Mac-Coleman

21 May 2013 –

“What Difference At This Point Does It Make?”

This administration’s tapestry of the Benghazi scandal may be on the verge of unraveling.  Eventually, all such weavings, those with a warp of arrogance and a weft of deceit, do unravel.    We conspiracy nuts have been snipping on the edges of this tapestry, finding threads to hold on to.  To us, the damning issue is not the miscasting of the reasons for the attacks, i.e., the editing of administration talking points.  Neither is it the decision to stand-down rescue forces, if that decision had been made based solely on events of that day.  The real issue, the one that could condemn people in this administration, finally may be emerging from the shadows.    

PJ Media has reported that people with reason to know are revealing that Ambassador Stevens was in Benghazi to talk to al-Queda operatives.  He was there to try to buy back the Stinger anti-aircraft missiles that Secretary Clinton’s State Department had covertly given to a group of insurgents in Libya to help overthrow Mohamar Qadafi.  These sources also reported that the CIA refused to be part of this arms decision, citing the risk that these missiles posed to civilian aircraft.  The sources also say that Secretary Clinton proceeded anyway, trying to “overthrow Qadafi on the cheap.”  Later, Ambassador Stevens was quietly sent to clean up the missile mess when it was discovered—shocked I am!—that these helpful insurgents were actually al-Queda and that they still had some of the missiles.  It makes sad sense to posit that these same al-Queda bad guys attacked our Benghazi consulate and killed the emissary sent there to meet with them.   

I agree with PJ Media’s source who regarded the whole enterprise as totally “amateurish.”  It is totally plausible that Secretary Clinton and the Obama Administration have performed in their three-ring circus of absurd talking points, no rescue of besieged Americans, and accusations that Republican cuts in DEPSTATE security funding were the cause of the deaths, in order to cover this up.  If the real reason that Ambassador Stevens was in Benghazi isn’t exactly what these sources say, at least heavier hitters than just conspiracy nuts may start to focus on the real issue:  Why did Secretary Clinton and President Obama send Ambassador Stevens to Benghazi? 

Given this new information, I want to weave a plausible tapestry on the frame described above.   The Secretary of State decided to give anti-aircraft missiles to an “insurgent group,” which turned out to be al-Queda.  Such decisions are long-shot bets, audacious or foolish, depending on eventual success or failure.  This time, the decision can’t be described as audacious.  Making this decision public would have forced the Secretary to admit fault and to possibly resign; therefore, the Secretary of State chose to double down on the original, bad bet by trying to buy back the missiles and by doing it on, of all days, the anniversary of 9/11, and in, of all places, the terrorist pit called Benghazi.  The Secretary mistakenly allowed her opponents to set up the entire scenario.  Her emissary walked into a deadly trap.    

Until this moment, these “amateurish” decisions were leading only to failure and embarassment for the Secretary and, by extension, for the administration.  But, when things turned deadly, even worse “decisions were made.”  The Secretary—and, according to PJ Media’s source—the White House, refused to authorize forces to rescue their hapless emissary.  After all, no one in the know would then be able to talk about poor decisions or possible crimes.   You were right, Madame Secretary, when you said “What difference at this point does it make?”  If you made the Ambassador suffer for your sins, nothing you did, do now, or will do, will have made a difference for you.   

Such a tapestry does not display just a cover-up of poor decisions in a pop-up crisis; instead, it displays a lengthy series of dangerously bad decisions.  These same threads were then woven into a nefariously corrupt scene of hanging Ambassador Stevens out to die.  If this scene is accurate, then we know pretty much the worth of the life of an Ambassador of the United States to our former Secretary of State and to whoever was awake in the White House when the Commander of US Africa Command, General Carter Ham, was ordered to stand down rescue forces.  Anyone in line for an ambassadorship before 2017 should carefully examine the threads of this tapestry.