What did the President do and when did he do it?

This is what President Obama said he did after he found out the embassy in Benghazi was under attack.

In the fourth presidential debate :

“Now with respect to Libya, as I indicated in the last debate, when we received that phone call, I immediately made sure that, number one, that we did everything we could to secure those Americans who were still in harm's way.”

In an interview with KUSA-TV (9NEWS in Denver) he said [video at the link]

... the minute I found out what was happening, I gave three very clear directives. Number one, make sure that we are securing our personnel and doing whatever we need to.

 

Sounds like a take-charge guy, doesn't it?  The Commander In Chief is giving order to his troops to save his people.  If they didn't it certainly had nothing to do with his forceful and directed orders, right?

But wait, here is the beginning of the exchange with a direct question.

KYLE CLARK: Were they denied requests for help during the attack? 

Obama responds not with a yes or no, but with one of his patented filibusters:

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, we are finding out exactly what happened. .... [including his claim that "the minute I found out .... I gave ... clear directives ....]

But here's Leon Panetta's version of what Obama did via the Weekly Standard [video at the link]:

Panetta said, though he did meet with Obama at a 5 o'clock prescheduled gathering, the president left operational details, including knowledge of what resources were available to help the Americans under siege, "up to us."

In fact, Panetta says that the night of 9/11, he did not communicate with a single person at the White House. The attack resulted in the deaths of four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens.

Obama did not call or communicate in anyway with the defense secretary that night. There were no calls about what was going on in Benghazi. He never called to check-in.

 

How did Obama spend his time while Americans were being killed in Libya?  He had time for a one-hour phone call to ...

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in order to defuse a controversy about President Obama's refusal to meet with Netanyahu two weeks later at the U.N. General Assembly, and, according to the White House announcement that evening, spent an hour on the phone with him,"

 

Bill Kristol wrote.

"While Americans were under assault in Benghazi, the president found time for a non-urgent, politically useful, hour-long call to Prime Minister Netanyahu. And his senior national security staff had to find time to arrange the call, brief the president for the call, monitor it, and provide an immediate read-out to the media. 

So who are you going to believe: Obama, who also claimed during the presidential debates that he said the Libyan attack was terrorist but sent his UN Ambassador out days later to lie about it being a demonstration caused by a video that got out of hand. Or Leon Panetta, who leaving office. Or perhaps they are both lying because there are plausible reports that orders were given to "stand down" and do nothing. 

Reagan Defense Official Francis “Bing” West: If Obama Really Gave the Order to Secure Libya Personnel, ‘There’s a Paper Trail’  [video at the link]

“A chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff doesn’t take an order from the president when he says ‘do everything’ and not put that in writing and send it out to the chain of command,” West said. “If that actually happened the way President Obama today said it happened, there’s a paper trail and I think people reasonably enough can say, ‘well can we see the order?’ because hundreds of others supposedly saw this order.”

I believe they are both lying. 

 

I believe that the order was given not to bring in a rescue operation because it was too politically dangerous.  In that respect Panetta is still covering for Obama; being a good soldier even as he leaves.  Panetta's excuse that no planes were launched and no aid was provided because we didn't know the exact situation on the ground is also BS.   Sending in F16s to buzz Benghazi doesn't automatically mean they will bomb the place and sending in gunships doesn't require that they shoot the place up indiscriminately.  Is the military really so shy of going into troublesome places that they demand complete and total assurance that they know where everyone is or they're not going?  Frankly, that excuse reeks of political fear rather than military prudence. 

Someone knows the truth other than Obama, Panetta and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey.   I suspect the whole story won't be told for at least 4 more years.