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The fires of Benghazi have spread to the Oval Office [Reuters]
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Click here for related report [Wall Street Journal]
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| Mr Axelrod, I don't run away from Stalinist blackmailers! |
Mr Axelrod's apparent smear campaign against General Petraeus is apparently subject to the Law of Unintended Consequences.
We suspect he presumed that blackmailing Petraeus over his extramarital affair could force Petraeus' silence; wrong guy to blackmail since Petraeus immediately made the affair public, and made a Media splash by resigning -- drawing global attention to an event that had almost been successfully buried by the Press.
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We can't coerce him now,
can the Media smear him? |
Now, since Axelrods' apparent threat of exposure backfired, and Petraeus has forced the issue of his testimony under oath, it appears he is pulling in all his Media chits to create a smear campaign to undermine Petraeus' credibility; newspapers are making it front page headline material, and talking heads shake their heads over the horrible morality of this former hero -- now defamed! The Huffington Post and the Daily Beast are all over it.
Oh, the horror of it all.
The key to this scenario is that since Mr Obama accepted General Petraeus' resignation, he cannot force Petraeus' silence by imposing Executive Privilege [As he did with the Fast&Furious scandal]
It appears that the Chicago political machine may be disturbing the comfort level of Congress, particularly as some are quite familiar with the Stalinist techniques -- perhaps taught to Axelrod by his grandparents who reportedly worked for Joe Stalin.
Are they worried that the propaganda machine is out of control -- and scaring Congress, which fears it might start targeting select politicians of both Parties if they don't toe the Administration's line. Do they fear a smear if they try to run their own agendas? Will they face the
ballot box stuffing techniques that just beat the GOP -- and are now coming to light in local expose's?
Astute Democrats recall the
smear campaigns against Mr Obama's opponents in Chicago in both his State Legislature and
US Senate Campaign in which Mass Media accusations of sexual misconduct that were too egregious for his opponents to easily defend themselves against -- forcing them to drop out, and/or lose the election.
Older pols remember LBJ's absolute power that he wielded using J Edgar Hoover's blackmail machine.
Corrupt as they all are, they're not willing to put that kind of power into the hands of Socialists over whom they have no control.
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| Mr Holder, don't ever by-pass me! |
Senator Dianne Feinstein [D-CA], Chair of the SSCI [Senate Select Committee on Intelligence] had summoned General Petraeus to testify before the SSCI
this week regarding the Benghazi assault in which Ambassador Stevens and three other Americans were killed.
She was outraged that she didn't learn from the Attorney General months ago that the FBI was conducting an on-going investigation into the conduct of the top US intelligence manager. She was especially angered that the news was withheld from her until AFTER the election, and worse, that she learned of it through the Media. She advises that she may still call Petraeus to testify
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Clapper: FBI, You report to ME![CSMonitor]
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Reportedly, the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, was told of the investigation on election night and urged Petraeus to resign. Clapper, who oversees the operations of all US agencies in the Intelligence Community -- to include the FBI, was apoplectic that he had not been informed. This was clearly a slap in the face for him by the FBI Director Robert Mueller, although it appears Mueller was directed by Attorney General Holder to keep Clapper out of the loop. That should make for an interesting dust-up -- even though Clapper knows he will lose that battle in the Oval Office.
Then again, if he is called to testify under oath,
he won't perjure himself for Obama.
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Is it time for Impeachment?[Politico]
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Representative Peter King [NY-R] is denying Feinstein any wiggle room in this conflagration through his announcement that
he intends to see General Petraeus testify.
He questions the FBI investigation timeline, and now demands to know WHEN/IF the President was informed; and if the President WAS informed, why the President did not inform Congress.
Oops.
Is there a whole new Congressional hearing opening up?
Is the groundwork being laid for Impeachment?
But, let's look at some more conspiracy issues.
We wrote a while back about how
resistant the CIA was to Petraeus as Director, particularly since they could not
manipulate him as they did Panetta. Petraeus was in the midst of restructuring the Agency to meet national intelligence requirements as opposed to running their own operations off the radar, informing him via an "...
Oh by the way, we're doing X, Y, and Z." It's an old manipulation scheme that was quite successful -- until Petraeus showed up.
Keep in mind that the CIA is not the top level intelligence organization it used to be as it is now full of former law enforcement folks from DEA, ATF, the highway patrol, and even local precinct police houses. Under Clinton, the quality of operational folks deteriorated and we had phonies like Valerie Plame pretending to be
Covert Operatives. Under Bush, the Agency successfully displaced Director Porter Goss -- an intelligence pro -- to protect their turf.
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Former CIA Director [Global Post]
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Under Panetta, the CIA hierarchy had a blast since Panetta was an incompetent klutz whose only familiarity with Intelligence was when the CIA graced him with a watered-down Congressional briefing. At CIA, they stroked him and made him feel important -- while they did as they pleased. Petraeus wouldn't play that game, so, they set him up.
So, now, it appears it will be Petraeus versus Obama; even if Obama wins, he loses since so many new controversial issues will be opened that he will likely be crippled for what remains of his term -- before he faces Impeachment. He may decide to resign.
For a quick recap on Benghazi:
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| 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!"
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| 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 immediately relieved of his command.
2) Admiral Gaouette, Commander of Carrier Strike Group Three [C
SG3] 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?]
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.
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.
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.
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.
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| 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 aircraft carriers, missile cruisers, and 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.
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| 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 Combat Task Force 67 -- a quick response Naval combat force.
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.
e) 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.
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| AC-130 Gunship |
f) Unconfirmed reporting puts either a drone or a
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 drone or Spectre was apparently commanded to "
do not engage targets" from Mr Panetta -- likely 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 briefing that story to the United Nations.
Why did the assault occur?
Short answer:
Weapons from Qadafi's warehouses, including 20.000 shoulder fired Surface to Air Missiles, were being shipped to the Muslim Brotherhood, ostensibly to Syrian rebels, but more likely to arm the Muslim Brotherhood against Middle East nations -- and possibly 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 -- and in doing so, signed his own death warrant from the Oval Office.
Ambassador Stevens was the "Man Who Knew Too Much".
