Benghazi

Questions journalists would ask about the Benghazi attack if Mitt Romney were president.

• Why are we just now learning through reporting at The Daily Beast, two weeks past the event, that intelligence sources heard the attackers bragging to Al Qaeda about their success within hours of the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya?
• Does it matter that the origin of the 9-11 attacks on our U.S. Libyan Consulate was mob anger against an anti-Islamic film? Is not the reason why something happened, secondary to the fact that four American citizens were killed, one of whom is the representative of America in that country? 
• Why did your State Department immediately apologize to Muslims for a film over which you had no control when your ambassador to Libya and 3 other Americans were killed?
• Why did you refer to this attack as “senseless violence” the day after 9-11 instead of what it was: an attack on the United States?
• Why was there not enough security afforded to the Libyan ambassador even after he warned of increased violence in the area?
• Why was no contingent of Marines guarding our Libyan ambassador as is the case for other consulates around the world?
• Why was the 9-11 date downplayed as a potential reason for the anti-American attack?
• Why did members of your administration continue to contradict each other about the origins of the attack on the U.S. Libyan Embassy, days and weeks after the event?
• Why did you send out your U.N. representative to all the Sunday talk shows two weeks ago to press the video-created-mob-violence scenario, when you said you did not have enough information to make an informed judgment?
• Why are you reluctant to use the word “terrorism” for Middle Eastern violence? Why did it take you two weeks to acknowledge the attack as terrorism? Why did we hear this statement from your press secretary but not in your own words?
• Why was there no immediate military response to an attack against sovereign U.S. territory, vis-a-viz, our American embassy?
• Why did you refer to the events in Libya as “bumps in the road” to your Mid-East policy in your most recent 60 Minutes interview when an ambassador of the United States was murdered as a result of these events?
• Why did Americans not sense any anger or even indignation in your voice when you read your speech after the U.S. ambassador was killed?
• Why was there no threat assessment conducted prior to the United States ambassador to Libya taking up residence in the Benghazi compound?
• Why did the United States not follow the lead of Great Britain which shut is embassy in the wake of violent behavior in and around Benghazi?
• Why does your administration refer to your presidential challenger’s questions and concerns about the Benghazi attack as “political opportunity”?

What did you know and when did you know it? 

The problem that I raise in this post is not about the current administration; the problem is with our lax “fourth estate.” Journalistic corps are supposed to ask questions to hold authority accountable. The fact that these questions were not and have not been asked by various news groups exposes incompetence, bias, or, even worse, protection of a person during a presidential campaign instead of a country during a terrorist attack. Could it be that Thomas Sowell, the brilliant African-American intellectual, was right? Has “the fourth estate” become “the fifth column”—a group who appeases our enemies while downplaying attacks against our country?