2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumIt was a CIA Operation
Just being reported on Huffington Post, several of the SEALS at Benghazi were actually contractors working for the CIA and several news outlets were aware of this. The information was embargoed, presumably to allow the CIA time to clear out any assets and salvage what information it could from the operation.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/02/benghazi-media-news-cia-request_n_2066651.html
Short story is THAT is why the administration was less that forthcoming and willing to allow people to think it was just an angry mob. This was apparently a group of militants who know EXACTLY what they were after when the attacked the Consulate. After the attack there were still sensitive assets (including CIA operatives) still on the ground in Libya, and the administration wanted more time to assess the situation.
KaryninMiami
(3,073 posts)Brilliant as usual. And besides -it was no one's fucking business what was really going on -- not until the people who were managing it from the inside were ready for us to know. That's exactly what I said to someone- that there is something bigger going on here that we do not know about- so they let everyone think they were clueless. Very deliberately. Finally, the smart team is running the show.
Pray that they get another 4 years.
northoftheborder
(7,574 posts)Jeff In Milwaukee
(13,992 posts)Issa would have been demanding public disclosure of the D-Day invasion plans.
What a tool.
zbdent
(35,392 posts)like the "living books" of Fahrenheit 451 ...
liberalmuse
(18,672 posts)He is the one who needs to be investigated and possibly imprisoned.
TroyD
(4,551 posts)The CIA has its hands over everything. Truman, Eisenhower & Kennedy all warned us about this. . .
Schema Thing
(10,283 posts)I hope the CIA retaliates, frankly.
Iggy
(1,418 posts)uhhhh, yeah, cause that has worked so well for Israel in dealing with their "terrorist"
problem.
Schema Thing
(10,283 posts)retaliates against the attacks from the republicans.
Iggy
(1,418 posts)but no cigar... "sorry". nice level of arrogance, too
DollarBillHines
(1,922 posts)Jeff In Milwaukee
(13,992 posts)to learn that some current SEALS (and other uniformed personnel) are not on the CIA payroll as well.
DollarBillHines
(1,922 posts)Boredom sucks.
courseofhistory
(801 posts)Awwww....the hyperventillating republicans will be so disappointed but they'll still keep making something of it that it wasn't.
Imagine, no instant results like on TV or the movies where everything is resolved in the space of one or 2 hours!
hexola
(4,835 posts)Not really a new revelation...once you saw they were former SEALs - you knew they were there as part of something else - private security...who knows...
frylock
(34,825 posts)unc70
(6,119 posts)There wasn't a consulate in Benghazi, cover stories kept changing, other indications. Issa's document dump that Friday a month after attack confirmed most points. I had tried to research the consulate a couple of days after the attack and realized there wasn't any consulate there. Obama and Clinton carefully avoided using that word. Fairly obvious what was really going on.
We knew about the CIA presence but it was not understood by most people, for example this thread that discusses Steven's diary and mentions the size of CIA contingent leaving Libya:
http://sync.democraticunderground.com/10021408211
I mentioned in passing the CIA a couple of times. Couple were taken down, so I backed off.
My Oct 12 post at wral.com got taken down, but is still in google search. I limited my early postings to things widely known or at least speculated.
Here is Oct 13 DU discussion, already knew it was CIA:
http://sync.democraticunderground.com/10021530364
My post Oct 19 at wral.com a week later still used the term consulate:
http://www.wral.com/both-parties-seek-advantage-in-rush-of-early-voting/11677100/
There were early discussions on DU, a couple of threads were deleted by OP, thought had posted here during that time.
Here is a DU discussion from Oct 20 after the fact there was no consulate in Benghazi was becoming generally known:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021686160
dooner
(1,217 posts)Or will they just keep spinning their Benghazi conspiracy theory?
I think there were good posts and links here on DU regarding Benghazi-CIA weeks ago... Also saw it noted that apparently Romney stopped criticizing the Obama administration's handling of Benghazi after he got his top secret briefing.
allrevvedup
(408 posts)though it would have gone better for him if he had. And NPR and BBC have been going on about Benghazi 24/7 so I doubt Fox is going to do any different.
The question in my mind is, how much of it was a spook operation? All of it perhaps, including the AQ attack? Funny how the whole Arab Spring including extradjudicial Gaddafi execution came off without a hitch, but a few weeks before the US election, the CIA has an oopsie that gives the GOP a major talking point, in fact its only talking point, on 9/11 no less, the very day Obama deep-sixed Netanyahu's Iran attack for the last time:
WASHINGTON/JERUSALEM, Sept 11 (Reuters) - In a highly unusual rebuff to a close ally, the White House said on Tuesday that President Barack Obama would not meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a U.S. visit later this month, as tensions escalated over how to deal with Iran's nuclear program. http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/09/11/israel-iran-netanyahu-idINL5E8KB9DC20120911
Yes I am suspicious.
AverageJoe90
(10,745 posts)It's possible that the Arab Spring may have indeed been hijacked. Look at what happened in Egypt for example.
But I think TPTB would much rather have seen Gaddafi survive. He was definitely one of their puppets.
MisterJones
(23 posts)Iggy
(1,418 posts)Hussein was one of our puppets as well-- but he went way off the reservation-- i.e. he started
signing contracts with Russian and EU corporations to rebuild Iraq's oil infrastrucuture and
railroads after Gulf War I. He made an effort to create his own oil bourse-- following Iran's lead
who I believe created their own natural gas bourse.
Hussein did this to "punish" the U.S. and Great Britain for the crippling sanctions imposed
against Iraq which obviously pissed him off.
Keep in mind one of the things the Bush cabal did upon entering office after the 2000 (stolen)
election was draw up a map of Iraq indicating which U.S. oil transnationals would get which
phat oil fields in Iraq-- after we invaded and occupied.
Had Hussein simply did as he had been doing-- i.e. doing business mostly with U.S. corporations,
I'm confident he and his thug sons would still be in charge of Iraq.
Coyotl
(15,262 posts)Mtndreamer
(35 posts)and the subsequent media fabrication perpetuated this, the WH message was confusing...
Benghazi as a consulate made no sense, and a CIA outpost was the likely story from the beginning.
This news does not stop Drudge or Fox continuing to play this non story...
DCBob
(24,689 posts)It so obvious is politically motivated.
Comrade_McKenzie
(2,526 posts)I bet they could have a little fun with them.
rightsideout
(978 posts)As soon as Chavez opened his mouth during their witch hunt inquiry and spilled the beans that the CIA was nearby.
Leave it to the Republicans to give away security secrets in an effort to nail Obama. This whole thing should be turned right around on them. They are treasonous for alerting the enemy to CIA operatives and operations in sensitive areas of the world.