This probably merits its own post, but I'm too lazy so I'll just paste the relevant info regarding this Benghazi thing that certain members of our community are terribly misinformed about:
"Bit late, but it should be noted that there are actually several right-wing conspiracies about Benghazi that have been pushed since the tragic incident occurred (all of which have been or can be pretty well debunked):
1. Obama's administration apologized to the attackers even as the attacks were going on. This is not true; a message of this sort was sent from (I believe) the Egyptian embassy, but it was from the people actually inside the embassy during the attacks. It was not approved, dictated by, or sent by the Obama administration.
2. The administration's rationalization for the attacks was that they were prompted by a Youtube video that was designed to stir up anti-American sentiment. This was disproved in a couple of ways. First, the only actual Obama administration member to offer this opinion was Susan Rice (the fallout from which might well cost her any future promotions within the administration); and second, intelligence reports indicated that the video likely had nothing to do with the actual protests or attacks, as most of the people in Egypt and Libya likely never even saw it prior to the incidents.
3. Obama waited two weeks before he even branded the attacks as terrorism. Mitt Romney learned quite the painful lesson on that, when he tried to use this argument (likely gleaned from some right-wing blog or other) during the debates, and was publicly humiliated by both Obama and Candy Crowley for his patently false statement. A similar argument relies on being particularly pedantic and claiming that "acts of terror" is not the same as "terrorist acts".
4. Navy SEALs/Marines/GI Joe strikeforce/various chapters of the Adeptus Astartes/the Justice League were nearby, ready and waiting to go into action and could have been inside Libya in the blink of an eye, but Obama refused to let them enter Libya, and instead watched via drone camera from his throne of skulls as the ambassador and his staff were brutally murdered, sipping the blood of decent American folk from his silver chalice as he did so. Again, this is patently false; while there were military units in nearby countries, they were hours away from mobilizing and reaching anything inside Libya (to say nothing of the fact that sending in forces into a situation with zero intelligence on the ground would have resulted in far more needless deaths). Another problem with this theory is that it presumes most military units are just SWAT teams with bigger guns; anyone who's spent any amount of time in the service knows it takes quite a bit of time, resources, and logistics to mount any kind of serious military operation. Related to this is the theory that a couple of high-ranking military officers (General Carter Ham and Rear Admiral Charles Gaouette) were fired/arrested/resigned because they refused to obey Obama's order to stand down. This is ridiculous because A)if they refused such an order, why weren't the troops sent in, then; and B)a high-ranking military officer being fired or arrested is MAJOR, MAJOR news (in reality, both officers were reassigned to other duties).
5. Obama was afraid of Petraeus going in front of Congress next week and spilling the beans about the whole cover-up, so he had the FBI blackmail him with their knowledge of Petraeus' affair. Petraeus is a Real American Hero, so rather than lie for the Gay Nazi Muslim Commie Kenyan Socialist Athiest, he resigned instead. This story just broke, so this theory, while insane, hasn't been debunked just yet; however, it takes some rather acrobatic leaps of logic to arrive at its' conclusions. Unless something quite astonishing happens, I think it's fairly safe to assume that this theory is just as insane and untrue as the others. "
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Date: 11/11/12 18:04 (UTC)"Bit late, but it should be noted that there are actually several right-wing conspiracies about Benghazi that have been pushed since the tragic incident occurred (all of which have been or can be pretty well debunked):
1. Obama's administration apologized to the attackers even as the attacks were going on. This is not true; a message of this sort was sent from (I believe) the Egyptian embassy, but it was from the people actually inside the embassy during the attacks. It was not approved, dictated by, or sent by the Obama administration.
2. The administration's rationalization for the attacks was that they were prompted by a Youtube video that was designed to stir up anti-American sentiment. This was disproved in a couple of ways. First, the only actual Obama administration member to offer this opinion was Susan Rice (the fallout from which might well cost her any future promotions within the administration); and second, intelligence reports indicated that the video likely had nothing to do with the actual protests or attacks, as most of the people in Egypt and Libya likely never even saw it prior to the incidents.
3. Obama waited two weeks before he even branded the attacks as terrorism. Mitt Romney learned quite the painful lesson on that, when he tried to use this argument (likely gleaned from some right-wing blog or other) during the debates, and was publicly humiliated by both Obama and Candy Crowley for his patently false statement. A similar argument relies on being particularly pedantic and claiming that "acts of terror" is not the same as "terrorist acts".
4. Navy SEALs/Marines/GI Joe strikeforce/various chapters of the Adeptus Astartes/the Justice League were nearby, ready and waiting to go into action and could have been inside Libya in the blink of an eye, but Obama refused to let them enter Libya, and instead watched via drone camera from his throne of skulls as the ambassador and his staff were brutally murdered, sipping the blood of decent American folk from his silver chalice as he did so. Again, this is patently false; while there were military units in nearby countries, they were hours away from mobilizing and reaching anything inside Libya (to say nothing of the fact that sending in forces into a situation with zero intelligence on the ground would have resulted in far more needless deaths). Another problem with this theory is that it presumes most military units are just SWAT teams with bigger guns; anyone who's spent any amount of time in the service knows it takes quite a bit of time, resources, and logistics to mount any kind of serious military operation. Related to this is the theory that a couple of high-ranking military officers (General Carter Ham and Rear Admiral Charles Gaouette) were fired/arrested/resigned because they refused to obey Obama's order to stand down. This is ridiculous because A)if they refused such an order, why weren't the troops sent in, then; and B)a high-ranking military officer being fired or arrested is MAJOR, MAJOR news (in reality, both officers were reassigned to other duties).
5. Obama was afraid of Petraeus going in front of Congress next week and spilling the beans about the whole cover-up, so he had the FBI blackmail him with their knowledge of Petraeus' affair. Petraeus is a Real American Hero, so rather than lie for the Gay Nazi Muslim Commie Kenyan Socialist Athiest, he resigned instead. This story just broke, so this theory, while insane, hasn't been debunked just yet; however, it takes some rather acrobatic leaps of logic to arrive at its' conclusions. Unless something quite astonishing happens, I think it's fairly safe to assume that this theory is just as insane and untrue as the others. "