On September 11, 2012, the eleventh anniversary of 9-11, two U.S. government facilities in Benghazi, Libya came under attack. This preplanned attack, carried out by Islamic terrorists, resulted in the murder of U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans: Sean Smith, a Foreign Service information officer, and Tyrone S. Woods and Glen A. Doherty, two former Navy SEALs working as security personnel at our consulate.
According to the bi-partisan report released yesterday by the United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs,
“Senior officials from the IC (Intelligence Community), the Department of State, and the FBI who participated in briefings and interviews with the Committee said they believed the attack on the mission facility in Benghazi to be a terrorist attack immediately or almost immediately after it occurred.”
Furthermore, the Senate report states that, “there was never any doubt among key officials, including officials in the IC and the Department of State, that the attack in Benghazi was an act of terrorism.”
So why did Administration officials, Susan Rice, Jay Carney, Hillary Clinton and even President Obama himself mislead the American people to believe that the murder of four Americans in Benghazi on the anniversary of 9-11 was merely the result of a spontaneous reaction to an anti-Mohammed video? Only a naïve person would ask such a question.
The Senate report demonstrates facts that show the Obama Administration did not adequately protect our brave public servants in Benghazi from terrorist threats even though there were clear warnings that our consulate was in great danger. The Administration allowed a dangerous situation to get out of hand and then it got caught with its hands down. As a result four Americans were needlessly murdered by Islamic extremists.
At the time the Obama campaign was trumpeting the false narrative that our tough-as- nails commander-in-chief had nearly eradicated the terrorist threat by focusing the country’s attention on the killing of Bin Laden. The murder of our people in Benghazi threatened that narrative and jeopardized the re-election of President Obama. Therefore, instead of telling the American people the truth, the Obama spin team went into damage control. After all, there was a campaign to be won.
Here is what U.S. ambassador Susan Rice said on national TV while a guest on ABC’s This Week on September 16th, a full five days after the attack,
“First of all, let’s be clear about what transpired here. What happened this week in Cairo, in Benghazi, in many other parts of the region was a result, a direct result of a heinous and offensive video that was widely disseminated, that the U.S. government had nothing to do with, which we have made clear is reprehensible and disgusting.”
If high-ranking officials in the Obama Administration knew almost immediately that terrorists were involved in the murder of four Americans at Benghazi then why was our ambassador Susan Rice giving the American people a different version of events? There can be only one explanation. It was decided by Team Obama that the inconvenient truth behind the murder of four American public servants in Benghazi by Islamic extremists had to be suppressed.
The truth about Benghazi was trumped by Obama’s need to get re-elected. The ugly reality of the Benghazi affair is that when Team Obama was faced with a choice, it put its own needs ahead of the interests of the American people. Hail to the Chief!
P.S. – OK. So the Administration hid the truth from the American people. Some rationalize this by saying, “Obama is my guy” or “it’s no big deal – happens all the time.” I say, when our national security is at stake, when there are Islamic extremists plotting the destruction of America – then it is a big deal. If our political leaders allow the American people to become complacent for any reason it will increase the likelihood of another murderous, 9-11-like attack on American lives.
An American