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2012-10-28 Africa North
Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer: My sources tell me Obama was in the room watching Benghazi attack
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Posted by Au Auric 2012-10-28 01:35|| E-Mail|| Front Page|| [336072 views ]  Top

#1 Brave statement by Lt Col Shaffer ... that press release will likely cost him his job in the military.
Posted by Raider 2012-10-28 10:28||   2012-10-28 10:28|| Front Page Top

#2 ..said tonight that his sources tell him..

If that is good enough for one Senator Reid, it's good enough for Tony.
Posted by Procopius2k 2012-10-28 10:37||   2012-10-28 10:37|| Front Page Top

#3 I believe Shaffer is a reserve officer. He's made a personal, life-long campaign of taking on military related cover-ups and issues like Benghazi. If he were an active component officer, his career would have been toast long ago.

There is no doubt in my mind that those pred feeds of Benghazi, and anything else available was piped into the White House situation room.
Posted by Besoeker 2012-10-28 11:08||   2012-10-28 11:08|| Front Page Top

#4 ...IF this is true - I do not see how this CAN'T be an impeachable offense. On the other hand - and I have to speak my mind here - a great deal of what I'm reading about this doesn't quite make sense for me. If there was a Spectre ready to go, fragged jets twenty minutes out, Predators on site, and people on the ground lighting up targets, then why were they all there in the first place? That's a level of preparedness and force that we were completely unwilling to display during the revolution there, but now that everything is hunky-dory on the ground we're ready to punch holes in Libya?

Looked at with all that in mind, this whole thing gets far far worse. You think things are bad now? If President Obama is hiding some kind of op there, it will come out...and he will be as crippled for a second term as Nixon was, except President Obama will not find the decency to resign. And while he spends four years in the bunker, the world will find a way to take advantage of it.

And frankly, a President Romney will do nothing to investigate it.

Mike
Posted by Mike Kozlowski 2012-10-28 11:21||   2012-10-28 11:21|| Front Page Top

#5 Mike:

Do you remember the Maersk Alabama incident in April 2009 when the skipper of the USS Halyburton ordered snipers on his ship take out terrorists and did so with headshots? While the Commanding Officer of that ship was given authorization to initiate necessary measures as he deemed appropriate, the angst in the administration and the liberal media was Palpable.

Following this incident, I suspect a review of the Rules of Engagement (ROE) was soon undertaken. There is a vast difference between "authorizing assistance" and deligating authorization for local commanders to initiate or return hostile fire.

When slain heroes Doherty and Woods requested authorization to assist trapped mission personnel, it was denied. They were allegedly ordered to "Stand Down". My guess is, whomever they contacted knew that had already engaged the terrorist with smallarms fire and did NOT want any further hostile contact. It would only follow that this order would have reflected National Command and White House directives.

Posted by Besoeker 2012-10-28 11:50||   2012-10-28 11:50|| Front Page Top

#6 Valerie Jarrett no doubt told Zero not to authorize action
Posted by Frank G 2012-10-28 11:53||   2012-10-28 11:53|| Front Page Top

#7 And don't forget -- the news ran that day about the Cairo embassy being overrun and an Al Queda flag replaced our American flag. (Alto it didn't get much coverage because Romney had that day held a press conference and condemned the Caior embassy for "apologizing" for the video, the first we knew or heard of the infameous video whose maker is still in jail for a probation violence and not scheduled for court until 3 days after the elctions --)

As a civilian, I do hope that incident had already placed our military on ready alert.........

But what was the news for three days? On Sept 12, Obama: Romney shoots first, aims later.
Posted by Sherry 2012-10-28 11:58||   2012-10-28 11:58|| Front Page Top

#8 I would be shocked to discover that our military would not have been ready to meet this 9/11 challenge. I can only speculate, but I suspect (again suspect), that Tier 1/2 SOF personnel were orbiting at high-altitude awaiting the order to infiltrate the consulate compound.
Posted by Besoeker 2012-10-28 12:07||   2012-10-28 12:07|| Front Page Top

#9 Judge Jeanine Pirro asks What were Ty Woods last words? According to Lt. Col Shaffer, "I thought they would come."

Not military, but that statement must be brewing in the minds of every military and foreign service people who are serving.
Posted by Sherry 2012-10-28 12:08||   2012-10-28 12:08|| Front Page Top

#10 I wonder if anybody in Washington had the balls to tell our guys on the ground that help was not coming. And how do I get a copy of that recording?
Posted by Matt 2012-10-28 12:13||   2012-10-28 12:13|| Front Page Top

#11 Comments and body language of POTUS and Clinton to the families of Woods and Doherty at Dover says it all. It will all come out after the election.
Posted by Besoeker 2012-10-28 12:27||   2012-10-28 12:27|| Front Page Top

#12 Had never watch Judge J until last Saturday night. Was channel hopping and landed on her interview with 3 former intelligence operators, one was Lt. Col Shaffer.... on procedural happenings when that first "flash" message went out about an attack on Ambassador Stevens.

She must have been an outstanding lawyer -- she gets answers.

Fox didn't post it, I emailed her asking for it. She responded with she was working on it.. it's still not up.

It gave me some of the feelings you military/intelligence people must be feeling.
Posted by Sherry 2012-10-28 12:35||   2012-10-28 12:35|| Front Page Top

#13 What a sorry tale.

I know what it tastes like to be let down like this through politics, and yes, by the US of A, it doesn't taste good. Leaves a REAL bad feeling of betrayal for a LONG time afterwards...for the politicos. They just go on to greater things and never answer for it.

(Hey, if Joe can use caps, so can I).
Posted by Solomon Protector of the Texans5923 2012-10-28 12:37||   2012-10-28 12:37|| Front Page Top

#14 What happened? My bet at this point is that no one ever denied them assistance. Every body was tee'd up and ready to go on order. The order never came. In fact the non-order was hold on until we get authorization to proceed. I suspect Ham and Leading provided the kind of verbal feedback we would all deem appropriate and that is why they are being relieved. Panetta will self-subbus when the investigations begins after the election. But everyone will know Barry choked on the big one. If he wins, his term may begin with impeachment talk.
Posted by Nimble Spemble 2012-10-28 12:54||   2012-10-28 12:54|| Front Page Top

#15 Reportedly Woods and Doherty helped 20-30 DOS people get out of harms way. Interviews of those people together with reporting on Ham and Leading relief could make the twice delayed Fox special on this topic enough to get this into the MSM. It was ignored on every talking head show this morning, though I expect Wallace to do a segment as a tease for the special.
Posted by Nimble Spemble 2012-10-28 13:14||   2012-10-28 13:14|| Front Page Top

#16 Maybe he got confused and there was an empty chair in the room?
Posted by Bright Pebbles 2012-10-28 14:13||   2012-10-28 14:13|| Front Page Top

#17 BP that is a snark award for the day in my opinion.
Ataboy/girl/misc, I think I got that covered.
Posted by Dale 2012-10-28 14:18||   2012-10-28 14:18|| Front Page Top

#18 On a less humorous note...

Some things about this JUST DON'T ADD UP.

The only things I can think of that would require this level of cover-up have the initials NBC (and we're not talking TV stations).
Posted by Bright Pebbles 2012-10-28 14:22||   2012-10-28 14:22|| Front Page Top

#19  Reportedly Woods and Doherty helped 20-30 DOS people get out of harms way.

I guess since we are not 'at war' in Libya they are not eligable for the Medal of Honor, but they certainly deserve something.
Posted by Glenmore 2012-10-28 14:31||   2012-10-28 14:31|| Front Page Top

#20 Marcus Luttrell, when he posted about his fellow SEALs said they took a lot of bad guys down with them.

I read somewhere, and who knows if true, it was something like 60 bad guys down.
Posted by Sherry 2012-10-28 15:13||   2012-10-28 15:13|| Front Page Top

#21 Sherry,

I can't find a news orgaqnization quoting that figure, but I did read it here
Posted by Nimble Spemble 2012-10-28 15:26||   2012-10-28 15:26|| Front Page Top

#22 Glenmore, we do not have to be at war with someone in order to award the Medal of Honor. Randy Shughart and Gary Gordon were awarded the MOH at the Battle of Mogadishu (Blackhawk Down). We were not at war with Somalia.

The issue is that Woods and Doherty were former SEALs. HOWEVER, Congress could easily pass a resolution to waive the rules in their case. I plan to write my Congressional representatives to urge them to pass just such a resolution. I urge you to do so as well.

See this story to read about the true heroism these men showed.
Posted by Rambler in Virginia 2012-10-28 15:38||   2012-10-28 15:38|| Front Page Top

#23 Thanks, Nimble -- that's where I read it also -- just couldn't remember where (I've read much)
Posted by Sherry 2012-10-28 15:54||   2012-10-28 15:54|| Front Page Top

#24 The Baier special didn't really have any new information, though there was a good timeline of the attack. No confirmation of 20-30 people rescued or 60 attackers killed. Without new information, this story will be swamped by Sandy.
Posted by Nimble Spemble 2012-10-28 16:09||   2012-10-28 16:09|| Front Page Top

#25 Woods and Doherty were former SEALs

I guess that means they were just murderers of those Libyans, and if they had survived, they'd have been turned over to the government for prosecution.
Posted by Glenmore 2012-10-28 16:15||   2012-10-28 16:15|| Front Page Top

#26 Speaking of reading, I just read this at PowerLine:

Tom Lipscomb writes:
lighting up that laser gave away the Seals’ position the same way using tracer ammo does at night.


Then:

I have an alternate explanation. Our guys were getting pounded by deadly accurate mortar fire, and while they knew there weren’t any aircraft coming, the terrorists didn’t, but the terrorists did know if any were around that laser target indication was a death sentence.

So our team risked using the laser target indicator to try to force the mortar team to MOVE…. causing them a delay of up to an hour needed to break down the mortar, reseat the base plate somewhere they didn’t get hit with the laser and re-lay the mortar and fire a few test rounds…. which might have bought our guys some time to get some help. Remember, the attack stopped a little over an hour later at dawn. They might have made it.

It was worth trying.
Posted by Sherry 2012-10-28 16:16||   2012-10-28 16:16|| Front Page Top

#27 Rather than trying to play whack-a-mole with all these conflicting stories, in the absence of new information I'm just going to assume that everyone involved in the process -- Champ, Panetta, Hilly, on down to the generals-- is a lying, incompetent sack of shit who ought to be investigated by Congress. If they want me to change my mind, they can tell me what really happened.

By the way, what does this episode tell us about how the "National Command Authority" functions? If in seven hours they can't figure out what to do about a firefight in Libya, what are they going to do if a Chinese missile lands in Tokyo? How do they decide whether to have red wine or white at dinner?
Posted by Matt 2012-10-28 16:19||   2012-10-28 16:19|| Front Page Top

#28 Re: #25 Glenmore, you forgot the /sarcasm tag
Posted by Rambler in Virginia 2012-10-28 16:55||   2012-10-28 16:55|| Front Page Top

#29 One comment on a news chan about 3am by a man who was presented as very recent ex-CIA: 15,000 Russian Man Pads disappeared from our storehouse in Benghazi after the fire fights.
Posted by Water Modem 2012-10-28 17:46||   2012-10-28 17:46|| Front Page Top

#30 What, you don't think this "government" would have turned them over to the Libyans for prosecution, Rambler? :-(
Posted by Barbara 2012-10-28 17:52||   2012-10-28 17:52|| Front Page Top

#31 And when those manpads kill an American airliner, they're going to Hint and Allegate that the Republican "let it happen."
Posted by Thing From Snowy Mountain 2012-10-28 17:52||   2012-10-28 17:52|| Front Page Top

#32 Amen Matt.
Posted by Thing From Snowy Mountain 2012-10-28 17:56||   2012-10-28 17:56|| Front Page Top

#33 Even Jon Stewart "gets it"
American Terror Story
Posted by tipper 2012-10-28 18:10||   2012-10-28 18:10|| Front Page Top

#34 A number of Bloggers are opining that the Bammer Admin had Gen. Ham + the USS "STENNIS" CO relieved from their respective commands oer Benghazi???
Posted by JosephMendiola 2012-10-28 19:54||   2012-10-28 19:54|| Front Page Top

#35 The story about the sa7's is what this whole fight was about. It will slowly get out. The big question is where are they? Who has them now and where?
Posted by 49 pan 2012-10-28 22:27||   2012-10-28 22:27|| Front Page Top

23:47 newc
23:37 JosephMendiola
23:32 JosephMendiola
23:25 JosephMendiola
23:22 746
23:18 JosephMendiola
23:17 746
23:16 Raider
23:16 746
22:58 JosephMendiola
22:49 gromky
22:32 Eric Jablow
22:29 49 pan
22:27 49 pan
21:32 Iblis
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21:21 trailing wife
20:33 Sherry
20:23 JosephMendiola
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20:07 JosephMendiola
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