The Benghazi coverup, is a story that has crossed President Obama, his foreign policy and our nation. On the anniversary of 9/11, in Libya, an extensively armed group attacked the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi. The attack occurred during the night at the U.S. Consulate’s compound and ended at the U.S. Intelligence compound. During the attack, the assailers killed four Americans: U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, U.S. Foreign Service Information Management Officer Sean Smith and U.S. embassy security Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods.
Many wonder what could have provoked such an attack. The immediate U.S. intelligence observation was that it “began spontaneously following protest earlier that day at our Embassy in Cairo…” which consequently began as a reaction to an anti-Muslim film Innocence of Muslims. Many would not get the real answer for another seventeen days.
On September 28, 2012 this very same observation was revised with a new perspective – “that it was a deliberate and organized terrorist attack carried out by extremist.” It’s not hard to feel the tension between these two statements. How could this have happened? How did we not know?
In the aftermath, things became much clearer. What became apparently fairly quickly was the lack of cooperation from the Obama Administration. A long list of facts outshines whatever excuse is made in the wake of this terrible tragedy. The Ambassador was denied the extra security needed to possible ward off the assailants. The CIA was denied help that was asked for during the massacre.
Due to the pressure of the 2012 U.S. Presidential Election, the president has simply used incompetence as the excuse for why this tragedy was not stopped. President Obama has been quoted saying, “I was not personally aware of any request…” Vice President Biden was also quoted, saying something similar in effect: “We did not know.” Even the Secretary of Defense, Leon Panetta, was a part of the cover-up stating, “It was really over before we had the opportunity to realize what was happening.” Adding to the fact that their administration had no idea about any request, Panetta stated – “Basic principle is don’t deploy forces into harm’s way without knowing what’s going on, without having some real-time information about what’s taking place.”
Frankly this is all just police lip service. It should have been all too clear when the citizen of Benghazi demonstrated condemning the act of violence. Many help signs with the writing, “Chris Stevens was a friend to all Libyans.” These same people also made apologies on behalf of the town’s people and Muslims in general. They wanted the U.S. to know that they did not agree with this terrorist attack. Ten days after the initial attack, an entire week before U.S. intelligence made any useful observations, 30,000 Libyans joined forces to demonstrate against militias suspected to be have aided in the attack.
It should have been very clear from the beginning that this was a very serious, very organized terrorist attack against Americans and their allies. In a report by Judge Jeanine that air on Fox News on 10/27/2012, Jeanine claims the president gave Libya 130 million dollars, yet when the U.S. Ambassador request a marine detachment (in an area where everyone was already receiving danger pay) no help was sent. After the attack the President was not able to secure the perimeter of the consulate, nor could he leverage the 130 million given to the Libyan government to ensure U.S. investigators immediate access to the area. Instead investigators would have to wait a month.
It would later be made public that not only the white house, but the pentagon and the state department all had live feeds of the attack taking place. Those who sat in these three building watched Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty plead for back up. They knew what the context was and they had the ability to send in reinforcements to save the lives of four Americans’. Instead Glen and Tyrone were told to stand down, remove their lasers from the mortars, and ultimately gave their lives.
This should be considered one of the most monumental disasters in U.S. military history. Obama had the option to send in reinforcements and save the lives of American citizens and yet instead stood back and watched them murdered. Unfortunately the real story is only now being heard by most Americans, a fact that can be attributed to the Obama campaign strategy.
As Obama fights for a second term it is crucial that he does not seem week on any issue. With the general lack of approval regarding his foreign policy during his first term, Obama needed to do whatever it took to ensure that he was not blamed during his presidential campaign. Obama has seemed week to many republicans who think he should have been more helpful to the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, as well as pushed for hard sanctions on an Iranian government sprinting towards a nuclear weapon. News that the President knew, yet watch and did nothing during the Libyan Massacre would only add fuel to a Romney victory in November.
As a result what has happened is a conspiracy to re-direct the blame. Obama came out in the debates and blatantly said he was unaware of any request and was the most concerned person regarding starting a thorough investigation of what happened. Another key piece that fell in place was Hilary Clinton, in effect, taking the entire blame of the massacre. Later on the Vice Presidential debate Biden simply denied emphatically, as well as assure the American people that the white house was completely unaware that any extra security or military detachment was necessary.
After Clinton took the blame, in a final debate against Mr. Romney, Obama stepped up and told Americans and the world that as the President, it happened under his watch and that he took the full responsibility. It was a nice gesture after using ignorance as an excuse, letting his Secretary of State take the blame, and vowing to not rest until the truth was discovered that he finally took the blame, but yet he still managed to not take responsibility for the fact that his administration knew of the attack as it was happening and had the ability to send in reinforcements; instead four Americans died. His apology was more of a vow to correct the wrong doings of the terrorist and bring them to justice, rather than an apology for allowing such atrocities to happen.
With an election so close and this disaster fresh in our minds, it’s only clear why Obama would go through such lengths to ensure a real chance at a second term. Should Romney win the election, everything that Obama worked for would be all for not. Romney has vowed to stop and reverse the “Obamacare” law would go into effect in 2014; he would also extend tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans, something that Obama is against.
While every day and ad count before the election, it is hard not to wonder: “Did Obama really know? Could he have stopped it? Why is he covering this up?” While the ultimate culprits are the terrorist, it’s terrifying to image that with Iran inching closer to nuclear weapons, the next President of the United States may not have the necessary judgment to rise to the occasion and stop any threat from attacking American or their interest.