David French @ NRO:
For the Washington Post, David Ignatius has obtained a CIA timeline of the September 11 attack. He begins:
A detailed CIA timeline of the assault on U.S. facilities in Benghazi paints an anguishing picture of embattled Americans waiting for Libyan security forces who didn’t come and courageous CIA officers who died on a rooftop without the heavy weapons they needed, trying to protect their colleagues below.
It’s a story of individual bravery, but also of a CIA misjudgment in relying on Libyan militias and a newly formed Libyan intelligence organization to keep Americans safe in Benghazi.
That much we already knew. The courage of the few defenders has been well documented (and can’t be praised enough). Equally well documented is the abysmal decision-making that left them out-gunned, out-manned, and vulnerable in the midst of a veritable hornet’s nest of terrorism. But then Ignatius says this:
While there were multiple errors that led to the final tragedy, there’s no evidence that the White House or CIA leadership deliberately delayed or impeded rescue efforts.
Yet the timeline he then reports is wholly irrelevant to deciding that crucial question. In that timeline, we learn that a band of six men raced to rescue Ambassador Stevens, our Libyan militia “allies” (with isolated exceptions) not only were ineffective, they apparently denied the six-man team the use of their .50 caliber machine guns, and a Predator drone did arrive but was unarmed. Unable to find the ambassador, the team retreated to the security “annex” where they are attacked for more than an hour. Four hours later, the attack is renewed, and while the mortars aren’t “painted” with lasers, some of the attackers are — as “warnings not to fire.” Three mortar shells then hit the roof, killing Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods.
What is missing from this account? Any details at all about the military or White House’s situational awareness and decision-making. As I detailed on Monday, the White House and Department of Defense no doubt already have a timeline that includes the following information: (a) when the military learned of the attack; (b) the military’s state of situational awareness hour-by-hour; (c) whether it received any requests for help; (d) what assets — if any — were available to render aid in time; (e) what recommendations were made; (f) whether any definitive orders were given; and (g) who gave them.
Hell, even trying something to help those Americans in Benghazi would have been useful. It seems that President Obama lived up to his nickname Zero, by not providing ANY help.
Dithering, on important issues, seems to be the modus operandi of Obama. And people support four more years of this?
so the implication here is that the operators in Benghazi didn’t have a newer 1500nm target designator but an older 850/1060 nm wavelength model that could be seen via night vision gear that the terrorists must’ve been very obviously wearing? Or is the implication that the terrorists had a SWIR camera that was obvious to the defenders?
Otherwise the terrorists would have had *ZERO* idea they were being painted to be warned off from firing — if an IR laser target designator was what is being refered to…and non-IR painters are rare.
That being said, if they were using their laser sight, that would be more understandable and in the long run would’ve given the enemy the position to drop a mortar round on (if that enemy possessed night vision gear)
What was apparently missing at the top command level were any options to choose from that could have actually done any good.
@Greg:
Not quite, Greg.
Once the alarm is sent – in this case, from the consulate in Benghazi — dozens of HQs are notified and are in the planning loop in real time, including AFRICOM and EURCOM, both located in Germany.
Without waiting for specific orders from Washington, they begin planning and executing rescue operations, including moving personnel, ships, and aircraft forward toward the location of the crisis.
However, there is one thing they can’t do without explicit orders from the president: cross an international border on a hostile mission.http://pjmedia.com/blog/benghazis-smoking-gun-only-president-can-give-%E2%80%98cross-border-authority%E2%80%99/
@Greg:
Of course, we don’t actually know this, do we? We only have the words of the ditherer and his admin on it.
And instead of trying anything, they opted to do nothing. If I’m a US government employee overseas in or near a hotbed of Islamic extremism, I’m taking very close notes on how Obama and his team handled this, and making my own plans for saving my own ass. Because God knows that Obama isn’t going to do it for me!
I have written my Federal representatives several times about obama being an illegal. I provided links and pictures. Each time they said he is legally qualified to be president. All three are republicans. After the Benghazi incident, I wrote them the below email. I suggest to others to write your reps. Feel free to write your reps on your own, or copy-and-paste mine, then edit to whatever you want.
You LET our people in Benghazi die, just like our king-and-chief did. You could have stopped it, but chose not to. obama is an illegal, and shouldn’t even be in the USA, let alone being the president.
I, and I am sure others, have sent you information that shows proof that obama doesn’t have an American birth certificate, is using someone else’s Social Security number, and his Selective Service registration card has been proven fake, and yet you didn’t do anything about it. If ANY republican in congress would have pressed these issues, our people would still be alive.
Do you still say that obama is legally qualified to be president under our Constitution? Do you know about the part that says a person must be a “natural born” citizen to be president? At the time the Constitution was written, that meant that both parents must be American citizens when the child was born. obama’s dad wasn’t.
So, let’s look at the FACTS again:
(1) Fake birth certificate.
(2) Using someone else’s SS number.
(3) Fake Selective Service registration.
(4) Not born of “natural born” parents.
A law has been passed making anyone born in the USA an american citizen, but that doesn’t change the requirements to be president. The “natural born” part still stands.
Any NEUTRAL court of law would have declared obama a fake years ago. Why do the republicans want an illegal as president of the United States? We no longer have a two party system in congress. There is just one party with two branches.
On one news story, the reporter said that obama hadn’t driven for many years. Does he even have a driver’s license? Did he ever have one? I am guessing that Illinois is like most other states and won’t issue drivers licenses to illegals. Is this why he probably doesn’t have one? PLEASE CHECK TO SEE IF OBAMA HAS A DRIVERS LICENSE. I don’t gamble, but I would be willing to bet he doesn’t.
Are you willing to take a chance of having obama run the country for four more years? There is still time to stop him. Petition congress to investigate our illegal-and-chief and have his address changed from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to Gitmo where he belongs.
In case you were wondering, I don’t capitalize congress, white house, republican, democrat, senator, senate, house, house of representatives, or obama any more. I think the capitalization needs to be EARNED. In my opinion, ALL of them have lost the right to be capitalized, so I quit doing it.