What We Can Now Say We Know

It's a commonplace to observe that it's not the political "crime" that does politicians in when they're caught in a scandal, it's the attempt to cover it up that usually proves their undoing. Well, in the case of the Benghazi debacle it seems to be both the actions (or inactions) themselves and the attempt to cover them up that are proving to be a major embarrassment for the Obama administration.

Until now a supine media has been loath to dig into exactly what happened on September 11th in Benghazi, Libya, but now that hearings have been held and whistleblowers have come forward to testify, the media seems to be rousing itself from its slumbers. They can hardly do otherwise, though some will try, since there are a few things we can now say we know about this sordid episode, and none of them reflect at all well on the Obama administration:

We know, for instance, that:

• repeated requests by our diplomats in Libya for increased security were not only denied but their security was actually reduced on orders by officials in the State Department.
• during the attack on the consulate troops were requested to be sent but were twice denied permission, by whom is unknown, to go to the aid of the besieged diplomats.
• during the attack President Obama was inexplicably unavailable. Where he was and what he was doing is also unknown, but while our people were being murdered the Commander in Chief was indisposed and uninvolved.
• the administration knew immediately that it was an organized terrorist attack, but despite this knowledge and despite the testimony of the President of Libya that it was a terror attack, they repeatedly put out the false claim, at whose order is still unknown, that the attack was perpetrated by an unruly mob angered by an insulting video. This was not only a lie, it was a diplomatic calamity since it in essence meant that the Libyan President was either himself lying or was uninformed.
• State Dept. whistleblowers have been "punished" for declaring the truth about the attack.
• to this day eight months later none of the attackers have been brought to justice.

In other words, this administration - the President, the Secretary of Defense, and the Secretary of State - are guilty of grossly incompetent judgment that cost four Americans their lives, of dereliction of their duty to protect American personnel, of lying to the American people about the facts of the incident, and probably of obstruction of justice. They've also shown no inclination to hold the murderers responsible.

That Democrats and their media allies have heretofore shown so little interest in all this - a posture which is especially remarkable since they expended so much outrage during the Valerie Plame affair - certainly opens them to the charge of hypocrisy. That they've seemed unconcerned with getting to the bottom of why four Americans died and others were severely wounded, that they've seemed unconcerned with the lies told to the American people, that they've seemed unconcerned that whistleblowers are suffering professionally for having demonstrated personal integrity and courage, is reprehensible and disgraceful.