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CENTRAL VIEW for Monday, April 7, 2014

by William Hamilton, Ph.D.

Benghazi: The cover-up begins to unravel

On September 11, 2012 (note 9/11 anniversary date), and 55 days before the presidential election of 2012, the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, came under attack by a well-organized, well-armed force of Islamic terrorists who killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya, his aide, and two former Navy SEALs. The attack flew in the face of Mr. Obama’s often-repeated campaign claim that he killed bin Laden and Islamic terrorism was defeated. Period.

When faced with undesirable facts, the same people who claimed: You can keep your health-insurance plan. Period. That you can keep your own doctor. Period. Did what politicians often do: sacrifice the truth on the altar of politics. Period. But, to be fair, such deplorable conduct was not invented by the Obama Administration. Aeschylus, the Greek tragic dramatist (525 B.C. - 456 B.C.) famously wrote, "In war, truth is the first casualty."

Nor is the Obama Administration the first to ignore inconvenient facts. In 1922, Hermann Göring, Germany’s top surviving fighter Ace of World War I, showed Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, America’s Aces of Aces, exactly how Germany was training combat pilots in violation of the Treaty of Versailles. In person, Rickenbacker informed Republican President Warren G. Harding. Rickenbacker’s report was ignored.

In 1937, famed aviator and aeronautical engineer, Jimmy Doolittle, Ph.D., toured Hitler’s aircraft factories and saw the Nazis "cranking out top-of-the-line fighters and bombers at an alarming rate." Doolittle sent his intelligence to Democrat President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Like Rickenbacker’s, Doolittle’s report was ignored. In 1939, Colonel Doolittle returned to Nazi Germany, confirming that the Nazis had just created the world’s mightiest air force, the Luftwaffe. Once again, Doolittle’s findings fell on deaf ears.

At the request of military intelligence, famed aviator, Charles Lindbergh, traveled to Nazi Germany in 1937, 1938, and 1939. After each trip, Lindbergh hounded the Roosevelt Administration with his conclusion that the U.S. must quickly rearm or be overwhelmed by Nazi air power. Lindbergh’s reports were ignored, leading Lindbergh to say: "Either we rearm or stay out." Nevertheless, when war came anyway, Lindbergh flew Navy Corsairs and Army P-38 fighters against the Japanese. See: The Aviators: Eddie Rickenbacker, Jimmy Doolittle, Charles Lindbergh, and the Epic Age of Flight by Winston Groom (2013).

Based on Congressional hearings, it appears Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton knew from the get-go that Islamist terrorist were attacking our people in Benghazi but pressured underlings to fabricate a fanciful campaign-related tale that Islamic terrorism was not involved. Worse, orders were given to "stand down" and not send available forces to rescue the embattled Americans. When all the facts are known, this is likely to be a terrible historical legacy for Mr. Obama and for then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. But it could be far, far worse.

What if the Benghazi attacks were a covert operation by Russia’s Vladimir Putin, using hired guns to stop the Obama Administration from shipping arms from Libya, via Turkey, to Syria to help the Islamic rebels defeat Putin’s client, Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad? That would be an Act of War. If, rather than face a pre-election Act of War, Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton left our ambassador and three other Americans to die, that would be the most historically inconvenient truth of all. Stay tuned.

Nationally syndicated columnist, William Hamilton, was educated at the University of Oklahoma, the George Washington University, the U.S Naval War College, the University of Nebraska, and Harvard University.

©2014. William Hamilton.

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Email: william@central-view.com

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