Barack Obama Visits Jon Stewart on Daily Show

12 Comments

1. 

   Oui on October 19, 2012 at 4:15 am

   Of course the Republicans are cherry-picking the unfolding events after the Benghazi raid. These comments by Susan Rice 5 days after the attack weren’t helpful, neither the contrary remarks by Libyan President Mohammed Magarief a day earler. Listening to her story, she didn’t have the facts and should not have been talking about what happened in Benghazi. All seems very amateurish and not well coordinated as I have written before. See my latest addition to the Benghazi security contract granted an obscure company in Wales, England called Blue Mountain.

   There is no security in Libya, no national army and no border control. Libya is still in a revultionary state with multiple militias not under control of the central government. There were no “50 arrests” and remarks “we know who they are” are just part of the smoke and mirrors of politicians who live under fear of being assassinated. The fact that the US consulate mission could not be secured after the attack and confidential papers were spread around illustrates that.

   Ambassador Rice: Benghazi attack began spontaneously – (Video)

   (NBC News) Sept. 16, 2012 – “This is a response to a hateful and offensive video that was widely disseminated throughout the Arab and Muslim world,” Rice said on NBC’s “Meet the Press. ” “Obviously our view is that there is absolutely no excuse for violence and what has happened is condemnable. But this is a spontaneous reaction to a video and it’s not dissimilar but perhaps on a slightly larger scale than what we have seen in the past with the [Salman Rushdie’s novel] ‘Satanic Verses’, with the [2006 Danish newspaper] cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad.”

   Rice said the current assessment of what happened in Benghazi is that it was “initially a spontaneous reaction to…the demonstrations against our facility in Cairo, which were prompted of course by the video.”

   “What we think then transpired in Benghazi is that opportunistic extremist elements came to the consulate as this was unfolding, they came with heavy weapons which unfortunately are readily available in post-revolutionary Libya, and it escalated into a much more violent episode. That’s our best judgement now.”

   There was “no actionable intelligence” that the attack in Benghazi was imminent, Rice said. The attack overwhelmed security in place at the consulate. Rice’s comments came a day after Libyan President Mohammed Magarief told NBC News that “foreigners” were involved in the planning and execution of the attack.

   Ann Curry Interviews Libyan President Mohammed Magarief About U.S. Consulate Attack (VIDEO)  

   • Feds Hired Unlisted British Security Firm for Benghazi Consulate
   • Clinton Takes Responsibility for (Mis)handling Benghazi Security [Update]

   Addendum: adding to the security turmoil in Libya, the prime-minister had to step down when he failed to get a new cabinet approved by parliament. Will the country itself fall apart?

2. 

   Marie2 on October 19, 2012 at 1:31 pm

   Richard A Clarke explains the real world to the public and a certain candidate for high office in Romney on Libya: Just shameful

   • 

     Oui on October 19, 2012 at 2:52 pm

     “The Iranian hand in the attack on the U.S. Air Force barracks at Khobar, Saudi Arabia, did not emerge for months.”

     The essence of the article that it is difficult to do an investigation on foreign soil is well established. Saudi dissidents were responsible (Al-Qaeda affiliate) but the US found it easier to put blame on the IRGC. The Saudi oil barons would become upset if FBI were allowed to investigate all evidence. What followed … USS Cole attack and 9/11.

     Sad disappointment in Richard Clarke

     (Wikipedia) – William Perry, who was the United States Secretary of Defense at the time that this bombing happened, said in an interview in June 2007 that “he now believes al-Qaida rather than Iran was behind a 1996 truck bombing at an American military base.” In addition to Secretary Perry, Saudi Prince Nayef, head of the Ministry of Interior and the lead investigating agency, has absolved Iran of involvement in the attack.

     On June 25, 2009, Gareth Porter published an article on the website Antiwar.com stating that blaming Iran for the Khobar Towers bombing was a false leak released by U.S. officials and Saudi diplomats as sourced by the Washington Post article on April 14, 1997. This gesture as reported by Mr. Porter was a face saving gesture to the Saudi Arabian government for their complicity in allowing Osama Bin Laden to target U.S. military targets by using charities based in Saudi Arabia for funding purposes as long as Bin Laden did not target the government of Saudi Arabia.

     Secret U.S. Overture to Iran in 1999 Broke Down Over Terrorism Allegations

     • Nice proposition by Hillary Clinton blaming Iran for protecting Al Qaeda financiers who are involved in financing Sunni based Jihadists fighting along side of the Syrian opposition forces to overthrow Assad.  WOW! It mustn’t get much crazier or I suspect George Bush is back in a wing of the White House. US puts $12M bounty on Iran-based al Qaeda money men, freezes their assets
     • 

       Marie2 on October 19, 2012 at 3:17 pm

       Damn — read that and knew it was wrong, but fell for the measured and calm presentation even though I know it’s best to be very cautious wrt to Clarke.

       The unrelenting propaganda from US officials that link funding for Sunni religious terrorism to the Shia dominated Iran is tiresome when the facts always point to Sunni dominated Saudi Arabia.    

3. 

   ask on October 19, 2012 at 8:06 pm

   Oui, I am really concerned about your sourcing for these diaries.
   In the previous one, you used Jennifer Rubin as an authority. You should know she is a right-wing tool.

   In this diary, you link and prominently quote from The Blaze. WTF are you thinking?

   The other posts that currently are prominently posted are (I am not linking):

   • A Neo-Marxist Who Sought Cultural Revolution: Meet Obama `Founding Father’ #5 — Harvard Prof. Roberto Unger
   • Edward Said: The `Founding Father’ Who May Explain Obama’s Benghazi Errors
   • Will The Real Communist Please Stand Up? Meet Obama Founding Father #3, Frank Marshall Davis
   • `Guilty as Sin, Free as a Bird’: Everything You Need to Know About Obama `Founding Father’ Bill Ayers and His Radical Influence
   • This Is How Obama `Founding Father’ Rev. Wright, His Church & Black Liberation Theology Shaped the President’s Worldview
   • Watch LIVE: Hear Beck Deliver Another Powerful Keynote Speech at Tonight’s FreePAC Rally

   All posted in in the last 4 days.

   I will simply have to stop giving any credibility to what you are posting in the future.

   • 

     Oui on October 19, 2012 at 8:43 pm

     The article desribes Jon Stewart in The Daily Show and his episode “You Guys Ever Talk to Each Other…?” This link is to Jon Stewart’s website. The other link I added is to the Washington Post and the evidence given before Congress by Matthew Olsen.

     I can always appreciate the political sketches made by Jon Stewart and President Obama was invited for an interview after the last debate. That’s where I opened my diary with. President Obama admits to what I’ve written and warned for since the attacks: get your story straight and based on the facts available within the intelligence community. Or else, sloppiness becomes a liability.

     I’ll never shy away from being critical where criticism is due. Same for the policy towards Syria and the Assad regime. Hillary Clinton and thus the Obama administration have been wrong as we see in the high number of deaths in the regional sectarian war where jihadists are funded ny the GCC countries and Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan are giving support to foreign fighters. Just today I watched most parties taking a step away from the abyss and perhaps a temporary cease fire can be agreed. The anger is spreading across borders as we have seen in Turkey, Tripoli and with the assassination of a prominent Sunni and head of intelligence Wissam al-Hassan by a car bomb in Beirut.

     • 

       ask on October 20, 2012 at 8:12 am

       Almost half your diary is a quote from a highly suspect source (mildly put). The links you insert make little difference, as most people rarely follow through.

       CIA documents supported Susan Rice’s description of Benghazi attacks

       This is the real story now:
       Issa’s Benghazi document dump exposes several Libyans working with the U.S.
       Politicizing a fluid and difficult situation to the detriment of national security.

       • 

         Oui on October 20, 2012 at 6:06 pm

         .
         Ask, I may learn to like David Ignatius after all …

         Obama Dodging Key Foreign Policy Questions

         And though Obama was eloquent in his speech to the United Nations Tuesday in eulogizing Christopher Stevens, America’s brave ambassador to Libya, the administration has been reluctant to talk about resurgent al-Qaida operations in that country. One senses a desire to keep the lid on this explosive subject in the State Department’s effort to suppress CNN’s reporting of Stevens’ private diary, along with a commendable effort to protect the family’s privacy.

         I’m told that the talk in the Libyan underground is about a “global intifada” like what the new al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri has been preaching for the last five years. But ask U.S. officials about that subject and you get a “no comment.”

         To be blunt: The administration has a lot invested in the public impression that al-Qaida was vanquished when Osama bin Laden was killed on May 2, 2011. Obama would lose some of that luster if the public examined whether al-Qaida is adopting a new, Zawahiri-led strategy of interweaving its operations with the unrest sweeping the Arab world. But this discussion is needed, and a responsible president should lead it, even during a presidential campaign.

         [David Ignatius is a regular contributor to THE HARTFORD COURANT]  

         • BooMan – Declare the War on Terror Over
   • 

     Oui on October 19, 2012 at 8:55 pm

     In my other diary I called bs on a quote in article written by Richard Clarke in the NY Daily News.  

     As you are well aware the media outlets like CNN, BBC and Al Jazeera have become propaganda tools for governments. Much damage is being done in foreign policy, especially in theMiddle East. Obama needs to be re-elected for another four years because I have faith he will do all within his might to adjust US foreign policy. Hopefully John Kerry can make a difference as Secretary of State and will be more aligned with Obama.

4. 

   Oui on October 20, 2012 at 2:18 pm

   .
   The careful wording in the preliminary CIA assessment was taken by Amb. Susan Rice to a higher level of certainty. The paragraphs in the article obfuscates the facts on the ground. The CIA memo mixes Benghazi with the demonstrations in Cairo which is at the least very awkward as the circumstances were completely different. A terribly poor job.

   Cairo
   Protesters scaled the wall of the heavily-fortified US embassy in Cairo Tuesday, angry over a film that Egyptian media reported was produced in the US and mocks the prophet Muhammad.

   Article Washington Post by David Ignatius

   “Talking points” prepared by the CIA on Sept. 15, the same day that Rice taped three television appearances, support her description of the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. Consulate as a reaction to Arab anger about an anti-Muslim video prepared in the United States. According to the CIA account,  

   “The currently available information suggests that the demonstrations in Benghazi were spontaneously inspired by the protests at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo and evolved into a direct assault against the U.S. Consulate and subsequently its annex. There are indications that extremists participated in the violent demonstrations.”

    « click for story

   Here’s how the senior official described the jumble of events in Benghazi that day: “The attackers were disorganized; some seemed more interested in looting. Some who claimed to have participated joined the attack as it began or after it was under way. There is no evidence of rehearsals, they never got into the safe room . . . never took any hostages, didn’t bring explosives to blow the safe room door, and didn’t use a car bomb to blow the gates.”

   The US consulate is a temporary location … a villa park! There were no security measures possible like fortifications and a secure perimeter to halt a violent attack. The Libyans from the Blue Mountain group were security guards with no weapons. There was no protest at the US consulate, in the evening under cover of darkness [21:30hr] the attack with machine guns, AK47s and RPG launchers came at once from three sides. For Christ’s sake, no explosives were needed to breach the consulate perimeter. See link below for photo’s and video.

   Benghazi Raid Debriefing

   VILLA SAFEHOUSE–A second attack shortly after 2 a.m. on Sept. 12, just as the group were assembling to be taken to the airport, gunfire erupted, followed by the thunderous blasts of falling mortar rounds. Two of the mission’s guards — Tyrone S. Woods and Glen A. Doherty, former members of the Navy SEALs — were killed just outside the villa’s front gate. A mortar round struck the roof of the building where the Americans had scrambled for cover.

   The second house was never intended to be a “safe house,” as initial accounts suggested. At no point were the Marines or other American military personnel involved, contrary to news reports early on. Libyan witnesses, including two guards at the building, say the area around the compound was quiet until the attackers arrived, firing their weapons and storming the compound from three sides, beginning at 9:30 p.m. on Sept. 11, 2012.

   • Timeline: Protests over anti-Islam video
   • Daily Mail headline: Pentagon sending warships to Libya following death of ambassador killed in ‘co-ordinated al Qaeda
     revenge attack by terrorists who used Libyan Mohammed movie protest as cover’ (photo’s + video)
   • US Unable to Secure Benghazi Consulate for FBI Investigation
5. 

   Oui on October 21, 2012 at 6:04 am

   .
   Getting a scoop is a higher priority than getting the facts, a dangerous game in today’s politics on the Iranian nuclear issue. Press lies, so Mitt can continue to quote and lie. Obama has to be as convincing in the debate as he was on the Benghazi attack by Romney.

   US says willing to meet with Iran on nukes but no talks set (Update-3)

   (Reuters) – The White House quickly denied the report, which came two days before President Barack Obama is due to face Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney in a debate focused on foreign policy.

   “It’s not true that the United States and Iran have agreed to one-on-one talks or any meeting after the American elections,” National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor said in a statement. “We continue to work with the P5+1 on a diplomatic solution and have said from the outset that we would be prepared to meet bilaterally.”

   • Perhaps David Sanger got some signals mixed up – Closed – come back later Nov. 6+
6. 

   Oui on October 25, 2012 at 4:47 am

   I found this witness account credible plus the fact the attack came in two waves, the second after US personnel returned. First attack started between 9 and 9:30pm and second deadly attack around 2am, two hours after midnight! I find it odd to speak of “large protests” at the gate. I have listened to the interior minister and head of state Magarief and find them not credible about the facts. Moreover, the people of Benghazi knew where to put the blame as we saw Ansar al-Sharia HQ attacked by a large protesting group of Libyans. In the analysis of who were present as security at the temporary location of the US consulate: an unarmed group of Blue Mountain Libya (two persons executed) and from the 17th February Martyrs Brigade. Their lives were spared. The Ansar al-Sharia militia had the responsibilty for security of the local Al-Jalaa hospital.

   Administration media problems increased with the intelligence talking points handed to Susan Rice before her presentation on Meet the Press that were inaccurate. Sensitive letters found by WP reporter on US Consulate grounds [pdf – 8Mb].

   Media reports in the early hours mixed the film protests at the US embassies in Tunesia and Cairo with the Libyan attack, more often calling the US consulate in Benghazi an embassy. Major difference is the assumption a US embassy has protective walls, windows and a secure perimeter. Those were not present in the Benghazi location in a villa park. Reports on a Benghazi related website.

   Open Source Center Reports from Sept. 12 on Libya Consulate Attack Support Crowd Protests