Libya Terrorism Timeline: Truth and Obama Deception

Terrorism Timeline from Heritage Foundation reveals Obama Administration Deception

From Heritage Foundation

Watch Heritage video on the timeline of the Administration’s Libya response

The latest incriminating information on the U.S. consulate attack in Benghazi, Libya indicates that the State Department turned down a request for additional security from concerned U.S. embassy staff.

New evidence shows there were security threats in Libya in the months prior to the deadly September 11 attack that killed U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans. Despite these threats, the State Department left its personnel there to fend for themselves.

And when the terrorist attack did take place, the Obama Administration peddled the ridiculous story that an offensive, amateurish, anti-Islam YouTube video was to blame in order to avoid characterizing the murders of four Americans as terrorism.

On October 2, a letter was sent to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton from House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R–CA) and Jason Chaffetz (R–UT), Chairman of the National Security, Homeland Defense and Foreign Operations Subcommittee. The letter detailed 13 known security threats against U.S. facilities in Libya in the six months prior to September 11.

On October 10, the committee  holds a hearing on events in Libya and seek answers from the State Department. Also on October 10, The Heritage Foundation  hosts a public panel discussion on the events in Libya titled, “Intelligence and Security Failure: Attacks in Benghazi and Across the Middle East Reveal Ongoing Threat of Terrorism.”

Timeline from Heritage Foundation

To help our readers follow the path to tragedy on September 11 and its aftermath, below is a chronology of key events:

April 6: IED thrown over the fence of the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi.

April 11: Gun battle erupts between armed groups two-and-a-half miles from the U.S. Consulate, including rocket-propelled grenades.

April 27: Two South African contractors are kidnapped by armed men, released unharmed.

May 1: Deputy Commander of U.S. Embassy Tripoli’s Local Guard Force is carjacked, beaten, and detained by armed youth.

May 1: British Embassy in Tripoli is attacked by a violent mob and set on fire. Other NATO embassies attacked as well.

May 3: The State Department declines a request from personnel concerned about security at the U.S. Embassy in Libya for a DC-3 plane to take them around the country.

May 22: Two rocket-propelled grenades are fired at the Benghazi office of the International Committee of the Red Cross, less than 1 mile from the U.S. Consulate.

June 6: A large IED destroys part of the security perimeter of the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi. Creates hole “big enough for 40 men to go through.”

June 10: A car carrying the British ambassador is attacked in Tripoli. Two bodyguards injured.
Late June: The building of the International Red Cross attacked again and closed down, leaving the U.S. flag as the only international one still flying in Benghazi, an obvious target.

August 6: Armed assailants carjack a vehicle with diplomatic plates operated by U.S. personnel.

September 8: A local security officer in Benghazi warns American officials about deteriorating security.

September 11: Protesters attack the U.S. Cairo embassy. U.S. Embassy releases statement and tweets sympathizing with Muslim protesters/attackers.

September 11: U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya is attacked, Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans are killed.

September 12: Secretary Clinton and President Obama issue statements condemning both the video and the attacks.

September 12: U.S. intelligence agencies have enough evidence to conclude a terrorist attack was involved.

September 13: Press Secretary Jay Carney condemns video and violence at a news conference.

September 14: Carney denies Administration had “actionable intelligence indicating that an attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi was planned or imminent.”

September 14: The bodies of slain Americans return to Andrews Air Force Base. President Obama again blames the YouTube video.

September 16: U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice appears on Sunday talk shows and says the attacks were provoked by the video, exclusively.

September 16: Libyan President Mohamed Magarief says, “no doubt that this [attack] was preplanned, predetermined.”
 

President Obama, Libya, Terrorism, and Truth

What is the Truth? Is there a Cover Up? Demand that Congress Investigate.

Sign a petition; Demand the Truth.

Steve Elliot, Grassfire Nation

Is the Obama administration intentionally withholding information about the terror attack in an attempt to cover up the truth about the killing of these four Americans? It's a question that must be asked ... and answered!

It's been more than two-and-a-half weeks since an attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya killed four American diplomats, including widely respected ambassador Christopher Stevens. Yet, President Obama STILL has not publicly acknowledged that attack as terrorism.

Even though it has been widely reported that the Obama administration knew within 24 hours that the tragedy which transpired on the eleventh anniversary of September 11 was not a "spontaneous action" to an anti-Islam YouTube video, our "Commander"-in-Chief refuses to call this deadly attack what it is -- TERRORISM.

Why hasn't the President publicly acknowledged that the murders in Benghazi were the result of a terrorist attack? His Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta did in a Pentagon news conference on Thursday saying flatly: "It was a terrorist attack."

+ + Demand Congress Investigate the Libya Attack

Yet for more than two weeks, the White House stuck to its story that Chris Stevens' murder was committed in retaliation for the ridiculous and laughable "Innocence of Muslims" clip. Remarkably, the President still blamed the anti-Islam video for Stevens' death in his speech before the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday.

Is the Obama administration intentionally withholding information about the terror attack in an attempt to cover up the truth about the killing of these four Americans? It's a question that must be asked ... and answered!

Go here now to take immediate action:

www.grassfire.com/278/petition.asp

+ + Americans Demand the Truth

Grassfire is moving quickly to mobilize 50,000 Americans who want to know exactly what the Obama administration knew before and after terrorists attacked our consulate and murdered our fellow citizens.

As Americans, we deserve answers to these and other critical questions that continue to surface about the Benghazi attack. Go here to sign our Grassfire petition and demand that Congress determine whether or not there's been a cover-up by the Obama administration:


P.S. You can do something to hold the Obama administration accountable. Demand that Congress investigate and reveal any efforts to cover up the deadly events in Libya. Go here now to sign our Grassfire petition and demand Americans learn the full truth about the Benghazi attack:

Paul Ryan: Facts about Health Care, Budget

3 things every voter needs to know about Paul Ryan’s Medicare reform plan–in 100 words

By James Pethokoukis |

 

In his most excellent post on the Paul Ryan vice presidential pick, AEI’s Andrew Biggs highlights some key facts about Ryan’s approach to saving Medicare. 

These are clip and save:

1. No one over the age of 55 would be affected in any way.

2. Traditional Medicare fee-for-service would remain available for all. “Premium support”—that is, government funding of private insurance plans chosen by individuals—is an option for those who choose it. No senior would be forced out of the traditional Medicare program against his will.

3. Overall funding for Medicare under the Ryan-Wyden plan is scheduled to grow at the same rate as under President Obama’s proposals. Is this “gutting Medicare” and “ending Medicare as we know it”? In reality, it’s the market giving seniors cheaper, higher quality choices they can take if they wish, with the traditional program remaining an option.

President Obama, Economics, and Milton Friedman

Dinner Topics for Monday: A Lesson in Economics

One sound bite is two minutes of Milton Friedman schooling Phil Donahue and his audience in greed and capitalism and virtue.  Before that, though, I want to play for you a sound bite of "Barack Hussein Obama!  Mmm!  Mmm!  Mmm!" reading the audio version of his book, The Audacity of Hope.  This is Obama talking about a sermon by Reverend Wright that moved him.(Rush Limbaugh)

OBAMA:  It is this world, a world where cruise ships throw away more food in a day than most residents of Port-au-Prince see in a year. Where white folks' greed runs a world in need. Apartheid in one hemisphere, apathy in another hemisphere. That's the world on which hope sits.

RUSH:  He was quoting Reverend Wright, and he said that's for me, man, I love that.  White folks' greed runs a world in need.  So let's go to 1979, ancient times for many of you.  We may as well be going back to the Roman Coliseum for this.  Nineteen seventy nine, I was 28.  Ancient times for many of you.  Phil Donahue interviewing Milton Friedman, and they had this exchange.  And Donahue starts off wanting to know about greed and capitalism.  Here it is.  And listen to this.

DONAHUE:  When you see around the globe the maldistribution of wealth, the desperate plight of millions of people in underdeveloped countries, when you see so few haves and so many have-nots, when you see the greed and the concentration of power, did you ever have a moment of doubt about capitalism and whether greed's a good idea to run on?

FRIEDMAN:  Well, first of all, tell me, is there some society you know that doesn't run on greed?  You think Russia doesn't run on greed?  You think China doesn't run on greed?  What is greed?  Of course none of us are greedy. It's only the other fellow who's greedy.  

The world runs on individuals pursuing their separate interests.  The great achievements of civilization have not come from government bureaus.  Einstein didn't construct his theory under order from a bureaucrat.  Henry Ford didn't revolutionize the automobile industry that way.  In the only cases in which the masses have escaped from the kind of grinding poverty you're talking about, the only cases in recorded history are where they have had capitalism and largely free trade.  If you want to know where the masses are worst off, it's exactly in the kinds of societies that depart from that. 

 So that the record of history is absolutely crystal clear that there is no alternative way, so far discovered, of improving the lot of the ordinary people that can hold a candle to the productive activities that are unleashed by a free enterprise system.

DONAHUE:  But it seems to reward not virtue as much as ability to manipulate the system.

FRIEDMAN:  And what does reward virtue?  Do you think the communist commissar rewards virtue?  Do you think  Hitler rewards virtue?  Do you think American presidents reward virtue?  Do they choose their appointees on the basis of the virtue of the people appointed or on the basis of their political clout?  Is it really true that political self-interest is nobler somehow than economic self-interest?  You know, I think you're taking a lot of things for granted.  Just tell me where in the world you find these angels who are going to organize society for us.

DONAHUE:  Well --

FRIEDMAN:  I don't even trust you to do that.

RUSH:  Milton Friedman back in 1979 schooling Phil Donahue, and everybody else who heard that on the notions of virtue and greed and just basically upsetting Phil's applecart.  Phil wasn't smart enough to know it was happening. He's still running around lamenting the accident of birth. If he'd been 30 miles south he would have grown up in poverty.  Anyway, we wanted to play that for you and recognize Milton Friedman.

Milton Friedman:  "If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in five years there will be a shortage of sand." 

 Milton Friedman:  "Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself." 

Another Milton Friedman quote:  "Most of the energy of political work is devoted to correcting the effects of mismanagement of government."  

Boy, isn't that true? Pass another law.  Government comes along and creates a program.  The program is an absolute disaster.  Government says, "That's gotta get fixed."  Government says, "Okay, we'll fix it."  And it compounds itself, one error atop another. (Rush)

Another Milton Friedman quote:  "Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program."  

I'll tell you, the guy was great.  He was a genius.  He lived into his late eighties.  He would have been a hundred years old this week. (Rush)

Obamacare: Repeal Is up to Congress

Morning Bell: Join the Fight to Repeal Obamacare

Ed Feulner, President, The Heritage Foundation

Many wonderful patriots are out in the trenches, fighting tyranny with all their hearts. Truth is our greatest weapon, and The Heritage Foundation works 24-7, educating American citizens. They are among the groups who have the most influence on Congress. CD

Fellow Americans,

Like you, I am disappointed by the Supreme Court’s Obamacare decision. The Court misread and rewrote Obamacare in order to save it. Such contortions are not the proper role of judging. Most Americans are with you and me and deeply dislike this law.

We believe, however, that this is far, far from a time for despair. This decision will energize freedom-loving Americans to once again take matters into their own hands. Our republic has survived and flourished for more than two centuries because men and women—brave, determined, and deeply committed to the cause of freedom—were willing to stand, to march, and to make whatever sacrifices were necessary so that their children would know the blessings of liberty, the hope and opportunity that flow from living in “the land of the Free.”

They will receive this ruling as a clarion call to action. Once again, the people will have to rise to defend a fundamental American concept: that the power of government over individuals must be limited.

First, let’s acknowledge what was good in the decision. The Court recognized that there are limits to what Congress may do under the Commerce Clause. Big-government forces have for too long abused this clause’s grant of congressional authority, but the Court’s decision reaffirms that there are limits on their actions.

There’s also the fact that the individual mandate has acquired the official constitutional status of a “tax”—and if it is indeed a tax, then that is even more reason for the U.S. Senate to repeal it with the 51-vote threshold available under the Budget Act’s reconciliation process. It is a revenue provision. No filibuster problems there now.

Calling it a tax, of course, doesn’t make the heavy-handed policy in Obamacare any better for those who now have to buy a product they don’t like. And yesterday’s opinion makes clear that President Obama enacted a massive new tax on the middle class, breaking one of his repeated promises.

We must resolve to check this dangerous expansion of power.

The first step is to work harder than ever to fully repeal Obamacare. Now that the Supreme Court has had its say, Congress becomes the arena in which we can fight for relief and restoration of constitutional limits.

Congress can and must reassert its constitutional authority. Indeed, the House of Representatives has already acted. We congratulate the lower chamber for having voted to repeal Obamacare.

Now it’s the Senate’s turn to do what’s right: Repeal Obamacare, and force the President to sign its repeal.

The American experiment is predicated on the idea that government exists to serve the people, that it derives its power from the people, and that the people retain all powers they do not specifically grant to government. Obamacare turns that fundamental idea on its head.

Ours is still a government “of the people.” And the American people have spoken clearly. Indeed, the people’s antipathy toward the law keeps growing. Just this month, a poll conducted by The New York Times and CBS News found that more than two-thirds of Americans wanted the Supreme Court to strike down Obamacare as a whole or in part. Only 24 percent would keep the law in place. While Court decisions obviously should not be driven by polls, the poll clearly shows the people’s dissatisfaction with the bad policy in Obamacare.

So many aspects of Obamacare are appalling. Once all its provisions kick in—conveniently, after the November election—millions of Americans stand to lose their current coverage. Already, it saddles individuals and families with higher premiums, higher costs, and higher taxes—and even steeper increases loom on the horizon. It has sparked a host of other loathsome mandates, like the HHS mandate that requires charitable religious organizations to provide coverage that violates the tenets of their faith.

But why should we expect government to respect the constitutional right to religious freedom if we allow government to ignore fundamental restraints on its power to regulate the lives of its citizens?

This year will mark a pivotal point in American history. The American people now must make a critical decision: We must choose between constitutional, limited government on the one hand and arbitrary, unlimited rule on the other.

We at The Heritage Foundation, as always, will stand in defense of our nation’s founding principles. We are eager to lead the fight to overturn this Intolerable Act—Obamacare—and we are grateful for your support of our efforts to save the American Dream for the next generation.

Join our fight: Become part of the mission to repeal Obamacare and create a better America.

Sincerely,

Ed Feulner
President, The Heritage Foundation