The Council has spoken, the votes have been cast, and the results are in for this week's Watcher's Council match up.
“Oh, what a tangled web we weave...when first we practice to deceive.” -Sir Walter Scott, Marmion
“People never lie so much as before an election, during a war, or after a hunt.” ― Otto Von Bismark
“There can be no liberty for a community which lacks the means by which to detect lies.” - Walter Lippmann
This week's winner, Joshuapundit's Senate Intel Committee: Benghazi Was Preventable,Al Qaeda Was Involved, And The White House Knew It is my analysis of the long delayed Senate Intelligence Committee's report on the Benghazi debacle. Here's a slice:
The bi-partisan Senate Intelligence Committee finally issued its long-delayed report on the Benghazi attack, and based on what it said, it's pretty understandable why some of the Democrats on the committee strung things out as long as they could and fought over the wording. But some things simply give off too foul a stench for any perfume to make a difference.
The committee’s minority Republicans criticized the White House for obstructing the report, which the committee had wanted to complete much earlier, and openly accused Patrick Kennedy, U.S. undersecretary of State for Management of shielding the Obama administration from Congressional oversight.
Of course, Kennedy was also concentrating on covering his own behind. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) who normally votes with the Democrats an dis the very epitome of bi-partisanship angrily made a point of saying that Kennedy “failed to ensure that a facility he personally approved in December 2011 had the necessary security to match the heightened threat environment.”
The committee's report said that Benghazi was entirely preventable, and that the State Department failed to increase security at the Benghazi consulate in spite numerous warnings. As I've mentioned on these pages before,even the Brits and the International Red Cross had pulled their people out because Benghazi, thanks to President Obama's timely intervention had become a major headquarters for al-Qaeda and other Islamists. Anyone who knows anything about Ansar al Shariah and its connections to al-Qaeda in the Maghreb (AQIM) understood that a long time ago.
The report states, unequivocally: “Individuals affiliated with terrorist groups, including AQIM, Ansar al-Sharia, AQAP, and the Mohammad Jamal Network, participated in the September 11, 2012, attacks.”
The very fact that mortars and other heavy weapons were used points to long time planning. A mortar isn't like a Kalishnikov. It takes training, and it takes time to scope out ranges and angles of fire.
Georgia Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss summarized the report, saying,
“In spite of the deteriorating security situation in Benghazi and ample strategic warnings, the United States Government simply did not do enough to prevent these attacks and ensure the safety of those serving in Benghazi.”
Another thing that came out is that the entire 'protest over a video' narrative pushed by the president, Mrs. Clinton, Jay Carney, Susan Rice and goodness knows how many others was an outright lie...and just like ObamaCare, they lied knowingly, although the report doesn't put it in such blunt terms.
What we were told - conveniently after the 2012 elections- is that the original fairy tales about the video and a spontaneous protest occurred because the situation 'was developing.'
It wasn't.
In fact, the FBI interviewed the Benghazi survivors over a three-day period right after the attack, when they were still being prevented from speaking to anyone. None of them reported a protest or a demonstration.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham (SC) said that “The FBI confirmed to me that when they interviewed the survivors on the 15th the 16th and the 17th [of September], not one person ever mentioned anything other than a terrorist attack. No one mentioned a protest outside the consulate.”
“So, how could the Obama administration come up with a protest story if everybody on the ground during the attack said it was a terrorist attack and there was no protest?” he asked.
Trust me, the stench increases. Much more at the link.
In our non-Council category, we had a tie between Neo NeoCon with "Wendy Davis: 'empowerment' and the poor little woman; “struggle” and the man" submitted by The Glittering Eye,and Kevin Williamson/NRO for The White Ghetto submitted by Joshuapundit, a beautiful and haunting portrait of Applachia.
I was torn on this one..I honestly like Wiliamson's piece a lot more personally, but while the totals were the same Neo Neocon got more individual votes among the Council, and it's a really nice piece, so I'm calling it that way,
Here are this week’s full results.
Council Winners
- *First place with 4 votes!-Joshuapundit-Senate Intel Committee: Benghazi Was Preventable,Al Qaeda Was Involved, And The White House Knew It
- Second place with 1 1/3 votes –Simply Jews – Bedouins of Negev
- Third Place *t* with 1 vote– The Right Planet – Hegelian Dialectics for Dummies
- Third place *t* with 1 vote –The Noisy Room – Bolstering the Marxist Vote
- Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote– Liberty's Spirit – Not Surprisingly US State Department Agrees as UNESCO Cancels Jewish Cultural Exhibit…(Update) Oopsie Foggy Bottom Says “My Bad”
- Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote – Bookworm Room – Bleeding heart liberal misses football’s important lessons for our boys
- Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote – The Razor – Facebook'€™s Culture of Like Breeds Conformity
- Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote –Nice Deb – Analysis of Rocket Used in Syria Chemical Attack Shows “Administration Narrative Not Even Close To Reality”
- Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote – VA Right! –We Can Pay For an Unemployment Extension with a Day for a Day Delay in Obamacare Mandates
- Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote – Rhymes With Right – Does Barack Obama Seek To Reduce Americans To A State of Slavery?
- Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote – GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – Castle Strat
- Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote –The Glittering Eye -Out Of Sight
- Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote – The Colossus of Rhodey – Arrow gets it right
Non-Council Winners
- First place with 3 votes! – Neo-Neocon – "Wendy Davis: 'empowerment' and the poor little woman; “struggle” and the man" submitted by The Glittering Eye
- Second place with 2 votes – Kevin Williamson/NRO – The White Ghetto submitted by Joshuapundit
- Third place *t* with 1 1/3 votes – White House Dossier -The Root of Obama'€™s Imperious Presidency submitted by Nice Deb
- Third place *t* with 1 1/3 votes -Caroline Glick – The Truth Hurts submitted by Liberty's Spirit
- Fourth place *t* with 1 vote-Kimberley A. Strassel/WSJ –IRS Targeting and 2014 submitted by The Noisy Room
- Fourth place *t* with 1 vote-Western Journalism – The Problems of Women in Combat – From a Female Combat Vet submitted by Watcher
- Fifth place *t* with 2/3 votes -Mahmoud Salem ( AKA Sandmonkey) – Consequences submitted by Simply Jews
- Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote -Rebuilding Freedom – Part1 - Agenda 21, €“ Born in America, Raised by the United Nations submitted by The Right Planet
- Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote -Ace of Spades HQ-Common Core is pretty dumb submitted by Bookworm Room
- Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote -PJ Tattler – Has Wendy Davis’ Charmed Run for Governor Started to Implode? (Update: Meltdown) submitted by Rhymes with Right
- Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote -Douglas Ernst – ‘White Privilege’ artist: Does it exist, or do I simply lack critical thinking skills? submitted by The Colossus of Rhodey
- Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote - Rick Moran/American Thinker – Think it's hard signing up for Obamacare? Try getting out of it submitted by VA Right!
See you next week! Don't forget to tune in on Monday AM for this week's Watcher's Forum, as the Council and their invited guests take apart one of the provocative issues of the day and weigh in...don't you dare miss it. And don't forget to like us on Facebook and follow us Twitter..'cause we're cool like that!
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