A Retired Diplomat Comments

For John, BLUF:  It appears the White House doesn't trust the American People enough to update the Benghazi Story as facts emerge, but belive they have to stick to their original story, no matter what.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

Some may be aware that Right Side has taken a jaundiced view of the meme that a 13 minute video out of LA County sparked all the demonstrations in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) area, and is especially skeptic of the idea the video had anything to do with the Benghazi Incident.  Now comes a retired Foreign Service Officer with a blog post questioning the Administration's viewpoint.

On Libya, Biden lied gave an account at variance with the truth. He threw the entire intel community and the State Department to the wolves.  He claimed that the Embassy in Libya did not ask for extra security, and that the White House was told the attack resulted from an anti-video demonstration gone awry, and not from a terrorist action.  We all know that is not true.  Foggy Bottom will exact its revenge.  The leaks will come fast and furious (to use a phrase that did not come up last night) to show how the White House was informed and did nothing.  There are now press reports that a US done was overhead for at least part of the attack; the State Department's Charlene Lamb already has testified that she was monitoring the attack in "near real time"; we know that the Embassy had requested additional security; and the CIA and State already have made known that they never concluded that the attack was anything other than a terrorist attack.  Nobody has been able to explain the lack of White House response to an attack that went on for at least six hours.

In effect, he claimed that State, CIA, etc., deceived the White House.  Interesting relationship that between Secretary Clinton and President Obama, that between Director Petraeus and President Obama . . .

Yes, this Administration is not a well oiled administrative operation.  Given his experience out in the economy, competing for profits, it is possible that Governor Romney understands the need to make this part of the government apparatus work.

Regards  —  Cliff