CIA operators were denied request for help during Benghazi attack

BREAKING NEWS FROM FOX NEWS***
Fox News has learned from sources who were on the ground in Benghazi that an urgent request from the CIA annex for military back-up during the attack on the U.S. Consulate and subsequent attack several hours later was denied by U.S. officials -- who also told the CIA operators twice to "stand down" rather than help the ambassador's team when shots were heard at approximately 9:40 p.m. in Benghazi on Sept. 11.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/10/26/cia-operators-were-denied-request-for-help-during-benghazi-attack-sources-say/#ixzz2AQG4N7Zm

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Colin Powell questions a Romney foreign policy?

Former Chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell endorsed President Barack Obama for a second term Thursday, telling “CBS This Morning” that he voted for Obama in 2008 but this time was going further and publicly backing him.  One of the reasons Mr. Powell endorsed President Obama is because he has concerns with a Romney foreign policy.  "I'm not quite sure which Governor Romney we would be getting with respect to foreign policy," Powell stated. “One day he has a certain strong view about staying in Afghanistan but then on Monday night he agrees with the withdrawal — same thing in Iraq.”

Former Chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell has concerns with a Romney foreign policy?
I guess he likes the way Obama conducts his foreign policy.  People don't remember that Colin Powell shared some responsibility for the deaths of Americans in Mogadishu during Clinton's term.   A Senate report into a disastrous 1993 Army raid in Somalia portrays Gen. Colin Powell bending to pressure to keep U.S. involvement to a minimum when field commanders sought greater firepower. The report quotes Gen. Wayne Downing, head of the United States Special Forces, as saying "we were under incredible pressure" from the Joint Chiefs of Staff.  "I advised that I would like to have the AC-130s," he said. "Gen. Powell advised that we needed to keep the numbers down."  Powell was rightly criticized for refusing to send AC-130 gunships along with Task Force Ranger, a force of 460 Army troops to reinforce the troops that were trying to capture the Somali warlord.

In the end, 18 America soldiers were killed and many more injured.  I guess Colin Powell had a case of amnesia, because he later said he didn't recall that his officers on the ground requested the reinforcements...even though he was the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.  Judging by Powell's past decisions, I can see why he would prefer Obama's weak foreign policy over one of strength.          

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Is Benghazi Obama's Mogadishu?

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday attempted to take one for Team Obama. While in Lima Peru, Secretary Clinton stated, "I take responsibility, I'm in charge of the State Department's 60,000-plus people all over the world, 275 posts. The president and the vice president wouldn't be knowledgeable about specific decisions that are made by security professionals. They're the ones who weigh all of the threats and the risks and the needs and make a considered decision."

Is Hillary Clinton the new Les Aspin?  In 1994, then Secretary of Defense Les Aspin, was ousted from the Clinton administration in large part because of the failed raid in Mogadishu Somalia (Blackhawk Down) and his decision not to send tanks.  According to a Senate Armed Services Committee report on the deaths of 18 U.S. service members, Defense Secretary Les Aspin and his deputies rejected sending needed tanks and armored vehicles to Somalia because they feared a political backlash would undermine their pro-United Nations policy.

Fast forward to 2012. The late Ambassador Stevens and the diplomatic mission in Libya made multiple security related requests that were turned down by Washington based officials.  Ambassador Stevens even wrote in his diary that he feared for his safety shortly before he and three other Americans were murdered by terrorists.  Lt. Col. Andrew Wood has stated that U.S. Ambassador Stevens wanted a Security Support Team, made up of 16 special operations soldiers, to stay with him in Libya after their deployment was scheduled to end in August. The embassy staff’s first choice was for us to stay and "that would have been the choice of the embassy people in Tripoli” Lt. Col. Andrew's continued.

Why would the Obama administration deny adequate security to our diplomatic team in Libya?  Especially during the 11th anniversary of 9/11 and in a country rife with anti-American Islamists.   Liberals have this unfounded view that if the United States keeps a low profile and doesn't project power, then somehow our enemies will like us and not try to kill us.  President Obama has spent the better part of four years apologizing to Muslim extremists; projecting weakness in the process.

Benghazi is Obama's Mogadishu, the only difference is 18 Army Rangers died in Somalia and four diplomats died in Libya.  Defense Secretary Les Aspin took the blame for Bill Clinton's failed foreign policy in 1994 and Hillary Clinton is attempting to take the blame for Obama's failed foreign policy today.  

I find it ironic that a 2008 Hillary Clinton campaign ad featured a telephone ringing at 3 a.m. It strongly suggested that Barack Obama was not prepared to take that phone call at that critical hour. Somewhere a crisis would mount, and she wanted primary voters to understand that the inexperienced Illinois senator was not ready to tackle it.  That 3 a.m. phone did in fact ring..and Obama didn't answer, Hillary did, and they both failed miserably.  

Senate Report on Somalia 

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