On Benghazi “They Stood and Watched and Our People Died” says Retired CIA Officer
On the eve of the final Presidential debate, CBS reported the US had drones overhead watching the attack at Benghazi. “Watched” is the key word here, “watched” for seven hours. This attack was not over in minutes. So what if anything, did the “powers that be” do during these seven hours? The answer seems to be “what they didn’t do”. According to Retired CIA officer Gary Berntsen, who commanded CIA counter-terrorism missions targeting Osama bin Laden:
“You find a way to make this happen,” Berntsen says. “There isn’t a plan for every single engagement. Sometimes you have to be able to make adjustments. They made zero adjustments in this. They stood and they watched and our people died.”
The “new & improved” spin coming out of the Obama Administration, (yes they are changing the “story again”), goes something like this: “we are gonna stand by this narrative– this attack is somewhere between a spontaneous event where well armed and well trained “individuals” (don’t call them terrorists!) capitalized on heightened protests in the region whereas these individuals took to the streets with military grade weapons and stormed our Consulate, whereas four Americans were killed.” Basically, that is what is now being said. Obama Campaign spinmaster Stephanie Cutter, on NBC yesterday said
“its important we don’t politicize this, every step of the way as intelligence is learned, as the intelligence “improves” about what happened that night, the President makes it available to Congress and to the American people, its been a very transparent process…” (emphasis mine)
The CBS report also says that at the beginning of the attack:
“…an unmanned Predator drone was sent over the U.S. mission in Benghazi, and that the drone and other reconnaissance aircraft apparently observed the final hours of the protracted battle.
The State Department, White House and Pentagon declined to say what military options were available. A White House official told CBS News that, at the start of the attack, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Martin Dempsey and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta “looked at available options, and the ones we exercised had our military forces arrive in less than 24 hours, well ahead of timelines laid out in established policies.”
Ok, so here we have Joint Chiefs Martin Dempsey and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, being well aware and involved in decision making on Benghazi from the very beginning, actually “looking for available options”. This kind of raises many questions, one being, why did Dempsey and Panetta decide to “do nothing” and “just watch”?
This is just getting more and more ridiculous. Expect tonight more of this same “transparency” from the President. I suspect the President will go on the offensive on Benghazi. Seems his surrogates out in full force in the last 24 hours re- spinning the story, making it appear as if its Republicans who “jumped the shark”, who wouldn’t allow the White House to get their “intelligence” straight, trying to make us believe it takes weeks and weeks to ascertain what happened during an attack they were watching in real time. Yes, expect Obama to say “we are doing an extensive investigation, which we must let take its course”. I’m sure those investigations will “roll in” on or about November 7th, 2012. We are in obvious re-spin mode, stall stall stall, and act angry and incensed about anyone who questions Benghazi. Expect some more of that mock anger and indignation from Obama tonight.