Benghazi: A smoking gun and the rush to avoid judgment

Four months ago, I lamented the lackadaisical approach of Congress to ferreting out the truth about the murder of four Americans in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11, 2012.

Today, I lament the lackadaisical approach of the mainstream media and the American public. How much more evidence do you need that we were lied to by the Obama administration in their rush to avoid judgment by the voting public and by history for the death of a U.S. ambassador and three of his aides and defenders.

In case you missed it — and I know that 90 percent of you did — the smoking gun surfaced this month that proved once and for all that the “cover story” about the attack being a “spontaneous” mob action was just what many of us have been saying all along — nonsense.

Why am I so confident? Because on May 18, the organization Judicial Watch released dozens of official documents it obtained through the Freedom of Information process.

In particular, a Defense Intelligence Agency report dated Sept. 12, 2012, the day after the Benghazi attack, stated categorically (although not definitively) “The attack on the American consulate in Benghazi was planned and executed by the Brigades of the Captive Omar Abdul Rahman (BCOAR). BCOAR is also responsible for past attacks on the Red Cross in Benghazi and the attack on the British ambassador...

“The attack was planned ten or more days prior on approximately 01 September 2012. The intention was to attack the consulate and kill as many Americans as possible to seek revenge for U.S. killing of Aboyahiye (ALALIBY) in Pakistan and in memorial of the 11 September 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center buildings.”

Enough said. End of story. The execrable falsehoods mouthed by UN Ambassador Susan Rice, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama about a YouTube video spurring a “spontaneous” mob attack have been revealed in all their ignominy.

Four months ago, I affirmed that “the massacre at Benghazi is not going away.” I wrote about the work of brave private citizens who formed the Citizens Commission on Benghazi and collaborated with journalist Jerome Corsi to bring forth the real record of what had taken place before, during and after the attack that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens, Foreign Service Officer Sean Smith and CIA contractors Tyrone S. Woods and Glen Doherty.

I stated, “I know that no matter how inconvenient, unpleasant or downright threatening the truth is, it will eventually come out, thanks to patriotic Americans who are willing to dodge unfriendly fire from the U.S. media and political hacks in order to honor the principle that you never leave a fellow soldier behind.”

Today, I must also acknowledge the work of Judicial Watch in relentlessly pursuing the truth. No one can once again say that Susan Rice or Hillary Clinton didn’t knowingly mislead the public when they sought to deflect attention away from the terrorists who carried out the attack.

But are you not outraged that no one in Washington cares — that the mainstream media don’t think it is important enough to tell you? I searched daily for an Associated Press story trumpeting the truth about Benghazi, but entirely in vain. The mainstream media can bury a story just as deep as a cautious mass murderer can bury a body.

Of course the story has been there in plain sight all along for anyone who really cared to question authority — who didn’t just parrot the official story that somehow the attack on the mission in Benghazi had been inspired by the mob’s anger over that obscure YouTube video called “The Innocence of Muslims.”

Unfortunately, most people did go along with the “official story.” Both Democrats and Republicans provided cover for the administration officials who allowed the attack to happen and then covered up their own mistakes. Yes, there have been congressional hearings that have “vindicated” Clinton, Rice and Obama, but they were in large measure a whitewash, and an embarrassingly obvious one at that.

Those who said the whole truth came out as a result of those hearings have since then conveniently shut their eyes, their ears and their minds, and called the rest of us “conspiracy theorists” — a charge which is supposed to reduce you to irrelevance.

Well, the facts are not irrelevant, and if American politicians, journalists and voters do not care enough about the truth to pursue it relentlessly, then it is they who are irrelevant.

Frank Miele is managing editor of the Daily Inter Lake.  E-mail responses may be sent to edit@dailyinterlake.com