Brandon

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Was Obama More Interested in an Al Queda Campaign Slogan Than the Safety of Americans?

The question is whether the mounting attacks were reported to Obama and who and why were the requests for more security ignored?

A letter [PDF] to President Obama:

Oversight Committee Asks President About White House Role in Misguided Libya ‘Normalization’ Effort

October 19, 2012
 
WASHINGTON –Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa and National Security Subcommittee Chairman Jason Chaffetz today sent President Obama a letter and 166 pages of documents related to security threats and the process of ‘normalization’ in Libya. The letter requests that the White House respond to questions about its role in the controversial decision to have the U.S. diplomatic mission in Libya pursue a course of ‘normalization’ that was intended to help create the perception of success in Libya and contrast it to U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Excerpts of the letter from Chairman Issa and Rep. Chaffetz:

Information supplied to the committee by senior officials demonstrates that not only did the administration repeatedly reject requests for increased security despite escalating violence, but it also systematically decreased existing security to dangerous and ineffective levels. We have been told repeatedly that the administration did this to effectuate a policy of ‘normalization’ in Libya after the conclusion of its civil war. These actions not only resulted in extreme vulnerability, but also undermined Ambassador Stevens and the diplomatic mission.”

“Multiple warnings about security threats were contained in Ambassador Stevens’ own words in multiple cables sent to Washington, D.C., and were manifested by two prior bombings of the Benghazi compound and an assassination attempt on the British ambassador. For this administration to assume that terrorists were not involved in the 9/11 anniversary attack would have required a willing suspension of disbelief.”

“The American people deserve nothing less than a full explanation from this administration about these events, including why the repeated warnings about a worsening security situation appear to have been ignored by this administration. Americans also deserve a complete explanation about your administration’s decision to accelerate a normalized presence in Libya at what now appears to be at the cost of endangering American lives. These critical foreign policy decisions are not made by low or mid-level career officials – they are typically made through a structured and well-reasoned process that includes the National Security Council at the White House.”
Here are the documents [PDF].
FROM ABC NEWS: One of the key conversations in the documents begins on February 11, at 5:29 pm, when Shawn Crowley, a foreign service officer at the U.S. Mission in Benghazi, writes: “Apologies for being a broken record, but beginning tomorrow Benghazi will be down to two agents…We have no drivers and new local guard contract employees have no experience driving armored vehicles…”
...
A March 2012 memo (mistakenly cited as 2011) from the Research & Information Support Center titled “Progress Elusive in Libya,” based on open-source reporting, states that in late December 2011 “reports indicated that al-Qa’ida leadership in Pakistan had sent ‘experienced jihadists to Libya to build a new base of operations in the country. Between May and December 2011, one of these jihadists had recruited 200 fighters in the eastern part of the country.
Pay attention to that last sentence. Al Queda had recruited 200 fighters. Meanwhile, up until Wednesday of this week Obama claimed "Al Queda is on the run." Well, perhaps he is right about that. Al Queda is on the run to attack through the gap we have left in our own security. It's now clear that Obama cared more about politics and a campaign slogan than he did about security for Americans!

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