance in light of what we now know we knew before she went on the air.
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