Note: Since this article’s first publication a year ago, no electronic or personal inquiry from the author has been answered by several US Senators or Representatives. However, the most recent releases of information from DoD and State Department have made it emphatically clear that a criminal cover-up has taken place within the Presidential Administration. It is also clear that what has been released remains a tiny fraction of the actual information available from all sources as discussed in this original article.
The following is updated to reflect that new information and again ask the questions of all sitting US Senators and Congressman: When will the full archive-logs specified below be released by the Obama administration? When will the Congress compel former Sec. Clinton’s disclosure and associated emails and other communications from all State Department personnel?
When will the elected officials supposedly responsible for US national security in the White House, Executive branch and DoJ do their job in bringing to justice the officials directly responsible for the failures and secret programs that saw Embassy personnel killed in Benghazi and resulted in the rise of ISIS/ISIL and the fall of cities and the northern Iraqi landmass? When will any of those responsible in the Administration and Congress be brought to Justice?
This writer has been highly confused (well, not really….) since the whole mess over Benghazi broke Sept. 12, 2012, as to why finding out who said what to who and when has seemingly been so hard for official Washington and the media. That part should be very easy. Yet, it appears it’s being confused and misdirected by both sides for reasons still undisclosed. Without disclosure it’s hard to figure out why the Republicans are going along, unless there’s been a certain level of complicity by key Republicans in the house and senate?
The Democrats are easy to figure out. They don’t want any of it actually public. The truth is death to Obama administration legacy and Hillary Clinton’s presidential aspirations. The Republicans must have some other motive not yet apparent. It’s been GOING ON 3 YEARS SINCE Amb. Stevens and the other brave men died in the attack. Congress and the public should be screaming at the top of their lungs for the documents to be produced. There IS one way to find out that no one seems to be pursuing, at least not in any way that reflects the gravity of the situation.
You see, between every embassy and military command of any significance, the State Department, Pentagon and White House, there’s a top-level communication system that keeps all listed distribution members informed in real time and 7 x 24. If you think the NSA’s got the rest of America covered, the federal government’s DNI and DoD resources have all kinds of messaging, capture, archival and retrieval systems available to it. If you want to find out what happened just go to the CRITIC- and FLASH-type traffic, associated email and comm systems that’s time-stamped down to the millisecond and denotes who sent it, where from and the exact time.
Along with that, all issued Satphones, Secure Terminal Equipment (STE) (and later upgrades) secure phones have the same archiving capability. They were designed by NSA. IN addition to all regular email and regular staff communications, those conversations between station personnel, the Embassy, and all the listed users in the distribution (also known as a “drop list”), were seeing some or all parts of the conversations, directives and orders going out that night between all the personnel involved. It’s all archived and just waiting to be read.
THERE’S LITERALLY NO CHANCE that the entire sequence of events in Benghazi before, on and after that night in September of 2012 is/was NOT KNOWN and archived. NONE.
So who ordered the rescue team(s) to stand-down? Why did they? Why hasn’t the DoD conducted their own investigation regardless of the failures of the DoJ and Congress? This involves embassy security failures provided by DoD personnel. The military’s investigative services and JAG corps should be all over this even if Congress and the Executive are falling down on the job. The question is; why isn’t it being demanded by anyone involved? If it has and hasn’t been supplied why isn’t Congress pursuing contempt of Congress charges or articles of impeachment against the principals?
Those questions have been asked on multiple occasions of staff and personnel with the Office of US Senator Jim Risch and Representative Raul Labrador and sent via email to Senator Mike Crapo, all of Idaho. No answers have been received or forthcoming. These are not mere misplaced documents, it would be a criminal conspiracy not to supply or to cover up the available documents.
The only thing not recorded and archived within the military or state branches would be completely private cell phone conversations on commercial networks. Of course, those are most likely held by the NSA anyway (especially those from foreign sources) and should also be retrievable (remember, they designed the keys to the systems). At least the metadata and likely the content. I wouldn’t be surprised if they “had” the conversations, too.
Does anybody else think it’s odd that these issues haven’t been raised? Gee, it seems obvious when the Feds have everybody else blanketed that it would be pretty hard to say they have none of their own internal communications, wouldn’t it?
How is this knowable? Because I both installed and maintained the systems that carried FLASH- and CRITIC-type traffic. The networks and topology have been greatly expanded and are vastly more powerful since I last worked on it but I guarantee the capabilities and comprehensive nature of the system have only become even that much more sophisticated. A smartphone of today had more processing power than all of NASA had to put a man on the moon. (Makes one wonder about what it is that they’ve built out there in Bluffdale, Utah?)
Within 5 minutes of any FLASH- or special CRITIC-type communication going back and forth from an Embassy, ship, installation, military phone, system or connected device or drop off those systems, all “need-to-know” generals, admirals, executive and state personnel, etc., would have seen it or been told by an aide. Even a few Congressmen who sit on the right committees or in the Speaker’s Office, would be in the loop.
This all reminds me of the response I’ve received from every Congresscritter that I’ve given the 22 Questions for the NSA/DNI list to. They don’t want to touch it for fear of getting burned. So what gives here? Who’s yanking who’s chain and why? Why are all sides staying mum and coy about what happened that awful night? Why are certain hawks of the Left and THE RIGHT so intent on re-authorization of the worst sections concerning domestic monitoring and surveillance of US citizens through the PATRIOT Act? Yet they seemed not really concerned at all as to what the government’s internal communications reveals about its own behavior?
Simply put, this is a significant national security failure that is growing larger and out-of-control by the day. The revelations of US direct development and involvement in the advent of ISIS/ISIL is no longer debatable. It is more than likely your Senator and Representative (especially Sen. Risch, who sits on the Intel Committee) knows how to get the information and the answers to many of these questions, but refuses to to maintain “plausible deniability.”
The connection to Libya and Syria and the essential events of Sept. 11, 2012 are no longer debatable. The obvious cover-up and treasonous nature of the actions on and subsequent to that night in Benghazi, are becoming irrefutable. Yet , the wall of silence remains from nearly everyone in Congress except for a very few, including Rep. Trey Gowdy, and Senator Ran Paul, who’s actions are regularly reported as “extremist” and “crazy.”
Do you really want to know? Do you really care? If so, then demand your Congressperson also DEMAND the FLASH- and CRITIC-type, Satphone, Secure Terminal Equipment (STE)/cell, email and all message communication archives immediately! We’ll know the next day after its disclosed what actually happened and can end this national clown and criminal circus.
Another US Senator from Idaho, Frank Church, very clearly warned in August, 1975 of the tyranny that would be imposed on US citizens by a failure to gain and keep tight control over the technological capabilities of the Intel agencies, both foreign and domestic. He also warned of the ‘adventurism’ that such capabilities would allow successive administrations. Those same capabilities have been turned against us and are actually being used to degrade our own defense and security capability through intent, incompetence, mismanagement and misdirection. Those human failings are the very reason those capabilities of the government were to be so tightly constrained by the Constitution.
Capabilities this writer knew then and knows now from having just entered Army Security Agency (ASA) Intel and Cryptologic systems training school in August, 1975 at Ft. Gordon, GA. I was in the middle of completing almost two years of Navy Cryptologic Tech-Analyst training for the Naval Security Group (NSG) working for the Service Cryptologic Agencies (SCA) of the NSA.
Since Frank Church was my US Senator at the time I found the notoriety interesting and watched the outcome of the ‘Church committee’ with great interest. I also observed the very problems he spoke of then and which have resonated throughout my subsequent military intel and technical career.
Yet, here we are 40 years hence of Senator Church’s warning having never had the real debate. The Congress and White House are hushing- and covering-up successive intel failures and intel invasions of privacy and liberty, scandals, blown missions and adventures. Adventures such as the arms transfer to Syrian rebels through Libya. The stream of murders, collateral damage and blowback of myriad forms and from every direction. The enormity of these failures is becoming THE national security threat of our time and country.
This is a debate over our rights, of our defense and security, of our freedom and liberty from the constant encroachment and failures of a growing obvious tyranny of a gigantic federal government leviathan. That leviathan, while operating far outside its constrained bounds even given the most liberal interpretation, fails to actually protect our citizens strategically, tactically and practically.
Are YOU Ready to protect this Republic?
WE are dangerously close to the fail-over point of our current system because of the many failures of our government, particularly the Congress (with approval ratings of 9%), and the “Imperial Presidency,” aided and abetted by the courts. Are you going to continue to stand aside, while it goes down, or do something? Are you going to start putting the heat on every Congressperson in every state or let this continue to degrade? What are YOU going to do, and WHEN? This is NOT a political or ideological issue. It is a defense and national security issue of immense importance for every American that so few seem to be paying attention to.