Author Topic: House Republicans Busted in “Benghazi: The Truth Behind the Smokescreen” by Bret Baier!  (Read 1032 times)

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Offline Rapunzel

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http://thespeechatimeforchoosing.wordpress.com/2013/07/01/house-republicans-busted-in-benghazi-the-truth-behind-the-smokescreen-by-bret-baier/

 by Isabel Matos

House Republicans Busted in “Benghazi: The Truth Behind the Smokescreen” by Bret Baier!

Many of you may have missed it on television, so I urge you to watch the report that aired on Friday, June 28th, on the Benghazi scandal. It is compelling, disturbing and to be continued, I hope!

After spending nine hours putting Bret Baeir’s report in writing (I was so riveted I couldn’t resist!), I can say there were explosive details like the promo advertised, the biggest one for me (because I hate the GOP and always want proof they are against us), can be found at the very end of the article (the tease is already in the title).  I looked up all of the names mentioned in the report myself because I like know who is doing what wrong when bad things happen.

What happened in Benghazi was not just a tragedy, but a blatant, negligent and criminal act on the part of our Government, Obama’s government. It is curious to me that most of the so-called “tragedies” Clinton cited at the very  beginning of the report seemed to be under Democratic Presidents who are usually dangerously naïve or just weak in foreign affairs (I am being kind). The attacks on our soil were incremental, leading to 9/11, the worst one yet.

Speaking of Hillary, after seeing her again today, I was reminded of how repulsive Mrs. Clinton is. She is a villain of the highest order.  She is corrupt.  She has blood on her hands, and she should never be allowed to run for President. She should hang her head in shame, and so should every Republican who defends her, including Rinos like Jeb Bush, John McCain and Marco Rubio, who is now officially a member of the GOPe brotherhood. When they cover for her by thwarting any efforts to investigate infiltration at the highest ranks in our government, it leads me to believe they all have something to hide. I continue to push for our leaders and journalists to EXPOSE infiltration in the GOP, as Michele Bachmann seems to be out to lunch quite a bit lately.

The story of Benghazi seems to strike a deep chord in all of us. The way these Americans died was preventable. It is just so much crueler than the other scandals on Obama’s watch. It is no wonder seventy-one percent of Americans want Congress to continue investigating the Benghazi attacks. (I have news for the American public, and it isn’t good; but for the sake of this post, I will keep my lack of optimism about Congress’s will to do what is right to myself.)

The report begins with a background description of the politics leading up to September 11th, 2012: (U.S. policies towards terrorism)that he sequence of events during the attacks themselves, and the possible presidential cover-up about what happened that night.  The political and bureaucratic smokescreen makes Benghazi not just a tragedy, according to Baier, but a scandal.  The written information is below the clip.  I found the video in an article in Bizpacreview this morning.

1.  Background Politics

Hillary Clinton states before Congress that to understand Benghazi, one must go back a few years.  Benghazi joins a long list of tragedies for America:  1979 - the Tehran Hostage situation, 1983 – the Embassy and Marine Barracks bombed in Beirut, 1996 – Saudi Arabia Khobar Towers.

Islamic supremacism is the motivating cause of these attacks, according to Andrew McCarthy, former federal prosecutor who won the conviction of the blind Sheik who wanted to bomb New York tunnels and landmarks in the 1990′s.  The ideology, which has not changed, has fueled attacks in the 70′s, 80′s and 90′s.

The difference between the Obama administration and its critics, is the lessons learned from that history. President Bush treated 9/11 as an act of international terrorism, to be dealt with as an aggression against the U.S. by a hostile power. Obama’s approach was to deny there was a global war on terror. Smart diplomacy would manage the problems in the Middle East and elsewhere.

June 24, 2009 Obama’s apology tour began with his speech in Cairo. It was followed by the brutal suppression of Iran’s Green Revolution, an uprising in Tunisia, and a popular revolt against Mubarak “the Arab Spring”, in Egypt, presenting Obama with a defining foreign policy crisis in the Middle East.

He was forced to explain his intervening in a civil war in Libya to stop the blood bath by Gadhafi in an otherwise unknown place, Benghazi.

September, 2012. A Coptic Christian from a jail cell in Southern California came up with a loopy scheme to make a low-budget film called Desert Warrior. His message to the world:  “Be careful. Evil (Terrorism Culture) coming from the East.” It was released upon his parole and became part of the smokescreen that obscured the truth what happened on the 11th anniversary of 9/11/2001.

To this day, it is unknown where the story of the Mohammed video came from. (John Bolton)

2. Fox NEWS timeline

Using unclassified and investigated reports released from Congress and the State Department, and public Presidential remarks, as sources, as well as their own investigative reporting, Fox News comes up with a timeline showing how disastrous decisions led to deadly consequences.hot air 1

October, 2011 - Benghazi was supposed to be safe from violence.  The American compound built West of the city is heavily secured. The “Annex”, now known as a CIA facility, is more than a mile away.

Tripoli is the capitol of Libya. Based there is a Department of Defense Sub-Security Team with Special Forces capability.

February, 2012 - Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Wood, in charge of the SS team in Tripoli, despite security incidents every three days in the Spring of 2012, are set to leave Libya by summer’s end.

March 28th:  Americans send the Secretary of State a cable requesting more security.

April 6th:  A bomb is tossed over the Benghazi compound.

April 19th:  A return cable signed by Clinton says SECURITY WOULD BE SCALED BACK (Clinton would later deny knowing about exchange.)

June 6th:  An IED is placed at the compound’s North gate. No one is hurt, again. Christopher Stevens is the newly named Ambassador asks to keep two security teams the State Department had ordered to be removed.

June 11th:  His request is denied. The Brits decide to pull out of Benghazi after a convoy transporting the United Kingdom’s Ambassador is ambushed.  He was not hurt, but two of his security squad were.  Lieutenant Col. Wood conducted an investigation and said it was clearly an assassination attempt by skilled operators. He realizes these operators are an increasing danger to Americans who are last on their target list.

June 25th: Stevens sends another cable to Washington, warning of a deteriorating situation where Libyan extremists are “targeting international organizations and foreign interests.”

The State tells the Special Forces Security Team protection is not needed in a place like Benghazi.

Bret speaks with Lieutenant General Morgan who was the United States Deputy Under-Secretary of Defense for Intelligence.  Lieutenant Morgan explains their lack of response as unrealsitic.

Morgan: “They were trying to tell a better story than what was unfolding on the ground. It’s because they live in a fantasy world.”  Speaking of fantasy..

Hollywood.  The Coptic Christian who made the “Desert Warrior” movie renames it ”Innocence of Bin Laden.” A screening in Los Angeles is advertised in late June. Steven Klein, an anti-Islamic activist and spokesman for the film, says fliers were to get the attention of young Taliban wannabes in California, to see who their real “hero” is. The movie portrays the prophet Mohammed as a homicidal gay child molester. It is released, but no one shows up to see it.

July 2nd: A trailer for the film, renamed “Innocence of Muslims”, is uploaded to YouTube by “Sam Bacile”. Nakoula Basseley Nakoula denies using the alias Sam Bacile; but it is him, and he violates his probation.

July 6th: Americans in Libya are even more concerned about terror attacks.

Charlene LAMB, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Diplomatic Security, sends back a response urging them not to make formal requests for an extension of the security teams set to leave in August.

According to Mr. Nordstrom who testifies before Congress: “Lamb was discouraging, to put it mildly. Why do you keep raising these issues? Why do you keep putting this forward?”

August 8th: Ambassador Stevens sends another cable: “What we have seen are not random crimes of opportunities but rather targeted and discriminate attacks.” Less than a week after the cable, Lieutenant Colonel Wood and his team leave the country.

Stevens is being pushed to increase U.S. diplomatic presence in the city, and soon.

Hicks:  “According to Chris, Secretary Clinton wanted Benghazi converted into a permanent constituent post. The timing for this decision was important, Chris needed to report before September 30th, the end of the fiscal year.”

September 6th:  John Kerry at the Democratic National Convention in  Charlotte, North Carolina: “Today, without a single American casualty, Moammar Gadhafi is gone, and the people of Libya are free!”

The same day, Morris Sadak, an Egyptian-American Coptic Christian activist, emails journalists to promote a 9/11 event with Koran-burning pastor Terry Jones, including a link to Nakoula’s YouTube trailer.

September 8th:   Cairo. Popular Islamist broadcaster airs portions of trailer. Outrage ensues.

September 9th:  As Ambassador Stevens gets ready to leave Tripoli for Benghazi, Diplomatic Security Officer in Tripoli, Alec Henderson, warns that the Feb. 17th Martyr’s Brigade can’t be trusted to protect him.

September 10th:  Benghazi. Ambassador Stevens  arrives in the city; though his movements are supposed to be secret, the local media is present.  And that is cause for grave concern on the eve of 9/11.

Stevens and Twin Towers Cropped

September 11th, 2012

6:43 am  Benghazi.  A Libyan police officer atop a building next door is caught photographing the interior of the American compound.  The idea that a Libyan cop might be casing the place, rattles Information Management Officer, Sean Smith.

12:00 noon Sean Smith messages a friend on the internet: ”Assuming we don’t die tonight, we saw one of ‘our police’ that guard the compound taking pictures.”

12:11 pm Cairo.  U.S. Embassy staffers release a statement about Nakoula’s video shown on Egyptian t.v.: “We firmly reject the actions by those who abuse the universal right of free speech to hurt the religious beliefs of others.”  By late afternoon the Cairo Embassy is surrounded by protestors, voicing a variety of grievances. Andrew McCarthy says the video is part of a larger demonstration brandishing of the Al-Qaeda flag, with chants of  “Obama, Obama,  there are still a billion Osamas”.

6:45 pm  The Egyptian crowd storms the embassy. America’s #2 man in Libya, Greg Hicks, reaches out to his boss, Ambassador Stevens, in Benghazi.

Hicks:  “Chris, are you aware of what’s going on in Cairo?  He said, No.  So I told him that the Embassy had been stormed and they were trying to tear down our flag. He said ‘thanks very much’.”  No sign of protest in Benghazi over the video, or anything else.

9:00 pm Ambassador Stevens and Sean Smith retire for the evening in the main residence. Four diplomatic security agents accompany them: including lead offer, Scott Wickland, and Alec Henderson.

(Congressman asks if there was any awareness of a YouTube video) Hicks: “The YouTube video was a non-event in Libya.”

9:42 pm Agent Henderson hears shots and an explosion. He sounds an alarm.

Charlene Lamb: “He also alerted the quick reaction security team stationed nearby, the Libyan’s 17th February Brigade, the Embassy in Tripoli, and the Diplomatic Security Command Center in Washington.”

The armed attackers enter the main gate without warning or resistance from the Brigade.

In Tripoli, Hicks finds out the Embassy is under attack. He calls Stevens who’s hiding with Sean Smith in the safe haven. Stevens says, “Greg, we’re under attack”.  Attackers set the residence ablaze.  The safe haven fills with thick dark smoke.  Former Navy Seals Tyrone Woods and other agents at the Annex, more than a mile away, get their weapons ready.

Hicks: “They were mobilizing a response team there to go to our facility and provide reinforcements to repel the attack.”

covered in smoke

9:59 pm An unarmed surveillance drone hits towards the compound. Hicks calls the Operations Center at the State Department in Washington (4 pm) to report the attack.  When asked if he reported a protest in connection to a YouTube video, Hick responds: “No. The only report that our mission made through every channel, was that there was an attack upon the consulate.”

4:05 pm Washington. An internal State Department Ops alert reports that the “Benghazi special mission is under attack.”

Hillary: “I was notified of the attack after 4 pm, I spoke to the National Security Advisor, Tom Donilon. Tom was my first call. I instructed Senior Department Officials to consider every option to just break down the doors of the Libyan officials to get as much security support as we possibly could.”

State Department Counter Terrorism Official, Mark Thompson, wants to immediately dispatch the U.S. Foreign Emergency Support Team, called FEST.

Thompson:  “It is on alert to do just this mission. I notified the White House of my idea. We needed to act now, not wait.” At the annex, sources tell Fox News, the CIA Team is told to stand down twice.

An independent Accountability Review Board appointed by the State Department concluded the CIA officers were “not delayed by orders from superiors”.

10:07 pm  Benghazi. The CIA team leaves the Annex anyway, bound for the compound.  But what about help for the compound?

10:45 pm  When asked if he got help from the Pentagon, Hicks:  ”I asked the Defense Attache if anything was coming. The short answer was, No. So, I said, thank you very much, and we went on with our work.”

10:54 pm Benghazi. The six-man response team from the Annex drives the attackers out of the compound. By that time, Sean Smith has been burnt dead, but nobody can find Ambassador Stevens.

sean smith close upsean smith

5:00 pm Washington. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta attends his weekly meeting with the President.

Panetta:  ”We ordered all available DOD assets to respond.” (Bret Baier interjects:  but none outside Libya will.) “The quickest response option available was a security team that was located at the Embassy in Tripoli.” (Bret Baier interjects:  but the Americans had no plane in Tripoli).

Hicks:  “We agreed that we would move forward with chartering a plane to fly a response team to Benghazi to provide additional reinforcements.”

11:10 pm  Benghazi. A U.S. drone armed only with cameras begins circling above the compound. Five minutes later, a second wave of attackers arrives. Hicks testifies that the Annex team withdrew from the facility when the second wave of attackers took it over.

Senator Graham: “Did anyone leave any base anywhere to go to the aid of the people under attack in Benghazi, Libya, before the attack ended?”

Panetta: “No. Because the attack ended before they could go on the ground.” Senator Lee points out this was an attack that lasted nearly 8 hours from start to finish.

Panetta replies: “There was this initial attack on the facility at Benghazi. Frankly we thought that was the end of what had occurred there. And we had no intelligence that a second attack would take place at the Annex two miles away.”

CIA-agents-in-Benghazi-twice-asked-for-permission-to-help-Ambassador-Chris-Stevens-as-bullets-were-flying-and-twice-were-told-to-stand-down

September 11th turns into the 12th

Bret Baier describes Benghazi becoming “a modern-day Alamo, a handful of brave Americans facing terrible odds, with no help on the way.”

5:30 pm Washington. Leon Panetta finishes meeting with the President.  He summons U.S. Africa Commander Carter Ham, Joint-Chief Chair, Martin Dempsey, and other Senior staff to discuss Benghazi. That meeting lasts over 2 hours.

Tripoli. Greg Hicks has neither hope that help is on the way, nor time to dwell on it. Hicks testifies that they’re on their own, and have to try to pull this off with the resources they have.

12:00 am  Benghazi. The Annex is under attack. Hicks: “The second phase of this is that after the teams have returned to the Annex, they suffer for about an hour and a half of probing attacks.”

After a two-hour scramble, Team Tripoli finally secures a charter plane, among those aboard, former Navy Seal, Glen Doherty.  glen doherty 1Meanwhile, in Washington, State Department Counter-Terrorism official, Mark Thompson, wants to know why the Foreign Emergency Support Team (FEST) had not deployed as requested.

Thompson: “The reason I was given was that this was not the time for the FEST. It might be too unsafe for the FEST.”

Chaffetz: “How do you react to that?”

Thompson:  “We live by a code.  That code says you go after people when they’re in peril .. when they’re in the service of their country.”

12:07 am Libya.

6:07 pm Washington. The State Department issues an internal Ops alert, an Al-Qaeda-linked, Ansur al-Sharia, is claiming responsibility for Benghazi.

12:30 am Twitter posts are calling for attacks on the Embassy in Tripoli.  Hicks:  “And so we now have to take care of ourselves.”

1:00 am  Someone using Wickland’s cell phone redials Hicks. The caller says the Ambassador is at the Benghazi Medical Center.

Hicks: “We learn that it is a hospital which is controlled by Ansur al-Sharia.” Hicks suspects a trap.

1:15 am Libya. The American Charter plane from Tripoli arrives at the Benghazi airport, but there’s a hitch.

Hicks: ”The Tripoli Team had to stay at the Benghazi airport, because they had no transport and not escort from the Libyans.” The delay would give the terrorists time to set up another lethal assault.

2:00 am Tripoli.  Hicks gets a call from Washington (8 pm). Secretary of State Clinton along with her Senior Staff on the phone, to ask what was going on.

Hillary:  “I spoke with our Charge in Tripoli, I talked with the then Libyan National Congress President to press him on greater support. We were reaching out to everyone we could find to try to get an update about Ambassador Stevens.”

8:39 pm Washington. Five hours after the attacks began. After the 2 hour meeting, Panetta officially authorizes a military response (of sorts).

Panetta:  “First, we ordered a marine fleet anti-terrorism secure team to prepare, to deploy to Benghazi. A second fast platoon was ordered to prepare, to deploy to Tripoli. A special operations force, training in Central Europe, was ordered to prepare, to deploy to (inaudible).”

Ayotte: ”to prepare to deploy (3 times) is not deployment of actually going towards Benghazi.”

Chaffetz: ”Why did it take almost four and half hours to start the clock to prepare to deploy? We had people who were getting killed, we had an Ambassador who was missing. We didn’t know when that attack was going to end, and the American Military did not respond.”

Bret asks about the House Republicans’ own Interim Progress report that concluded in April that “Department of Defense officials and military personnel reacted quickly to the attacks in Benghazi”.

Bret Baier quotes from the House Joint Committee Report: “There were no planes, no helicopters, no armed drones, nothing could have saved the lives of the Americans killed in Benghazi.”

He asks if he’s reading it correctly. Chaffetz responds by saying the report is an interim report, that the discussion of what the military did and did not is not yet complete.

3:00 am Hicks receives a call from the Prime Minister of Libya.

Hicks: “I think it’s the saddest phone call I’ve ever had in my life (choking up). He told me that Ambassador Stevens had passed away. I immediately telephoned Washington.”

ambassador stevens

4:00 am   Benghazi.

10:00 pm  Washington. Clinton: “I spoke with President Obama later in the evening, to bring him up to date, to hear his perspective.”

It was the only call between the two that night.  John Bolton says the Secretary of State should have been on the phone with the President constantly saying we’ve got people at risk.

10:08 pm  Washington. Clinton issues a statement. Despite the months of security warnings in Benghazi and claims of responsibility by an Al-Qaeda affiliate, Clinton issues links the attack to the anti-Mohammed Video produced by Nakoula Basseley Nakoula.

(U.S. Department of State):  “Some have sought to justify this vicious behavior as a response to inflammatory material posted on the Internet. The United States deplores any intentional effort to denigrate the religious beliefs of others.”

4:45 am Benghazi.  The seven-man Tripoli response team finally leaves the Benghazi airport bound for the CIA Annex.

Panetta:  “Within 15 minutes of arriving at the Annex facility, they came under attack by mortar and rocket propelled grenades.”

Hicks:  “The accuracy was terribly precise. The first mortar round was long. The next was short.  The next three landed on the roof.  Killed Glen and Tyrone.”

Former Navy Seals, Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods become the third and fourth Americans killed in Benghazi.

Glen Doherty

Glen Doherty

Former Navy Seals, Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods become the third and fourth Americans killed in Benghazi.

Hicks, still in Tripoli, knows he must send another plane to Benghazi.  ”People in Benghazi had been fighting all night. They were tired. They were exhausted.”

He ordered a special forces team led by Lieutenant Colonel Steve H. Gibson, who he told to bring “our” people home. That’s what he (Gibson) wanted to do.

Hicks: “As Colonel Gibson and his three personnel were getting in their cars, he stopped, he called  them off and told Hicks he had not been authorized to go.”

Chaffetz (?):  “How did personnel react to being called to stand down?”

Hicks:  “I will quote Lieutenant Colonel Gibson. He said this is the first time a diplomat has more balls than somebody in the Military.”

Lieutenant Colonel Gibson later told Congress they were ordered not to stand down, but to stay IN Tripoli, due to threats against Americans there.

Gibson’s boss is Africa Commander, four-star General Carter Ham who’s at the Pentagon with Panetta and Dempsey. He declined to speak with Fox News, but met with Congressman Chaffetz about the lack of military response that night.

Chaffetz: He said they had proximity and capability but were not ordered to go.

3.  Conclusion: James Rosen continues with the events of September 12th, 2012 and more on the “smokescreen”…

benghazi

Update 7/23/2013:  Boehner refuses to investigate Benghazi http://nation.foxnews.com/2013/07/24/levin-boehner-cut-some-kind-deal-obama-benghazi
�The time is now near at hand which must probably determine, whether Americans are to be, Freemen, or Slaves.� G Washington July 2, 1776

Offline Formerly Once-Ler

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Worst headline ever.  House Republicans Busted??? WTF?  Where is that in the story?  Oh crap I should have looked at the source first.

Offline GourmetDan

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Update 7/23/2013:  Boehner refuses to investigate Benghazi http://nation.foxnews.com/2013/07/24/levin-boehner-cut-some-kind-deal-obama-benghazi

Yeah, sure.  As soon as Bambi started sending arms to Syria and starting to move against Syria/Iran, the scandals began to subside.

The whole Syrian thing is a proxy for an attack on Iran.

Bambi's troubles will go away once he starts following his handlers' orders...

"The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of the fool to the left." - Ecclesiastes 10:2

"The sole purpose of the Republican Party is to serve as an ineffective alternative to the Democrat Party." - GourmetDan