Bengazi

Originally published 11/06/13, for reference.


It’s been almost 14 months since the 9/11/12 attack on our consulate in Bengazi, Libya, and we’ve only learned a little more in the last 14 months than we did in the first 14 days. We all know the timeline, for a refresher read http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/09/11/timeline-of-terror-benghazi-one-year-later/ or http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/06/politics/benghazi-attack-timeline/ , although the stories conflict.  The Blaze jives with most of the other stories you’ll find online; CNN jives better with the Administration’s rhetoric.

As for why the Bengazi attack happened, there’s 3 credible stories going around.  One could be right, more than one could be right, we don’t know– the administration won’t discuss it, and everything is being done to cover it up including CIA personnel being silenced and threatened, key members of the administration stepping down so that, since they’re not in public office anymore, they can plead the 5th in any hearings, etc.

First: It could’ve been incompetence, compounded with political CYA.  Ever since Bin Laden was killed, the rhetoric coming from the Obama administration is that the War on Terrorism is all but over, “Al Qaeda is on the run”, nothing to worry about.  Sunshine and rainbows, there will be peace in the Middle East any day now.  Beefing up security at the consulate would’ve been a sign that there’s something to worry about.  A timely evacuation of personnel and/or rushing in military personnel to fight the attackers would’ve been seen as a sign that all is not well in one of the bright, shining Arab Spring countries.  So, Stevens, Smith, Woods, and Doherty were hung out to dry so Obama wouldn’t lose face.  I guess the administration thought the lies and coverups would work, and we’d all forget about Bengazi in a couple days, or a month at most.

Second: It might have been a coverup for the CIA gun running op going on in Bengazi.  The gist of the op was, buy up any of Gaddafi’s weapons that were any good, buy back our own weapons that we’d given to the Libyans to fight Gaddafi, and send those weapons via Al Qaeda to Syria to help the rebels there.  Problem is, that was completely illegal.  Not even just shady like Iran-Contra– flat-out illegal.  I’m not sure if it’s been substantiated by anyone or not, but that meeting with the Turkish diplomat (and other, similar meetings) was supposedly about working out deals to funnel weapons through the Turks– tighter relationship with an ally, more accountable channel for the weapons to travel, things like that.  But, Stevens also supposedly had a report on the op that he had written up and was going to send to the State Department the next morning.  That report went missing or was destroyed in the attack, and Stevens is now permanently silenced.

The third theory comes from the UN report on the attack, based on the State Department’s Accountability Review Board’s report.  According to those reports, the attack was tied to the Egyptian protests… but not over a stupid movie trailer.  These were Muslim Brotherhood and Al Qaeda members, who trained under Muhammad Jamal and were members of his network, who were staging attacks and protests to try to force our hand to release Omar Abdel-Rahman (nicknamed the ‘blind sheik’) who was responsible for the ’93 World Trade Center bombing, and is currently in a US prison.  Remember, Muslim Brotherhood means Morsi, our guy in Egypt, which would explain why the attackers were yelling “Don’t shoot!  Morsi sent us!” (in Egyptian-accented Arabic) as they were busting in and running around the compound… and might explain why we were so hesitant to intervene.  After all, Morsi was the good guy in Egypt, and Morsi sent them, so they must be ok, right?  Heh.  A further link to Morsi is, one of the foreign policy issues Morsi pushed during and after his election was freeing the Blind Sheik; and for a week before the Bengazi attack, Morsi had been pushing again for the release of Rahman.  So if this report is true, Morsi sent some of his people to either kill or kidnap Stevens, to force us into giving up a terrorist he and his people want to see free.

So, we have 3 likely, semi-substantiated theories on what went down the night of September 11th, 2012, but in all this time, no answers.  Why has no one come out and spoken the truth?  Hmm?  Why, Mr. Obama?  Why, Mrs. Clinton?  Why, Mr. Panetta?  Is it too embarrassing, either because it made Obama’s “we have Al Qaeda on the run” statement a lie, or because Morsi is not the good guy we made him out to be?  Was it on purpose, to cover up illegal activities happening in that area?  Why will no one tell us?

It’s been over a year.  We, the American people, who actually run this country, need and deserve to know the truth.