Dereliction of duty 113
The night the US mission in Benghazi was attacked, Ambassador Stephens was hideously murdered, and three other Americans were killed …
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was not concerned …
and nor was President Obama.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta seems to be telling the truth – until he says: “Nobody knew really what was going on there.”
This is from a Washington Times report published December 11, 2012:
Live video from a drone flying over the U.S. Consulate during the Sept. 11 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, was monitored at a Defense Department facility, but was not fed to the White House, senior officials say.
The Obama administration has declined to respond to media requests for details about who was watching the live video, but a senior defense official told The Washington Times that “the surveillance aircraft captured footage of events on the ground” and “it wasn’t available that night at the White House”.
“Not available” because not asked for. The Commander in Chief was otherwise engaged.
Panetta had met with Obama at 5 o’clock for a half-hour pre-scheduled 30-minute session, where, Panetta said, they “spent about 20 minutes talking about the American embassy that was surrounded in Egypt and the situation that was just unfolding in Benghazi”. So the President knew that the Benghazi mission and the ambassador were under attack, but throughout that night he made no enquiries about how the crisis was developing.
Will Obama ever be held to account for his gross and callous dereliction of duty on that fatal night?