Thread: White House: Obama and Biden were never aware of requests for more Benghazi security

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White House: Obama and Biden were never aware of requests for more Benghazi security

Posted By Josh Rogin Friday, October 12, 2012 - 10:40 AM Share

Vice President Joseph Biden speaks only for himself and President Barack Obama, and neither man was aware that U.S. officials in Libya had asked the State Department for more security before the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, a top White House official told The Cable.

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Biden has come under fire for saying at Thursday night's debate, "We weren't told they wanted more security. We did not know they wanted more security there."
The Cable asked Deputy National Security Advisor for Communications Ben Rhodes whether Biden was speaking for the entire Obama administration, including the State Department, which acknowledged receiving multiple requests for more Libya security in the months before the attacks. Rhodes said that Biden speaks only for himself and the president and neither of them knew about the requests at the time.
The State Department security officials who testified before House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa's panel Wednesday never said they had made their requests to the president, Rhodes pointed out. That would be natural because the State Department is responsible for diplomatic security, not the White House, he said. Rhodes also pointed out that the officials were requesting more security in Tripoli, not Benghazi.
"All of us at post were in sync that we wanted these resources," the top regional security officer in Libya over the summer, Eric Nordstrom, testified. "In those conversations, I was specifically told [by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Charlene Lamb] ‘You cannot request an SST [Site Security Team] extension.' I determined I was told that because there would be too much political cost. We went ahead and requested it anyway."
Nordstrom was so critical of the State Department's reluctance to respond to his calls for more security that he said, "For me, the Taliban is on the inside of the building."
"We felt great frustration that those requests were ignored or just never met," testified Lt. Col. Andrew Wood, a Utah National Guardsman who was leading a security team in Libya until August.
Issa released the unclassified cables containing those requests.
At Thursday night's debate, Rep. Paul Ryan seemed to suggest that the requests were for Marines to go to Libya, which was not the case. The requests were to extend the tours of a Mobile Security Detachments [MSD] and the Site Security Team [SST] at the U.S. embassy in Tripoli, which are teams of military personnel, not Marines, who can help protect an embassy and its personnel.
"What we should not be doing is rejecting claims for calls for more security in our barracks, in our Marine -- we need Marines in Benghazi when the commander on the ground says we need more forces for security," Ryan said. "There were requests for extra security. Those requests were not honored."
In his prepared testimony, Nordstrom said that "because of Libyan political sensitivities, armed private security companies were not allowed to operate in Libya." Instead, the Benghazi mission, through a British company, hired unarmed Libyan guards to work inside the compound and a local Libyan militia patrolled the exterior of the compound.
Ryan also erred when he criticized the State Department for assigning Marines to protect the ambassador in France but not Amb. Chris Stevens, who died in Benghazi on Sept. 11.
"Our ambassador in Paris has a marine detachment guarding him, shouldn't we have a Marine detachment guarding our ambassador in Benghazi?," Ryan said.
According to the U.S. Embassy Paris website, there is a Marine Security Guard Detachment in the embassy, but they are there primarily to protect classified information and are not part of the ambassador's personal security detail.

I did not see this posted anywhere else, and I believe it is imperative that everyone understands it is TOTALLY IRRELEVANT as to whether Obama And Biden were made aware.

1. There were serious security issues raised, documented, and assistance requested. Supported by documentation and sworn testimony. It was known to the Administration.
2. If Obama and Biden were in fact appraised of the issue, and are now taking this position to cover their butts, they should both be impeached.
3. If they were not briefed, it clearly demonstrates a President and Vice President who are incompetent and incapable of carrying out their sworn duty to protect this country and its citizens. We already know that Obama rarely meets with his cabinet and does not attend daily security briefings. This is no excuse for him to not know the most serious issues of the day. The same for Biden. Moreover, even if Obama did not attend any meetings where this was briefed, are we to believe that this did not show up in the daily briefings anyway, and were we not told that Obama READS these briefings?
4. I would like to see the Congressional panel investigating the tragedy in Libya obtain all daily briefs leading up to the attacks. If any of them contain information on the security requests, then Obama and Biden and their spokesperson are abject liars.

Bottom Line: a.Fire Hillary Clinton and every staff member that turned down the request for additional security. Absolutely no excuse for this.
b. Fire Hillary Clinton and every member of her staff that failed to ensure the President and Vice President knew of the security threat.
c. Fire Leon Panetta for failing to ensure this information was included in the daily security briefs, If he did not know he is incompetent. If he did know, he is a liar, a cheat and up to his neck with Clinton and the rest of the administration in one of the worst scandals and coverups in our nation's history.
d. Fire Obama and Biden. Do it in November.
e. Continue the investigation and fire every single member of the Administration at all levels with dirty hands in this. Pursue criminal charges if possible.