What Really Happened in Benghazi!

The terrible incident in Benghazi was a nightmare for those who had to live through it. We owe it to them to tell the truth about what happened at that diplomatic facility in Libya. The radicals in the Republican Party wanted nothing to do with the truth.
by Charlie Leck

 David Brock and Ari Rabin-Hart, The Benghazi Hoax. (Amazon is selling it as an e-book for 99 cents.)

Benghazi is a major city in the nation of Libya. It’s in the northeastern portion of the nation, right on the Gulf of Sirte, where “police were only as honest as their next bribe.”

The description of Benghazi by Burton and Rabin-Hart is remarkable. I can’t wait to get my hands on their book. In the meantime, I recommend this Huffington Post summary of the story by the author himself, David Brock.

Can you remember the setting for The Benghazi incident?
I mean, do you remember what was going on in the U.S. at the time it happened. David Brock, author of a new e-book about Benghazi seems to think it is important to remember; and I agree with him.

It was September 11, 2012 (9/11) and the campaign for the presidency of the United States between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama was going strong. Romney trailed by a significant amount. The two candidates agreed that all negative campaigning should be set aside on this anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. Romney was going to speak to the National Guard Association in Reno; however, he vowed to keep any attack against the president out of his speech.

At 3:00 P.M. (U.S. Eastern Time), in Benghazi, a U.S. compound was under attack. The siege would be deadly, killing the U.S. Ambassador to Libya, J. Christopher Stevens, and three other Americans. Stevens, age 52, was a former Peace Corp worker who had been raised in Northern California. He was considered remarkable by everyone who knew him and he could have entered the private sector and been extremely successful financially. He earned his B.A. in history from the University of California at Berkeley and at a Masters Degree from the National War College. Stevens spoke Arabic and French fluently. With the Peace Corps in Morocco (1983-1985) he taught English. In 1989 he earned his law degree from the University of California. He joined the U.S. Foreign Service in 1991. He quickly became a highly regarded and respected diplomat. He died on September 12, 2012. The cause of death was listed as smoke inhalation. He was buried near his childhood home in California.

It should not be forgotten that two other Americans died in the Benghazi attack. They were Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty, both former Navy Seals who were working as private security and intelligence contractors.

In America, it took no time at all to politicize the event. The right-wing of the Republican Party was hungry – starving – for food and this was shark bait! There was no concern about the truth. There was a presiding President who needed to be defeated. The sharks began to circle. Brock calls them “a hungry right-wing leviathan of savage punditry and pseudo-journalism.”

The truth was the key and most significant target of the sharks. It got devoured and was replaced by a nearly total disregard of anything that might resemble the facts.

The army of right-wingers, who were desperate to elect Mitt Romney, finally had their issue and they would ride this huge, black horse as hard as they could.

“Had the Benghazi attack not occurred at this unique moment -- on a day when the Republican candidate for the presidency and his promoters in the conservative media were desperate for a new storyline, especially one that would undercut the popular effect of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden the year before -- this tragedy might not have been converted into a political scandal. After all, Benghazi was just one of at least 157 attacks on our diplomatic facilities over a 15-year period, 9 of which resulted in U.S. fatalities. That Benghazi would remain at the forefront of the contentious American political conversation for the next year, and likely beyond, speaks less to any special circumstances of the September 11, 2012, attack, and more to the insidious nature of a Republican noise machine that has grown in size -- as well as decibels -- over the last four decades.”

Disregard your conscience, if you have one, for here is our chance to bring down the President of the United States. Romney and his advisors sprung into action even before the day of no political attacks was up. Without any concrete information from the scene of the attack, the Republican presidential candidate and his supporters began to blame the Benghazi attack on the President. John Sununu, a former big-wig in the Party and a member of President George W. Bush’s staff, even went so far as to say that President Obama had “to learn how to be an American.”

The attacks were lies and they were disgraceful. The evidence presented by the political attack sharks was created totally in their heads. The facts show that American security forces sprang into action promptly after the surprise and totally unpredicted attack. They saved many American officials and office staff in another diplomatic building within the city. And, information gathered since the attack shows that there was no sufficient warning to protect the embassy against the attack. It happened quickly and unexpectedly.

The truth wasn’t good enough for Rush Limbaugh and the Romney machine. They invented the story they hoped would be true. It included fictional information about constant and regular pleas for help. This invented story wasn’t true. Brock’s careful and attentive book documents the truth about Benghazi and it shows there is no truth to the Republican accounts of this terrible night.

But then, who among us really thought there was any truth to the constant attack machine that is the new Republican Party?

I urge you to get and read the small book by Brock and Rabin-Hart. It will set the record straight.

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