Benghazi is Still Smoldering

Do you ever have that feeling like you are screaming at a wall? Let's take a closer look at what is happening here. After the events of September 11th, the anniversary of a historic terrorist attack, a confusing narrative was started between the white house and the state department. The White House and the intelligence department, and the White House and the American People.

When did the U.S. know this was a terrorist attack?

On September 14th, White House press secretary Jay Carney, while tearing into Romney's apparent lack of fact based statements replied to a question as to if any warning had been given that the embassies may be attacked, Carney replied " I have seen that report, and the story is absolutely wrong. We were not aware of any actionable intelligence indicating that an attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi was planned or imminent. That report is false."

He noted, however, that the administration did not hesitate to establish a narrative based on what he referred to as their “hunch” that an anti-Islam YouTube video was responsible.

On September 19th, a week later the director of the National Counter terrorism Center, Mathew Olson, told Congress the attack was the work of terrorists. Jay Carney soon had to reverse course a well, saying it was “self-evident“ that ”what happened in Benghazi was a terrorist attack,” despite denying that very claim a week before. Funny how such big tough sounding words come back to bite you, eh?

However, less then one day later, Obama was being interviewed at a UniVision forum, he said “Well, we’re still doing an investigation, and there are going to be different circumstances in different countries,” Obama said. “And so I don’t want to speak to something until we have all the information. What we do know is that the natural protests that arose because of the outrage over the video were used as an excuse by extremists to see if they can also directly harm U.S. interests.”

Sure, continue with an ongoing investigation, but natural protests? That's like calling a mugging a friendly game of checkers. Looks like someone missed his morning meeting again. How is it that the Director of Counter Terrorism, who may know a thing or two about identifying acts of terror, is calling the kettle black, but this president still gets the words stuck in his throat?

Did our Embassy call for help beforehand?

On September 18th, Secretary Carney was asked, "On September 10th, you put out a press release saying that the President had a meeting with senior officials to figure out the security posture around the 9/11 anniversary... So in retrospect, given the tragedy, did the administration drop the ball on what you promised on September 10th that you had improved security at these installations?

Secretary Carney responded  "They were numerous steps taken, as there have been every year on the anniversary of 9/11, and as there have been at different times on the calendar when it is judged by the experts that taking additional steps, security steps, is the right thing to do. As for specific measures taken at specific facilities, diplomatic facilities, I would refer you to the State Department."

October 3rd, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, the chair of the subcommittee on national security, homeland defense, and foreign operations, wrote to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, asserting that “multiple U.S. federal government officials have confirmed to the Committee that, prior to the September 11 (2012) attack, the U.S. mission in Libya made repeated requests for increased security in Benghazi. The mission in Libya, however, was denied these requests by officials in Washington.” A probe is being conducted and Secretary of State Clinton has committed to assisting with the probe.

I guess delegation has it's place, so either the State Department didn't really care that the President said to beef up security or the President has an odd interpretation of what beefed up security means. Either way, there is a mountain of evidence piling up that the State Department and the White house knew that there was a threat, and it was ignored.

How is the Investigation Going?

One of many CNN photos taken just days after

Not Good, not good at all. It took weeks to even acknowledge that this was not just some Occupy Wall Street protest gone bad, then, when the FBI was finally sent to investigate over a week after the accident, they have not made much headway, namely because it is deemed unsafe to conduct an investigation. It's funny because declaring Benghazi unsafe didn't stop a CNN news team from taking some pretty horrifying pictures from inside the compound, or finding Ambassador Steven's journal that is already revealing some harsh truths;

A source familiar with Stevens' thinking told CNN earlier on that, in the months leading up to his death, the late ambassador worried about what he called the security threats in Benghazi and a rise in Islamic extremism.

How in the heck can CNN get photographs and items from a building within 48 hours and still not get anyone in there to conduct a proper investigation? How will the President deal his promised justice?

What does all this mean?

Well, for starters, it makes it a little too easy for the narrative of a cover up to be pressed. Even The Daily Show is laughing at this administration for it's inability for the right hand to know what the left is doing. Joe Biden once said that this President was going to be tested, and when that happened we would find out that he had steel in his spine. The only problem is, it appears he is firm and hard against any criticism from his own countrymen then against those who would do one of it's citizens harm. It appears that it's little more then hoping that this story would just go away and not be a campaign issue. That a proper response of beefing up security at other embassies and sending in a real investigative team would be viewed poorly by our new middle eastern friends. All I know is, I am very disappointed.