The news about the resignation of CIA Director, General David Petraeus , over an extra marital affair, is only a few hours old, and already, conservative critics are accusing Mr. Obama of a conspiracy to silence the General. They claim Petraeus was forced to resign in order to prevent his testimony about the assault on the US Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. The attack occurred on the 11th anniversary of 9/11 and resulted in the death of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, Sean Smith , Tyrone Woods, and Glen Doherty.
General Petraeus was expected to appear before the Intelligence Committees of the Senate and House of Representatives on Thursday, November 15, 2012. However, his testimony is now cancelled as the result of his resignation. Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, and Acting CIA Director, Michael Morell, are still expected to testify.
Washington’s conservative base has been up in arms for weeks over the Administration’s handling of the entire Libyan affair. Obama has been accused of misleading the the American people by blaming the attack on an obscure anti-Muslim YouTube video. Prominent Republicans are referring to Libya as “Obama’s Watergate” and they are anxious for the opportunity to confront the President and question as many of his associates as possible.
Recently, high level State Department emails surfaced that cast a shadow of doubt on the President. One cable, sent just three hours after the assault began, warns the Administration that the notorious terror group, Ansar al-Sharia, claimed responsibility for the attack.
The emails also revealed US drones were conducting live surveillance of the complex during the tragic incident and real time information was relayed to the White House situation room. According to reports, several requests to send US troops to rescue the trapped diplomats were overruled by government officials.
Despite White House assurances that the President will cooperate fully with the investigation, the media is starting to percolate with angry accusations. The comments range from vague rumors to wild assumptions and some of the remarks accuse Obama of impeachable offenses and treason.
After the Petraeus resignation was made public, Fox News’ Bret Baier drew first blood with the following tweet:
“With Petraeus’ resignation effective immediately, he will not testify next week & lawmakers are said to be ‘stunned’ by the announcement.”
Baier’s Fox News colleague, Monica Crowley, continued to press the point:
“Unless Petraeus’s “extramarital affair” was with Vladimir Putin, his resignation is OF COURSE about Benghazi.”
Talk show host Laura Ingraham was not buying the resignation story:
“COINCIDENCE?! Petraeus is set to testify NEXT week at a closed door session on Capitol Hill abt Benghazi. Did BHO push him out? This stinks!”
Fanning the flames of dissent into a bonfire is Breitbart writer, Ben Shapiro, who denounced the resignation as another example of Obama throwing his supporters under the bus. If Shapiro’s accusations are correct, the President would be the perpetrator of the most frightening betrayal of our Republic since the legendary treason of Benedict Arnold. Either Ben Shapiro has exposed something truly sinister or he is spouting utter nonsense. For the sake of our nation , we must hope he is wrong:
“This is only the latest in a string of groundshaking events demonstrating that the Obama administration hid information vital to the American people during the last days of the 2012 election cycle. The fact that the most respected soldier of his generation, Petraeus, would be leaving the administration during an Obama second term, had to be known by the White House prior to the election. And they said nothing in order to run out the clock.”
“The fact that Attorney General Eric Holder was considering stepping down from the administration had to be known by the White House prior to the election. Meanwhile, during the election cycle, the Obama administration claimed executive privilege in order to shield Holder from questions about Fast and Furious.”
“The fact that an American drone was fired upon in international airspace by Iranian airplanes was hidden from the American public for a week in order to prevent the American public from recognizing the failure of the Obama Iranian foreign policy.”
“The facts in Benghazi were lied about by virtually every member of the Obama administration for weeks upon weeks.”
“The fact that the administration had been slow-walking reams of vital regulation to beyond the election in order to avoid scaring off voters was hidden from the public.”
“Now that the Obama administration has succeeded in winning a second term, they are cleaning house. The two figures most linked to the disaster in Benghazi, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Petraeus, are gone. The figure most linked with Fast and Furious, Eric Holder, will be gone. The figure most linked to the administration’s economic failures, Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner, will be gone.”
“Only Obama remains. He ran out the clock on his scandals, and now throws anyone associated with them overboard.”
“The Petraeus resignation is only the most recent evidence that the Obama administration will lie to the American people to achieve its ends. But with all of his experts gone, Obama’s cabinet will now be staffed by the political C team in a time of crisis, both domestically and internationally.”
Jonathan S. Tobin, Senior Online Editor of Commentary magazine, looked at Libya from an entirely different perspective. He wondered why it took a sex scandal to finally get the media talking about the events in Benghazi. Here is an excerpt from his insightful and important article :
“But the avalanche of press coverage that Petraeus attracted in the hours after his announcement ought to bring into focus a far more important story that most of the same media has ignored: the Benghazi fiasco. It speaks volumes about the current state of contemporary American journalism that a sex scandal generated far more interest from broadcast networks and the press than the questions of whether the administration failed to aid Americans besieged in Libya or why the government stuck to a bogus story about a video instead of admitting that terrorists were responsible.”
” The juxtaposition of Petraeus’ fall with the ongoing investigation of who knew what and when about what happened in Benghazi is bound to attract more interest than the scandal has generated in the past two months. The refusal of many in the media to push hard on this story has understandably generated accusations of liberal media bias since the relative silence on the issue from many important outlets was extremely helpful to President Obama’s re-election campaign.”
That wraps up another day of mirth and mayhem in our nation’s capital. In closing, we quote legendary NBC TV Nightly News anchor, Chet Huntley:
“Be patient and have courage — there will be better and happier news some day, if we work at it.”