Mistaken Priorities

Investors.com posted an article on Friday about some of the money spent on American Embassies overseas.

The lead paragraph of the article points out:

While our consulate in Benghazi was guarded by unarmed Libyan contractors making $4 an hour, our embassy in Vienna received an expensive charging station for its new electric cars to help fight climate change.

The article also states that there were 230 security incidents in Libya between June 2011 and July 2012. Forty-eight of those incidents took place in Benghazi. Was anyone paying attention?

The article states:

In a May 3, 2012, email on which Ambassador Stevens was copied, the State Department denied a request by a group of Special Forces assigned to protect the U.S. Embassy in Libya to continue their use of a DC-3 airplane for security operations throughout the country.

Four days after the use of an ancient DC-3, along with other security requests, was being denied, on May 7, 2012, the State Department authorized the U.S. Embassy in Vienna to purchase a $108,000 electric-vehicle charging station for the embassy motor pool’s new Chevrolet Volts.

The article concludes:

Instead of an “Energy Efficiency Sweep Of Europe,” money should have been provided for a terrorist sweep of the Middle East that included protection for our diplomats in places like Benghazi. The $535 million wasted by Obama-Biden on Solyndra would have helped.

It seems that someone’s priorities were misplaced.

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What In The World Happened In Libya ?

There are numerous sources for this article–CNN today, Politico today, ABC News today and Ed Morrissey at Hot Air. The stories are similar, but they way the facts are laid out is slightly different.

CNN reports:

According to one of the Libyan security guards who was stationed at one of the gates armed with only a radio, the assault began simultaneously from three directions.

Heavy machine guns and rocket -propelled grenades were used, according to the guard. He said masked men threatened to kill him at gunpoint for ‘protecting the infidels. He declined to appear on camera for fear of repercussions.

ABC News reports:

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said the attack on the American consulate in Benghazi last week was not premeditated, directly contradicting top Libyan officials who say the attack was planned in advance.

“Our current best assessment, based on the information that we have at present, is that, in fact, what this began as, it was a spontaneous – not a premeditated – response to what had transpired in Cairo,” Rice told me this morning on “This Week.”

Just for the record, I am not convinced that three-pronged attacks begin spontaneously.

Hot Air reports:

About 50 arrests have been made in connection with the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi in which the American Ambassador and three other consulate employees were killed, and some of the suspects involved are from outside the country, Libya’s president told CBS News.

In an interview for “Face the Nation” Sunday, President Mohamed Magariaf also said that evidence “leaves us with no doubt” that the attack was pre-planned.

“It was planned, definitely, it was planned by foreigners, by people who entered the country a few months ago, and they were planning this criminal act since their arrival,” he told Bob Schieffer.

Politico reports:

Libya President Mohamed Yousef El-Magariaf said Sunday that 50 arrests have been made in connection with last week’s “preplanned” attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi that left U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans dead.

“The way these perpetrators acted and moved — I think we, and they’re choosing the specific date for this so-called demonstration, I think we have no, this leaves us with no doubt that this was pre-planned, determined,” Magariaf said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

Unfortunately, because we are in the ‘silly season’ which precedes an election, the American media is not telling us the full story. The British newspapers have posted many more details and stories behind what has happened. The thing to remember here is very simple, “It isn’t about a movie.” The movie on YouTube was not helpful in America’s relationship with Muslims, but how many Muslims do you believe have actually seen the movie? How many of the people attacking American embassies around the world have access to the Internet?

At some point in time we need to understand that Muslims who support the idea of a world-wide caliphate do not like America. Our freedom is a threat to their plans. They consider us as ‘the great Satan.’ That fact has not changed, despite the efforts of President Obama. It will not change. It is taught to Muslim children from birth. Until the teaching changes, the problem will not change. If you are truly interested in understanding how terrorists are trained, I recommend this video at CBN.com, which is an interview of a former terrorist telling the story of his upbringing, training, and eventual denunciation of terrorism.

It isn’t about a movie–it’s about the survival of western civilization.

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