Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Look when the New York Times finally looks at the Obama Administration's security failures in Benghazi

A NY Times article about the deteriorating security environment in and around Benghazi in the run-up to 9/11/12 finally sees the light of day along with the arrival of "Hurricane Sandy" in the Northeast

The mainstream print media is finally giving some column inches to the Benghazi mess for the Obama Administration and the Obama Campaign. 

According to the New York Times 10/29/12 article, "Libya Warnings Were Plentiful, but Unspecific" by MICHAEL R. GORDON, ERIC SCHMITT and MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT, “In the months leading up to the Sept. 11 attacks on the American diplomatic mission in Benghazi, the Obama administration received intelligence reports that Islamic extremist groups were operating training camps in the mountains near the Libyan city and that some of the fighters were ‘Al Qaeda-leaning’.”  


Generally following a time-line type of analysis, the Times’ reporters note that, “In the closing weeks of the presidential campaign, the circumstances surrounding the attack on the Benghazi compound have emerged as a major political issue, as Republicans, led by their presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, have sought to lay blame for the attack on President Obama, who they argued had insufficiently protected American lives there.”  However, the research and analysis by these Timesmen leads them to assert, “Interviews with American officials and an examination of State Department documents do not reveal the kind of smoking gun Republicans have suggested would emerge in the attack’s aftermath such as a warning that the diplomatic compound would be targeted and that was overlooked by administration officials.” 

What has been revealed by the New York Times in the middle of a hurricane was that a major question has arisen about the Obama Administration's 
inability to react to the months-long worsening environment on the ground in Benghazi prior to the 9/11 attack there by an Al Qaeda affiliate. Although the initially security set-up in Benghazi appeared to be adequate, after the initial security teams began rotating out of Libya months after the opening of the diplomatic mission in Benghazi, there was a complete and total absence of planning effecting security in Benghazi.

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