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Subscribe to RSSPresident Barack Obama calls the attacks on U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice "politically motivated" and says they are unacceptable.
President Barack Obama on Sunday called security issues that led to the deaths of four Americans in the Benghazi consulate attack "a huge problem," although he continued to defend U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice as a victim of political scapegoating by Republicans who have suggested an administration coverup of the situation.
"We're not going to be defensive about it," Obama said of the State Department review of the attacks during an exclusive interview on NBC's Meet the Press. "We're not going to pretend that this was not a problem. This was a huge problem. And we're going to implement every single recommendation that's been put forward."
Saying that some State Department officials "have been held accountable," Obama said that the review of the September 11 attack showed there was "sloppiness" in terms of security measures but that mistakes were not intentional.
In an exclusive interview with Meet the Press, President Barack Obama tells David Gregory he's optimistic the fiscal cliff can be averted, lays out the goals for his second term, and also discusses the Benghazi attack and how it was handled by the administration and those on Capitol Hill.
But he defended U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, who withdrew from consideration to succeed Secretary of State Hillary Clinton after Republicans vigorously opposed her for her role in discussing the attacks after the raid.
"She appeared on a number of television shows reporting what she and we understood to be the best information at the time," Obama said. "This was a politically motivated attack on her. I mean, of all the people in my national security team, she probably had the least to do with anything that happened in Benghazi."
Obama indicated that intelligence officials have "good leads" as to who carried out the attack.
"With respect to who carried it out, that's an ongoing investigation," he said. "The F.B.I. has sent individuals to Libya repeatedly. We have some very good leads, but this is not something that I'm going to be at liberty to talk about right now."
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I am a believer of the wise old sage Maobama. Beef is over 10$ a pound, gas is twice the price from when he took office. Taxing the rich is the answer to ALL of our problem yet if he were to recover all the taxes proposed in his plan they won't cover 4% of the debt. How do you know when Maobama is lying, his lips are moving!! OH I forget it's Bush's fault, yea thats the ticket it's Bush's fault!!
gas was down because of the deep recession. When Clinton left office the price of unleaded plus was 99.9 cents a gallon. Gas went up 50% before the 911 attacks and the rest is history.
And if the republicans don't renew the farm bill you will be paying $8 a gallon for milk.
How did Benghazi happen when the last time an ambassador was killed they passed "this will never happen again legislation"???
Imnotlost.... you are lost
proudtobeAMERICAN.......... more like "proudtobeanidiot"
The Mantra for the RepublicanParty....... "Stupid and Proud of it"
When you attack others personally, rather than addressing their arguments. It is your clear admission to all rational readers that his/her post is entirely accurate, and that you have no valid counter to any part of it.
The problem is the amateur in the White House.
For months knowledgeable State Department experts, including Amb. Stevens, had been warning that the Benghazi Mission was pitifully unprotected. They literally begged for more security. During that whole time, Obama refused to acknowledge the danger and denied all requests.
Finally, on September 11th, the attack that Obama had refused to believe in, happened. Obama knew immediately that it was a terrorist attack, and that he was responsible for leaving the Mission helpless. I'm sure the President experienced a horrible sinking sensation when he realized the he had made a catastrophic error so serious that it bordered on treason. Instead of mitigating his blunder by immediately sending military support to Benghazi, he covered it up by refusing all the pleadings for help. He fabricated a story out of thin air that it was a spontaneous protest against an anti-Muslim film, because the truth would have exposed his incompetence just prior to the election.
I promise - DUH
I wanta make a difference SUCKA
I cured the world of terrorism RIGHT SUCKA
Big political BSer FOS
Porcelain throne pres
could anybody else get paid for failure and doing nothing?
The bad decisions about Benghazi were always in the "intelligence community" - way below the President.
Obama was never directly responsible for direct decisions related to Benghazi - as the recent government investigation stated.
Do you people really think the President monitors the day to day situation of 200+ U.S. ambassadors? Especially in the last segment of a presidential election? If you do - you are playing with yourselves...
What kind of a imbecile are you. Obama might not have known about it as it was initiated however you can bet your azz he knew within minutes. This firefight took place over a seven hour period. Obama sat on his butt and let the ambassador along with three other Americans be murdered. The fact that he did absolutely nothing to help these people puts the responsibility directly on his shoulders period! The guy is worthless.
If you ar elooking for an imbecile.....please look in the closest mirror.
You are grasping at straws fed to you by the Fox News Network.....I suggest you obtain your information from more reliable sources in the future...
The POTUS gets a daily briefing from his security advisers & I assure you that, as regards issues in Northern Africa & the Middle East, the briefings would have highlighted what was happening in Libya. Therefore, if he didn't know what was happening there, it was because he A) wasn't paying attention, or B) wasn't paying attention.
He is the POTUS; therefore, he is responsible, full stop.
Sounds like something I'd want to be aware of if I was President.
After reading the crap being posted here I am reminded of what a Russian leader said during the cold war. It was something to the effect that American will destory itself from within.I am afffraid he may have been right. I have never seen such hate from Americans toward other Americans in my life time. Name calling has reached a level that is very distrubing. Calling this president or any past president of the United States a pos shows total lack of respect for the office itself. What has changed so much over the last several years that we as a country have become so divided that we can't accept people and ideas that are different from our own? Why so much hate ? One thing that made this country so great was that we came from different back grounds, different cultures, different races with different ideas. This total lack of respect by Americans for fellow Americans means that we can and will be able to be divided and conquered. We must stop this madeness soon and start working together to solve our country's problems instead of just placing blame for America's problems on those we disagree with. If we don't that Russian leader will surely be proven right.
Think you hit it right on the head John. Too bad i could only vote you up once.
Yes Obama there was a huge problem. You sat on your azz while four Americans were murdered in a seven hour firefight. One just happened to be a United States Ambassador. How in the hell you can look at yourself in a mirror every morning is beyond me. What a disgrace to the heritage of this country.
Another elitist neocon so concerned with the death of four people which was clearly tragic - but responsibility falls on shoulders of people asleep at wheel in intelligence community.
Bush started two ten year wars that have seen the slaughter of over 6,000 US troops and over 400,000 INNOCENT Iraqi and Afghan men,women and children who many racist neocons simply dismiss as ragheads . The neocons even celebrated the carnage with events like MISSION ACCOMPLISHED
Oblamegame, such hypocrisy...deja vu, next will be to play the race card, next will be righteous indignation...i am tired of wh and the party playing these games...i am going to stay independent
Booooooooo. What a terrible response! A huge problem - NO. A complete failure - Yes!
i hope that when the united states of greece goes into default that the press will remember to report that it happened while everyone was focused on taxing the rich to pay for 8 days of government and forgetting about the 16 T deficit...it's ok for o not to know the math, because he is privileged, but not the press.
Another elitist neocon so concerned with the death of four people which was clearly tragic - but responsibility falls on shoulders of people asleep at wheel in intelligence community. Not President Obama.
Bush started two ten year wars that have seen the slaughter of over 6,000 US troops and over 400,000 INNOCENT Iraqi and Afghan men,women and children who many racist neocons simply dismiss as ragheads . The neocons even celebrated the carnage with events like MISSION ACCOMPLISHED....remember?
ANd what have we achieved in these two wars.....other than enrich the military industrial complex in the U.S. - which President Eisenhower warned us so much about?
Bush never denied first responders permission to rescue victims. Bush never told rescuers to "Stand Down!" Obama did. Big difference!
What is your source? I have never heard that President Obama ordered rescuers to stand down.
You are making things up as you go along...
I think you have been watching too much Faux News.
Kannin.......crickets???? No response?
Obama calls Benghazi a 'huge problem' now? Well, that's something I guess. At least he thinks the cold-blooded murder of four Americans IS a tad worse than a 'bump in the road'.
Another elitist neocon so concerned with the death of four people which was clearly tragic - but responsibility falls on shoulders of people asleep at wheel in intelligence community. Not President Obama.
Bush started two ten year wars that have seen the slaughter of over 6,000 US troops and over 400,000 INNOCENT Iraqi and Afghan men,women and children who many racist neocons simply dismiss as ragheads . The neocons even celebrated the carnage with events like MISSION ACCOMPLISHED....remember?
CAS - crickets........? I am detecting a trend.
Is it that ....."mission accomplished" quote from George Dubya Bush that shut this topic down?
It should.
Odumass knew about the situation while the Ambassador was still alive, and did NOTHING!
Now, who needs to be accountable?
All Ambassadors have direct communications with the White House. Obama was aware of security concerns expressed by the Ambassador in Benghazi. Obama knew within minuets that the embassy was under attack. Obama chose to do nothing when he should have scrambled a detachment of marines to defend the embassy and failing that evacuate the ambassador and staff. In Obama's own words, the buck stops with him.
During a radio interview on Oct 26, Obama said that in the immediate wake of the attack he issued several directives, including one to “make sure that we are securing our personnel and doing whatever we need to.”
“There appears to be a discrepancy between your directive and the actions taken by the Department of Defense. As we are painfully aware, despite the fact that the military had resources in the area, the military did not deploy any assets to secure U.S. personnel in Benghazi during the hours the consulate and the annex were under attack,” the HASC chairman wrote.
“I find it implausible that the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the commander of U.S. Africa Command and the commander of U.S. European Command would have ignored a direct order from the commander in chief,” the letter states.
It asks Obama to shed light on “to whom did you issue this first directive and how was this directive communicated to the military and other agencies — verbally or in writing?” The HASC chairman also wants to know if Obama on that day directed the military to “move available assets into Libya” and if he gave military commanders authority to “take any and all necessary measures to secure U.S. personnel, including specifically the authority to enter Libyan airspace.”
Obama has never responded to any of these questions which makes his lie painfully obvious: he never gave any order to help and, in fact, denied help while our people were slaughtered.
The White House was aware of the the situation 1/2 hour after the first attack. Tripoli contacted them. BO knew what was going on and he made a decision which led to the death of 4 people ON 9/11!!! and blamed it on a Video that came out in July??? But the American people don't care. America cares about going after a President (Clinton) who cheated on his wife or a X-General that has cheated on his wife. That takes priority over the death of 4 US Citizens??? Now you have re-elected a man who wants goverment to run your life because he believes that is what is best for you. Just as all the other dictators in the past have thought. Look what happen to them. But more important, look what happened to their countries!!! Wake Up America!! You reap what you sow!!!
yea, right,...We go over the cliff.. they have their Golden Parachutes... How about they add to their cuts part of their pay??? You wont see that happen... Because they are not willing to sacrifice anything of theirs on behalf of the American people because they are not American.
You know what is the beauty about "huge problem," is that it is always only a "problem" and is only "huge" after the fact. Gee, I don't know but with all the money we taxpayers give to the government and with all the "best and brightest" minds standing guard against problems, wouldn't it be nice to deal with various situations before they become a "huge problem." Not firing those that played a significant part in turning problems into "huge problems" is a ... well ... "huger problem."
The repeated requests for security were denied repeatedly because that was Obama's policy solely and for no other reason. In Obama's twisted way of thinking, adding security would only have flamed the tensions so the security requests were denied! This is so obvious anyone with a brain should already know this. Obama's finger prints are all over these murders of our 4 brave Americans. And Obama now has the balls to act as if he had nothing to do with it. This makes me sick to my stomach, and for those of you who think the Republicans are the ones to blame make me even sicker!
Don't see a word on MSN about the scathing report the Senate put out regarding Benghazi. I also noted that the Senate report carefully danced around and attacked the State Department without mentioning the White House. I don't hear the press asking why either. This is journalism?
Obama is still spinning that cover up. State Department officials held accountable. Nobody got fired at State. Don't you think if some people screwed up they would be fired. Especially when their mistake or laziness caused 4 American deaths.
Why is it Susan Rice and the President have never explained why they obviously lied during the first week after Bengahzi attack. Why are they not asked that question?
The Obama administration refuses to allow the only news network (Fox News) who would ask "that question" to interview them. Now you don't expect the little mice followers (ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN) to call their Pied Piper to task do you?