Benghazi Time-line - Incriminating Obama Administration

There has been a lot of discussion lately of the attack on our "embassy" in Benghazi, Libya prior to the debate.  Now with what occurred Tuesday night there is certainly more now.  During Tuesday's debate candidate Romney asked the President about what happened in Benghazi trying to get to the point of whether he thought it was a Terrorist attack or some unorganized mass of people who came together over some youtube video no one had ever heard of prior to these attacks.  The President said he called it a terrorist attack on his first discussion of it on the morning after (9/12) in the rose garden with Mrs. Clinton.  Romney appeared confused.  The President, shockingly, found a supporter on the stage as the "neutral" moderator Candy Crowley verified the Presidents claim right there by inserting her personal view that "he did."  Now all should know that later she backed off her statement when the debate and TV cameras were off her saying Romney was directionally correct with his facts.  Since people are now discussing this and starting to ask some questions and much has been added to the confusion I thought it best to take a look at what factually occurred.

Before laying out the time-line we should ponder a few questions in regards to these attacks and how this administration has reacted.  My first question is if the President did in fact believe it was a terrorist attack on our embassy (Rose Garden speech – 9/12/12), why did he leave that afternoon for a campaign trip?  We just had a terrorist attack on U.S. soil where our Ambassador and three other Americans were killed - why was he not with his security council discussing our response to this blatant act of terrorism which just happened to coincided with the anniversary of another radical Islamic terrorist attack 11 years earlier?

If the President knew it was a terrorist attack and not some moronic youtube video then why did he, his VP, his Secretary of State and his surrogates within his administration continue telling the American public and even worse, the families of the slain Americans, that the cause was the video?   And now the main question for every American should be wondering, why would the President want to mis-lead the American public?  Was there or is there another agenda?  Was something else going on with these men is Libya that their untimely deaths may have exposed?  Was this a deliberate effort to cover-up foreign policy trying to mainstream the Muslim Brotherhood and President Obama’s claim at the DNC just a few weeks ago that Al Qaeda is “on the path to defeat?”  Reality tells us that in recent U.S. military reports they have been replete with Al Qaeda references and how they are working with and for the Taliban, and growing. 

We will address some of those issues in future posts but suffice to say, there seems to have been a concerted effort to cover up the goings on in Benghazi by this administration for what reasons, we aren’t sure…today.  Below is the time-line of what occurred prior to and after the terrorist attacks – I am able to provide this indepth analysis because of the work of others and I thank them, as should we all.

April 5, 2011: Special envoy Christopher Stevens arrives in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi as the U.S. liason to forge ties with the al-Qaueda linked Libyan forces battling Moammar Gadhafi and begins coordinating U.S. asistance to the rebels.

February 2012: The U.S. Embassy requests – and is granted – a four-month extension, until August, of a Tripoli-based “Site Security Team” (SST) composed of 16 special forces soldiers who provide security, medical and communications support to the embassy.

March 2012: State Department Regional Security Officer Eric Nordstrom sends a cable to Washington asking for additional diplomatic security for Benghazi, later he says he received no response.  He inquires again in July, with the same result.

April 6: Two fired Libyan security guards throw an IED over the embassy fence.

May 22: President Obama appoints Christopher Stevens as Ambassador to Libya.  An Islamist attack on the Red Cross office in Benghazi is followed by a Facebook post that warns “now we are preparing a message for the Americans.” Another Facebook posting a month later highlights Stevens’ daily runs in Tripoli in an apparent threat.

June 6: (The most underreported fact on this schedule) The embassy has a hole blown in the north gate described by a witness “to be big enough for 40 men to go through.”  The jihadist group the Imprisoned Omar Abdul Rahman Brigades, is suspected as they left leaflets at the scene claiming the attack was retaliation for the death of Libyan al Queda No. 2 Abu Yahya al Libi.

July 2012: The anti-Islam video is posted on the internet.

August, 2012: A report (“Al Qaeda in Libya: A Profile) prepared by the research division of the Library of Congress (LOC) under agreement with the Defense Department’s Combating Terrorism Technical Support Office is released.  The report details al Qaeda’s plans for Libya, including the growth of a clandestine terrorist network that has attempted to hide its presence.  According to a report by CNN our assassinated Ambassador, Christopher Stevens, feared al-Qaeda’s growing influence in Libya and believed he was on a hit list. 

August 14: The SST team leaves Libya. Team leader Lt. Col Andy Wood has testified that Stevens wanted them to stay on.

In Weeks Prior: Libyan security guards are reportedly warned by family members of an impending attack. On September 8, the Libyan militia tasked with protecting the embassy warns U.S. diplomats that the security situation is “frightening.”

September 9/10: Al Queda chief Ayman al-Zawahri posts a 42-minute video urging Libyans to attack Americans to avenge the death of Abu Yahya al-Libi, the terror organization’s second-in-command, whom U.S. drones killed in June of 2012 in Pakistan.

September 11: Protestors converge on the U.S. embassy in Cairo, Egypt, scale its walls and replace the U.S. flag with the Islamist banner.  The protests eventually spread to 20 countries around the world. That night, Republican candidate Mitt Romney criticizes an embassy statement denouncing the video before the events unfolding in Libya are known to the world.  Late that night, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says in a statement that “some have sought to justify this vicious behavior as a response to inflammatory material posted on the Internet.”

September 12: Media reports that Stevens and three other Americans have been killed in an attack by well-armed militants.  Obama denounces an “outrageous and shocking attack” without mentioning the video or terrorism. Reuters reports for the first time that some administration officials believe the assault “bears the hallmarks of an organized attack.”

September 13: White House spokesman Jay Carney says “the protests we’re seeing around the region are in reaction to this movie.”

September 14: Carney says the administration had “no actionable intelligence” about a pending attack. Also, at the transfer of the remains ceremony Secretary of State Hillary Clinton states in front of the press and families of the murdered Americans, “We’ve seen rage and violence directed at American embassies over an awful internet video that we had nothing to do with.”  President Obama responds to a report there may have been advanced notice of the attack by saying, “I have seen that report, and the story is absolutely wrong. We were not aware of any actionable intelligence indicating that an attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi was planned or imminent. That report is false.”

September 16: Ambassador Susan Rice appears on five Sunday talk shows and says the attacks were provoked by the video.  “Based on the best information we have to date…it began spontaneously in Benghazi as a reaction to what had transpired some hours earlier in Cairo, where, of course, as you know, there was a violent protest outside of our embassy sparked by this hateful video. But soon after that spontaneous protest outside of our consulate in Benghazi,…We do not have information at present that leads us to conclude that this was premeditated or preplanned.”  That same day, interim Libyan president Mohamed Magarief insists on CBS that “it was planned, definitely.”

September 17: State Department spokeswomen Victoria Nuland refuses to call attacks an act of terror.

September 19: National Counterterrorism Center Director Matthew Olsen testifies before the Senate Homeland Security Committee that the assault was a “terrorist attack” but goes on to call it an “opportunistic” attack in which armored militants took advantage of an ongoing protest.

September 20: CBS reports that witnesses in Benghazi say there was no protest prior to the armed assault against the embassy. Obama at a town hall event says: “What we do know is that the natural protests that arose because of the outrage over the video were used as an excuse by extremists to see if they can also directly harm U.S. interests.”  Carney declares it “self-evident that what happened in Benghazi was a terrorist attack.”

September 21: News outlets report that Carney’s statement was the first time White House says it was a terrorist attack.  ABC News, “Carney, for the first time Benghazi named as a terrorist attack; LA Times, “For first time…”; Fox News, “For the first time…”; CNN, “The White House for the first time Thursday declared the attack was…”  Secretary of State Clinton at a meeting with Pakistani Foreign Minister, says “What happened in Benghazi was a terrorist attack.” Highest administration official to say so.

September 25: Obama addresses the U.N. General Assembly, he doesn’t mention terrorism but makes repeated references to the video as the problem.  “A crude and disgusting video sparked outrage throughout the Muslim world.”  This same day on ABC’s “The View,” Obama says “we don’t have all of the information yet so we are still gathering” and blames “extremist militias.”

September 26: Published reports show U.S. Intel agencies and the Obama Administration knew within 24 hours that al-Qaeda affiliated terrorist were involved.  Libya’s president Magarief on NBC’s “Today Show,” states for the second time that “It was a preplanned act of terrorism directed against American citizens.”

September 27: Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta says it’s “clear that there were terrorists who planned that attack.”  The filmmaker for “Innocence of Muslims” Mark Basseley Youseff (aka Nakoula Basseley Nakoula) is arrested and denied bail for “probation violation.”

September 28:  The Director or National Intelligence James R. Clapper, Jr. issues a statement backing the Obama Administration’s changing story about the Libyan attack.  Report says facts were evolving.  It made the first link of the Benghazi attack to the video and then some time after determined it to be a terrorist attack.  Blatantly missing from the report were any dates or times when each of these differing conclusions were derived.  Additionally the same day, three U.S. intelligence officials who spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to speak to the press stated that in monitoring communications from jihadist members they heard some brag about their successful attack against the American consulate in Benghazi – this was within the first 24-hours of the event.

October 1: State Department spokeswomen Victoria Nuland says Clinton stands by Rice after House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Pete King (R-NY) calls for her resignation.

October 2: Carney declines to comment on reported requests from diplomats in Libya for additional security, citing the State Department’s internal investigation.  Hillary Clinton sends letter sighting 13 security threats against U.S. facilities in Libya in preceding 6 months leading up to the terrorist attack.

October 3: FBI investigation team finally arrives at crime scene in Benghazi which has remained unsecured for weeks since the terrorist attack.

October 6: In a letter to Senate Republicans demanding an explanation for the shifting rhetoric, Rice lays the blame on the intelligence community, says she “relied solely and squarely on the information the intelligence community provided to me and other senior U.S. officials.”

October 9: Senior State Department officials for the first time acknowledge that there was never any protest in Benghazi during a background call with reporters.  They say linking the attack to the video was “not our conclusion,” suggesting they’re blaming intelligence officials.

October 10: Lt. Col Andy Wood and Eric Nordstrom testify at a House Oversight Committee hearing on security lapses in Libya.  They say their requests for more security were denied by their superiors in Washington, testimony confirmed by cables made public by Chairman Darrel Issa (R-CA).

October 11:  During the Vice Presidential debate, Biden says, “We weren’t told they wanted more security there.”  He also denies responsibility for the administration’s shifting explanation: “The intelligence community told us that. As they learned more facts about exactly what happened, they changed their assessment.”

October 12: After questions arise, the White House says Biden was only speaking for himself and the president since those decisions are made by the State Department.

October 16: Romney asks President Obama about Benghazi at their second debate.

I will update this story as time progresses but it is certain there is something else going on here – again, why the misleading information coming out of the White House?  Start looking into it and reading the reports and come to your own conclusions – I will be posting mine as time goes by.