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  • 2016-05-30 (xsd:date)
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  • Did the White House Watch the Benghazi Attack and Do Nothing? (en)
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  • One of the more common fault-finding rumors associated with the 11 September 2012 attack on the American diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, is that Obama administration officials sat around watching the attack unfold in real time (via video) but did nothing to intervene. The earliest expression of this claim we've found comes from a 24 October 2012 opinion piece published by Forbes magazine: Even at the time it was written, that claim was highly questionable for presenting a distorted version of what the sources it referenced (CBS News and ABC News) actually reported. A CBS News story published the same day as the Forbes piece stated the following: In other words, it was not the case that President Obama, Vice President Biden, Secretary of Defense Panetta, and a national security team were watching real-time video of developments from a drone circling over the site; rather, a single diplomatic security official was listening to an audio feed of events in Benghazi. Security cameras in the U.S. consulate compound did record video of the events as they unfolded, and a U.S. surveillance drone camera did capture the last hour of the attack, but neither of those sources was watched real-time by officials in Washington, as the consulate video recordings were not recovered until weeks after the attack: Moreover, the majority report issued by the House Select Committee on Benghazi plainly stated that, minutes after learning about the ongoing attack at the U.S. diplomatic compound, President Obama and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta issued clear orders to deploy military assets: After the release of the Select Committee's report, Charles Lane caustically observed in a Washington Post opinion piece that: (en)
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