Senate Report: Attack on US Consulate in Benghazi Could Have Been Prevented

Reason

A Senate Intelligence Committee report on the September 2012 assault on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi blames the State Department and American intelligence agencies for not preventing the attack, which resulted in the deaths of four Americans.

From The Washington Post:

A long-delayed Senate intelligence committee report released on Wednesday spreads blame among the State Department and intelligence agencies for not preventing an attack at an outpost in Libya that killed four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens.

The bipartisan report lays out more than a dozen findings regarding the Sept. 11, 2012 assault on the diplomatic compound in the Libyan city of Benghazi. It says the State Department failed to increase security at the compound despite warnings, and faults intelligence agencies for not sharing information about the existence of a secret CIA outpost at the site.

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Comments

[Episiarch]

Come on, guys, why are you spending so much time focusing on this FAKE SCANDAL?

[font_of_stupidity]

I believe the talking point is PHONY scandal, not fake.

[John]

What difference does it make?

It is funny how incompetent these people are. They can't even run a secret CIA gun running operation without the weenies at the State Department fucking up the security because providing it might look bad.

[AlexInCT]

I wish I could see the humor John, because what this tells me is that things are really, really bad. We have been lucky that those that want to do us harm are either even more incompetent or still cowed for some reason.

The other day I had someone ? a lib of all things - ask me why I thought countries like China, Russia, and Iran were acting up so much more these days. He was not happy when I pointed out that the likely reason was they felt the US was no threat to them due to the current leadership's incompetence and inability to do anything right.

Things are ugly.

[John]

They are Alex. And no it is not funny. But if you don't laugh, you have to cry.

[Raven Nation]

Because with this information, the Great One can now publicly declare how angry he is about this terrible disaster. He will tell us how it is frustrating that the government (with which he has nothing to do) has screwed up again.

And, he will pledge to fix the government (of which he is not a part) failures that led to this tragedy. He will take on those powerful forces in Washington (which he is not associated with) who allowed this to happen and roll back the sequester cuts (which were not his idea).

[John]

Obama can tell how angry he is that the incompetent son of a bitch in the White House allowed this to happen.

If George Bush were not still President, this kind of stuff wouldn't happen.

[Raven Nation]

Exactly: every good thing that has happened in the past five years has happened b/c of Obama policies (even if they are the same as Bush's); every bad thing is Bush's fault (even if Obama is doing the same thing).

The second part has always struck me as odd (for other than the obvious reason): Obama is one of the greatest presidents of all time but he is still unable to undo policies which are five years old.

[John]

George Bush is a chimp and an idiot yet he manages to case a mighty long shadow.

[Brett L]

Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy

[Episiarch]

Bush exists in a duality, John: he is both an evil mastermind and a retarded chimp. He's Schrodinger's Bush!

[Raven Nation]

"Schrodinger's Bush"

Brilliant

[Pro Libertate]

In Schr?dinger's Bush, no one knows if the pussy is alive or dead. It's in a state of supersexualposition.

[Marshall Gill]

Yep, he is just like Reagan in this classic skit.

http://screen.yahoo.com/presid.....00075.html

[Doctor Whom]

Everything is Bush's fault this far into Obama's second term, but Clinton deserved the credit for an economic upturn that began before he even took office. Time is elastic; team loyalty is not.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Oh yeah? Well I seem to remember Osama bin Laden himself personally calling George Bush in 2001 and taunting him about how he, on September 11, was going to destroy the World Trade Center!

Then he lied and sent us into a war for oil to enrich Cheney's buddies at Halliburton!
//proggie talking point

[John]

Reagan sent arms to Bin Ladin in the 80s. Didn't you know that?

[AlexInCT]

Left or right arms?

[Pro Libertate]

I just had the oddest thought. What if the YouTube video the administration tried to blame for all of this was produced by U.S. intelligence for the sole purpose of providing cover for whatever ops (or oops) were occurring in Benghazi?

[Tim]

"Covert Oops" I like it.

[wareagle]

and "oops" wasn't a typo, was it? If not, *golf clap*

[Pro Libertate]

Well, it was set off in a parenthetical, so I'm curious as to what the typo might've been.

[Episiarch]

That is the perfect term for any "intelligence" operations undertaken by this administration. "Covert Oops" indeed.

[JW]

He'll have to elevate the Department of D'oh! to a cabinet level position.

[Episiarch]

But what about the Department of Duh? Or the Department of Derp?

[Ayn Random Variation]

"If?"

[Rufus J. Fisk]

i say it is a 50-50 chance

[Pro Libertate]

Remain calm. All is well!

[JW]

"People died. Obama Lied."

[Ken Shultz]

"A Senate Intelligence Committee report on the September 2012 assault on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi blames the State Department and American intelligence agencies for not preventing the attack"

I don't understand.

I thought it was an angry mob of YouTube protestors. That's what the president said before he was reelected.

And that's why they started banning ads on the subway here in the U.S. that might seem critical of Islam.

Oh, well, I guess the Republican controlled Senate is just trying to make the president look bad. Don't you know how scary Muslims get when they see YouTube videos?!

The president must have been right about something. Otherwise, he wouldn't be the president, and he said Benghazi was about the Muslims because they're scary!

Besides, everybody knows the Republicans are bigots.

[John]

And don't forget, Candy Crowley stuck her fat ass into the middle of the Presidential debate to inform Mitt Romney that there was no reason to think it was a terrorist attack.

[Raven Nation]

It really is creepy (evil?) to think that it seems likely that the administration chose not to launch a rescue attempt in Benghazi because they had to maintain the narrative (for the election) that AQ was on the run.

And we still don't really know what was going on in the annex.

[John]

And don't forget they happily revoked some poor bastard's federal probation, perp walked him in front of the court media and threw him in prison for a year.

They let four people die and threw another one in prison for a year all to further a campaign talking point. I think evil about sums it up.

[AlexInCT]

But it was for a greater good!

Obama HAD to be reelected or America would be run by a tyrannical clique that has neither respect for the law, enforcing it willy-nilly and whenever convenient against their enemies, nor would successfully roll out Obamacare!

[Ken Shultz]

It should be creepy to liberals and progressives! We really should try to strip Obama of his tolerance credentials in the eyes of a lot of swing voters.

Barack Obama exploited bigotry against Muslims to deflect criticism of his own Administration's incompetence away from himself a month before the election.

Obama has done a lot of disgraceful things from a libertarian perspective--but in exploiting bigotry against Muslims, just to get himself reelected, Obama did something woefully disgraceful from a liberal and progressive perspective.

The opponents of progressives do not do a good job of exploit these vulnerabilities. You still hear the left saying that we're just going after Obama on Benghazi because we're racists.

They haven't even heard the truth of this yet.

If a bigot is also someone who exploits bigotry, then Obama is a bigot.

[John]

I think it is a stretch to say he exploited Muslim bigotry. It is not like Muslims had not rioted over really stupid shit before. Considering that muslims rioted and killed people over a fake Koran burning story and a bunch of cartoons, I am having a hard time having much sympathy for them here.

[Ken Shultz]

Those were rare instances--and in places like Pakistan, where the local Taliban/Taliban sympathizers hardly needed more reasons to go anti-American.

Most of what we saw before was perfectly peaceful--libertarian--protest. There ain't nothin' wrong with peacefully protesting what somebody writes in a newspaper. We protest what lefty-Obama worshipers write in newspapers here at Hit & Run every day.

Besides, in this instance, what happened in Benghazi, was the exact opposite of what he was saying it was. The people of Benghazi, when they found out what happened, rallied in protest against the terrorists--chased them out of town, and handed their headquarters over to the Libyan Army.

Here's the story from...how many days after the Benghazi attack?

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09......html?_r=0

That's the people, the exact people we saved from being slaughtered by Gaddafi, who Obama is smearing with his disgusting bigotry.

What Obama did was like saying that his bigotry isn't really bigotry--because his bigotry is true.

If we see a black man walking down the street and assume that he's a lazy, criminal--just because he's black? then pointing out that there are other black people who are lazy, criminals does not mean we aren't being racist bigots...

If some white person had said what Obama said about this situation--they'd be denounced by the left as bigots...and rightly so.

[Ken Shultz]

Here are pictures of the people of Benghazi after the attack--this is of the rally that erupted at night, and turned into the people of Benghazi chasing the militia responsible for the attack out of town:

http://www.businessinsider.com.....012-9?op=1

Those signs are all pro-American.

Notice the sign that reads, "Chris Stevens was a friend to all Libyans."

Notice the signs that read, "Sorry America..."

We intervened in Libya specifically to save the people of Benghazi from being slaughtered--and they know it.

These are the people, holding a pro-American rally before chasing Stevens' murderers and their militia out of town, that Barack Obama smeared with his bigotry for attacking out embassy in Benghazi. I'd have thought more of Obama if he'd literally thrown a puppy under a bus--instead of squandering what little pro-American sentiment there was in the region just to get himself reelected.

[NotAnotherSkippy]

Um, you can't be a bigot if you're black(ish). It's the law. And even if you could, you can't be a bigot if you care about inequality. Intentions matter.

[Killaz]

In this case, even in the Egyptian protest, the video was an aside. That one had been organized weeks before to coincide with 9-11.

[Loki]

They haven't even heard the truth of this yet.

And they never will. No matter times it's repeated, no matter how overwhelming the evidence, they will never, ever hear a word of it. They're religious fanatics, nothing will ever change their beliefs.

[Ken Shultz]

"And that's why they started banning ads on the subway here in the U.S. that might seem critical of Islam."

Just for the record...

"The Washington Metropolitian Area Transit Authority (WMATA) also has rejected the AFDI ad (after initially accepting it), citing concerns about "security and safety" in light of violent protests against The Innocence of Muslims. WMATA worried that the ads might "expose passengers to terrorism and threaten their safety"?a rationale (the terrorist's veto) similar to the MTA's (the vandal's veto)."

http://reason.com/blog/2012/10.....rities-nix

Honest liberals can thank Obama's exploitation of bigotry for a new assault against the First Amendment, too.

Free exercise won't protect a baker's First Amendment rights, but right after the Benghazi attack--and Barack Obama's lies--the right to free speech looked pretty shaky going up against Obama's bigoted fear mongering about Muslims.

[Raven Nation]

I remember just after the 2008 election when Limbaugh made his "I hope he fails" statement, that some PBS commentator suggested that, in times of national crisis, we may have to think about limiting free speech.

(And, yes, I know Limbaugh is not popular on these pages but that is not the point of the comment).

[Brett L]

So we can cross Hillary off the 2016 ticket, right? Finally? Guys?

[Raven Nation]

I doubt it; not yet. I can see her throwing Obama under the bus over this in another year or so.

[John]

I don't think he will go easily. It should be entertaining.

[Pro Libertate]

It's all quite simple. Clinton has arranged the downfall of the only "moderate" Republican slated to run in 2016. Her next step will be to start publicly throwing Obama under the bus, making some very loud noises about America needing to reassert itself militarily and to apply tough love overseas.

Finally, she declares as a Republican and seeks the GOP nomination.

[John]

That is so insane, it just might work.

[Pro Libertate]

To be sure, it's not my idea.

[Bam!]

Gotta double tap to sink a Clinton.

[John]

Double tap with a wooden stake through her heart.

[AlexInCT]

I heard the only real way to kill vampires is to chop off their head...

[Hugh Akston]

Oh if only we hadn't flown penguins to Pluto and then dumped oil on them!

[Episiarch]

Dark matter, not oil, Hugh. Like your childhood memories.

[Hugh Akston]

Oh, the fools! If only they'd built it with 6,001 hulls! When will they learn?

[Bam!]

That's a good old-fashion gun: Simple point-and-click interface.

[Episiarch]

Why do we have to resort to non-violence? Can't we just kick their asses?

[Hugh Akston]

Now hold on, little lady. Those peoples' asses are living things too.

[Episiarch]

Look, Hugh, nobody enjoys shooting penguins, but it you have to shoot penguins, well, you might as well enjoy it.

[Hugh Akston]

hoowhat? Why you're not a tree-hugging kook at all!

[John]

http://atr.rollcall.com/virgin.....-congress/

Jim Moran is retiring from Congress. Moran is about the most corrupt piece of shit there is and he represents NOVA. The internal polls must be pretty bad for Dems for a creature like Moran to voluntarily give up power.

[SpitzersBlackSocks]

Wow. I'm offended you would slander corrupt pieces of shit like that. Have you no shame, sir?

harumph

[John]

I said about.

[Raven Nation]

Wasn't he one of the guys who went to Iraq in 2003 to meet with Hussein? Say what you want about the Iraq War but expressing solidarity with SH is also creepy.

[John]

Not sure. The last time he made national news was when his son was running his campaign and was caught on tape encouraging voter fraud. He also got into a shoving match on the House floor and said the Iraq war was the result of a Jewish conspiracy.

He is a real piece of work.

[SpitzersBlackSocks]

My favorite Jim Moran incident

[lap83]

How can such a blatantly crazy, evil person become a politician? Don't they have to at least pretend to be normal?

[GILMORE]

"lap83|1.15.14 @ 1:24PM|#

How can such a blatantly crazy, evil person become a politician?"

?

... what do you think "politician" actually *means*?

[Raven Nation]

My bad: it was Jim McDermott (D-Washington).

[Killaz]

When Democrats went down to Nicaragua in the late 80s to show solidarity with the Sandinistas is when they lost me for good.

[BakedPenguin]

Yeah, NoVA Hockey posted that on an earlier thread.

And yes, their internals have to be shit. I'd find it easier to laugh if I wasn't certain that any politician from NoVA is going to be a steaming pile.

[Karl Hungus]

What's funny is that on the Fox News website, this story is splashed across the entire screen, with Hillary Clinton's "what difference does it make?" quote under the headline. Meanwhile, over at CNN's site, there's a tiny link to the story buried amongst all the other stories of the day. Their main graphic today is about the theater shooting in Tampa.

[Pro Libertate]

The shooter was a Republican?

[Karl Hungus]

The shooter was a Republican?

Worse. A retired police captain.

[Episiarch]

Captains are really high up the food chain. This guy was probably used to being able to do anything he wanted and get away with it.

[Francisco d Anconia]

He was 71. We need to keep guns out of the hands of the elderly.

[Killaz]

Mums older than that, but you can trust her with a gun. Her brother on the other hand, lost all of his clothes in a canoe accident in Colorado a few years ago, and had to walk buck ass naked to the next reserve station thirty miles over. I wouldn't trust him with a pair of shoes he is so fucking out of it.

[GILMORE]

""lost all of his clothes in a canoe accident ""

Thomas Pynchon just stole this sentence for his next novel

[John]

Because some nut shooting a guy over texting a movie theater is such a story of national importance.

[Pro Libertate]

It's a story worth mentioning, yes, especially after Colorado, but is it bigger than national issues like this? No, though I suspect they are also harping on it for the larger gun debate they're having with themselves.

Go 'way. Gun 'batin'.

[Bam!]

Why is it worth mentioning? I'm sure people around the country harmed each other over even stupider things. Only that one happened to involve a gun.

[AlexInCT]

I remember stories of gun deaths because of chicken wings...

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

If this happened in, I don't know, New York state it probably wouldn't get as much coverage.

But it's Florida, the place were Trayvon's sacred blood bled upon the Earth and where the shooter can invoke (along with insanity and that the victim isn't deceased) Stand Your Ground!

[Pro Libertate]

No doubt that's a big motivator. But I would expect a national mention of a movie theater shooting, especially as it unfolds. Now, of course, it's just some crazy one-off.

[Tim]

Not as important as traffic jams in New Jersey, but, yeah.

[sarcasmic]

Because some nut shooting a guy over texting a movie theater is such a story of national importance.

Well, duh! It's an example of why we need more gun control!

(except that as a retired cop, this guy is basically exempt from all firearm laws, so more laws wouldn't have helped, but silly facts never get in the way of the narrative)

[Episiarch]

Never let a shooting go to waste, sarcasmic. Especially when it can help cover for the administration's failures.

[creech]

No, he shot him because he threw dangerous heavy jagged popcorn at him. The retired cop, just like a regular cop, has to ensure that he gets to go home every night.

[sarcasmic]

I think the guy will get away with it too. He'll just utter the magical incantation that absolves cops of all wrongdoing: "I feared for my life."

[font_of_stupidity]

He's a First Responder Hero, sarcasmic. How could he be guilty of anything other than selflessness?

[Episiarch]

There's no bias and manipulation in the 24 hours news channels, Karl. That's absurd.

[font_of_stupidity]

So we have "truthers" for 9/11 and "birthers" for Obama's birth certificate; what's the appropriate pejorative for the extreme wingnuts who believe Benghazi was preventable?

How about: "Senators"?

[Killaz]

Yeah, anything that points to the incompetence of this administration in running the nation's intelligence and diplomacy is just consiparacy mongering. Benghazi is obviously a fictional place made up by the same people who think that ruins from Atlantis exist off the Cuban coast.

[Loki]

I'm guessing at no point in the report was it noted that the easiest/ best way to have avoided the attack would have been to not get involved in Libya's civil war in the first place.

[font_of_stupidity]

That's crazy talk.

[RishJoMo]

Jing Jing Jew Jew says that is liek way cool!

http://www.AnonGlobal.tk

[Bellbiv]

Yes and the 9/11 Commission found that 9/11 was preventable....Glad they vat least pointed out that Ambassador Stevens twice turned down extra military presence from Gen. Hamm. When we have purple and assets in war zones, which Libya was, bad things happen.

[Duelles]

So now we know. . . Well we knew, of course. And so
Hilary CAN be prevented. Muster!