Obama and Clinton Ignored That 3:00 AM Phone Call - Chris Stevens Was Left To Die

Lt. Col. Andrew Wood: NBC News

Oct. 10, 2012 - New and disturbing revelations about the fatal attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi are coming out today in a Congressional hearing. NBC reports today that Lt. Col, Andrew Wood told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, "that U.S. security was so weak that in April, only one U.S. diplomatic security agent was stationed in Benghazi."

The committee is chaired by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif.  Lt. Col. Wood is the former head of a 16-member U.S. military team in Libya.

"The situation remained uncertain and reports from some Libyans indicated it was getting worse. Diplomatic security remained weak," Wood told the committee. Committee members were stunned to hear him say that "The RSO (regional security officer) struggled to obtain additional personnel there but was never able to attain the numbers he felt comfortable with." 

Flashback: "It's 3 A.M. and your children are safe and asleep. But there's a phone in the White House and it's ringing. Something's happening in the world. Your vote will decide who answers that call, whether it's someone who already knows the world's leaders, knows the military, someone tested and ready to lead in a dangerous world. It's 3 A.M. .... Who do you want answering the phone?" ~ Hillary Clinton campaign ad, 2008

The deaths of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and several of his staff in Benghazi, Libya probably could have been avoided. Negligence, ignorance and outright stupidity came together to contribute to the tragic loss of life on Sept. 11, 2012 and much of the blame falls on the shoulders of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Reports now indicate that Amb. Stevens let the Department of State know that he feared an attack, that his people were in imminent danger, but that he was essentially ignored. Worse yet, security at the consulate in Benghazi was actually decreased shortly before the fatal attack.

"There was a clear disconnect between what security officials on the ground felt they needed and what officials in Washington would approve," Issa said on Tuesday. "Reports that senior State Department officials told security personnel in Libya to not even make certain security requests are especially troubling." Source: The Independent UK.

Clinton did not answer the call, so to speak, from Chris Stevens. His urgent and repeated pleas for more security went ignored. In 2008, Clinton ran her "3:00 A.M. phone call" campaign ad while she was still running against Obama for the Democrat Party's nomination.

Clinton's ad said, "It's 3 A.M. and your children are safe and asleep. But there's a phone in the White House and it's ringing. Something's happening in the world." It seems everyone's phone in the Obama Administration was off the hook.

In the days just after the consulate was destroyed and staff killed, Clinton, Obama and other Administration officials tried to blame the frenzied attack on angry reaction to an anti-Mohammed video called "Innocence of Muslims." Obama's people "had a lot of help from the useful idiots in the mainstream media," Oliver North wrote for The Washington Times. "The disinformation campaign being waged by the Obama administration over the cause of this violence would be comedic but for the fact that six Americans have been killed and dozens have been injured."

"For nine days," wrote North, "the Obama administration - including Susan Rice, our ambassador to the United Nations - refused even to describe what had happened at our Benghazi consulate as a terrorist attack." North - and others - charge that the Obama Administration failed to adequately protect the Benghazi consulate from attacks they should have know about. They tried to hide their own incompetence by feigning shocked surprise at a spontaneous riot. "There was intelligence about a possible terrorist attack in Libya two days before the event," North points out, "and it was unrelated to the infamous video."

LIES, LIES, LIES: On October 9, ABC News ran a startling report (video) that said the Obama Administration is now admitting that there was no rioting outside the consulate prior to the attack, and that security was "inappropriately low."

Obama and Clinton likely DID know about the high potential for an attack in Benghazi. "According to senior diplomatic sources," reported The Independent UK on Sept. 14, "the U.S. State Department had credible information 48 hours before mobs charged the consulate in Benghazi, and the embassy in Cairo, that American missions may be targeted, but no warnings were given for diplomats to go on high alert and 'lockdown', under which movement is severely restricted." More in a previous post...

"There is now evidence that suggests all those attacks--in Egypt, Libya, Yemen, and Tunisia--were planned, coordinated, and carried out by al Qaeda," notes The Weekly Standard, "and therefore had nothing to do with any anti-Muslim video posted on the Internet. But that has not stopped President Obama from campaigning with this line, 'today, al Qaeda is on its heels and Osama bin Laden is no more.' And despite the State Department apparently not believing the video had anything to do with the attack, Hillary Clinton stood directly in front of the dead bodies of four Americans killed while serving their country and said otherwise."

Michael Goodwin at Fox News recalls Clinton’s 3 a.m. television ad from 2008, too. "Well, it’s 2012, and - the phone is still ringing. Please, somebody answer the darn thing!"

Related:

• Benghazi attack puts Hillary Clinton's diplomatic legacy at risk The Independent UK
• State Dept: We Never Believed What Hillary Clinton Said The Weekly Standard
• Revealed: The Benghazi attack wasn't preceded by protests The Week
• It’s 3 am and Obama is missing in action FoxNews
• Benghazi attack may cloud Clinton’s legacy Washington Post
• Ex-Head of Military Team in Libya: Security Weak NBC Chicago