Last night Bing West, a former Assistant Secretary of Defense, told Greta Van Susteren that if Obama gave the order to secure the consulate in Benghazi there would be a paper trail,
“If that actually happened the way President Obama said it happened, there’s a paper trail and I think people reasonably enough can say, “Can we see the order?” because hundreds of others supposedly saw this order.
So far no one has offered any evidence that Obama made the order to protect our men on the ground in Benghazi the night of the attack.
Today the Obama Administration told reporters that they did not deny requests for help in Benghazi.
Top of the Ticket reported:
The White House on Saturday flatly denied that President Barack Obama withheld requests for help from the besieged American compound in Benghazi, Libya, as it came under on attack by suspected terrorists on September 11th.
“Neither the president nor anyone in the White House denied any requests for assistance in Benghazi,” National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor told Yahoo News by email.
Fox News Channel reported Friday that American officials in the compound repeatedly asked for military help during the assault but were rebuffed by CIA higher-ups.
Notice what is missing from the statement? The administration did not say it issued orders to secure the consulate and protect our ambassador. This is despite the many pleas for assistance coming from the consulate and annex.
Where are the orders Mr. President?
More… In a similar vein Bill Kristol at The Weekly Standard asked these 10 questions of the White House today.
1.) To whom did the president give the first of his “three very clear directives”—that is, “make sure that we are securing our personnel and doing whatever we need to?”
2.) How did he transmit this directive to the military and other agencies?
3.) During the time when Americans were under attack, did the president convene a formal or informal meeting of his national security council? Did the president go to the situation room?
4.) During this time, with which members of the national security team did the president speak directly?
5.) Did Obama speak by phone or teleconference with the combatant commanders who would have sent assistance to the men under attack?
6.) Did he speak with CIA director David Petraeus?
7.) Was the president made aware of the repeated requests for assistance from the men under attack? When and by whom?
8.) Did he issue any directives in response to these requests?
9.) Did the president refuse to authorize an armed drone strike on the attackers?
10.) Did the president refuse to authorize a AC-130 or MC-130 to enter Libyan airspace during the attack?
