7 hours ....

7 hours.

it is very interesting how a fact, a simple fact, will define the analysis of an issue.   it is equally amazing how the significance of a simple fact is ignored, until it is recognized as a defining thing.  and, once recognized, is promptly and forever conveniently ignored.

the battle for the benghazi embassy went on for 7 hours.

now, if something like this starts and ends with 30 or 40 minutes, that says one thing about the reasonableness of the claim by the obama administration that it did not know what was happening, and that the situation was hard to assess.  in that context, such an assertion might almost be credible.

but, the battle for the embassy grounds and the killing of the ambassador and his aide and the navy seals did not encompass a mere 30 or 40 minutes, it went on for 7 hours.  with repeated requests for help, and notifications that the embassy was under siege.

that, it seems to me, is an entirely different context.  and, it makes the administrations feeble attempts at a credible narrative almost laughably inept.

let's look at the 7 hour thing.

first off, there are procedures that an american embassy has to notify the state department of what is going on.  those procedures were apparently used.

second, the c.i.a. might reasonably be expected to have assets in benghazi, perhaps one who could have been reached, and asked to amble over to the embassy to see what was going on. i mean, you'd think.

third, the military would have assets in benghazi, and they could have been contacted.  seems like that is a reasonable assumption.

examine this context of 7 hours.  

we have naval air in the mediterranean, and i am assuming that naval air assets could have been to benghazi in relatively short order.  the v-22 osprey, for instance, has a flight speed of 315 knots, can carry 24 marines, and has a range of up to almost 600 miles, depending on how configured.  http://science.howstuffworks.com/osprey1.htm  ospreys are attached to the 6th fleet, or the mediterranean fleet as i prefer, and are deployed in the med.  http://www.sldinfo.com/lsc-resupplies-uss-kearsarge-v22-ospreys/ .

i would assume that wherever there are ospreys, there are battle ready marines.   it's what they do.

we had soldiers, cia assets and special ops teams on the ground in and around benghazi on the night the embassy was attacked.  period.   end of discussion.

that's considerable assets.  a flight of 4 ospreys could have put 100 u.s. marines on the ground, with air cover, and that is a formidable force. (you try to keep them off your lawn, if they want to sit there and use the hose to cool off.)  i don't know where the marine amphibious carrier groups were, but, had they been close enough, they could have put boots on the ground, very swiftly.  and, we had enough assets there that could have helped.

it seems almost inconceivable that the forces on the ground would not have responded to the embassy immediately, and the only reason that they would not have seems to me that they were ordered not to.  but, leave that issue aside.  just forget it as an analytical or arguing point.

i am just focused on this little matter of 7 hours.

it seems equally inconceivable to me that with all the assets available to the united states of america, that american intelligence, as headed by the c.i.a., and military intelligence, to include drones, satellites, and human assets, as well as diplomatic assets available to the state department, could not confirm an attack on an american embassy over a 7 hour period.

were i secretary of state in such a situation, if left with no other recourse, i simply would have called the libyan president and asked, what in the hell is going on there?  get someone down there, and tell me.  did no one contact the libyans to find out what was happening?  this seems inconceivable, don't you think.

and, there is one other issue that has bothered me, the entire time, and it simply has not been addressed by anyone, ... , not bloggers, not the media, and not the obama administration, its minion and sycophants.  (i love the word.  every time i hear it, i imagine walt disney studios doing a cartoon, the dance of the sycophants.  the character hillary would be an elephant, of course, ... , type casting.  the chacter v.p. could be an idiot.  well, you get the idea.)

and, that is, did nobody think to call the embassy?  i mean, an embassy has staff, and secretaries, and cooks and personnel, and all that, does it not?  it would seem to me, that if you were president or secretary of state, and you wanted to assess what was going on, that you would simply call the embassy.  hey, ambassador stevens, this is obama, what is going on.

now, if you could not establish that contact almost immediately, would that not be a cause for concern?  wouldn't you turn to clinton, and say, hey hill, they won't pick up.  what's going on.

i am reminded of casey stengel's remark, the crusty old manager with the fractured syntax and the ability to lead the yankees to so many world series titles, when he essayed his "talent" on the new york mets during their first spring training, a job he took when the yankees put him out to pasture.   the old gentleman walked around, looking dejected and forlorn, and someone asked him, what was the matter.  he asked, rhetorically, "don't nobody here know how to play this game?"

7 hours.

we hear so often that somehow, after not being able to find out anything else, (and isn't it amazing how selective it is, what these people know and what they don't know about what was happening on the ground, .... , like the radio transmission went in or out, or something like that), "washington" found out that chris stevens had taken refuge in a "safe house," or a "safe room," or a "secure residence," or a laundry room with a glass window and a wooden door (as it turns out), and that he was holed up there.

did they expect stevens to hide in a laundry room for 7 hours, under small arms attack and mortar fire.

they decided not to help, after 7 hours, when an american ambassador was hiding in a laundry room.  certainly, that could not have sounded very promising to anyone with a brain in his head.

7 hours.

in 7 hours they could not find out what was happening, in charge of the largest military and intelligence gathering agencies on the face of the earth.  well, that's no surprise, i suppose.  the same people who run that military and those intelligence agencies haven't been able to decide what to say about all of this in almost two months, ... , all the "falling on swords" and the being "thrown under buses," and they still cannot say anything.

john jay @ 11.01.2012

p.s.  hey, the news media hasn't been just sock puppets for obama. no siree, bob!!  jake tapper, of abc news, has written a piece entitled, "the benghazi drip-drip-drip," dateline 11.01.2012 and he has figured out that obama isn't saying anything at all about it until after the election is over.  http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/11/the-benghazi-drip-drip-drip/ .  oh, he calls all of us who write about the issue "traffic in false rumors and idle speculation."  well, fuck him.  

he quotes some fellow named tommy vietor to this effect, to prove that the white house was on top on things on 09.11.2012:

“the white house didn’t deny any requests for assistance. period. moreover, what the entire government did – the white house, state department, intelligence community, department of defense included – was to work to mobilize all available assets and move them into the region as quickly as possible. that’s what the president ordered the secretary of defense and chairman to do the first time he was briefed about these issues. many of those assets were later used to reinforce embassies in places like yemen, libya and egypt.”

i guess with all that effort, they probably woke the director of the department of weights and measures up as well, and asked what he thought of all the garbled messages saying, "we're under fire.  we're on fire."  surely they brought her in, too.  and, did you notice where he said, "we even sent the embassy paper boy around to see what was going on."  he may as well have said it, for all they accomplished.  in that 7 hours.

you know, it occurs to me, would it be asking too much of ole jake tapper to get off of his damned dead ass, and call up the navy, and make discrete inquiries where the fleet air arm was when the benghazi attack was going down, and where the marine amphibious landing carriers and air arms were as well.  had the marine amphibious carriers been any where benghazi, they could have landed troops with the hover craft under harrier air cover, and no camel jockey ambush in creation could have dealt with that kind of force.

so, where was navy air?   and, where were the marine amphibious forces?   and, jake tapper, if you don't know, you aren't much of a journalist.  and, if they were close by, i also doubt that you would not have the native wit to ask, why weren't they in the neighborhood, all that is going down in libya and egypt.  if that was the case, why indeed were they not handy?

so, there you have it.  for 7 hours, make that 7 hours, the white house, state department, intelligence community, department of defense, worked to mobilize all available asset and move them into the region as quickly as possible.  amazing.

did you notice where he said what they were gonna do with those assets, once they got them there?  what, order them to stand down, just like they did the ones already there.  leon panetta has already admitted that is what they did, when he said they didn't want to commit anyone to battle without an assessment of what was going on.

not for 30 or 40 minutes, ... , but, 7 hours.

doesn't that simple fact, that 7 hours, make them all a bunch of incompetents, all a bunch of liars?

why did not they just call the wire services?

 

coming, from the disney studios, "the dance of the sugar plum sycophants," starring the voice of pee wee herman as joe biden!!  i can just see the posters, all of them cavorting in a circle around obama, in admiration and rapture, as benghazi burned.