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Biden contradicts State Department on Benghazi security

zimmer

Educating the Ignorant
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Vice President Joe Biden claimed that the administration wasn't aware of requests for more security in Libya before the Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S. mission in Benghazi during Thursday night's debate, contradicting two State Department officials and the former head of diplomatic security in Libya.





"We weren't told they wanted more security. We did not know they wanted more security there," Biden said.

In fact, two security officials who worked for the State Department in Libya at the time testified Thursday that they repeatedly requested more security and two State Department officials admitted they had denied those requests.

Biden contradicts State Department on Benghazi security | The Cable
Incompetence and prevarication.

We are talking about dead Americans serving their country who asked for assistance... and were murdered by terrorists.
America deserves answers and those responsible for this mess and lies be held accountable.

Why didn't Obama "Connect-the-dots"?

Americans died, Obama, Biden, Rice & Carney lied,and lied, and lied, and continue to lie.

They have also made Americans less safe around the world.
 
Americans die all the time. We have had two wars with the same people who killed those in libya. It is what happens when you take on a vast terrorist force that spreads through multiple countries. To tell the truth, it is not going to stop. Hell, we even have domestic terrorists killing people in this country, far more than in libya, and despite police, FBI, the department of homeland security, an armed populace, the patriot act, and a million other things working against them it happens. This is because 100 percent security is impossible. it will never happen. No one can stop killing. It is especially impossible in a small building surrounded by a country of heavily armed people with no real defined leadership after an violent overthrow. We could have pissed away billions in protecting that building and people would have still died.

Youir expectations that every american should be safe all around the world is just absurd. It won't happen, and there is no way Romney could do it either. There is only one thing that might have a chance of doing that, and that is god. If god exists he doesn't seem to keen on stopping violence either. So take that feigned disgust and tell us what you really mean. you are just picking some pointless reason you don't care about to get mad at Obama. you did not call for bush's resignation when people all around the world died. you did not call for bush's resignation when 3000 people in Ny lost their lives and he absolutely botched bringing anyone to justice, and certainly did not make americans 100 percent safe all around the world after that.

If you are going to be mad at Obama do it for a real reason some human being could have accomplished, because being mad at him for this is like being mad at him because he can't sprout wings and fly. The outrage because an american got killed is so full of **** because you simply don't freak out daily over every american that dies pointlessly every day. Just tell us you hate obama and give us a real reason for it. Hell, even hating him because he is black makes more sense than hating him because a couple people in a country full of violence died.
 
Americans die all the time. We have had two wars with the same people who killed those in libya. It is what happens when you take on a vast terrorist force that spreads through multiple countries. To tell the truth, it is not going to stop. Hell, we even have domestic terrorists killing people in this country, far more than in libya, and despite police, FBI, the department of homeland security, an armed populace, the patriot act, and a million other things working against them it happens. This is because 100 percent security is impossible. it will never happen. No one can stop killing. It is especially impossible in a small building surrounded by a country of heavily armed people with no real defined leadership after an violent overthrow. We could have pissed away billions in protecting that building and people would have still died.

Youir expectations that every american should be safe all around the world is just absurd. It won't happen, and there is no way Romney could do it either. There is only one thing that might have a chance of doing that, and that is god. If god exists he doesn't seem to keen on stopping violence either. So take that feigned disgust and tell us what you really mean. you are just picking some pointless reason you don't care about to get mad at Obama. you did not call for bush's resignation when people all around the world died. you did not call for bush's resignation when 3000 people in Ny lost their lives and he absolutely botched bringing anyone to justice, and certainly did not make americans 100 percent safe all around the world after that.

If you are going to be mad at Obama do it for a real reason some human being could have accomplished, because being mad at him for this is like being mad at him because he can't sprout wings and fly. The outrage because an american got killed is so full of **** because you simply don't freak out daily over every american that dies pointlessly every day. Just tell us you hate obama and give us a real reason for it. Hell, even hating him because he is black makes more sense than hating him because a couple people in a country full of violence died.

There is a difference between soldiers who go to a warzone knowing that they could be killed and ambassadors who are diplomatic agents to a country... who are not expecting themselves to be killed especially when they are helping a people. As the protests against the death of the US ambassador show... they considered him a friend. When you are around friends, you don't expect to be killed. Like soldiers in Afghanistan don't expect to be killed from friendly fire from afghan troops who hate them.

So yes, there is a difference and the outrage is justified. Killing a soldier in a warzone is not the same as killing a diplomatic envoy in a friendly (even though unstable) country.
 
There is a difference between soldiers who go to a warzone knowing that they could be killed and ambassadors who are diplomatic agents to a country... who are not expecting themselves to be killed especially when they are helping a people. As the protests against the death of the US ambassador show... they considered him a friend. When you are around friends, you don't expect to be killed. Like soldiers in Afghanistan don't expect to be killed from friendly fire from afghan troops who hate them.

So yes, there is a difference and the outrage is justified. Killing a soldier in a warzone is not the same as killing a diplomatic envoy in a friendly (even though unstable) country.

I don’t fully agree with this. My Foreign Service colleagues are well aware of the dangers of their job. And they receive hazardous duty pay, just like us military personnel serving alongside them.

That said, we should be angry that their request for support wasn’t met. I am sure there was an element of truth in Biden’s statement in that I am sure that neither he nor the President personally knew about the request. But the person along the chain who actually made the decision to say "no" has some explaining to do. Maybe he/she had a good reason. I want to hear it.
 
I don’t fully agree with this. My Foreign Service colleagues are well aware of the dangers of their job. And they receive hazardous duty pay, just like us military personnel serving alongside them.

That said, we should be angry that their request for support wasn’t met. I am sure there was an element of truth in Biden’s statement in that I am sure that neither he nor the President personally knew about the request. But the person along the chain who actually made the decision to say "no" has some explaining to do. Maybe he/she had a good reason. I want to hear it.

If there is an element of truth in Biden's comment then it is a manufactured "plausible deniability" insulation reserved for relations with foreign nations. To think that the POTUS and VPOTUS were not aware of the request admits either incompetence or malfeasance. At best it would suggest that the WH had installed an intermediary whose function was to "officially" insulate the WH from bad 'contradictory' news.
 
Biden said "WE didn't know", presumably meaning "we in the White House." That is probably true, although the State Department knew.
 
I don’t fully agree with this. My Foreign Service colleagues are well aware of the dangers of their job. And they receive hazardous duty pay, just like us military personnel serving alongside them.

And when it is hazardous as in a nation with terroristas... and ask for more detail than the Embassy in Paris... you would think they would get it or???

And you would expect the administration to be able to tell us when we have been attacked by terrorists instead of blaming some oddball video that made matters even worse for Americans?

I guess not in this slim shady sideshow called Alice in Obamaland.

We would send in the clowns, but they arrived 4-years ago.
 
If there is an element of truth in Biden's comment then it is a manufactured "plausible deniability" insulation reserved for relations with foreign nations. To think that the POTUS and VPOTUS were not aware of the request admits either incompetence or malfeasance. At best it would suggest that the WH had installed an intermediary whose function was to "officially" insulate the WH from bad 'contradictory' news.

I am sure they will examine the way the approval chain is set up, at least I hope so. But the WH didn't install anybody. It is the same setup it has always been. Or at least as long as I have been working embassies (over a decade). The request wouldn't even have made it as high as SECSTATE.
 
And when it is hazardous as in a nation with terroristas... and ask for more detail than the Embassy in Paris... you would think they would get it or???

And you would expect the administration to be able to tell us when we have been attacked by terrorists instead of blaming some oddball video that made matters even worse for Americans?

On that I am in full agreement with you.

Typically an embassy or consulate can't bring in more people without permission from the host country. There is a cap, set my the host country, on how many people we can have. But in this case we have a very cooperative host country government and they wouldn't have denied the request.
 
Biden said "WE didn't know", presumably meaning "we in the White House." That is probably true, although the State Department knew.

I'm beginning to think you are actually Jay Carney. It's the only logical conclusion for the way you spin everything to excuse Obama's incompetence.
 
On that I am in full agreement with you.

Typically an embassy or consulate can't bring in more people without permission from the host country. There is a cap, set my the host country, on how many people we can have. But in this case we have a very cooperative host country government and they wouldn't have denied the request.

This is sad and sickening at the same time.
Hours before the debate, two top security officials who had been to the consulate testified on Capitol Hill that they had made requests for more troops.

Former regional security forces officer Eric Nordstrom and Lt Col Andrew Wood, who was head of a Special Forces 'Site Security Team' in the country, placed blame on Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Charlene Lamb for rejecting their requests.

'The takeaway... for me and my staff, was abundantly clear - we were not going to get resources until the aftermath of an incident,' Nordstrom said. 'And the question that we would ask is: how thin does the ice have to get before someone falls through?'

'We were fighting a losing battle,' Wood added. 'We couldn't even keep what we had.'

Read more: Ex-CIA chief slams Biden for throwing U.S. spies under the bus during debate by 'blaming those who put their lives on the line' for Benghazi debacle | Mail Online
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
 
This is sad and sickening at the same time.

Yeah, I followed their testimony. It makes my blood boil. I don't know LTC Wood but Eric is a good man and if that is how he said it played out, that is how it played out. DAS Lamb has some explaining to do.
 
I'd love to hear what Hillary has to say to Joe today. Haha, she probably ripped his balls off and put them in her lock box. :lamo
 
I was surprised to hear that the Embassy in Paris has a marine detachment and there was none for the ambassador in Libya. If I were a marine, I know which assignment I would choose.
 
And it isn't like DAS Lamb is some clueless political appointee. She is a former cop and served as an RSO at several embassies. She knew better.
 
I was surprised to hear that the Embassy in Paris has a marine detachment and there was none for the ambassador in Libya. If I were a marine, I know which assignment I would choose.

They have many arabs in France too, and they recently had riots where people were burning cars.
 
I was surprised to hear that the Embassy in Paris has a marine detachment and there was none for the ambassador in Libya. If I were a marine, I know which assignment I would choose.

Yep. When I was there we had no MSG detachment. We used to joke about it because it is even in their freakin' song..."From the halls of Montezuma to the Shores of Tripoli". It's not so funny anymore.
 
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