Category: Ineptitude

Posted on

Penguin: Close Overhead Photograph of US “Consulate” in Benghazi — Looks More Like a CIA Villa

Corruption, Government, Idiocy, Ineptitude
Who, Me?

In no way does this look like a consulate. Rather, it looks like a high end CIA villa.  Bearing in mind image comes from Fox, needs validation, but it seems authentic.

Exclusive: Security officials on the ground in Libya challenge CIA account

Adam Housley

Fox News, 3 November 2012

Despite a carefully narrated version of events rolled out late this week by the CIA claiming agents jumped into action as soon as they were notified of calls for help in Benghazi, security officials on the ground say calls for help went out considerably earlier — and signs of an attack were mounting even before that.

Click on Image to Enlarge

The accounts, from foreign and American security officials in and around Benghazi at the time of the attack, indicate there was in fact a significant lag between when the threat started to show itself and help started to arrive.

Read full article with video.

Phi Beta Iota:  If validated, this photograph shows that the consulate is not, as most would assume, in a high-density urban area.  From a military point of view, this is a piece of cake for a helo evacuation and/or a curtain of fire.  This looks more and more like a mix of incompetent CIA operations and inattentive political appointees detached from reality.

See Also:

Phi Beta Iota / Benghazi

Phi Beta Iota / Khost Kathy

Posted on

Mini-Me: Benghazi Update – Russians and French Playing Hard-Ball?

Ethics, Government, Ineptitude, Military
Who? Mini-Me?

Huh?

Obama’s Silence on Benghazi Indicts Him

EXTRACT:  Another report today from Canada Free Presstell us it is likely Russians ordered Iranians to attack our consulate in Benghazi in order to stop the arming of Syrian rebels.   …  Speculation, buttressed by certain developments, indicates Stevens was being used by Obama to coordinate weapons shipments to the Syrian rebels via the Turks with the use of Libyan shipping.  Read full article.

Harsh Indictment: Benghazi Reveals Obama-Islamist Alliance

The nature of the Benghazi disaster is now clear. Ambassador Stevens was engaged in smuggling sizable quantities of Libyan arms from the destroyed Gaddafi regime to the Syrian rebels, to help overthrow the Assad regime in Syria. Smuggling arms to the so-called “Free Syrian Army” is itself a huge gamble, but Obama has been a gambler with human lives over the last four years, as shown by the tens of thousands of Arabs who have died in the so-called Arab Spring — which has brought nothing but disaster to the Arab world.  Read full article. 

The Benghazi Drip-Drip-Drip

As of now, the White House has disclosed that President Obama was informed about the attack on the diplomatic outpost in Benghazi at roughly 5pm by his National Security Adviser Tom Donilon as he was in a pre-scheduled meeting with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey. At that meeting, senior administration officials say, the President ordered that the U.S. begin moving military assets into the region to prepare for a range of contingencies.  Read full article.

Continue reading “Mini-Me: Benghazi Update – Russians and French Playing Hard-Ball?”

Posted on

Mini-Me: Benghazi All CIA, State Off the Hook?

Government, Ineptitude
Who? Mini-Me?

Huh?

CIA’s response to Benghazi attack under scrutiny

Agence France Press, 4 November 2012

The US Benghazi mission was essentially a CIA operation instead of a diplomatic post, and most staff worked for the spy agency.

Read rest of AFP Story.

Phi Beta Iota:  This makes a lot of sense and goes a long toward toward explaining, if true, why State was unconcerned and why Pentagon was caught by surprise.  The Wild Card is the Ambassador and whether a major arms transfer was going down.  Attacking a known CIA base is a completely different proposition from attacking a legitimate working US consulate probably not needed at all in Benghazi.

Posted on

Dolphin: 30 Days Warning No Protest CIA Acts Pentagon Freezes

Government, Ineptitude, Military
YARC YARC

A few days old, but a good effort by a citizen.

Benghazi: A Reader Assesses the Evidence [Updated]

John Hinderaker in Benghazigate

PowerLine, Posted on October 27, 2012

A reader, relying on publicly available information, has reconstructed what we know and can infer about what happened in Benghazi. I haven’t tried to verify all of his facts nor do I necessarily vouch for his inferences, although in general they seem reasonable. But his analysis is, I think, a valuable contribution to our understanding, and I reproduce it here in slightly edited form:

This last week may have finally broken the protective wall around the POTUS. Between the comments of Hillary Clinton, Gen. Petraeus, Defense Secretary Panetta and the FOX News report, the picture of what really transpired in Benghazi is starting to emerge. The trail is leading straight to the POTUS….

I have no military service, security clearance, or contacts in the middle east. I don’t speak Arabic and have no special skills that would allow me to have a special insight into how the travesty in Benghazi happened, and who is responsible for letting our people die.

All I have are my instincts and google. They allowed me to ascertain within a couple of days that there was no protest outside the consulate before it was attacked. For the administration to attempt to sell such a story infuriated me, especially when Ambassador Rice appeared on five Sunday talks shows on September 16th to spin an obvious lie.

Read full article.

See Also:

Phi Beta Iota / Benghazi

Posted on

Penguin: (Un)Classified Cable – Three Updates All Sad

Government, Ineptitude, Military
Who, Me?

This will only get worse…..

Classified Cable From Benghazi Warned That Consulate Couldn’t Withstand a ‘Coordinated Attack’ (3 UPDATES!!)

Chron, Thursday, November 1, 2012

Let me get this straight. A month before the attack in Libya, an Aug. 16th secret cable was sent to Sec Hillary Clinton and others in the State Department from the senior security officer that said the Benghazi consulate could not be protected, and the mainstream media is completely ignoring it? Imagine for a moment if Bush was President. It would be on a 24/7 news loop on all networks, including the news that Pres. Obama misled Americans on purpose on why the attack happened at Benghazi by blaming it on a video over and over. This cable also tells us that the administration lied about not having any warning of this attack. Our Ambassador and four other Americans are DEAD, and our media (other than Fox News) doesn’t see this as newsworthy. The mainstream media doesn’t want anything to hurt Obama re-election campaign, and that is why true journalism is dead.

Yes, Fox New’s opinion shows are conservative, but no matter what part of the political spectrum you fall into, if you want ALL the news, you should be watching Fox News.

The U.S. Mission in Benghazi convened an “emergency meeting” less than a month before the assault that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans, because Al Qaeda had training camps in Benghazi and the consulate could not defend against a “coordinated attack,” according to a classified cable reviewed by Fox News.

Continue reading “Penguin: (Un)Classified Cable – Three Updates All Sad”

Posted on

DefDog: Benghazi Update — In Three Parts

Government, Ineptitude, Military
DefDog

Mysteries of Benghazi

Scott Johnson in Benghazigate

PowerLine, Posted on November 3, 2012

Even for one who follows the news obsessively, it has been extremely difficult to keep up with the developments in the Benghazigate story this week. In the lead editorial of the new issue of the Weekly Standard that is out this morning, our friend Steve Hayes usefully summarizes the Benghazi story with an emphasis on the open questions:

The Benghazi debacle is a drama in three parts: the lack of security before the attacks, the flaccid response during the attacks, and the misleading narrative after the attacks. There are unanswered questions about each part. Here are some of the most important.

Continue reading “DefDog: Benghazi Update — In Three Parts”

Posted on

DefDog: Benghazi Round-Up Plus Meta-RECAP

Government, Ineptitude, Military
DefDog

By Paul Wolfowitz no less.  Worth a full read, with two comments from readers also included.

Distrust but verify

It is hard to understand why Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, in discussing the US response to the attacks on two US facilities in Benghazi, Libya, offered this novel principle as a guide for US action – or inaction – during that crisis: “A basic principle is you don’t deploy forces into harm’s way without knowing what’s going on.”

Of course, no such “basic principle” governs the conduct of US military personnel in Afghanistan and elsewhere, who regularly go “into harm’s way” without “knowing what’s going on,” particularly when they know that American lives are in danger.

Panetta’s comment made it inevitable that people would question – as I did myself – President Obama’s claim that “The minute I found out what was happening . . . I gave the directive to make sure we are securing our personnel and doing whatever we need to do. I guarantee you everybody in the CIA and military knew the number-one priority was making sure our people are safe.” If that was true, did Panetta’s comment mean that the military was disregarding a clear instruction from the president?

Continue reading “DefDog: Benghazi Round-Up Plus Meta-RECAP”