Then who was it?

Fox News is reporting that the president has been avoiding questions on the Benghazi raid and recent reports that the White House denied fire support for troops in contact at the consulate which resulted in the deaths of four Americans;

The president said neither yes or no Friday when asked pointedly whether the Americans under attack in Benghazi, Libya, were denied requests for help during the attack.

Fox News has learned from sources on the ground during the Sept. 11 attacks that the CIA chain of command twice told agency operatives to “stand down.”

“The election has nothing to do with the four brave Americans getting killed and us wanting to find out exactly what happened,” the president said first in a TV interview with an NBC affiliate in Colorado.

When asked again, Obama said, “The minute I found out what was going on, I gave three very clear directives — Number 1, make sure that we are securing our personnel and doing whatever we need to,” the president said in a TV interviews with an NBC affiliate in Colorado.

But in the vacuum of non-answers from the President, the White House’s National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor recently told the folks at Yahoo News that “Neither the president nor anyone in the White House denied any requests for assistance in Benghazi” which still doesn’t answer the question. Since the Defense Department and the CIA have both told the media that neither of them denied fire support for the embattled Americans in the consulate, then who was it? It only leaves the State Department without a denial.

Our new buddy, William Kristol at the Weekly Standard claims that only the White House could have made the decision to intercede, so someone isn’t being forthcoming with the American people who are clamoring for answers. COB6, a long-experienced special warfare officer, himself, agrees;

Only two places could have called off the attack at that point; the WH situation command (based on POTUS direction) or AFRICOM commander based on information directly from the target area.

If the AC130 never left Sigonella (as Penetta says) that means that the Predator that was filming the whole thing was armed.

If that SEAL was actively “painting” a target; something was on station to engage! And the decision to stand down goes directly to POTUS!

From the Fox News link;

Obama also said in the TV interview, as he said previously said, the administration is going to “investigate what happened to make sure it never happens again” and find out who was involved in the attack so they can be brought to justice.

Yeah, at this point, I think the only way we’re going to make sure that it doesn’t happen again is to remove everyone who was involved in the decision-making process in this instance come election day. Since the president is so adamant about NOT making this an election issue, it only makes me want to make it MORE of an election day issue. That might be the only way to get any straight answers out of this White House.

There’s a rumor flying around the internet today that General Carter F. Ham, the Africom commander is being fired because he tried to send reinforcements to Benghazi to relieve the defenders of the consulate. While it’s true that his successor has been named (General Rodriguez was announced as replacement on Oct. 18), I’m not sure why Ham is leaving the post, so it appears to be just speculation at this point. Probably another issue that won’t be resolved until we change teams in the White House.

Category: 2012 election, Barack Obama/Joe Biden, Military issues