The Obama administration has had the fog machine working on overdrive since the terrorist attack on our consulate in Benghazi. Hillary Clinton substantially contributed to the fog in her comments to reporters yesterday, including one as it appears in the notes of reporter Wendell Goler of Fox News. Commenting on Susan Rice’s infamous appearances on the Sunday news shows on September 16, Clinton had this to say:
On Rice “grew out of a protest” assertions: “the fog of war. The confusion you get in any type of combat situation. Remember this was an attack that went on for hours…there had to be a lot of sorting out…everyone said here’s what we know subject to change.”
Yet the State Department monitored the attack in real time. The attack never appeared to be anything other than a planned terrorist operation. There was no report of a protest. In this case the fog of politics is a helluva lot thicker than the fog of war.
Via Daniel Halper/Weekly Standard.
UPDATE: Reader Ed Cottingham draws on Col. David Hunt’s reconstruction of what would have transpired during the attack based on his Hunt’s knowledge of the applicable procedures:
Scott this morning repeats the common understanding that the State Department monitored the Benghazi attack in real time. Until yesterday, this had been my understanding, as well…a lonely lady in a basement at Foggy Bottom.
Col. David Hunt has persuaded me that the attack was followed in real time not merely by the State Department but more than a hundred people in the White House situation room as well as in similar facilities within DoD and intelligence agencies. Logs [would have been] kept noting what officials entered these facilities, when they were notified, what decisions were requested/made, what was said by officials, etc., etc.
Col. Hunt paints this picture based not on direct knowledge but on his extensive knowledge of how these government agencies conduct crisis management operations. Obviously, in a six hour crisis there was plenty of time for all the various crisis management facilities to come on line, something that Col. Hunt depicts as happening pretty much instantly.
I am persuaded by this picture, and I think it leaves a dramatic — and much more damning — impression of the alleged confusion, passivity, and disengagement of the president.
Hunt laid all of this out in a 30-minute appearance on Howie Carr’s talk show from WRKO in Boston.
Reader Geoff Milke also makes a good point;
There is something missing from the reports of Hillary’s “fog of war” comment, and that is this…There is no “fog of war” in after action reporting!
This is another attempt by the administration (and Democrats in general) to portray themselves as something akin to actual warriors on the ground. The thought that their views of the events of Benghazi were dimmed by the shots fired, the bombs exploding, the fires, the smoke, the injuries and deaths, is laughable. As Rudy Giuliani said this morning I also say…I knew the next day what had happened…how could the administration not have known?
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