REMEMBER THE BENGHAZI FOUR: The Bumper Sticker

From the artisans at The Morlock Revolt:

They're only charging $3.95 a sticker. Order yours today.

A MILLION ISRAELIS HAVE 15 SECONDS TO FIND SHELTER: Any other country would have turned Gaza into the Bonneville Salt Flats

If Hillary Clinton weren't ducking the growing Benghazi scandal enjoying "wine-tastings" in Australia, I'd ask her, Hey, Hill, how's that Arab Spring thingamabob workin' out?"

"If an alarm is sounded, people in southern Israel—1 million people—have 15 seconds to find shelter. I don’t know if any of your governments will accept this reality. I cannot accept this." -- PM Netanyahu

Some simple facts about the ongoing Blitzkrieg from Gaza:

• +120 rockets have been fired at Israel this week.
• +760 rockets have been fired at Israel in 2012.
• +2500 rockets have been fired at Israel since 2009.
• Terrorists hold more than 10,000 rockets in Gaza.
• One million Israelis, 14% of the population, are under the threat of rocket fire.
• That is equivalent to 44 million U.S. citizens under the threat of rocket fire.
• Gaza terrorists targeted an IDF jeep this week, injuring four soldiers. (Video)
• Hamas rules the Gaza strip and is responsible for all that occurs in Gaza and all that is launched form there.
• Hamas, supported by Iran, has wielded authority over the Gaza Strip since 2007.

• No other state would accept a similar reality.
• The targets of the Israeli operation are all military.
• Hamas and the other terrorist organizations hide among the civilian population of Gaza. They also deliberately direct their fire at the civilian population of Israel. These acts constitute a double war crime.
• Israel will make every effort to prevent harm to the civilian population of Gaza, and regrets any injury to civilians.
• The border crossings from Israel to the Gaza Strip remain open, allowing for the routine passage of goods and humanitarian aid.
• The international community must act to stop the attacks on Israel from the Gaza Strip. The message to Hamas should be clear: stop the attacks on Israel.
• Time and again, Israel has warned that it would not tolerate these attacks.

Watch the videos. It's like the Battle of Britain being reenacted in Israel.

If I were commanding the IDF, my calculus would be very simple: we will level block by block, town by town, city by city, until the attacks stop.

No other country on Earth would tolerate a million citizens fleeing for bomb shelters dozens of times per day.

It's time to draw a line in the sand. And if that line happens to be as wide as Gaza, so be it.

WHAT HAPPENED IN BENGHAZI? Michelle Malkin spotted this SUV while driving around today

Via @Roswell2001:

Investors Business Daily asks an intriguing question -- and backs it up: "Was David Petraeus blackmailed by his own government??"

WE KEEP ALL OF THE SCANDALS STRAIGHT SO YOU DON'T HAVE TO: Today's U.S. Foreign Policy Update

Facts:

• The Ambassador to Libya was assassinated on September 11th, along with three other Americans, during a 7-hour running gun-battle

• Iranian fighter jets attempted to shoot down a U.S. aircraft over international waters

• The President's most trusted adviser was sent to Iran to secretly beg the Iranians to come to some kind of an accommodation regarding their nuclear program

• The CIA director provided false testimony under oath to Congress about the nature of the attacks that killed the U.S. Ambassador

• The CIA director was schtupping his biographer and could have been blackmailed by the White House to lie under oath

• For the first time in decades, a Russian nuclear attack submarine skirted the East Coast of the U.S.

• And the White House appears to have been operating a secret rendition prison in Benghazi, in direct violation of the President's own orders

Oh. And one other facet to consider: the background or existence of each of these incidents was carefully and purposefully hidden from the public until after the election.

If the Watergate break-in and the subsequent cover-up by the Nixon administration merited impeachment, these crimes against the American people deserve something far more draconian.

What else is this administration hiding?

TWIN TIMELINE: What was happening in Benghazi and Washington

On October 31st, I heard Newt Gingrich ask for a twin timeline to help illustrate what was happening in Benghazi and in Washington. Newt's wish is my command:

Some interesting observations:

• Hillary Clinton's aspirations for higher office are toast: despite numerous requests for additional security, the State Department adamantly refused each time -- for, what would seem, purely political reasons. Those partisan games cost four Americans their lives.

• The "Internet video" tale was an egregious lie foisted upon the American public by an administration committed to additional spiking of the Bin Laden football -- again, for purely political reasons.

• Methinks any effort to distribute the Bin Laden movie/Obama infomercial before the election will be extremely distasteful for most American.

What are your thoughts?

FAST AND FURIOUS IN BENGHAZI: Timing of Attack Hints at Double-Cross of White House Gun-Running Operation by Turkey

Clare Lopez is an international security consultant at the Centre for Counterintelligence and Security Studies. She is uniquely qualified to analyze the intelligence and defense communities not only through her current professional connections, but also because of her 20-year background with the CIA. She served for 20 years as an operations officer specializing in counterintelligence, counternarcotics, and counterproliferation programs.

Today, writing at RI.org, Lopez spots a very troubling anomaly with the timeline of the Benghazi attack. And, as if there aren't enough unanswered questions about the attacks and the subsequent White House cover-up, her discovery has the potential to implicate Turkish officials in the murders.

...Ambassador Christopher Stevens held his last meeting of the day on September 11 with [a]] Turkish diplomat [Ali Sait Akin] from 7:30pm to 8:30pm and then escorted him out to the compound gate to bid farewell. At that point, the briefing states, “Everything is calm at 8:30 p.m. There’s nothing unusual.”

But the AP witnesses said that, “The neighbors all described the militants setting up checkpoints around the compound at about 8 p.m.” The checkpoints were described as being manned by bearded jihadis in pickup trucks mounted with heavy machine guns and bearing the logo of the Al-Qaeda terror franchise, Ansar al-Shariah.

That means that the Turkish Consul General would have had to pass out through the blockade as he departed the American compound and left the area. There is no record that he phoned a warning to his American colleague, the one he’d just had dinner with, Ambassador Stevens. Given the description of the blockade around the American compound and of the jihadis and their trucks that were manning it, it seems unlikely that the he somehow just failed to notice. “[N]o one could get out or in,” according to one neighbor interviewed by the AP.

Except for the Turkish Consul General, it would appear.

Stevens was a sitting duck, a target surrounded by the jihadist attackers who shortly would take his life and that of his Public Affairs Officer, Sean Smith.

...Similarly, this raises the question of the Libyan gate guards from the "February 17 Martyrs Brigade," the jihadi militia subcontracted by the British firm Blue Mountain, which was the prime contractor for the U.S. Benghazi compound security contract... [T]he Libyans of the Martyrs Brigade surely must have been [aware of the checkpoints]. Yet they provided no warning to the Ambassador and his people either, because again, according to the State Department briefing, the American security officers inside were taken by surprise when the first gunshots and explosions rang out around 9:40 pm...

In other words, the Turkish Consul General met with Stevens -- the discussion topics of which have not been released by the State Department -- and then left the Ambassador, drove safely through a newly-established terrorist checkpoint, and disappeared into the night without warning his colleague.

Lopez asserts that "it is obvious that the Turkish diplomat and by extension, his government, were at least to some degree complicit in the attack against Ambassador Stevens and the others."

What was the subject of the discussion between Stevens and Akin? Malta Today offers some context that hints at some strong possibilities.

A Libyan-flagged vessel which last year was used by a Malta-based humanitarian organisation in supplying a lifeline to rebels in Misurata, has been implicated in a covert US arms smuggling operation to Syrian freedom fighters, which may also be linked to murdered US ambassador Chris Stevens in Benghazi last month.

The ship 'Al Entisar' which was chartered last year by I-Go Aid Libya, then run by businessman Mario Debono, has been reported to be linked to last September's attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi.

A Fox News investigation revealed that shipping records confirmed that the Al Entisar entered the Turkish port of Iskenderun, some 35 miles from the Syrian border, just five days before Ambassador Chris Stevens, and three other US officials were killed during an assault by more than 100 Islamist militants on the US Consulate compound in Benghazi.

Another report, this time appearing on the Times of London, said that the Al Entisar was carrying 400 tons of cargo. Some of it was humanitarian, but also reportedly weapons, described by the report as the largest consignment of weapons headed for Syria's rebels on the frontlines...

...The cargo reportedly included surface-to-air anti-aircraft missiles, RPGs and Russian-designed shoulder-launched missiles known as MANPADS.

The ship's Libyan captain reportedly told the Times of London that "I can only talk about the medicine and humanitarian aid" for the Syrian rebels.

It was reported there was a fight about the weapons and who got what "between the free Syrian Army and the Muslim Brotherhood."

A reasonable person would deduce from these stories that the United States was running weapons (does "Fast and Furious" ring a bell?) from Libya to Syria using Turkey as a go-between. The end result turned out to be a complete disaster -- like everything this administration attempts.

The Libyan weapons likely went to the Muslim Brotherhood and a Turkish diplomat appears to have helped set up the assassination of Ambassador Stevens. We simply don't know whether the government of Turkey itself was involved with the double-cross or whether Akin was a Brotherhood sympathizer who helped set up the attack.

The families of those murdered deserve answers. America deserves answers. And we can start the interrogatory by firing this administration on November 6th and launching a full-scale Congressional investigation. We don't have to take this s*** any more.


Update: Clinton discloses West's effort to help reshape Syria opposition

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Careers Will Be Destroyed by Benghazi

Stanford Fellow Victor Davis Hanson offers a historian's perspective on the catastrophe in Benghazi.

...When the government systematically misleads and cannot establish a believable narrative, almost everyone involved is eventually tarred. The final chart of those officials in the Nixon White House who were devoured by Watergate was vast — and so it is becoming with the disaster in Libya. If we have learned anything from Watergate and Iran-Contra, it is that the longer officials deceive and obfuscate, the greater the number of wrecked careers and reputations...

...Most likely, the political wing of the White House almost immediately made a decision that the attack on our Benghazi consulate should not endanger the conventional narrative of a successful commander-in-chief — ahead in the polls in part because he had highlighted a supposedly successful foreign policy. Key to that story was the notion that the hit on bin Laden and the drone attacks on other Islamists had rendered al-Qaeda all but impotent...

...In such a landscape, Ambassador Stevens and three other Americans were brutally murdered. And almost immediately it was clear that the ambassador had earlier warned that Libya was descending into chaos and that Americans were not safe there — only to have his requests for further protection rejected.

During the actual assault on the consulate, a real-time video, streams of e-mail exchanges, and surveys of Islamist websites confirmed that al-Qaedists were carrying out a preplanned assassination — and over the next seven or eight hours it became clear that our staff was in dire need of military assistance that was somehow never sent. Then for nearly two weeks, the president, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, Press Secretary Jay Carney, and U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice advanced a counter-narrative that simply could not have been true: A spontaneous demonstration over a two-month-old video — just happening to coincide with the anniversary of 9/11 — got out of hand as some disruptive protesters showed up with machines gun, mortars, and RPGs and began killing Americans. Since it was an American religious bigot who had prompted such terrible but “natural” riots with his video that ridiculed and injured Islam, we should apologize for the uncouth among us in the strongest terms.

Obama, Clinton, Clapper, Rice, and Carney strove to outdo each other in damning the obscure video maker — to such an extent that he was summarily arrested on a supposedly outstanding probation charge. The message? Ambassadors die and careful U.S. foreign policy is undermined when right-wing bigots abuse their free-speech rights...

Hanson's next column should deal with the historic malfeasance of old media, a wholly owned subsidiary of the federal government.


Hat tip: Ame.

NO INVESTIGATION NECESSARY: 10 Questions President Obama Can Answer Himself

I'm not much of a fan of the Weekly Standard or its editor Bill Kristol, but his Ten Questions for the White House is getting a lot of play -- and rightfully so:

...it should be possible to answer these simple questions as to what the president did that afternoon and evening, and when he did it, simply by consulting White House meeting and phone records, and asking the president for his recollections.

1.) To whom did the president give the first of his "three very clear directives"—that is, "make sure that we are securing our personnel and doing whatever we need to?"

2.) How did he transmit this directive to the military and other agencies?

3.) During the time when Americans were under attack, did the president convene a formal or informal meeting of his national security council? Did the president go to the situation room?

4.) During this time, with which members of the national security team did the president speak directly?

5.) Did Obama speak by phone or teleconference with the combatant commanders who would have sent assistance to the men under attack?

6.) Did he speak with CIA director David Petraeus?

7.) Was the president made aware of the repeated requests for assistance from the men under attack? When and by whom?

8.) Did he issue any directives in response to these requests?

9.) Did the president refuse to authorize an armed drone strike on the attackers?

10.) Did the president refuse to authorize a AC-130 or MC-130 to enter Libyan airspace during the attack?

THE WEEKLY STANDARD has asked the White House these questions, and awaits a response.

As an aside, wouldn't it be great if we had a functioning antique media?

IMPLOSION: Obama fumbles local reporter's Benghazi question; CIA director throws President under bus

When confronted with a local reporter's pointed questions regarding Benghazi, President Obama fumbled his response and inadvertently provided a few clues into the timing and the cover-up.

KYLE CLARK: Were they denied requests for help during the attack?

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, we are finding out exactly what happened. I can tell you, as I've said over the last couple of months since this happened, the minute I found out what was happening, I gave three very clear directives. Number one, make sure that we are securing our personnel and doing whatever we need to. Number two, we're going to investigate exactly what happened so that it doesn't happen again. Number three, find out who did this so we can bring them to justice. And I guarantee you that everyone in the state department, our military, the CIA, you name it, had number one priority making sure that people were safe. These were our folks and we're going to find out exactly what happened, but what we're also going to do it make sure that we are identifying those who carried out these terrible attacks.

Last night, attorney Mark Levin deconstructed Obama's response as follows:

• ...the minute I found out what was happening, I gave three very clear directives...

Note that this is stated in the present tense. The president found out about the attack while it was happening.

• ...make sure that we are securing our personnel and doing whatever we need to...

Well, sir, what orders did you give? Were they disobeyed? Did you receive requests for help? Notice that the president carefully avoided the reporter's actual question (lesson for vintage media: this is what your predecessors actually used to do) about whether calls for help were refused.

• ...Number two, we're going to investigate exactly what happened so that it doesn't happen again...

So during the attack, you clearly ordered an "investigation"? Does that make sense to anyone?

• ...Number three, find out who did this so we can bring them to justice...

So while the attack was occurring, you want to find out who was attacking and arrest them? Again, does this make any sense at all?

Late last night, CIA Director Petraeus absolved the agency of blame:

Breaking news on Benghazi: the CIA spokesman, presumably at the direction of CIA director David Petraeus, has put out this statement: “No one at any level in the CIA told anybody not to help those in need; claims to the contrary are simply inaccurate.”

Put simply, Petraeus has handed the hot potato to President Obama.

Now let's examine the president's schedule on 9/11/12:

According to the official White House record, Obama, Biden and SECDEF Panetta were meeting approximately one hour after the Benghazi attack began.

Time for some answers, Mr. President, and we don't have to wait for the results of an "investigation" to hear your responses:

1. When did you first receive word of the Benghazi attacks?

2. Did you receive requests for help from those on-scene and, if so, when?

3. What orders did you issue, if any, after receiving word of the attacks and when did you issue them?

4. Within two hours of the attack, your own schedule indicates you were meeting with the Vice President and the Secretary of Defense. Did you discuss Benghazi and, if so, what information did you receive and what orders did you issue in that meeting?

5. There have been no White House press briefings for more than a week. Why?

Levin believes that the president received word immediately of the attacks and, whether through fear of the political ramifications or simple indecision (akin to voting "present"), watched as Americans were slaughtered as they begged for help.

And then he headed to Vegas for a fundraiser.

There are, of course, other theories worth exploring.

BENGHAZI-GATE: Did two heroic SEALs ruin Obama's October Surprise? [UPDATED!]

Please see critical updates below
It's a conspiracy theory, to be sure, but "Kozy" asserts the Benghazi attack was an "October Surprise" gone awry thanks to two SEALs who weren't even supposed to be in Benghazi.

The scenario is both simple and plausible:

• In June, Egyptian President Morsi pledged to secure the release of 'The Blind Sheikh', the extremist cleric responsible for the first World Trade Center attack.

• Eager to accommodate Morsi and strengthen the U.S. relationship with Egypt, Obama's henchmen formulate a two-step cover story. The first step is a video that no one has seen, which was released in July.

• Next, strip security from the Libyan Ambassador, despite pleas from a variety of quarters for more security, not less. In essence, remove any barriers to using the Ambassador as a hostage.

• Back-channel communications between the White House and the Imam's legal representatives confirm that a swap can be achieved with a high-level hostage exchange. The Imam's cronies are informed that Ambassador Stevens has no security in Benghazi. So the Imam can be secured through a trade after capturing Stevens who doesn't even have a single bodyguard.

• Had all gone according to plan, Stevens would be released just before the election; Obama would take credit for that and a newly strengthened relationship with Egypt and Morsi.

• But what wasn't planned: two ex-SEALs named Doherty and Woods. They only happened to be in Benghazi because they were on a separate intel mission to locate surface-to-air missiles.

So the terrorists launch their attack believing that there is no security whatsoever. And they are surprised to find that two SEALs are not only fighting back, but killing them left and right. The resulting firefight transforms the terrorists' assault from a simple kidnapping into a murderous onslaught that cost all four Americans their lives.

Sure, it's a crazy, right-wing conspiracy theory. But add in the following observations:

• Repeated denials for more security in Benghazi, despite requests from multiple quarters. No credible explanation has been offered for the removal of security by the White House or the State Department.

• Leading up to 9/11 -- of all dates -- there was no special security posture ordered in diplomatic installations around the Middle East.

• After the attack, a series of conflicting and morphing stories were offered by, among others, Ambassador Susan Rice, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Jay Carney, David Axelrod, Joe Biden, etc.

• Not only did the president go to sleep after getting word of the attack, but it appears he also refused security briefings in the aftermath of the attack, instead simply departing for a fundraiser in Las Vegas.

The theory being: the President didn't need to stay awake after hearing of the attack. He didn't need any briefings. He knew exactly what had happened.

Update 10/17/12: An alert commenter reminds of this bit of evidence, translated from Arabic by Walid Shoebat:

Video from Libya: ‘Don’t Shoot us! We were sent by Mursi’

Fast forward to the 1:15 mark in this video (if you don’t understand Arabic). Watch as the raw footage of a firefight in Benghazi is taking place. The news report loops the relevant portion of an exchange between gunmen, in which one can be heard, saying, ‘Don’t Shoot us! We were sent by Mursi’!

But, no. This is just some kind of crazy, whacked-out conspiracy theory. There's got to be a much better explanation for the Obama administration's removal of all of Ambassador Stevens' security, despite multiple pleas for more security. We just don't know what it is yet.

Update 10/26/12: Jennifer Griffin of Fox News reports that the SEAL operators were ordered to "Stand down" during the attack!

EXCLUSIVE: CIA operators were denied request for help during Benghazi attack, sources say

Fox News has learned from sources who were on the ground in Benghazi that an urgent request from the CIA annex for military back-up during the attack on the U.S. Consulate and subsequent attack several hours later was denied by officials in the CIA chain of command -- who also told the CIA operators twice to "stand down" rather than help the ambassador's team when shots were heard at approximately 9:40 p.m. in Benghazi on Sept. 11...

...Former Navy SEALs Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty were part of a small team who were at the CIA annex about a mile from the U.S. Consulate where Ambassador Chris Stevens and his team came under attack. When they heard the shots fired, they radioed to inform their higher-ups to tell them what they were hearing and requested permission to go to the consulate and help out. They were told to "stand down," according to sources familiar with the exchange. An hour later, they called again to headquarters and were again told to "stand down."

...[At midnight,] they called again for military support and help because they were taking fire at the CIA safe house, or annex. The request was denied. There were no communications problems at the annex, according those present at the compound. The team was in constant radio contact with their headquarters. In fact, at least one member of the team was on the roof of the annex manning a heavy machine gun when mortars were fired at the CIA compound. The security officer had a laser on the target that was firing and repeatedly requested back-up support from a Specter gunship, which is commonly used by U.S. Special Operations forces to provide support to Special Operations teams on the ground involved in intense firefights. The fighting at the CIA annex went on for more than four hours -- enough time for any planes based in Sigonella Air base, just 480 miles away, to arrive. Fox News has also learned that two separate Tier One Special operations forces were told to wait, among them Delta Force operators...

Read the whole thing. The Benghazi story gets more bizarre -- and more troubling -- by the day.


Hat tips: Wanda and MOTUS.

CLINTON LAWYER: Obama Rejected Hillary's Request for Additional Benghazi Security

Methinks the ongoing Clinton-Obama war just entered a new and more dangerous phase.

...Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had ordered more security at the U.S. mission in Benghazi before it was attacked... but President Obama denied the request.

The news broke on Blaze TV's Wilkow Show by best-selling author Ed Klein, who said... legal counsel to Clinton had informed him of this information.

Klein also said that those same sources said that former President Bill Clinton has been "urging" his wife [Hillary] to release official State Department documents that prove she called for additional security at the compound in Libya, which would almost certainly result in President Obama losing the election.

Klein explained that everyone knew what was happening in Benghazi... Wilkow asked, "If everybody knew this including the White House, who would have given the order to go in and save the ambassador?"

Klein: "The President... he should have given the order to use the rapid reaction force…"

Wilkow: "Not Petraeus?"

Klein: "Well it has to come from the president."

Wilkow also asked Klein about Valerie Jarrett, who's the Senior Adviser to Obama and... her role in this cover-up.

Klein said, "We don’t know but we can only assume that every action that the president takes, and he said so, he is on the record saying “I don’t take any actions without passing it by Valerie Jarrett... so we have to assume that Valerie Jarrett who is also by the way, hooked into the Chicago campaign line... she has a direct line to David Axelrod, was a part of this whole cover-up in the White House."

This latest news comes on the heels [of news] that former CIA officer, Clare Lopez[, who] was a guest on the Glenn Beck TV on Monday evening... told Beck, "They let our ambassador and others die. In real time, watching it happen, and they didn't do anything about it."

My stomach was boiling as I read the Benghazi timeline -- during which Americans fought for six hours before succumbing -- while the White House Situation Room watched... and did nothing.

MOM OF BENGHAZI ATTACK VICTIM RIPS OBAMA'S COMEDY CENTRAL RIFF: Four Dead Americans "Not Optimal"

It would seem that the only things President Obama concerns himself with are politics and personal recreational pursuits. You know, like golf and pickup basketball.

These facts were reinforced by Obama's latest appearance on The Daily Show, during which he described the Benghazi attack -- that claimed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three American personnel by Al Qaeda -- as "not optimal".

The mother of an American diplomat killed during a terrorist raid on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi has hit out at Barack Obama for describing the attack as 'not optimal', saying: 'My son is not very optimal - he is also very dead.'

During an interview shown on Comedy Central, Obama responded to a question about his administration's confused communication after the assault by saying: 'If four Americans get killed, it’s not optimal... It was a disrespectful thing to say and I don't think it's right.

'How can you say somebody being killed is not very optimal? I don't think the President has the right idea of the English language.'

Speaking from her home in San Diego, Mrs Smith, 72, continued: 'It's insensitive to say my son is not very optimal - he is also very dead. I've not been "optimal" since he died and the past few weeks have been pure hell... I am still waiting for the truth to come out and I still want to know the truth. I'm finally starting to get some answers but I won't give up... There's a lot of stupid things that have been said about my son and what happened and this is another one of them.

...She told Anderson Cooper last week that top officials had told her 'outright lies', adding: 'Everyone of them, all the big shots over there told me - they promised me, they promised me that they would tell me what happened... I told them, please don't give me any baloney that comes through with this political stuff... I don't want political stuff. You can keep your political, just tell me the truth - what happened. And I still don't know.'

Plain and simple: it's a cover-up. The CIA has stated that it informed the Administration within 24 hours that the murder of the four Americans was an act of terror. Yet three days later, the President began his lies about the video being responsible.

"Fog of War", my ass.

As an aside, the prime suspect in the Benghazi attack is hanging around publicly in restaurants, chilling, shooting the breeze and mocking America.

I will say it again: my blood is boiling. This administration needs to go.

BENGHAZI, ILLUSTRATED: The debate, the lies and the cover-up

I've converted this devastating video into comic book form so even progressives can understand.

Click here to share this link with your email list.

HILLARY TRIES TO THROW HERSELF UNDER THE BENGHAZI BUS: Says She Was Responsible For Diplomats' Security

Gee, you mean the Secretary of State is responsible for the State Department? Well, I'll be damned.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday tried to douse a political firestorm around the deadly assault on a U.S. diplomatic mission in Libya, saying she is responsible for the security of American diplomatic outposts.

"I take responsibility" for the protection of U.S. diplomats, Clinton said during a visit to Peru. But she said an investigation now under way will ultimately determine what happened in the attack that left four Americans dead.

The attack on the night of September 11 killed Chris Stevens, the U.S. ambassador to Libya, and three other Americans at the American consulate in Benghazi.

The Obama administration has been heavily criticized after Vice President Joe Biden said during last week's vice presidential debate that the White House did not know of requests to enhance security at Benghazi, contradicting testimony by State Department employees that requests had been made and rejected. After the debate, the White House said the vice president did not know of the requests because they were handled, as is the practice, by the State Department.

Clinton said President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden are not involved in security decisions... "I want to avoid some kind of political gotcha," she added, noting that it is close to the election.

"Political gotcha"?

An Ambassador is dead and the administration trotted out a series of lies from the outset. And the key questions remain unanswered:

• Who ordered security removed from Ambassador Stevens when he and other personnel were requesting more security?

• Who made up the story about the video and the non-protest in Libya?

• And why were the false stories promoted for weeks on end?

Four Americans are dead and more than a month has elapsed during which the administration has lied, evaded and misdirected. Perhaps a few of these questions will be asked in in the remaining presidential debates. Dare to dream.

HEY, EVERYTHING'S JUST SUPER BETWEEN THE CLINTONS AND OBAMA: At least, according to the Administration Press

Some AP propagandist-in-training named "Andrew Miga" (if that is his real name) was apparently instructed to push back against reports of open and escalating warfare between the Clintons and the White House.

Which is how piece of dreck came to be posted about an hour ago on the AP wire.

Bill Clinton's back in the campaign game big time

...The Obama campaign said Saturday it was pairing Clinton with another heavyweight, rocker Bruce Springsteen, at a rally this coming Thursday in Ohio, one of the most pivotal states.

Obama himself has cracked that he should appoint Clinton "secretary of explaining stuff." ... The lighthearted tone and determined cooperation between Obama and Clinton is hard-won and may not end with the 2012 campaign.

...If Obama has Bill Clinton to thank for a second term, one way to pay back the debt could be Obama's support for a Hillary Clinton campaign of the future.

Among voters generally, Bill Clinton is more appealing than Obama. A CBS News/New York Times poll in September found 66 percent of registered voters with a favorable view of Clinton, compared with 45 percent for Obama. ... Clinton rocketed out of the party's convention in Charlotte, N.C., last month energized by the massive crowd's roaring reaction to his partly ad-libbed call to arms. Clinton plunged into a two-day swing in Florida and has since added stops for Obama in a string of political battlegrounds.

During one recent week, Clinton:

• joined Obama at a meeting with about a dozen supporters at a private residence in Los Angeles.
• hosted a fundraiser with about 160 people who bought tickets starting at $1,000.
• spoke at a rally for four northern California Democrats in tight House races.
• was in Nevada for a rally for Obama and Democratic Senate candidate Shelley Berkley.
• was at Arizona State University rally with Democratic Senate candidate Richard Carmona.
• then came stops in Iowa and Indiana for more rallies with Senate and congressional candidates as well as fundraising events.

He's expected to keep up the pace until Election Day, Nov. 6... All told, Clinton has appeared at no fewer than 32 fundraisers and 15 rallies for Obama. One big-ticket reception at a private New York City residence with Clinton last June drew 47 people who paid $40,000 apiece.

...Some Democrats fret Clinton could overshadow Obama. A Pew Research Center poll last month showed 29 percent of those surveyed said Clinton's convention speech was the highlight of the party gathering, while just 16 percent called Obama's speech the highlight.

But there's no hiding the Clinton magic during an election year.

And there's no hiding the spin of an Associated Press "news" article during an election year!

When I think of Bill Clinton, I don't think of magic. I think of a convicted, impeached perjurer who sexually abused a series of women including an intern in the White House, opening himself up for blackmail, thereby putting the entire country at risk.

But this is the AP we're talking about; they'd find themselves quite at home covering Chavez, Castro and North Korea's bloated dictator, whatever the hell his name is.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

OH, IT'S ON: Open Warfare Breaks Out Between the White House and the Clinton Clan

How else can one describe the escalating rhetoric bouncing between the State Department and the White House, each volley intended to duck blame for the Benghazi terror attack?

White House throws Hillary under the 2012 bus

The White House is throwing Hillary Clinton under the 2012 election bus... Top officials have already claimed the nation’s intelligence agencies did not alert the White House to the growing danger facing the State Department’s facility in Benghazi, Libya, which was destroyed Sept. 11 by a jihadi attack on the 11th anniversary of the atrocities in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

The claim was repeated Oct. 11 by Vice President Joe Biden during the vice presidential debate in Danville, Ky. “We weren’t told they wanted more security,” he announced. [And] Ben Rhodes, President Barack Obama’s deputy national security adviser for communications, extended the claim Oct. 11 by telling told Foreign Policy magazine that neither Biden nor President Barack Obama knew of the growing danger.

...“These kinds of issues are handling in the State Department by security officials,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said during Friday’s press briefing... Security matters “are decided at the State Department,” he said, amid tough questioning from Fox News Channel’s Ed Henry.

The White House’s statements leaves Hillary Clinton on the hook, because she runs the Department of State.

How are Bill and Hillary dealing with this sellout? Not well, according to bestselling author Ed Klein.

As Benghazi blame nears Hillary, Clintons grow furious

With tensions between President Obama and the Clintons at a new high, former President Bill Clinton is moving fast to develop a contingency plan for how his wife, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, should react if Obama attempts to tie the Benghazi fiasco around her neck, according to author Ed Klein...

...sources close to the Clintons tell him that Bill Clinton has assembled an informal legal team to discuss how the Secretary of State should deal with the issue of being blamed for not preventing the Benghazi terrorist attack last month.

White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters during a press conference Friday that responsibility for the consulate in Libya fell on the State Department, not the White House...

If blame for the security failures falls to Hillary Clinton, Klein said, it’s possible that she would even consider resigning over the issue...

Klein also noted that the famously troubled Obama-Clinton relationship has "reached a new low" with Joe Biden's refusal to have Bill Clinton help guide the gaffe-master's debate strategy.

That thumping noise you heard was Hillary Clinton going under the bus.

QUICK QUIZ: Are you cut out to be Secretary of State?

Which would you choose?
A. Security for the Libyan Ambassador
B. Chevy Volts for Berlin

If you answered B, you could replace Hillary Clinton!

In a May 3, 2012, email, the State Department denied a request by a group of Special Forces assigned to protect the U.S. embassy in Libya to continue their use of a DC- 3 airplane for security operations throughout the country.

The subject line of the email, on which slain Ambassador Chris Stevens was copied, read: “Termination of Tripoli DC-3 Support.”

Four days later, on May 7, the State Department authorized the U.S. embassy in Vienna to purchase a $108,000 electric vehicle charging station for the embassy motor pool’s new Chevrolet Volts.

Madness. Sheer madness.


Image: Right Wing News.

Nice Benghazis!

Duane at LibertyNews calls this 'the image o' the day':

The Clinton clan is, if nothing else, highly entertaining.

EXCLUSIVE PHOTO: President Obama, Attorney General Holder and Secretary of State Clinton Announce Arrest of Blasphemer

The producer of the anti-Islam film "The Innocence of Muslims" was arrested in Los Angeles Thursday.

For "probation violations", of course, in a hearing closed to the media and public.

We have our marching orders, you and I: the president himself announced at the United Nations this week that "The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam.."

First Amendment? Never heard of it.

Tammy Bruce Recaps Mitt Romney's Horrible, Horrible Week

Did I say "Mitt Romney"? My mistake. I meant "Barack Obama's stuttering cluster foxtrot of a miserable week." The highlights?

• Historical Analysis Shows Every President Below 50% in Mid-September in the Gallup Poll Has Lost the Election... Obama at 48%.

• Romney Beating Obama Among Middle Class Voters By 14 Point Margin

• Highlight Reel from Obama’s Disastrous 60 Minutes Interview

• Carney Asked Why Obama Has No Meetings At UN, Says He Has “No Details”

• Los Angeles Times: Obama meets with ‘The View,’ no foreign leaders during U.N. assembly

• Chuck Todd: “Odd” That Obama Won’t Meet With Foreign Leaders At UN

• Axelrod Admits Obama Doesn’t Have a Plan to Keep Social Security from Going Broke

• Obama’s Cutter: Women “Not Really Concerned” About “What’s Happened Over The Last Four Years”

• Obama Campaign Finally Ditches Faux Flag

The fail is strong with this one.

Despite the best efforts of Sixties media, the hard-left Democrat Party is in full meltdown mode. The economy is a disaster and the Middle East is in flames. No amount of spin and cover-ups can prevent the truth from reaching the electorate.

Read the whole thing.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.