Tag Archives: Chris Stevens

You Can’t Make Some People Happy

Especially if you’re President Obama, and “some people” are conservative politicians or Fox News commentators.

Having bashed Obama for not capturing those responsible for the Benghazi attack on 9/11/12 that left Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans dead, the right is now beating up on him because he’s captured the ringleader, Ahmed Abu Khattala.  They don’t like the “timing.”

Special Forces planned and practiced the raid on Khattala’s compound for a year, and now he is heading to the U. S. for trial in a civilian court.

But instead of celebrating the news, the right is dismissing it as an effort to distract from Obama’s other problems and to promote Hillary’s book tour!

Susan Rice Will Run Foreign Policy From WH, Not State

Susan Rice, who withdrew from consideration as secretary of state after criticism over her Sunday talk show appearances right after the Benghazi terror attacks on 9/11/12 that left four Americans, including Amb. Chris Stevens, dead, is President Obama’s new national security adviser.  The job doesn’t require Senate confirmation, so Rice’s GOP enemies can’t do anything about it.  She who laughs last, laughs best.

The losers here — besides those GOP enemies — are John Kerry and the Syrian rebels.  Kerry because foreign policy will be concentrated at the White House now, giving him less power, and the rebels because Rice opposes intervention in the Syrian civil war, where the tide is turning in Assad’s favor.

Speaking of “power,” Obama is nominating Samantha Power to replace Rice at the U. N.

Slippery Butters

Lindsey “Butters” Graham (R-SC) is threatening to put a hold on both Chuck Hagel’s nomination for Secretary of Defense and John Brennan’s for CIA Director until the President explains what he did on the night of the Benghazi terror attack that left four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens, dead.  Appearing on CBS’ Face the Nation, Graham vowed:

“I’m not going to stop until we get to the bottom of it.  We know nothing about what the president did on the night of September 11, during a time of national crisis, and the American people need to know what their Commander-in-Chief did, if anything, during the eight-hour attack.

“I don’t know what the president did that evening.  I don’t know if he ever called anyone. I know he never talked to the Secretary of Defense. I know that he never talked to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. … I know the Secretary of State never talked to the Secretary of Defense. This was incredibly mismanaged. And what we know now, it seems to be a very disengaged president.”

His battle cry is “No confirmation without information.”  Senator, I would say to you, “No clout without coming out.”

Just a Little Defensive Over at State

From an email exchange* between Michael Hastings at BuzzFeed and Hillary’s personal spokesman, Philippe Reines.  This is Hastings to Reines:

“From my perspective, the scandal here is that the State Department had such inadequate security procedures in place that four Americans were killed. And then the Ambassador’s diary–and who knows what else–was left behind for anyone to pick up. Thankfully, it was CNN–and not Al Qaeda or some other militia–that found it and was able to return it to the family. That CNN used portions of the material in the diary they found at the scene–material that appears to contradict the official version of events that State/WH has been putting out–is completely in line with practices of good journalism.

“I don’t know how involved Arwa Damon has been in this. But for what it’s worth, Arwa is one of the best war correspondents working today. She’s consistently risked her life to get these stories, and to find out what actually happens in these conflict zones.I do agree that the media has lots of responsibilities, and CNN fulfilled its responsibility by returning the diary while still managing to inform the American public of newsworthy information. So it’s unfortunate that you are trying to make a scapegoat out of CNN. That State was forced to flee Benghazi–again, because of such inadequate security, leaving behind all sorts of sensitive information–tells us more about DoS than CNN.

“The misinformation here seems largely to be coming from State and the administration. The defense that the administration has offered that there was no intelligence warning of an attack is weak. If there was no intel, then clearly the CIA and other intel agents stationed in Benghazi weren’t doing their jobs well. If there was intel, then we have some kind of cover-up–whether out of incompetence or ass covering before the election or just the trauma of losing four good men, it’s hard for me to say at this point.
”

Reines really loses it with Hastings, calling him an “unmitigated asshole,” telling him to “Fuck Off,” and finally advising him that “Inside of 5 minutes when I can log into my desktop, you’ll be designated as Junk Mail.  Have a good life Michael.”

* “Hillary Clinton Aide Tells Reporter to ‘Fuck Off’ And ‘Have A Good Life,'” BuzzFeed

 

U. S., Libya Disagree on Benghazi Attacks

Our Ambassador to the U. N., Susan Rice, hit the Sunday talk show this morning claiming that the Benghazi attacks first on our consulate and then at a safe house were “spontaneous.”

By contrast, the Libyan President, Mohammed Magarief, claims the attacks were planned in advance “by foreigners, by people who entered the country a few months ago.”  He says the Libyan government has arrested more than 50 people so far.

I think this headline from The Australian says it all — “US in denial over embassy murders.”