Outgoing Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta testified yesterday morning to the Senate Armed Services Committee that President Barack Obama was absent the night of the Benghazi attack.
Under questioning by Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) Secretary Panetta admitted that he received no communications from the White House after a prescheduled meeting at 5:00p that day. President Obama had left operation details including the knowledge of what assets were available up to the Defense Department.
He said the night of 9/11 that he communicated with no one at the White House, the attack that occurred that evening killed four Americans including Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens. Even after the first wave of the attack when there were seven hours before the 2nd wave that hit the consulate annex there still wasn’t a phone call made.
This contradicts the “three directives” that President Obama told a reporter in Denver that he gave his staff.
…the minute I found out what was going on I gave three very clear directives. Number one, make sure we are securing our personnel and that we are doing whatever we need to. Number two, we are going to investigate exactly what happened and make sure it doesn’t happen again. Number three, find out who did this so we can bring them to justice.
Wouldn’t a directive such as “securing our personnel and that we are doing whatever we need to do” require some communication with your Defense secretary? I would think so. Who received this directive?
Not only that both Secretary Panetta and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Martin Dempsey also admitted they did not receive any request for support from the State Department and were not in touch with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that evening either.
This is further evidence that the Oval office is mired with incompetence. President Obama did nothing to save American lives in Benghazi and then he lied when he said that he did.