A letter from the President of ACT! for America

 

 

 

May 10, 2013

Why discovering the truth about Benghazi matters—and it has to do with 9/11

by Guy Rodgers

Executive Director

There’s a lesson from 9/11 that MUST be applied to the Benghazi terror attack—and very few people are talking about it. Please take a few minutes to read this very important letter.

We know that terrorist attacks against America pre-9/11, such as the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the attack on the USS Cole, emboldened Osama bin Laden.

He watched the weak and confused responses by our government to those terrorist attacks and concluded the United States government and its people didn’t have the will to fight back against a larger attack.

He even alluded to this in one of his videos in the late 90’s, when he made reference to the world watching to see who is “the strong horse.”

Fast forward to Benghazi.

It should be abundantly clear by now to any reasonable observer that there were government decisions made prior to the attack that compromised security in Benghazi; there were decisions made during the attack that compromised the ability to rescue those under attack; and there were decisions made after the attack to alter the narrative to make it look like a video prompted the attack.

Even the “establishment media” has finally, finally, finally begun to take a closer look at this.

For instance, this short, must-see ABC News report, provides powerful evidence that it was people inside the Obama administration who changed the talking points about what happened in Benghazi—not the intelligence community as White House Press Secretary Jay Carney claimed on November 28, 2012.

Here’s one excerpt from that ABC News report:

In an email to officials at the White House and the intelligence agencies, State Department spokesman Victoria Nuland took issue with including that information because it “could be abused by members [of Congress] to beat up the State Department for not paying attention to warnings, so why would we want to feed that either?”

Nuland was referring to information from the CIA that was originally included in the talking points. The CIA clearly had concerns about previous al Qaida-related activity and how it could not “rule out” that al-Qaida related Islamists were involved in the attack.

In other words, Nuland was more concerned about the State Department getting a black eye for ignoring security warnings than it was about putting out the truth as to why those four men died.

In spite of all of these new revelations, there are those who still ask, “Why does it matter?” Even some ACT! for America members have emailed us asking why we keep focusing on this.

Here’s why we won’t let this go. It’s because of the lesson America should have learned from 9/11.

9/11 happened in large part because American leadership displayed weakness, confusion, and a lack of resolve in responding to the terrorist attacks that occurred prior to 9/11.

Now, today, consider what jihadists around the world are watching:

An administration blaming a video for the Benghazi attack.

 

An administration desperately trying to keep the American people in the dark about what really happened—both before the attack and after the attack.

 

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in testimony before Congress, blurting out “what difference does it make” regarding what really happened.

 

A compliant “establishment media” that failed to doggedly investigate this attack prior to last year’s election, capped off by CNN’s Candy Crowley, the debate moderator, jumping to Obama’s side during his debate with Mitt Romney.

 

Secretary of State John Kerry recently saying “we need to move on to more important matters.”

 

State Department career officials, such as Gregory Hicks, getting punished for trying to get the truth out.

 

Democrats in Congress attacking these whistleblowers from the State Department, and describing the investigation as a “witch hunt.”

What message is being sent, loud and clear, to our jihadist enemies in America and around the world?

The same message of weakness, confusion and a lack of resolve that was sent prior to 9/11.

But this time it’s worse, because not only has the response by this administration been weak and confusing, it has compounded that failure by attempting to cover up what really happened.

Are there Republicans in Washington who want to use this debacle for partisan, political purposes? Of course—just as there would be Democrats trying to do so if this happened on the watch of a Republican president.

But that’s not why ACT! for America continues to press for the full truth to be brought to light.

Our reason is this:

• THE JIHADISTS OF THE WORLD NEED TO KNOW, WITHOUT A SHADOW OF A DOUBT, THAT THERE ARE PEOPLE IN THE UNITED STATES WHO WILL NOT CAPITULATE IN THE FACE OF TERRORISM AND WHO ARE NOT CONFUSED ABOUT WHO THE ENEMY IS AND WHY THE ENEMY IS ATTACKING US.
• THEY NEED TO KNOW THAT THERE ARE PEOPLE IN AMERICA WHO WILL NOT REST UNTIL WE HAVE A FULL ACCOUNTING OF WHY THESE MEN DIED, SO THAT AMERICA CAN TAKE APPROPRIATE ACTION TO ENSURE SOMETHING LIKE THIS NEVER HAPPENS AGAIN.
• THEY NEED TO KNOW THAT THERE ARE PEOPLE IN THE UNITED STATES WHO WILL CONTINUE TO DEMAND THAT OUR GOVERNMENT POLICIES RELATED TO JIHAD BE CHANGED TO ACCURATELY DEFINE WHO OUR ENEMY IS AND WHY THEY ARE ATTACKING US.

We cannot, as a nation, afford once again to send signs of weakness and confusion to the jihadist world, as we did before 9/11.

If we do, we are giving the jihadists of the world every encouragement to attack us again in a major way.

The “easy button” would be for ACT! for America to, as John Kerry said, move on to other matters.

But our mission to protect our national security—our very reason for being—and our responsibility to our fellow Americans, will not allow us to do that.

This is why, on Monday, we will issue a national ACTION ALERT to pressure House Speaker John Boehner to appoint a special select committee to finally and completely ferret out the truth—and issue recommendations regarding what must be done so that this does not happen again.

Rest assured, we will continue to fight for you, for your families, and for the well-being of this country we love.

Yours for a safe and free America,
Guy Rodgers
Executive Director
ACT! for America

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