We Need Answers

Here are some questions on the Benghazi attack to which Mr. Obama owes us answers:

1. For several months Ambassador Stevens and members of his security detail requested beefed-up security. Despite the fact that he feared for his life and despite intelligence that Libya was growing increasingly dangerous, these requests were denied. Who ultimately made the decision to deny them and why?

2. When the assault on the consulate in Benghazi began CIA operatives requested permission to assist the consulate personnel who were under fire but were told to "stand down." Four of them went to the consulate anyway, in defiance of orders, and rescued some thirty people. Two of those heroes were subsequently killed in a mortar strike. Who told them to stand down and why?

3. During the course of the rescue and also later CIA personnel several times requested assistance from special operations teams stationed about an hour away in Italy. Their requests were denied. By whom and why?

4. Was Mr. Obama informed of what was taking place at the consulate? If not, why not? If he was informed, as it seems he almost certainly must have been, was he not the one who would have made the decision to send reinforcements or withhold them?

5. For two weeks after the Ambassador and three other Americans were killed, Mr. Obama and his surrogates insisted that the attack was provoked by an offensive video made by an Egyptian-American in California. They kept up this pretense even though they knew within hours of the attack that it was a terrorist assault that had nothing to do with the video. Why did they mislead the American people on this?

6. Why is the man who made the video arrested at 1:00 in the morning and still in jail today? Is this normal procedure for someone charged with a simple probation violation?

Not only does Mr. Obama owe us answers, he owes them to us before the election on November 6th. If he refuses to answer these questions then I have one more: Why?

Israelis (Maybe) Bomb Sudan

On October 24th four fighter-bombers destroyed a munitions factory in Sudan believed to have been a manufacturing site for Iranian surface-to-surface missiles. Although it's widely believed that the attack aircraft were Israeli the Israelis have declined to comment. Nevertheless, the strike sends an interesting message to Iran.

Debkafile observes that if indeed Israel was responsible for the bombing raid, it's possible that it had following objectives in mind:

1. Its air force flew 1,800-1,900 kilometers to reach the Sudanese arms factory, a distance longer than the 1,600 kilometers to the Iranian underground enrichment site of Fordo. This operation may have been intended to show Tehran that distance presents no obstacles to an Israeli strike on its nuclear program.

2. The Israeli Air Force has an efficient in-flight refueling capability.

3. By destroying the missiles the raid would have degraded Iran’s ability to retaliate for a potential Israel or US attack.

I wonder whether - if Israeli diplomats requested additional security for their embassy in a foreign land, or if their consulate was under attack and the diplomats posted there pleaded for military help - the Israeli political leadership would have turned them down and then gone off to some resort city to campaign.