http://theconservativetreehouse.com/2013/01/04/white-house-9-11-12-white-house-photo-during-benghazi-7-hour-seige/#more-55619
http://iowntheworld.com/blog/?p=163864
Benghazigate: Research Help Request – White House 9-11-12 Photo During Benghazi 7 Hour Seige…. ?
ALL UPDATES After original post BELOW – Need Viral Assistance.The White House has refused repeated attempts by journalists to produce pictures of President Obama and his team in the White House Situation Room during the 9-11 Benghazi terrorist attacks [3:30pm to 11:00pm Eastern Time].
Personally, after researching the offical reports minute by minute, and comparing them to the media released statements, I believe the Situation Room was empty.
Today the White House released this picture taken on 9-11-12. It was included in a White House FLICKR Album “The Year In Pictures“. You Decide:
(Sept. 11, 2012) – ”Denis McDonough, Deputy National Security Advisor, left, updates the President and Vice President on the situation in the Middle East and North Africa. National Security Advisor Tom Donilon and Chief of Staff Jack Lew are at right.” (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
A couple of notes: It’s twilight outside, so this is close to sunset
on September 11th. The vehicles are noted through the window and you
can tell it is twilight. Sunset Was 7:22pm, with end of civil twilight at 7:49pm on Sept 11th 2012. The metadata embedd shows the picture was taken at 7:26pm.So this picture was taken four hours after the fire-fight started, and they are NOT in the “situation room”. We know the video & audio feed from the Benghazi faux-State Dept. Consulate was live; So, simultaneous to this photograph it was 1:26am Benghazi Time. That is the exact time (01:30am) the rescue team of Navy SEAL’s Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty arrived back in the CIA annex with the body of Sean Smith.
The first Reuters report did not hit the media until 00:30am on Sept. 12th, and was not reported on TV until approx 00:45 eastern (6:45am Benghazi) as a “breaking story”.
POTUS “Schedule Binder” is on the couch in front of Donilon, it is closed. Someone is visible in the reflection at the collar of McDonough. Someone else is visible (seated) in the reflection over the shoulder of Lew. Neither are the photographer.
Biden is holding scratch notes [of events?] including people. One of the first notes is “Rice to BD or BB” (?) (Click HERE For BIG VERSION) [4096 x 2731 pixel]
What is written on the paper in the hands of VP Biden?
Again – A Big Downloadable Version Is HERE – Does anyone have good imaging software to clean up the pixel distortion? [Here is another image black/white blown up from Reegs]
Reports ‘after the fact’ stated President Obama went to bed at
00:30am – while Ambassador Stevens was still missing. President Obama spoke in the Rose Garden at approximately 11am 9/12 before flying to Nevada for a campaign fundraiser.Linked at iOTW -and- Free Republic - Thanks.
HatTip Recoverydotgod for an example of Biden’s handwriting (link):
Update 1. Here are some graphics to understand camera angle:
Update 2. Need Comparison Timeline from “official” WH/state dept. reports as to who was where, when. So we can compare them to “official” state dept./Pentagon timeline for actual attack happening on ground in Benghazi.
Also, what were offical schedules for players? on that date.
Update 3. Possible the notes in Biden’s hand have to do with phone call earlier to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu which occurred on same date. White House Link
Sept 11, 2012 President Obama spoke with Prime Minister Netanyahu for an hour tonight as a part of their ongoing consultations. The two leaders discussed the threat posed by Iran’s nuclear program, and our close cooperation on Iran and other security issues. (link)
and CNN Story Link.
Washington (CNN) –
President Barack Obama talked with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu in a call Tuesday night about the threat posed by Iran’s
nuclear program, according to a White House statement.
Obama placed the call to Netanyahu, a
senior administration official told CNN. [...] The Obama administration
pushed back later Tuesday… (link)
However, non of this changes the aspect of inquiry. If the attack
began at 3:30pm (DC time) 9:30pm (Benghazi) – Then what was happening at
7:30pm when this picture was taken? Obviously POTUS was not
situationally aware. Was this the “first” notification of the crisis? Yet it is a FULL FOUR HOURS after the attack began?Update 4. Here is a brief timeline: Compiled from HERE and HERE
Timeline of 9/11 Benghazi Consulate Attack According to CBS:
Ambassador Stevens sent cables to DC
citing security incidents and “growing frustration with police and
security forces who were too weak to keep the country secure.”
CBS elaborated on the video protest in Cairo, nearly 750 miles away.
9:00 p.m. – Ambassador Stevens goes to
bed. There are five security agents on site, three based in Benghazi
and two traveling with Stevens. The front gate is staffed by Libyan
security guards.
9:40 pm – Gunfire is heard and dozens
of armed people flow through the gate at the main entrance. The CIA
security team in the annex and the Libyan 12th of February Brigade,
which they claim is one of the most powerful militias serving as a
presence in Benghazi. The embassy in Tripoli and State Department
command are notified.
State Dept. Diplomatic Security follow the events in real time via audio.
All but one agent in the compound
leaves to get gear in another building. The mob sets fire to the Libyan
barracks on site. The agent with the Ambassador Stevens and Sean Smith,
Scott Strickland, secures the men in an unvented windowless room.
The attackers get into the building
where the Ambassador, Smith and Stickland are hiding. They set it on
fire. Strickland leaves by a window but the two men are not behind him.
He returns to look for them several times but can’t find them because of
the heavy smoke. He goes to the roof and radios the other agents.
Three agents return to look for the men and find Smith’s body which they take with them.
Hillary Clinton is told of the
incident shortly after it began at 4 pm DC time, 10 pm Benghazi time,
and she in turn calls Libyan President Mohammed Magariaf to enlist his
support.
10:05 pm: government
and intelligence agencies re alerted including the White House Situation
Room, the office of the Director of National Intelligence and the FBI.
They are informed that ”US Diplomatic Mission in Benghazi Under Attack” —
“approximately 20 armed people fired shots; explosions have been heard
as well. Ambassador Stevens, who is currently in Benghazi, and four COM
(Chief of Mission/embassy) personnel are in the compound safe haven.”
10:25 pm: A six-member CIA team arrives at the annex with 40 to 60 members of the Libyan brigade. They remove Smith’s body.
10:54 p.m. (4:54 p.m. ET):
An alert from the State Dept. Operations Center: “the firing… in
Benghazi has stopped. A response team is on site attempting to locate
COM personnel.”
11 p.m. (5 p.m. ET):
Just ahead of the weekly meeting with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and
Chairman of Joint Chiefs Martin Dempsey, White House National Security
Advisor Tom Donilon tells President Obama of the attack and the fire at
the main villa. The president is updated several times throughout the
evening.
At the compound, the 17th of February Brigade says they can’t hold the perimeter and withdraws.
DS agents make final search for
Stevens and leave with the CIA team in an armored vehicle heading for
the annex, taking fire along the waInside room of murdered U.S.
Ambassador Chris Stevens
Of note, when CBS News’ Elizabeth
Palmer visited the compound in one of several trips to Libya, she found
little evidence of an extensive firefight at the compound’s walls and
main gate, likely indicating the fiercest fighting occurred away from
the compound.
Midnight (6 p.m. ET)
Agents arrive at the annex, which receives sporadic small-arms fire and
RPG rounds over a roughly 90-minute period. The security team returns
fire and the attackers disperse.
12:07 a.m. (6:07 p.m. ET):
An alert from the State Dept. Operations Center states that the U.S.
Embassy in Tripoli reports the Islamic military group “Ansar al-Sharia
Claims Responsibilty for Benghazi Attack”… “on Facebook and Twitter and
has called for an attack on Embassy Tripoli.”
Around 12:30 a.m. (6:30 p.m. ET): The
Pentagon issues an order to a special operations team in Europe to move
to Sigonella, Sicily – less than one hour’s flight away from Benghazi.
Over the next three hours an additional special operations team based in
the U.S. is ordered to deploy to Sigonella. Neither arrived in time.
1:00 a.m. (7 p.m. ET):
The first of two unmanned U.S. Predator drones, which already had been
flying over eastern Libya, is diverted to Benghazi, as reported by CBS
News’ Sharyl Attkisson and David Martin on Oct. 15.
WH PHOTO TAKEN AT THIS TIME
1:30 a.m. (7:30 p.m. ET):
A U.S. security team from Embassy Tripoli lands in Benghazi and learn
that the ambassador is missing. They try to arrange for transportation
into town, with the goal of locating Stevens.
4:07 a.m. (10:07 p.m. ET): Secretary Clinton issues a statement acknowledging the death of one State Dept. officer.
5:00 a.m. (11:00 p.m.): A second U.S. Predator drone arrives, per CBS News’ Attkisson and Martin.
5:15 a.m. (11:15 p.m. ET):
The U.S. Regional Security Office in Tripoli gets a phone call from an
Arabic-speaking source who says a Westerner has been found in Benghazi
and is perhaps at a hospital. It’s believed to be Ambassador Stevens.
Transfer to airport is arranged.
At around the same time, the
additional security team finds transportation from the airport under the
escort of the Libyan Shield, another local militia, but decides to head
to the annex after learning that Stevens was almost certainly dead.
Just after their arrival, the annex takes mortar fire, sustaining three
direct hits. The precision of the attacks indicates a level of
sophistication and coordination.
Former U.S. Navy SEALs Tyrone Woods
and Glen Doherty are killed in the mortar assault, which lasts just 11
minutes before dissipating; a DS agent and annex security member are
severely wounded.
After the mortar attack, about 30
Americans evacuate the annex and head to the airport, with the
assistance of the Libyan security convoy.
Ambassador Stevens is confirmed dead later that morning, as Americans see his body at the airport
The plane is too small for all of the
Americans, so the first flight out takes U.S. diplomats and civilians to
Tripoli, leaving behind security staff and bodies.
8:00 a.m. (2 a.m. ET): The second flight leaves Benghazi for Tripoli with U.S. security members and bodies.
President Obama is told of Stevens’
death. State Department tells all diplomatic posts around the world to
review their security posture and to take all necessary steps to enhance
it
Update 5. More people concur,
the notes in Biden’s hand pertain to the phone convo with Netanyahu –
not benghazi. There is a time of 6:2(?) written in his notes. This
could be a Benghazi convo immediately following that phone call. (*off subject* funny how the media never reported Biden was on the phone — propping up inept Obama?)However, knowing with specific certainty that this picture was taken at 7:26pm, if you really think about the prior reported timelines from the media -including those above – this photograph appears to destroy many of those previous timeline narratives regarding who was doing what, and when. Specifically it would be interesting to know where was Panetta and Dempsey when this photo was taken?
…”updated several times thoughout the evening“…. was this an update? Remember, again, this photo is FOUR hours after the attack began. Would POTUS take a previously scheduled call with Netanyahu at 6:30 ish (1:30am Israel) three hours into a known embassy attack ? Yeah, he was getting beat up by the Republicans about ignoring BiBi, but was that worry stronger than the situation in Benghazi? Lots of questions….Previously Reported @ (5 p.m. ET): Just ahead of the weekly meeting with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Chairman of Joint Chiefs Martin Dempsey, White House National Security Advisor Tom Donilon tells President Obama of the attack and the fire at the main villa. The president is updated several times throughout the evening….
and where is Hillary?
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