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Acting on Intel, Secret and Otherwise
by Steve White

You will enjoy the article, What Did He Know and When Did He Know It? The Shadow Knows... at the source. Michael Ledeen, the respected foreign analyst at the National Review and PJ Media, nails it -- rather, James Jesus Angleton nails it and Ledeen just channels.

Mr. Ledeen's first point is so obvious that it needs to be amplified over and again, and I shall do so here. The whole point of intelligence work, government-gathered and otherwise, is to understand the world around you so that you make good decisions. Not all the intel required to understand a situation is gathered in secret: some of it is right in front of you. As but one example:
  • al-Qaeda hates us. Right in front of us.
  • Libya, particularly Benghazi, was increasingly dangerous. Check.
  • A lot of hard boyz in Benghazi hate us infidels. Of course.
  • The locally-hired coppe shoppe was unreliable. Indeed.
  • Amb. Stevens was too obvious and open in his movements. Yes.
  • He had an inadequate security team. You got it.
  • And it was the anniversary of 9/11. Right there on the calendar.
How much 'secret' intel did President Champ and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta need that day?

Answer: not much.

And how much more intel did they need once the attack commenced and the images from the drone were being beamed back to the White House?

Mr. Ledeen thinks Champ refused to order a rescue because the President was afraid of a failure, of a downed AC-130, of more dead Americans, of a catastrophe just before the election.

Mr. Ledeen is wrong. I know the reason why, and I shall tell you:

Champ was afraid. Period. He couldn't and wouldn't make a decision because he was paralyzed by fear. He is, deep down inside, a coward. He's never made a decision in which failure could come back to hurt him. He refused to make one this time.

Two SEAL guys ran towards the sound of gunfire.

Our president ran to catch a plane to Vegas.
Posted by: Steve White 2012-10-31
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=355054