This past weekend marked the release date of “13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi”, a movie chronicling the saga of six members of the Annex Security Team’s firefight to protect the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya from an attack by Islamic militants.
No matter one’s political leanings or party affiliation how can we not want truth and justice over this terrible, terrible tragedy? I’ve personally met the men of “13 Hours” and on multiple occasions listened their account of that deadly, horrifying night. They are not politicos; they aren’t out to lampoon one political figure nor prop up another. They’re just soldiers who did a job. I only pray we have not reached a point in American today that partisan loyalty supersedes the quest or even desire for truth.
On September 11, 2012, under vicious attack which ultimately resulted in their deaths, our fellow countrymen living in a foreign land sent out an urgent call for help. That call was met with utter silence from Washington D.C. Not a single helicopter was sent in an attempt to rescue them, no jets, tanks, Humvees, or foot soldiers. Nothing but a drone (armed with a camera) so Washington could look in. By all accounts the Commander-in-Chief of our armed forces didn’t lift a finger to help Americans in distress. Instead he went to bed, arose the following day, boarded Air Force One for a party in Las Vegas. The very next day.
Just one hour flight time from our Consulate were U.S. Air Force bases that could have been engaged in minutes, sent fighter planes and attack helicopters. As Investors Business Daily editorialized on October 24, “Within an hour’s flight time from Libya, at the large naval air station in Sigonella, Italy, and at bases in nearby Aviano and Souda Bay, were fighters and AC 130 gunships that can be extremely effective in dispersing crowds or responding to a terrorist assault.” But the order for the rescue never came. Why, we do not know. Maybe because Barack Obama did not want to offend Muslim sensibilities by such a show of force?
The FACTS have all have been released by the State Department and (under) reported in the news. This isn’t rightwing nut jobs trumping up a fake scandal, these are known and published truths:
- As early as two months prior to the attack the U.S. Embassy in Benghazi notified the State Department in of a marked increase in the presence of jihadist extremists and a sharp increase in the number of Al-Qaeda flags flying over official buildings as well as residences in and around the city and U.S. Consulate. The embassy requested increased security; those requests were denied by Washington.
- ALL of our allied nations ordered their in-country personnel return home and all were extracted prior to the attack. Not only allied nations, including Brittan and Canada, but the American Red Cross and other humanitarian organizations could see the writing on the wall and got their people out. For unexplained reasons, ours remained.
- The mob that carried out the attack just happened to be equipped with machine guns, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, bolt cutters and other equipment necessary to breach the security (perimeter and internal) at the embassy and gain entrance. How many people go out into the streets to protest a video — equipped with grenade launchers? Interestingly enough, the very drone deployed by the Obama White House documents no crowds protesting any video.
- The security team at the Annex (just one mile away) was receiving distress calls from the Consulate. “Unless you come now, we are going to die!” The team was suited up, in their running vehicles and ready to roll but received “stand down” orders. They were SPECIFICALLY told NOT to render assistance. It wasn’t until they disobeyed orders that they rolled to the assistance of their countrymen. It was too late.
- The following Sunday the White House sent then Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice out to make the rounds on Sunday news shows. Ms. Rice claimed the attack was a result of angst over an internet video. The video in question had been on Youtube since July! We’re later told the reason Ms. Rice was sent out and not the Secretary Clinton was because Ms. Clinton “does not like the Sunday talk shows.” For her role in the ruse Ms. Rice was promoted by President Obama to United States National Security Advisor – a position she holds at this moment.
- Along with Ms. Rice the President and Secretary of State continued to place the blame for the attack and deaths of U.S. citizens –including Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, who was appointed to the job by Barack Obama– on this Youtube video for three more weeks. All of this occurring while the President was in the midst of a re-election fight.
- Emails (finally) released two years later by the (most open, honest and transparent) Administration (in history) as a result of a ‘Freedom of Information Act’ lawsuit reveal that Ms. Rice was specifically coached on what to say and how to say it before going on the news circuit. She was explicitly instructed on how to properly lay blame on the innocuous Youtube video.
None of these points are in the least amount of dispute. Four American citizens are DEAD, killed on U.S. soil. Families have lost sons, husbands, and fathers. Investor’s Business Daily summarized the next morning as follows:
“When President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton stepped into the Rose Garden the morning of September 12, they likely knew the attack on our Benghazi consulate the day before was organized by terrorists. They knew because they were privy to a flurry of emails among administration officials discussing the attack in real-time. Yet they said nothing about what they knew and, worse, had done nothing to mount a rescue despite American forces being less than an hour away.
The Obama Administration received requests for additional security from the Embassy and the Ambassador himself as early as February of 2012. An embassy cable on June 25 expressed fear of rising Islamic extremism in Benghazi and noted that the black flag of Al-Qaeda was flying “over government buildings and training facilities.” On August 2, Ambassador Stevens sent a cable requesting 11 additional body guards, noting “Host nation security support is lacking and cannot be depended on to provide a safe and secure environment for the diplomatic mission of outreach.
But these requests for additional security were repeatedly denied, as security officials testified before Chairman Darrell Issa’s House Oversight Committee. As the anniversary of 9/11 approached, the Obama Administration should have known that more security was necessary to protect diplomatic missions in the increasingly hostile country, especially on that sensitive date. But they did just the opposite, actually reducing security. The Wall Street Journal reported on October 10 that the Administration removed a well-armed, 16 member, security detail from Libya in August, to be replaced by the Libyan security personnel that Ambassador Stevens had told them could not be relied upon.
How could emails be sent to Washington in real-time describing a terrorist attack on sovereign U.S. territory in which four Americans were killed as it happened; as a drone flew overhead recording the truth of the carnage, and the President and Secretary of State insist that it was all about a video.”
By then everyone knew how the battle of Benghazi had turned out. The United States Ambassador to Libya, the personal representative of President Barack Obama, had been murdered. Chris Stevens, Information Officer Sean Smith, and two Marines — Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods, had volunteered to serve their country. Under the leadership of Barack Obama, this is how their service ended.
By the evening of that next day, Commander-in-Chief Barack Obama was jetting off to a campaign fundraiser in Las Vegas, followed by parties with Jay-Z and Beyonce.
Americans of all political stripes should see this movie, must drop partisanship and consider these facts. Any reasonable, objective person should come to the conclusion that all is not as it seems. Imagine yourself in the shoes of Ambassador Chris Stephens on September 10th or 11th of 2012. Fearing for your life. Asking, pleading, begging for help and getting none. Why did we not send a single soldier to help Americans under fire and in distress? Americans, can you possibly not want to know?
Derrick Wilburn is the Founder and Chairman of the Rocky Mountain Black Conservatives and American Conservatives of Color.
He is a sought after speaker/presenter, and is also a renown author and columnist, contributing columns and editorials to the Colorado Springs Gazette and Colorado Common Sense News. He can also be read nationally on American Thinker, Allen B. West and the Tea Party News Network.
His online videos may be viewed on the ACofC YouTube channel and he frequently delivers the Tea Party National Weekly Address.
