McCain claims ‘massive cover-up’ on Benghazi

Catawba said:

:shrug: It still boils down to 4 dead due to bad intel in Benghazi vs almost 5,000 dead due to bad intel in Iraq.

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apdst said:

Oh, so Bush didn't lie about Iraq, now? :lamo

Benghazi wasn't due to bad intel...it was due to dereliciton of duty at the highest levels of our government and then was covered up by the president persistantly claiming that it was a spontaneous demonstration over a stupid you tube video.

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Wiseone said:

Anyone who wants to know what happened should read this:

Scribd

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Catawba said:

I call BS.........


..........................

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Catawba said:

That's why they told us to get the **** out of their country!

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The U.S. will retain an embassy in Baghdad[23] with some 17,000 personnel,[24] consulates in Basra, Mosul and Kirkuk, which have been allocated more than 1,000 staff each[24] and between 4,000 to 5,000 defence contractors.[23] President Obama and al-Maliki outlined a broad agenda for post-war cooperation without American troops in Iraq during a joint press conference on 12 December 2011 at the White House. This agenda includes cooperation on energy, trade and education as well as cooperation in security, counter-terrorism, economic development and strengthening Iraq's institutions. Both leaders said their countries will maintain strong security, diplomatic and economic ties after the last U.S. combat forces withdraw at the end of 2011.[25][26]

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Unitedwestand13 said:

You forgot the civil war between Sunni and Shia.

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Wiseone said:

Yes that PL would have been, and not his General, exactly my point. We recognize the many layers of command and the responsibilities each layer has, we may relieve his company commander and perhaps his BN commander if we really want to send a message but no one is going to fire the General for a dumb LT, because we expect people between that General and LT to have some responsibility.

As for cross border operations, well obviously the President is not the only one who can direct those kinds of actions. Are you of the opinion that the only person who could order relief to into Benghazi and across international borders was Obama himself? I couldn't say who should be the the guy with the approving authority, but I know it should be the President for a situation like this and was not the President for this situation.

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Catawba said:

:shrug: It still boils down to 4 dead due to bad intel in Benghazi vs almost 5,000 dead due to bad intel in Iraq.

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Misterveritis said:

So you believe that there are others who can direct the US invade a country we are not at war with? Awesome.

Would you be comfortable with the first Major General in the chain of command being able to give an order to conduct cross border operations? We have a couple hundred of them. Or would you limit such a provocative act to Lieutenant Generals (how many of these do we have 30-40?). Or would you want it to be generals (those are they guys with four stars)?

Any of of those several hundred people can potentially start a war and you don't really know who should be able to direct such an action?

This was the President's responsibility and he shirked it. Four people were murdered as a result. He abandoned Americans to die without lifting a finger to help. And then he lied for several weeks (three I think). He continues to stonewall.

I think the House of Representatives should block every single thing the president does. If he violates the Constitution they ought to impeach him. They should defund his pet projects. And they should investigate everything he does.

In the Senate they ought to slow down legislation that supports the Marxist's agenda. They should filibuster disasters like Hegel and obstruct all of his other appointees.

You may have a different opinion.

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Upon notification of the attack from the TDY RSO around 2145 local, Embassy Tripoli set up a command center and notified Washington. About 2150 local, the DCM was able to reach Ambassador Stevens, who briefly reported that the SMC was under attack before the call cut off. The Embassy notified Benina Airbase in Benghazi of a potential need for logistic support and aircraft for extraction and received full cooperation. The DCM contacted the Libyan President and Prime Minister’s offices to urge them to mobilize a rescue effort, and kept Washington apprised of post’s efforts. The Embassy also reached out to Libyan Air Force and Armed Forces contacts, February 17 leadership, and UN and third country embassies, among others. Within hours, Embassy Tripoli chartered a private airplane and deployed a seven-person security team, which included two U.S. military personnel, to Benghazi.
At the direction of the U.S. military’s Africa Command (AFRICOM), DoD moved a remotely piloted, unarmed surveillance aircraft which arrived over the SMC shortly before the DS team departed. A second remotely piloted, unarmed surveillance aircraft relieved the first, and monitored the eventual evacuation of personnel from the Annex to Benghazi airport later on the morning of September 12.

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In coordination with the State Department and Embassy Tripoli, the Department of Defense sent two U.S. Air Force planes (a C-17 and a C-130) from Germany to Tripoli to provide medical evacuation support for the wounded. At 1915 local on September 12, Embassy Tripoli evacuees, Benghazi personnel, and those wounded in the attacks departed Tripoli on the C-17 aircraft, with military doctors and nurses aboard providing en route medical care to the injured. The aircraft arrived at Ramstein Air Force Base at approximately 2230 (Tripoli time) on September 12, just over 24 hours after the attacks in Benghazi had commenced.

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The interagency response was timely and appropriate, but there simply was not enough time given the speed of the attacks for armed U.S. military assets to have made a difference. Senior-level interagency discussions were underway soon after Washington received initial word of the attacks and continued through the night. The Board found no evidence of any undue delays in decision making or denial of support from Washington or from the military combatant commanders. Quite the contrary: the safe evacuation of all U.S. government personnel from Benghazi twelve hours after the initial attack and subsequently to Ramstein Air Force Base was the result of exceptional U.S. government coordination and military response and helped save the lives of two severely wounded Americans. In addition, at the State Department’s request, the Department of Defense also provided a Marine FAST (Fleet Antiterrorism Security Team) as additional security support for Embassy Tripoli on September 12.

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Napoleon said:

The only thing to blame here is poor logistics and bureaucracy. The rest is partisan hackery.

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ecofarm said:

You forget the genocides, 17 unscrs, starving 400k children and invasions of neighbors. Do you forget the FGM, honor killings and institutional rape?

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APACHERAT said:

No, the White House has already said, there were mistakes made and nobody made any mistakes. For some incredible reason, the Obama administration decided not to blame G.W. Bush. So who else are they going to blame ? We have to go by the four years established track history of this current administration. The buck never stops on Obama's desk. But Obama is well known to intercept that buck when it's headed towards someones elses desk if he can use it for his own political gain.

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APACHERAT said:

BTW: I'm very impressed with your use of military acronyms, not many liberals have any idea what your saying.

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Misterveritis said:

It boils down to Obama washing his hands to keep them clean for the election instead of doing his job and getting then help.

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Napoleon said:

I think we have to go by the facts not by the bloodlust of the Republicans on this committee. They're asking the wrong questions. What they should be asking are things like:

1. Why did the GRS at the CIA annex engage in a 15 minute discussion to decide whether or not to provide assistance to the consulate?

2. Why did it take nearly two hours for the GRS, which was only a mile away, to respond and conduct a rescue operation?

3. Why did it take four hours after assistance was urgently requested from the consulate to move the JSOC from Tripoli to Benghazi and why weren't they there in the first place?

4. Why did it take an hour to inform the SOD and an hour-and-a-half to inform the President of the attack?

5. Why was the Ambassador locked in a burning building and abandoned by his security detail?

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Bethlehem Bill said:

by the way - i totally disagree with a core premise of this supposed "cover up" angle

they are arguing that it is because it wouldnt support the president's case that al-quaeda is on the run right before the election

obama still could have pointed to taking out bin laden, and just downplay the benghazi stuff as much as possible, and still handily defeated mitt romney

are you really implying that obama won the election simply because he managed to stall the discussion of these events?

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Bethlehem Bill said:

i am now embarrassed that i voted for mccain in 2008

he went from being the "maverick", opposing military action, and fighting against pork barrel spending

to being a bitter, petty, partisan hack bomb thrower

what a disgrace this old buffoon has become

the benghazi nonsense, the hagel nonsense, utterly shameful

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APACHERAT said:

Lets not forget supporting rewarding amnesty to those who broke our laws, utterly shameful.

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APACHERAT said:

But that's the problem, Obama didn't take out Bin Laden, U.S. Navy SEAL's took out Bin Laden.

That it was intelligence that was gathered during the Bush administration that led to finding OBL compound in Pakistan.

That it was the enhanced interrogations that Obama and the political left opposed that led to OBL.

Why doesn't Obama acknowledge that ? Maybe if he did, he wouldn't have the lowest approval rating as Cn'C by those serving in the military than any other Cn'C in the past. Even lower than Jimmy Carter.

The truth is, Barack Obama is a narcissist.

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Texmex said:

President is just following the Reagan tradition!

QUOTE]

And what tradition would that be ?

>" According to Ronald Reagan himself, as told to his trusted long-time friend and U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese, the biggest mistake of his presidency was signing the 1986 amnesty for what turned out to be more than half the five million illegal immigrants in the country. Reagan was uncomfortable with the amnesty but was persuaded by some of the leaders of his own party (still living) that it would only affect a small number of illegal immigrants and would assure that Congress would follow through with more vigorous enforcement of U.S. immigration laws. The misnamed Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) of 1986 was touted by its supporters as “comprehensive immigration reform” that would grant amnesty only to a few long-settled immigrants and strengthen border security and internal immigration enforcement against employers who were hiring illegal immigrants.

Internal enforcement was critical to Reagan. He knew that the real key to stopping illegal immigration was to cut off the job magnet at the employment place. He was also honest enough to call what he believed would only be a small amnesty by its real name—amnesty. He did not try to deceive the American people into thinking it was not really an amnesty, a deception much in vogue with many politicians today. "< Ed Meese Says Reagan Regretted 1986 Amnesty | VDARE.com

The Reagan tradition as in not trying to deceive the American people ? Obama is no Reagan.

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Bethlehem Bill said:

im not even arguing any of that

i am talking about it from the perspective of the campaign

conservatives were on the internet and tv on a daily basis, shouting to anyone who would listen

repeating every line youve said

and obama still won the election fairly easily - that is my point. romney was a weak candidate, weaker than obama

obama did not win the election because he "covered up" something that apparently half of this country knows about

the conspiracy theory angle is ridiculous, this is something youd expect from a tea partier

not a supposedly distinguished senior senator

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Wiseone said:

http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/202446.pdf

Hey look, it doesn't take the President to order cross border action. By the way you didn't say invade before, you said cross border action.

And the speed of the attack was found to have been to fast to allow armed US military assets to have made a difference anyway.

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Misterveritis said:

Those were not cross border operations. Tripoli is inside Libya. Even the drones were flying within Libya airspace.

I specifically refer to armed cross border operations coming out of the med or Italy. I am not aware of where other US forces were that could have been used.

The attack took a third of a day. Setting fire to the consulate should have been enough provocation for the President to order overwhelming support. Instead the President went missing for eight hours and then lied and lied and lied.

And you support him. I cannot fathom why.

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