Outrageous Silence

I am not a journalist. I have no sources or contacts. I have no press credentials, no network news service resources, no travel budget.

I am not a government official. I have no intelligence agencies at my disposal, no situation room, no military advisors… no drones.

No one counts on me to investigate the news of the day and honestly report it to them so that they can work their jobs, live their lives, and remain honestly informed of the state of the world. Certainly no one counts on me to defend the sovereign territory of the United States, The Constitution, or the lives of our citizens. But when those to whom it is given fail in their calling, it is left to the rest of us to do what we can, to take a stand… to speak.

And so I speak to you today on a matter that has been relatively ignored by many of those who call themselves journalists. A matter that the government officials most responsible have avoided, hedged, and prevaricated concerning. I speak of course of the Benghazi tragedy, now some six weeks old. Four people lost their lives, the administration’s early explanation of the attack proved entirely unrelated to reality; and now it seems that the explanation endlessly repeated, was intentionally misleading. The administration was far more cognizant of the actual events than they admit to. The President and his officials have consistently diminished the importance of the crisis with terms like “bumps in the road”, “not optimal”, “peripheral to what’s going on right now”, and the whole charade involving the silly amateur video. The mainstream press has for the most part ignored the story forcing it into the “not news” category like a square peg through a round hole. Their attitude is exemplified by Time Magazine’s Joe Klein’s statement, “This business about the… Libya consulate is like the October mirage- it really isn’t an issue”.

So let me lay out the story for you as I have been able to piece it together. I speak as one would speak to his friends (for so I consider you all) of the things I have heard. I will not parse words, I’ll leave that to the politicians, their meaning has been clear if their actual wording has not. Rumors abound, and contradictions… please, do your own fact checking; I am not a journalist! But please also, speak with your friends.

The consulate in Benghazi was actually bombed previously in June, and because of this and other threats, repeated requests were made for additional security. Hillary Clinton approved these requests, but her approval was countermanded and the requests were denied for “political reasons”. This left security for the consulate and the ambassador to a private contractor from England, and an Islamist Libyan militia group. Most other countries had already pulled their people out because of the instability of the region. On 9/11 (the date should be your first clue) the consulate was attacked by an organized group of heavily armed men. There was no spontaneous demonstration that got out of hand, it was a deliberate planned attack; and the White House was made aware of this almost immediately. Emergency e-mails were sent from the consulate, drones were dispatched and the attack was viewed and monitored in real time as it occurred. About a mile away in the CIA safe house, operatives including Tyrone Woods heard about the attack and requested permission to go to the aid of the Ambassador and consulate staff. They were told to stand down. They requested permission a second time; again they were told to stand down. At this point former Navy Seal Tyrone Woods and at least two others elected to ignore orders and mount a rescue attempt.

Wood’s group raced to the consulate, exchanged gunfire, retrieved the survivors and the body of diplomat Sean Smith, but were unable to find the ambassador. They returned to the safe house. Then the safe house was attacked. A quick response team had been dispatched from Tripoli which included Glen Doherty and a few other operatives. This group was delayed at Benghazi airport due to an argument with the Libyan government over how many from the group should be allowed to respond. The attack went on for four hours. Woods and Doherty ended up on the roof of the annex taking fire from the attackers including mortars. They requested air support from a Specter gunship, which is commonly used to provide Special Operations support. They had the mortar team “painted” with lasers. That request was refused. Woods and Doherty died on the roof from a mortar shell.

Three of the attackers were captured by the CIA team, who were forced to turn them over to the Libyan government. No one seems to know what happened to them after that. Meanwhile, looters entered the now quiet consulate and discovered an unconscious Ambassador Stevens in a bathroom suffering the effects of severe smoke inhalation. They brought him to a local hospital where he subsequently died.

The White House was fully aware of pretty much all of this information either as it unfolded in real time, or within an hour or two. The President keeps saying that information is being presented to American public as it develops, but thus far no new information has been divulged from the administration at all. Only when some fact has been discovered independently has the White House admitted to the revelation. For the most part, the only information coming from the President and his people has been old information, or misinformation. Remember the days when we learned about national crises from the President himself?

Even with the father of the dead CIA agent, Tyrone Woods, the administration bungled their response with aloofness, insensitivity, and obfuscation. Wood’s father reports that the President mumbled “I’m sorry.” but wouldn’t even look him in his eyes; Joe Biden made a crude comment about the size of Tyrone’s testicles to the family who had just lost their loved one; and Hillary Clinton promised the elder Woods that they would “have that person arrested and prosecuted that did the video.”

Leon Panetta explained the failure to mount an effective rescue attempt by citing what he calls a basic principle, that you don’t deploy forces into harm’s way without knowing what’s going on. It is the nature of most crises that they are urgent and that information is incomplete. The luxury of extended investigation is seldom available in the midst of a firefight. Is the Secretary suggesting that our service men encountering perilous attacks should not expect support from the chain of command until all the facts are known? Like Woods and Doherty, are they on their own?

IMHO: Clearly the President and his people have covered up the true facts of what was happening in Libya, and what happened on the night of 9/11. It is has been reported that ambassador Stevens was likely CIA (diplomats often are) and may have been involved in a covert operation supplying weapons to Syrian rebels via Islamist factions in Libya. Given the political realities in Syria and their ally, Iran, this would explain a lot about the apparent desire to keep the operation under the radar with the deployment of security held to a minimum, the hesitancy to mount significant rescue efforts, and the foot dragging when it came to investigating the crime scene. It also would answer the question as to why the big cover-up.

For some reason the mainstream press has lost their curiosity concerning this intriguing story. It has been relegated to the back pages of the New York Times, network news is being dragged to the story by cable outlets like Fox News and talk radio, but still devote far more time and energy toward the investigation of insensitive rape comments, Lance Armstrong, and stories about monkeys.

In the midst of all this confusion the President continues his campaigning. He has promised us transparency, but delivered obfuscation. Why couldn’t he tell us any of this? Why do we have to work so hard to learn all this? Why no press conference? …silence. He continues to treat us like morons. Women he speaks to as though their ears were attached not to their heads, but to their “lady parts”. The poor he assumes care only about entitlements. The young he treats like mindless drones driven to the polls by which candidate is cooler. He ignores the fact that much of the new electorate are thinking, talking, and informed. We are not all swayed by appearances on The View, Letterman, and Leno, but don’t expect any real information to be forthcoming from the President, just more of the same stand-up routine. In vocabulary more appropriate to a locker room than the on-the-record comments of the Leader of the free world, he told the Rolling Stone interviewer that Mitt Romney is a bullsh**er. …People who live in crap houses shouldn’t hurl epithets.