Benghazi - CIA Failure or failed scheme?

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The Media urges the GOP to attack Rice  

We us the story of the Tar Baby to illustrate the awkward aspects of this cover story.
Uncle Remus tells the story of the Tar Baby, where Br'er Fox sets up a Tar Baby to trap Br'er Rabbit.
Mr Axelrod plays Br'er Fox, and the GOP plays the very gullible Br'er Rabbit, egged on by Br'er Bear and Br'er Fox-- the Media.  And poor Br'er Rabbit meets his demise, stuck on the Tar Baby -- making a fine meal for Br'er Bear and Br'er Fox.

Axelrod, grandson of Chicago Communist  leaders who advised Stalin

Here's an Uncle Remus tale:
Mr Axelrod was desperate to distract the Republicans and the Media from the Benghazi inquiries -- which would likely lead to Mr Obama's Impeachment for High Crimes and Misdemeanors.  Evidence mounted that Ambassador Stevens was to be kidnapped by President Morsi's al Qaeda assault force [as a favor to Obama in return for Obama's putting Morsi in office].

[Awkward moment in the on-site video in Benghazi capturing the assault force seen/heard on video shouting to the primary assailants (in Arabic)
"Don't shoot: Morsi sent us"]. 

Oops.

The Blind Sheik

The story goes that Ambassador Stevens was to be kidnapped by an al Qaeda hit team; Mr Obama would then look Presidential as he negotiated the release of Ambassador Stevens in return for the release of the Blind Sheik -- held in custody for his role in the 9/11/01 attack on the Twin Towers in New York.  [Adding credence to that story were the subsequent efforts by Mr Obama to have the Blind Sheik released.]





So, it appears Mr Axelrod may have set the Tar Baby trap -- and the GOP leapt into it.

Thus, the Obama Administration and the Media have once again succeeded in distracting the American public from Benghazi by creating -- and feeding the nonstop debate and focus on Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice.  They've floated a trial balloon, intimating she will replace Hillary Clinton in the New Year -- inciting Media speculation and forcing Senators and Congresspersons to weigh in. 

Will Rice actually be nominated?

And, why, by gosh and golly; Mr Obama was so outraged -- OUTRAGED! that Republicans would question his vague intimation that Ms Rice might/could/would/should MAY BE [never stated] a candidate to replace Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State. 

No sooner baited than the GOP grabbed this Tar Baby, and they are stuck fast to the story -- leaving Benghazi questions in the dust. 

The Republicans are soooo easily manipulated; our Communist advisor to Mr Obama must be rolling on the floor laughing at how easy even this maneuver was/is/will continue to be.  Why, he even suckered a normally objective Kathleen Parker to weigh in with a Race Card -- implying [again] that the GOP was a bunch of dyed-in-the-wool RACISTs!

Even Kathleen was suckered!

[Good Grief! How many times has the Race Card been played during the Obama Administration.

And, Great Balls of Fulminating Fire,
Kathleen Parker, how could you, of the very few objective journalists we have left, get played like that!]





But, we digress [and apologize for our outburst]

The Rice-cooking debate has focused on

a) Is she is qualified?
     -- Well, a hell of a lot more-so than Hillary was/is; being a First Lady and White Water scam artist
         doesn't quite cut it]

b) Was Rice lying through her teeth when she addressed the UN and spoke on five different
    TV shows declaring that the CIA had briefed her that Benghazi was a "spontaneous mob protest"?
     -- Well, of course she was! 

     (1)  That lie was discounted even before Mr Obama's Rose Garden brief

     (2)  She repeated the lie for almost two weeks -- long after the actual facts and videos
            were publicized

     (3)  General Petraeus, as Director of CIA, advised that the "Rice's CIA Brief'" did not originate from his CIA.  So, if it did not come from the CIA, who gave Rice the bogus "CIA Brief" .

     (4)  Is her reputation as a hateful, spiteful, evil witch prone to cursing and making obscene gestures grounds to discount her as a diplomatic representative of the US?

           -- It certainly didn't keep Mr Obama from appointing Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State
           -- It certainly hasn't damaged the reputation of Mr Obama's First Lady with the Liberals.


Bottom Line:     

a)  Rice was just the Messenger, carrying Mr Obama's message --
     right or wrong, as an Ambassador should. 
b) Thousands of ambassadors before Rice have lied through their
     teeth to deliver their Dear Leader's message. 
c)  Would she make a better Secretary of State than, say
     John Bolton would have? 
     -- We recall that the Democrat's pilloried Mr Bolton on the basis
     that he spoke harshly to an incompetent, blundering State
     Department clerk who had failed to deliver critical documents.   

[Mr Bolton had a long and distinguished career with the State Department and USAID].

d)   We doubt Rice will be nominated for SecState; but, she has served her purpose in making
      the GOP look like bellowing, bigoted buffoons -- and once again, the Democrats were able
      to wave the Race Card!

e)   Senator Kerry will now encounter no resistance when he is nominated as Secretary of State.
      [If he is nominated for SecDef, he will not survive the public outcry from the US Military.]



Now.  Lest we too be distracted from Benghazi -- a few facts to remember:

Flash Override = Officer in Distress!

When the Consulate came under attack, FLASH-OVER-RIDE precedence communications went out and were picked up by all military commanders in the region, much the same as a police call calling out "officer needs assistance!" That message would have flashed on every military and diplomatic monitor in the US official communications system -- to include Marine One -- the President's local air taxi. 

Obama defenders point to the string of emails as a timeline of events, noting that he was visiting Walter Reed Hospital in Bethesda during the attack and was unaware of the event.  But, since his helicopter is connected to the White House Comms system, and his Military Aide carries his communication devices [as well as the "football"], Mr Obama would have been engaged in the event from the first Flash Over-Ride communication. 

Updates:

GEN Ham and ADM Gaouette

1) General Ham, Commander of the African Command, immediately ordered his Deputy for Operations into action, notified the Pentagon, and was relieved almost instantly of his command.  He disappeared from sight for more than two months -- and is back in command with no further information on his replacement [who would have been "demoted" to move from FORSCOM [a senior 4-Star billet] to AfriCom [a junior 4-Star billet filled with a frocked 2-Star].  Ham is now giving highly visible press interviews -- with no mention of Benghazi.  Was he threatened, or promised a plum assignment to keep mum.

2) Admiral Gaouette, Commander of Carrier Strike Group Three [CSG3] ordered his fighter and helicopter assets to respond -- notifying the Pentagon, and was immediately relieved of his command. 
[Axelrod Spin: "Admiral Gaouette was relieved because he was a 'coup plotter'!"
Perhaps he planned to drive his carrier force down Pennsylvania Avenue?]
Subsequent official explanation:  "He was relieved for inappropriate behavior" [not further identified]. We still do not know his whereabouts, and the Navy isn't talking.

We trust that both General Ham and Admiral Gaouette will be summoned to testify before the Foreign Relations Committee and the Intelligence Committee.

SEALs KIA

3) Ex-SEALs, hired by Ambassador Stevens as contractors to investigate the unauthorized exfiltration of the captured Qadafi weapons, were quartered at the nearby CIA Safe House; hearing the sounds of the attack, they prepared to respond, and were repeatedly ordered to "Stand Down" by the CIA Base Chief.  Ex-SEALs Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty ignored the orders and headed for the compound to render assistance, and were killed after saving the Consulate staff and engaging the enemy. 


The White House denies that these men were ordered to stand down; although unofficial comments by those on the ground advise that those orders were given.

4)  The "enemy" assault force was revealed to be al-Qaeda/Muslim Brotherhood, dispatched by Egyptian President Morsi -- installed with the assistance of President Obama and the King of Saudi Arabia following the Arab Spring uprising.  The Muslim Brotherhood successfully hijacked the Egyptian popular election, and took control of Egypt.

5)  The Libyan military protection force, guarding the Consulate was under the ultimate command of a Muslim Brotherhood officer, who ordered the force to "Stand Down" just prior to the assault.  A video of the assault appeared on the internet in which the assault force announced very audibly "Don't shoot us; Morsi sent us."  The video was inexplicably removed from the internet.

6)  Secretary of Defense defended his "Stand-Down" orders to regional military forces available to respond lest they come in "harms way" since there was insufficient intelligence on the assault force.  Mr Panetta is apparently unaware of the mission of the US Military which calls for it to put itself "in harms way" in conducting the defense of the US and its citizens.  That's why they are issued weapons, and that is what they are trained for.  Currently, all references to Panetta's "in harm's way" statement have disappeared.

7)  Secretary of Defense Panetta advised that it would have taken 16 or more hours to have flown in relief forces from Fort Bragg, NC.  A true statement. 

6th Fleet positioned off Libya

8)  But, why send in military response forces from the US Mainland when Europe is populated with US military forces, and there were/are several hundred US Navy ships in attack mode with the Fifth and Sixth Fleets, chock full of
1) aircraft carriers,
2) missile cruisers, and
3) Special Operations Forward Staging Bases such as the USS Ponce.







 a)  The response time for this massive array of US military ranged from 15 minutes to one hour; the assault continued for about nine hours.

  

24th MEU was on station

  b)  US Marines available for immediate response from the two Fleets numbered in the thousands, including the 24th MEU [Marine Expeditionary Unit] with more than 2,000 Marines --
all ready and prepared to enter combat.

   c)  The Quick Response Force [the 173d Airborne Brigade Combat Team], based in Italy, is specifically equipped and was available to launch.

   d)  Also available was EUCOM's Combat Task Force [TF] 67
        -- a quick response Naval combat force which includes
        (1)  Carrier Strike Force [TF 60]
        (2)  TF 61 [the Mediterranean Amphibious Ready Group] with three amphibious ships,
              helicopters and embarked landing craft
        (3)  TF 62 Landing Force [Marine Expeditionary Unit] composed of 1,900 Marines, armor,
              artillery, and transport helicopters; its mission is to conduct operations ashore and/or
              evacuate civilians from troubled area [e.g., attacks on embassies], known as NEOs.
        (4)  TF 64 an invisible Special Operations multi-national unit;
               supposedly assigned to Afghanistan

   e)  Admiral Gauouette's Carrier Strike Force was complemented by Carrier Strike Forces 8 and 12; the three Strike Forces represented a massive amount of naval air power, plus attack and rescue helicopters, plus amphibious assault forces, plus two AC-130s assigned to Libya for Force Protection.

  f)  Reliable sources report that high resolution video coverage of the entire assault was broadcast from an aerial reconnaissance drone positioned over the Consulate; and the assault was reportedly viewed by the President and Secretary Panetta [and Valerie Jarrett] in the White House Sit Room.

 

AC-130 Gunship ordered to stand down

g) Now-confirmed reporting puts one AC-130 Spectre Gunship over the Consulate, leading Tyrone Woods to "paint" the targets in the al Qaeda assault force so the Spectre could fire accurately.  When the Spectre did not engage the targets, the assailants back-tracked the painting to Woods, lobbying a mortar round into his position on the Safe House roof, and killing him.  The Spectre was apparently ordered to "do not engage targets" from Mr Panetta -- at the direction of Mr Obama.

The following morning, Mr Obama conducted his Rose Garden brief to inform the Media and the US public that "a spontaneous mob" had protested an offensive video and attacked the US Consulate in Benghazi, killing the Ambassador.  The Administration repeated this story for two weeks, to include having Ambassador Rice brief that story to the United Nations and make the rounds of the News programs to continue the bogus story.

Why did the assault occur?

Two answers - which coincide:

1) The assault was a scheme reportedly cooked up by Administration strategists to make Mr Obama look Presidential shortly before the election.  The offending video was translated into Arabic and then heavily marketed in the Middle East -- but barely noticed.  President Morsi, emplaced by the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, with the full support of Mr Obama, supplied the assault force to kidnap Ambassador Stevens; the goal was to trade Ambassador Stevens for the return of the Blind Sheik -- apparently in response to requests from the Saudi king -- whom Mr Obama greatly admires.  Even after the Benghazi assault went sour because two ex-SEALs refused to stand down and took on the assault force, Mr Obama attempted to facilitate the release of the Blind Sheik.

Will al Qaeda use these to shoot down airliners

2) The alternate, but supplementary explanation addresses the weapons from Qadafi's warehouses, including 20.000 shoulder fired Surface to Air Missiles, that were/are being shipped to the Muslim Brotherhood, ostensibly to Syrian rebels, but more likely to arm the Muslim Brotherhood against Middle East nations -- and possibly eventually against US forces.

Ambassador Stevens' contractors [the former SEALs] tracked the shipments; Stevens flew to Italy to report his findings to the State Department and to the President.  That report could also explain why the Administration would select him for kidnapping since his investigations and reports on the missing arms would cease while he was being held captive.

Ambassador Stevens was the 
"Man Who Knew Too Much".