It is September 11, 2014. I’ve listened to the roll call of names. I’ve heard the bell being rung. I’ve seen the wreath being laid. I’ve sat through several moments of silence.
I’m sitting right now where I was sitting on that fateful morning 13 years ago - working at my computer with my favorite news channel streaming live news in the background. Little did I know that I would never use a news channel as just background noise again. My entire world changed that day, as did yours, and coverage of current news events became a part of the fabric of my life.
But it is not just September 11, 2001 that I’m remembering today. I am also thinking about September 11, 2012. The contrasts are chilling.
In 2001, the skies were blue with beautiful clouds in New York City. People were going about their regular daily routines, never dreaming what would happen at 8:46 that morning.
In 2012, it had been a beautiful quiet day in Benghazi. Ambassador Stevens had been in meetings most of the day. The last one with the Turkish Ambassador ended around 9 pm and he retired to his bedroom in the Embassy. At 9:40 he was awakened by the sound of gunshots and an explosion and security cameras showed live streaming of armed gunmen running into the compound.
In New York City 2001, first responders moved quickly toward the Twin Towers, firemen running headfirst into buildings already in flames, assisting people down the smoky dark staircases, rushing into hallways and rooms without regard for their own safety. This is what they had been trained to do, and they knew exactly how to do it.
In Benghazi in 2012, Mark Geist, Kris Paronto and John Tiegen, also geared up to move quickly to the Benghazi compound. They were members of the Annex Security Team, a group of private security contractors, each of whom had served in the U.S. military, working for an organization called the Global Response Staff. This is what they had been trained to do, and they knew exactly how to do it.
But our brave Americans at Benghazi were not so fortunate as those who were rescued in NYC because their would-be rescuers were told to stand down and to wait. Lives were at stake, every minute was precious, but the CIA station chief who they referred to as “Bob” because he wanted to remain anonymous, was so worried about offending Obama or Hillary, told the security team they couldn’t go. They couldn’t “run to the sound of the guns” as trained military are taught to do.
When Paronto asked for aerial support, he was told by the State Department, “we will look into it”.
After a delay of 25 minutes and with Bob still telling the men he would not give them authority to go to the rescue, they jumped into their vehicle and drove to the scene.
By the way, that CIA station chief received one of the agency’s highest intelligence medals in a secret ceremony at CIA headquarters in Langley, VA in February 2013.
In NYC in 2001, our President George W. Bush stood on a pile of burned out rubble and proclaimed with a bull horn that we would get the terrorists who had attacked our nation in such a cowardly fashion.
After Benghazi at Andrews Air Force Base in 2012, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton flanked by President Obama stood at the flag covered coffins of Ambassador Chris Stevens and the men who had died trying to save him, Glen Doherty, Tyrone Woods, and Sean Smith, and proclaimed that the maker of an obscure anti-Muslim video would be arrested and promptly punished for having incited the terrorists to attack our compound in Benghazi.
So Nakoula Basseley Nakoula was duly arrested and imprisoned, then finally released in August 2013, which makes him the only person to be punished so far in the Benghazi attack, even though it has since been proven that his video had absolutely nothing to do with the attack.
Even Abu Khatalla, who finally was arrested as the ringleader of the attack, has been granted another trial delay just this week.
The only part of the mystery still remaining is who concocted such a blatant lie in the White House on the night of the attack. All the timelines of that evening show that the story was released to the public after a 10 pm phone conference between Clinton and Obama, and we know that Leon Panetta was also in the room that night.
The Benghazi Select Committee is scheduled to meet this week, so we should know very soon. Hopefully the cover up and lies will soon come to an end.
In 2001 there was great sadness among all people,including the mothers of all those lost in the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and all the passengers on the planes. But there is also a broken hearted mother from the 2012 attack. Pat Smith, mother of Sean, has been a very articulate and powerful spokeswoman seeking answers on behalf of her son, how he died, and who is responsible. She appeared on Fox News Thursday morning to thank the three men who were there that night and have written their story in the new book “13 Hours In Benghazi”. Hopefully she too will soon get some answers to the questions that have haunted her for the last two years.
And finally a touch of irony. On the night of the attack about the time the President was meeting in the Oval Office with Panella and General Martin Dempsy, a photo from the September 11 memorial ceremony earlier in the day appeared on the White House Twitter account with the text: “The true legacy of 9/11 will be a safer world; a stronger nation and a people more united.” Just minutes before, the men in that room had been told about the attack in Benghazi.
I’m sitting right now where I was sitting on that fateful morning 13 years ago - working at my computer with my favorite news channel streaming live news in the background. Little did I know that I would never use a news channel as just background noise again. My entire world changed that day, as did yours, and coverage of current news events became a part of the fabric of my life.
But it is not just September 11, 2001 that I’m remembering today. I am also thinking about September 11, 2012. The contrasts are chilling.
In 2001, the skies were blue with beautiful clouds in New York City. People were going about their regular daily routines, never dreaming what would happen at 8:46 that morning.
In 2012, it had been a beautiful quiet day in Benghazi. Ambassador Stevens had been in meetings most of the day. The last one with the Turkish Ambassador ended around 9 pm and he retired to his bedroom in the Embassy. At 9:40 he was awakened by the sound of gunshots and an explosion and security cameras showed live streaming of armed gunmen running into the compound.
In New York City 2001, first responders moved quickly toward the Twin Towers, firemen running headfirst into buildings already in flames, assisting people down the smoky dark staircases, rushing into hallways and rooms without regard for their own safety. This is what they had been trained to do, and they knew exactly how to do it.
In Benghazi in 2012, Mark Geist, Kris Paronto and John Tiegen, also geared up to move quickly to the Benghazi compound. They were members of the Annex Security Team, a group of private security contractors, each of whom had served in the U.S. military, working for an organization called the Global Response Staff. This is what they had been trained to do, and they knew exactly how to do it.
But our brave Americans at Benghazi were not so fortunate as those who were rescued in NYC because their would-be rescuers were told to stand down and to wait. Lives were at stake, every minute was precious, but the CIA station chief who they referred to as “Bob” because he wanted to remain anonymous, was so worried about offending Obama or Hillary, told the security team they couldn’t go. They couldn’t “run to the sound of the guns” as trained military are taught to do.
When Paronto asked for aerial support, he was told by the State Department, “we will look into it”.
After a delay of 25 minutes and with Bob still telling the men he would not give them authority to go to the rescue, they jumped into their vehicle and drove to the scene.
By the way, that CIA station chief received one of the agency’s highest intelligence medals in a secret ceremony at CIA headquarters in Langley, VA in February 2013.
In NYC in 2001, our President George W. Bush stood on a pile of burned out rubble and proclaimed with a bull horn that we would get the terrorists who had attacked our nation in such a cowardly fashion.
After Benghazi at Andrews Air Force Base in 2012, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton flanked by President Obama stood at the flag covered coffins of Ambassador Chris Stevens and the men who had died trying to save him, Glen Doherty, Tyrone Woods, and Sean Smith, and proclaimed that the maker of an obscure anti-Muslim video would be arrested and promptly punished for having incited the terrorists to attack our compound in Benghazi.
So Nakoula Basseley Nakoula was duly arrested and imprisoned, then finally released in August 2013, which makes him the only person to be punished so far in the Benghazi attack, even though it has since been proven that his video had absolutely nothing to do with the attack.
Even Abu Khatalla, who finally was arrested as the ringleader of the attack, has been granted another trial delay just this week.
The only part of the mystery still remaining is who concocted such a blatant lie in the White House on the night of the attack. All the timelines of that evening show that the story was released to the public after a 10 pm phone conference between Clinton and Obama, and we know that Leon Panetta was also in the room that night.
The Benghazi Select Committee is scheduled to meet this week, so we should know very soon. Hopefully the cover up and lies will soon come to an end.
In 2001 there was great sadness among all people,including the mothers of all those lost in the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and all the passengers on the planes. But there is also a broken hearted mother from the 2012 attack. Pat Smith, mother of Sean, has been a very articulate and powerful spokeswoman seeking answers on behalf of her son, how he died, and who is responsible. She appeared on Fox News Thursday morning to thank the three men who were there that night and have written their story in the new book “13 Hours In Benghazi”. Hopefully she too will soon get some answers to the questions that have haunted her for the last two years.
And finally a touch of irony. On the night of the attack about the time the President was meeting in the Oval Office with Panella and General Martin Dempsy, a photo from the September 11 memorial ceremony earlier in the day appeared on the White House Twitter account with the text: “The true legacy of 9/11 will be a safer world; a stronger nation and a people more united.” Just minutes before, the men in that room had been told about the attack in Benghazi.
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