Oren Dorell
USA Today
5/1/2014
U.S. military personnel knew early on that the Benghazi attack was a “hostile action” and not a protest gone awry, according to a retired general who served at U.S. Africa Command’s headquarters in Germany during the attack.
While the exact nature of the attack was not clear from the start, “what we did know early on was that this was a hostile action,” retired Air Force brigadier general Robert Lovell said in his prepared statement Thursday morning to members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. “This was no demonstration gone terribly awry.”
Lovell’s testimony contradicts the story that the Obama administration gave in the early days following the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks on the U.S. Consulate that left four Americans dead, including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens.
Back then the administration insisted that the best intelligence it had from CIA and other officials indicated that the attack was a protest against an anti-Islam video that turned violent.
Lovell’s testimony is the first from a member of the military who was at Africa Command at the time of the attack. Lovell was deputy director for intelligence at Africa Command…
…”We should have continued to move forward with whatever forces we had to move forward with,” Lovell said.
He described a sense of desperation while the attack unfolded when asked by Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, how the military responded during the attack.
“We sent a drone overhead,” Lovell said, almost mumbling. “It was desperation. … There was a lot of waiting for State Department for what it was that they wanted.”
“Did they ever tell you to go to Benghazi?” Chaffetz asked.
“No sir.”…
The entire article is at USA Today.
Related: The Very Important Detail About the Latest Benghazi Emails Revealed During House Hearing
…Chaffetz grew outraged at the news that the State Department didn’t ask for military help.
“We didn’t run to the sound of the guns,” he said. “They were issuing press releases. We had Americans dying. We had dead people. We had wounded people. And our military didn’t try to engage in that fight.”
Chaffetz then asked if the military could have helped. “We may have been able to, but we’ll never know.”
‘The Point Is We Should Have Tried’—Brigadier General on Failure to Rescue Americans in Benghazi (video)
…In Libya, State was in the lead. Lovell revealed that his primary contact at State had been Andrew Shapiro, assistant secretary for military and political affairs and a close associate of Hillary Clinton. Shapiro is now, like other Clinton associates, a consultant at Beacon Global Strategies.
Rep. John Mica (R–Fla.) asked Lovell if we might have made military moves that could at least have saved the two Navy Seals, Tyrone Woods and Glen Dougherty, who died around 5 a.m., when the attack resumed at the CIA Annex in Benghazi. Lovell said, “The military could have made a response of some sort.”…
Brig. Gen. Lovell (Ret.) Apologizes to Benghazi Victims’ Families
Brig. Gen. Lovell (Ret.) apologizes to victims’ families during a House Oversight and Government Reform Cmte. hearing on the Sept. 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. Four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador, died in the attack.
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Pelosi Calls Benghazi Emails ‘Subterfuge,’ ‘Diversion,’ And Wants To Talk ‘About Something Else’
Democratic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has dismissed recently disclosed White House emails linked to the false Benghazi talking points as Republican “subterfuge” and “diversion,” and refused to answer questions during her weekly press briefing Thursday.
“Benghazi, Benghazi, Benghazi — why aren’t we talking about something else?” the California representative said after a reporter asked about the emails released late last month, which directly link a White House aide to the false talking points used by then-U.S. Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice to explain the attack that ended in the death of Libyan Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans…
Mark Steyn, The Dishonored Dead
In Sir Henry Wotton’s famous formulation, an ambassador is a man sent to lie abroad for the good of his country. In the case of Susan Rice, a UN ambassador is a broad sent to lie to her country for the good of her man — President Obama. Happily, it worked. A year-and-a-half after going on five Sunday talk-shows and pinning Benghazi on some unseen YouTube video, Miss Rice is National Security Advisor, and the Administration’s designated fall-guy, the director of that unseen video, is still in jail.
I’m not surprised by anything in the emails belatedly released this week. My view of Benghazi has been consistent since my column of September 14th 2012, three days after the attack and two days before Susan Rice peddled to the nation an agreed story she and the President and the Secretary of State knew was utterly false. Unlike her September 16th TV appearances, my September 14th column still holds up…
…And this wasn’t a small lie. It was a bold, audacious lie on a date the American people are supposed to hold in sacred memory: 9/11. Nixon lied about a “third-rate burglary”. But, as I told Hugh Hewitt earlier today, nobody died at Watergate. There weren’t four bodies left on the floor. And the Administration didn’t attempt to pin the quadruple murder on some other fellow entirely.
But that’s exactly what the Obama crowd did…
Read the whole thing.
