When Clinton, Rice and Power launched operation R2P in Benghazi Libya they specifically helped the Libyan “Rebels” to overthrown Kaddaffi.   This gave the al-Qaeda operatives, who made up the majority coalition of the “rebels”, immediate access to weapons warehouses and massive stockpiles of ManPads (Man Portable Air Defense Systems), otherwise known as surface to air missiles – the missiles were a specific manufacture coming originally from Russia.   20,000 such missiles immediately went missing.

This past weekend one of those missiles was used.

All five soldiers in the helicopter were killed, security officials said.

“This is what everyone has long assumed could happen, and it is a confirmation of those fears — that substantial and advanced weaponry came into the country in the aftermath of the Libyan war,” said Michael Wahid Hanna, an Egypt scholar at the Century Foundation in New York.

New York Times – Islamist militants shot down an Egyptian military helicopter in the Sinai Peninsula with a surface-to-air missile over the weekend, raising new alarms about the terrorist insurgency that developed there in response to the military takeover last summer.

(more…)

BigfurHat@iOTW Notes the “creepy factor” of the NSA for Kids website.  http://www.nsa.gov/kids/

In my humble opinion, it’s not really all that creepy.

Central U.S. Government agencies have been doing this for years under a few semi-secretive programs that measure IQ, aptitude and propensity for problem solving. In the modern era it’s appropriately called DAAD’s.

What’s new is the platform, the internet.   In the “olden days” it was puzzle books and subscriptions.   Or, sometimes trade craft engagement could come from word of mouth (old school word for networking) inside various educational platforms such as “Spelling Bees”, “Debate Teams” or the various state “science fairs”, the latter still being predominantly utilized today. (more…)

I have not had the opportunity to review the entire report – this article below is from the Washington Post.  All Senate Committees are chaired by Democrats.

WASHINGTON DC – A long-delayed Senate Intelligence Committee report released Wednesday faulted both the State Department and the intelligence community for not preventing attacks on two outposts in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans, including a U.S. ambassador, about 16 months ago.

The bipartisan report laid out more than a dozen findings regarding the assaults on a diplomatic compound and a CIA annex in the city. It said the State Department failed to increase security at its mission despite warnings, and blamed intelligence agencies for not sharing information about the existence of the CIA outpost with the U.S. military.

The committee determined that the U.S. military command in Africa didn’t know about the CIA annex and that the Pentagon didn’t have the resources in place to defend the State Department compound in an emergency.

“The attacks were preventable, based on extensive intelligence reporting on the terrorist activity in Libya — to include prior threats and attacks against Western targets — and given the known security shortfalls at the U.S. Mission,” the panel said in a statement. (more…)

Jacob Appelbaum is a US citizen and core member of TOR project (funded originally to provide internet communication security).  He writes open source software, is an independent security software developer, activist hacker and passionate resister to tyranny.
He has stated in past interviews that he believes “personal privacy and institutional transparency are complementary ideas that help to create a free and open society …..Tor is part of an ecosystem of software that helps people regain and reclaim their autonomy. It helps to enable people to have agency of all kinds; it helps others to help each other and it helps you to help yourself. It runs, it is open and it is supported by a large community spread across all walks of life.”
Appelbaum eloquently discusses warrantless or “open writ” dragnet surveillance as “turnkey tyranny” and posits that the black budget agencies that engage in such surveillance are violating the 3rd Amendment Rights of US Citizens, likening the actions of the NSA to de facto “digital soldiers” being quartered in our homes without our knowledge or permission. (more…)

For followers of the Libyan fiasco, and we are not talking about Benghazi, the irony behind Dear Leader and Susan Rice’s recent statements on South Sudan is, well, beyond rich.

[…]  In a letter to Congress, Obama said that about 46 U.S. troops were deployed Saturday to help evacuate Americans. That’s in addition to another 45 troops deployed to reinforce the U.S. Embassy in Juba.

[…]  Earlier Sunday, Obama was briefed by advisers on events in South Sudan following a meeting that his national security adviser, Susan Rice, held with national security aides and U.S. personnel still in South Sudan.

[…]  “I may take further action to support the security of U.S. citizens, personnel, and property, including our Embassy, in South Sudan,” Obama wrote. (link)

I’m just going to cut this down to brass tacks.
The latest international storylines seem to be revolving around chaos reigning supreme in South Sudan.    Over the weekend four members of the U.S. military were shot by machine gun fire as they attempted to evacuate the R2P crowd of U.S. do-gooders.

Fair enough.    But why is the media avoiding the brutally obvious?    Oh yeah, wouldn’t want to actually connect dots and seem all conspiracy minded.
Then again, failure to talk about the 20,000+ missing Libyan missiles, and massive stockpiles of missing WMD (gas et al), does not protect you from the reality of it. (more…)

WASHINGTON DC –  […]  The congressman explained that the lack of air support was clear to all CIA  employees working in Libya because of a 2011 CIA memorandum sent to employees  after NATO forces ended their mission in support of the Libyan revolution.
“It basically told people in Benghazi…if you are attacked, you get your  ‘package’ (the personnel they are charged with protecting) and you get out,” he  said.

There's been NO justice for this woman yet. #Benghazi scandal doesn't seem "phony" to her. #JusticeForBenghazi4 #tcot pic.twitter.com/mPGNKbhBgi

— Michael Nöthem (@mikandynothem) December 15, 2013

A senior intelligence official confirmed that the CIA officers on the ground  in Benghazi responded to the diplomats’ call for help by trying “to rally local  support for the rescue effort and secure heavier weapons.” When it became “clear  that this additional support could not be rapidly obtained,” the team moved  toward the diplomatic compound. The intelligence official spoke on condition of  anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the attack publicly by  name. (more…)

(Via Heritage)   Last week’s closed-door testimony by five CIA operatives who witnessed the attack on the U.S. special mission in Benghazi has finally created an opening for the congressional investigating committees.

The five CIA contractors, who testified in closed-door hearings before the House Intelligence Committee Thursday and Friday, were stationed at the “CIA annex” in Benghazi, about one mile from the U.S. special diplomatic mission. This was the facility that then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tasked Ambassador Chris Stevens to turn into a permanent consulate, even though security staff there was totally inadequate. (more…)

Does anyone, beside me, find it curious that U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens was meeting in closed door sessions with Rep. Mike Rogers and the House Intelligence Committee prior to his assassination in Benghazi Libya ?   (story here)   What was that about ?

Pinch me. Chris Matthews goes a little off the water-carrying range in this discussion around Benghazi? It actually appears that Chris Matthews is either a.) embarrassed by CBS’s Lara Logan, who actually did a direct 60 minutes segment, or, b.) struggling to reconcile that Hillary’s “at this point what difference does it make” comment is pure obfuscation not grounded in fact.

Could it be that Chris Matthews actually does recognize, albeit 13 months after the fact, that President Obama and Hillary Clinton chose to let Americans be slaughtered in Benghazi ?
Could the truth of this be comprehensible to Obama/Hillary defender Matthews?
Nah, me neither.
The White House will call him and yank his leash back shortly.

(Via Truth Revolt) In a 60 Minutes special on CBS News that featured a trainer for security at the Benghazi consulate in Libya, a Green Beret lieutenant colonel, and top State Department official Gregory Hicks speaking about security shortcomings in Benghazi prior to the September 11, 2012 terrorist attack that killed four Americans including Ambassador Chris Stevens, CBS News mentioned President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton precisely zero times.

Lt. Col. Andy Wood testified, “We had one option: ‘Leave Benghazi or you will be killed.’…. I made it known in a country team meeting, ‘You are gonna get attacked. You are gonna get attacked in Benghazi. It’s gonna happen. You need to change your security profile.’” But the story never says to whom Wood made that clear.
“Morgan Jones,” a pseudonym for a security trainer in Benghazi, said of Libyan security, “we realized they were all inside drinking tea, laughing and joking….Instantly I thought we’re going to have to get rid of all these guys.” But to whom did he direct his information? CBS News doesn’t say. (more…)