-By Warner Todd Huston
In Benghazi, Libya “Obama lied, people died.” That is the slogan that should dog this President for his actions–or lack thereof–during the attacks in Benghazi, Libya that killed four Americans. Now a Senate investigation shows that Obama could have prevented the attacks and saved those lives.
The Senate Intelligence Committee has finally released its report on the Benghazi attacks and it finds that Obama failed miserably to stop the attacks even though he and his subordinates could have.
The Senate Committee says the murderous attack on U.S. facilities in Libya could have been prevented and faults the State Department for failing to respond to the deteriorating security situation despite numerous warnings.
The reports also points out that Obama and then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s claims that an anti-Muslim YouTube video sparked the assaults on our facilities there were false.
The report refrained from directly blaming the White House nor did it point fingers directly at top State Department officials, but this was likely more a political move than a result of the facts in the investigation.
“The committee worked on a bipartisan basis to investigate the various allegations that have come out since the terrorist attacks in Benghazi in September 2012 and to get to the truth about what happened leading up to, during and after the attacks,” Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, (D, CA), said in a statement.
“I hope this report will put to rest many of the conspiracy theories and political accusations about what happened in Benghazi,” Feinstein wrote. “I strongly believe we should focus on what really matters: honoring the four Americans who were killed, bringing the attackers to justice, ensuring accurate and actionable warnings of future terrorist attacks and making sure that all U.S. facilities personnel overseas have adequate security and protection.”
The report also blames the Intelligence Community for its failure to properly read the deteriorating situation in Benghazi.
But it was the State Department that came in for the most blame. The reports says that there were “systematic management and leadership failures” at the DoS that led to “grossly” inadequate security.
Sen. Saxby Chambliss R-Ga., the top Republican on the committee, said the panel was a bi-partisan effort.
“In spite of the deteriorating security situation in Benghazi and ample strategic warnings, the United States government simply did not do enough to prevent these attacks and ensure the safety of those serving in Benghazi,” he said. “I hope that the Administration–and most specifically, the Intelligence Community, the State Department, and our military–will review this bipartisan report carefully and quickly adopt the committee’s recommendations.”
What do you think? Is this report too soft on Obama? Shouldn’t these faults go all the way to the top?
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, MrConservative.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, Wizbang.com, among many, many others. Huston has also appeared on Fox News, Fox Business Network, CNN, and many local TV shows as well as numerous talk radio shows throughout the country.
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