The DC Establishment hopes if you drag out disclosure about a scandal long enough, it
loses a bit of its "wow factor" along the way. That would seem to be
the view of the Obama administration regarding many of its wanton acts
of mismanagement. Among a long list that ranges from embarrassing
stumbles to a flagrant disregard for the rule of law is the disaster
that occurred at our Special Mission Compound in Benghazi, Libya. Adding
insult to injury (and death) are the lies that were told and the
foot-dragging that continues in an effort to minimize the true
accountability that this administration and its alumni (such as Hillary
Clinton) so justly deserve. Well, this stalling game may work on a media
(which is often a co-conspirator in cover-up) and on a hapless
Congress. But it doesn't work on Judicial Watch.
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It
is extraordinary that we had to wait for over two years and had to
force the release of documents that provide the first glimpse into the
military response to the terrorist attack in Benghazi. Where has
Congress been? We are happy to do the work of independent oversight of
the government on behalf of the American people, but one has to ask why
the rest of Washington has broken down in providing citizens accountable government.
Altogether,
the Pentagon produced a total of 486 pages to us in response to a
federal court order in our Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
lawsuit. This particular lawsuit was filed
back on September 4, 2014, and you are seeing the results of that
effort today. Almost all of the documents had been previously classified
as secret. Much of the withheld information, we are told, concerns
"military plans and operations," "intelligence" activities, and other
legitimate exemptions.
The
documents, which are heavily blacked out, confirm that, after the
attack on Benghazi, the U.S. Military, through its U.S. Africa Command
(AFRICOM) drafted orders for a military response, specifically "to protect vital naval and national assets." Specifically,
JW obtained an extraordinary draft document dated September 13, 2012,
"US Africa Command Request for Forces," which sought an "immediate"
response from the Joint Chiefs of Staff for "additional forces" for the
mission to "provide limited duration military and expeditionary
antiterrorism and security forces in support of USAFRICOM commander in
order to protect vital naval and national assets." The planning
document was approved by "VADM [Charles] Joseph Leidig, Deputy CDR, Africa Command." The name of the military's Benghazi operation was Jukebox Lotus.
But, in a questionable withholding of information, the Obama administration blacked out the specific mission information in the final deployment orders
for Operation Jukebox Lotus. The orders (EXORD) detail that several
components of the military, including Special Operations Forces, were
deployed to support limited security and evacuation operations in Libya,
including support for "BPT" (Be Prepared To) from the U.S. Army in
Africa: "BPT support with mortuary affairs." The Pentagon has
previously released other orders with virtually no redactions, including
an operation in Libya in 2004 and an Obama administration operation to attack Muammar Gaddafi's government forces in Libya in 2011. So why not now?
Other documents show that, early on September 12, 2012, the day after the attack, top Pentagon leadership received intelligence briefing slides
reporting that a June 6, 2012, attack on the Benghazi Special Mission
Compound was tied to a group promoting an Islamic state in Libya and
"came in response to the 5 June [2012] drone strike on al-Qaida senior leader Abu-Yahya al-libi."
The documents also confirm
that the military used a photo from a Twitter post to try to ascertain
the status of Ambassador Stevens. By the way, the use of Twitter for
intelligence on Ambassador Stevens seems the only intelligence about the
attack that the Obama Pentagon released to us under law!
Nowhere
in the documents is the word "video" to be found. And the records show
no communications or direction from the Obama State Department, then run by Hillary Clinton.
U.S.
Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and U.S. Foreign Service Information
Management Officer Sean Smith both lost their lives. Mere hours later, a
second terrorist strike targeted another facility not far away. CIA
contractors Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty were killed and 10 others were
injured in that attack.
The
records do show that the military, contrary to public comments by
President Obama and then-Secretary of State Hillary, was keenly aware of
the terrorist threat in Libya. "The DIA [Defense Intelligence Agency] terrorism threat level
for Libya is significant," one email message says. "The DOS [Department
of State] residential criminal threat level for Libya is high and the
non-residential criminal threat level is high. The political violence
threat level for Libya is critical."
Was Benghazi avoidable? I have no doubt. Was it caused by demonstrators outraged by a third-rate video? Most definitely not. Among
the things we do know is the fact that not one scrap of evidence has
been found that anyone in the Obama administration, the State Department
or the Department of Defense thought the video excuse had any
foundation in reality, even as the lie was being told and retold to the
American people. All these answers, frankly, are documented best by
Judicial Watch's investigative lawsuits. Not Congress. And the only
large media entity pursuing this is Fox News, which is another reason
why the network is hated so much by President Obama and his leftist
allies.
There
is no doubt that the military considered this to be a terrorist attack
tied to a group allied with al Qaeda. Why does the Obama administration
continue to black out history in these military documents? If there
were no embarrassing facts, there would be nothing to hide. This lack of
transparency is an insult to those in the military and other deployed
U.S. government personnel whose morale has been decimated by the breach
of trust caused by President Obama's Benghazi lies and failures.
That
is why your Judicial Watch will remain vigilant in our pursuit of all
of the facts that can possibly be pried from the grasp of this
administration about Benghazi.
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