Wolf Howling: Libya

Showing posts with label Libya. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Rand Paul To Hillary Clinton: You Should Have Been Fired Over Benghazi

Hillary Clinton is finally appearing before Congress to answer questions on Benghazi. This in the wake of a State Dept. "investigation" that was an utter whitewash, finding that no one in the State Dept., from Hillary on down, bore culpability for the criminally reckless decisions that led to the death of our Ambassador in Libya and three other Americans. Clinton, in her opening statement, is magnanimously taking "full responsibility" for the Benghazi scandal, but defending against any culpability on the grounds that she had no idea what was going on. Kudo's to Rand Paul for hitting the nail on the head in his response to Clinton's testimony:

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Thursday, October 18, 2012

The Two Critical Questions On Benghazi

There are a plethora of questions raised by the Benghazi slaughter, but the two most critical were those the President didn't answer at the Town Hall debate - who denied repeated requests for security and why. The Romney camp should be smelling the blood in the water.

As I pointed out on this blog the day before the Town Hall Debate, the only reason "security professionals" at the State Dept. would refuse requests for increased security in Benghazi, even as evidence mounted that the security situation was seriously deteriorating, would be because of a policy decision approved, if not made, at the Clinton and / or Obama level. So it was no surprise that when an undecided voter explicitly asked Obama "who" refused numerous requests for increase security and "why," Obama spent his two minutes of response time doing everything but addressing those two simple questions.

Someone with much better youtube skills than I has put out a great video highlighting this issue.

This really goes to the heart of not only the Benghazi failure, but the entire failure of the Obama foreign policy. To deny security in Benghazi is prima facie proof of a foreign policy disconnected from reality. So the answer to "who" denied requests for increased security and "why" need to be asked again at the foreign policy debate - and this time, America deserves real answers.

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Saturday, September 22, 2012

Libya: When The Sheep Attack The Islamist Predators

Long ago, a fine history prof. explained to me that it takes about 10% of a committed population to dominate the rest. I believe that to be the case in Iran, and I believe it to be the case in most nations of the Middle East where radical Islam dominates the government or is close to control. The 90% are sheep, some complicit, most fearful and ultimately ruled by the sword. I did not think that I would see the sheep strike back - but it is happening today in, of all places, Benghazi, Libya. This via Michael Totten's blog from a BBC report:

Hundreds of Libyan protesters have stormed the Benghazi headquarters of Islamist group Ansar al-Sharia in a backlash against last week's attack on the US consulate.

Witnesses say militiamen opened fire as the crowd overran the base, but it is not clear if there are casualties.

Buildings and a car were set alight and fighters evicted following a day of anti-militia protests in the city.

US Ambassador Chris Stevens and three others died in the 11 September attack.

Earlier, some 30,000 protesters had marched through the eastern Libyan city calling for an end to the armed groups that have sprung up in the country since last year's ousting of Col Gaddafi.

Several thousand supporters of Ansar al-Sharia lined up outside its headquarters, in front of the crowd, waving black and white banners, AP news agency reported.

They fired into the air to try to disperse the protesters, but fled with their weapons after the base was surrounded by waves of people shouting "no to militias", the report added.

This is a glimmer of hope in what is now a blackhole of despair in the Islamic world. Amazing. Now let's see if this is the first step in a move to limit the power of the Salafists in the first permanent government of Libya. If that happens, then it really will be a major event.

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Libya - the Aftermath

Our Ambassador, Christopher Stevens, was murdered by Salafists in Libya, at some point during what amounted to a full scale military style raid. Ambassador Stevens apparently had no U.S. security assigned to him personally, and he was visiting a consulate in Behngazi with either a minimal or no U.S. security detail. Obama and Clinton need to explain how this could be allowed to happen, in particular on 9-11, in an area without a functioning government and known to be infested with Salafists. This is inexcusable.

Actually, the Ambassador's murder appears even more mysterious as more facts are learned. Fox has a timeline of the Salafist attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi. It is not clear when or how the Ambassador was murdered, only that he was.

Libya has an interim government at the moment, and I don't even know if they have anything approaching a functioning military or security system. The Libyan interim government has issued statements of apology and sorrow over these events and seem to be cooperating with U.S. authorities. Apparently, they have already made four arrests of suspects involved in the attack. The Atlantic is carrying a photo essay of pro-American rallies in Libya.

There are some calls in Congress today to strip aid from Libya. Rep. Peter King pushed back against that suggestion, stating that "that the government is fragile there -- and still forming after the downfall of Qaddafi -- and that Libyan security personnel did try to protect Americans during the Benghazi attack Tuesday night." I agree with Rep. King on this one. The actions of the Libyan government stand in stark contrast to the acts of the Egyptian government as regards the 9-11 attack on our embassy in Cairo and the two should not be similarly punished.

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