GAO: HHS Already Rationing Enrollment in Obamacare’s Pre-Existing Condition Plan

From CNS News:

A pre-existing condition health insurance program established by Obamacare is already straining its own budget and, to control costs, the administration’s Health and Human Services Department (HHS) has stopped enrolling any new people in the program, according to an audit by the General Accountability Office (GAO).

In addition, to further control spending, HHS has directed the program to shift more of the costs onto the current enrollees, thus raising the out-of-pocket health care expenses for the people with pre-existing conditions....

The rationing or denial of health care coverage in the marketplace for people with pre-existing conditions, or insurers charging higher premiums to people with pre-existing conditions were among the reasons cited by President Barack Obama and most congressional Democrats for implementing Obamacare, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Benghazi: Obama administration vs. Hicks & Nordstrom on terror militia's benevolence & nobility

In September of 2012, the Obama administration praised a Libyan-based terror militia, claiming the militia spontaneously volunteered its assistance to the U.S when Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other U.S. officials were killed in a terrorist attack in Benghazi.

However, Eric Nordstrom - the State Department's former regional security officer in Libya - testified at a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing earlier this month that the aforementioned militia - which was tasked by the Libyan government to guard the U.S. consulate in Benghazi - issued threats, in July of 2012, against former U.S. ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens and Senator John McCain.

Moreover, Gregory Hicks, the former deputy chief of mission in Libya, testified that the aforementioned militia was complicit in the Benghazi attacks - which begs the question: Why did the Obama administration allow these terrorist thugs to guard the consulate?

"Spontaneously volunteering" its assistance! You've got to be kidding!

Syria & Russia; Obama's fictional Reset button

As Russia continues to arm the Syrian government with advanced weaponry and missiles, the Obama reset button continues to be a vital component of the President's fictitious, but glorious, legacy.

Obama discusses "Monroe" [Moore] Oklahoma tornado during Jersey Shore photo-op

Appearing at the Jersey Shore on Tuesday for a joint photo-op session with New Jersey Governor, Chris Christie, President Obama discussed the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. He also mentioned the recent tornado that swept across the city of Moore Oklahoma.

However, despite the President's visit to Moore on Sunday - where he toured the widespread storm damage - he forgot the name of the city on Tuesday during his joint photo-op session with Governor Christie.

"Obviously, we're going to be there for the folks in Monroe Oklahoma after the devastation of last week," the President told the Jersey Shore audience as camera bulbs flickered in the background.

Student Loans subsidize ObamaCare

From The Hill:

Recent speeches by Tennessee Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander highlight a connection that has yet to be reported in the media and is yet to be understood by the young people struggling with high interest rates in the hopes of financing their college education.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, $8.7 billion of the money collected in student loan interest payments actually goes to pay for ObamaCare. The CBO estimates that the interest rate on these loans could be reduced from 6.8 percent to only 5.3 percent were the funds not used to subsidize the healthcare reform law and other federal programs.

The profits from student loans are divided as follows: $8.7 billion goes to pay for ObamaCare; $10.3 billion goes to pay down the federal debt; and $36 billion goes to Pell Scholarship grants.

The 16 million American students who now have student loans are paying for ObamaCare out of their meagre incomes just at the point when they graduate from college and need funds to start their lives, buy their first homes and begin a family.

Politically, how did the Republicans miss this issue in the last election?... Student loan payments are a daily present reality, standing in the way of the rest of [the students'] lives. They, alone among forms of debt, are not dischargeable in bankruptcy and stain their credit reports forever if they are not paid...

Alexander notes that the federal government borrows the funds for the student loan program at 2.8 percent and then lends it to the students at 6.8 percent, a markup of 4 percent.

The nexus between the student loan program and ObamaCare is purely opportunistic. As the Affordable Care Act was passing through Congress, its wheels greased by the wholly fraudulent assertion that it didn’t need 60 votes to pass the Senate, the administration decided to put in a provision eliminating the private student loan industry, fully federalizing the program. What was not widely understood at the time was that it hoped to raid the funds paid by students to provide money for the bottomless pit known as ObamaCare...

To tax students struggling to pay loans an extra 4 percent interest and then to divert a good portion of that money to pay for his [Obama's] healthcare reform is beyond belief.

Undoubtedly, few students know of this rip-off...The entire policy of student loans assures a kind of indentured servitude for our college graduates, and to piggy back on this burden the costs of ObamaCare is quite extraordinary.

Oh, well....

Famous Siamese twins, Barack Obama & Chris Christie, arrive for yet another photo-op at Jersey Shore

The inseparable, and famous, Siamese twins, President Barack Obama and New Jersey governor Chris Christie, came out to the Jersey shore on Tuesday for yet another photo-op.

Obamacare tax forces reduction in Health Care benefits & deductibles

From the New York Times:

Say goodbye to that $500 deductible insurance plan and the $20 co-payment for a doctor’s office visit. They are likely to become luxuries of the past...

Then blame — or credit — the so-called Cadillac tax, which penalizes companies that offer [so-called] high-end health care plans to their employees...

Workers with employer-paid health insurance are... beginning to feel the effects of [Obamacare]. Companies hoping to avoid the tax are beginning to scale back the more generous health benefits they have traditionally offered and to look harder for ways to bring down the overall cost of care.

In a way, the changes are right in line with the administration’s plan: To encourage employers to move away from plans that insulate workers from the cost of care and often lead to excessive procedures and tests ["excessive procedures and tests" - yeah, right, "excessive" in the eyes of the death panel, heh], and galvanize employers to try to control ever-increasing medical costs. But the tax remains one of the law’s most controversial provisions.

Bradley Herring, a health economist at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, suggested the result would be more widely felt than many people realize. “The reality is it is going to hit more and more people over time, at least as currently written in law, ” he said. Mr. Herring estimated that as many as 75 percent of plans could be affected by the tax over the next decade — unless employers manage to significantly rein in their costs.

The changes can be significant for employees. The hospital where Abbey Bruce, a nursing assistant in Olympia, Wash., worked, for example, stopped offering the traditional plan that she and her husband, Casey, who has cystic fibrosis, had chosen.

Starting this year, they have a combined deductible of $2,300, compared with just $500 before. And while she was eligible for a $1,400 hospital contribution to a savings account linked to the plan, the couple is now responsible for $6,600 a year in medical expenses, in contrast to a $3,000 limit on medical bills and $2,000 limit on pharmacy costs last year. She has had to drop out of school and take on additional jobs to pay for her husband’s medicine.

“My husband didn’t choose to be born this way,” Ms. Bruce said.

That is true, Ms. Bruce. However, in Obama's eyes, you, and your husband, are wealthy individuals - and it is only right for you to drop out of school and take on additional jobs to pay for your husband’s medicine, because, well, because it's the fair thing to do. And besides, costly medical treatments and tests are so passé; we're living in a new era: the Obama era. "Hope & Change", remember?

My advice to you, Ms. Bruce, is to stop complaining and to get with the program!

The union representing her, a chapter of the [Obama enthusiast] Service Employees International Union, has objected to the changes. Her employer, Providence Health & Services, says it designed the plans to avoid having employees shoulder too much in medical bills and has reduced how much workers pay in premiums...

Cynthia Weidner, an executive at the benefits consultant HighRoads, [said] that the tax appeared to be having the intended effect. ['intended effect', heh...] “The premise it’s built upon is happening,” she said, adding, “the consumer should continue to expect that their plan is going to be more expensive, and they will have less benefits. ”...

Obama: We must 'give our troops the resources they need!' AHEM - Memorial Day speech, Arlington National Cemetery

Speaking at Memorial Day ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery on Monday, President Obama proclaimed: "On this day, we remember our sacred obligation to those who laid down their lives so we could live ours: to finish the job these men and women started by keeping our promise to those who wear America’s uniform, to give our troops the resources they need...."

Beautiful words from the President!

And, no one is more suited than Obama to speak about the sacred obligation of giving "our troops the resources they need".

Whether it was the war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan or the terrorist attacks in Benghazi, President Obama always made certain that our troops and diplomats were well-protected; he has consistently refused to put politics before the security and well-being of our soldiers and diplomats!

An incredible, and noble, accomplishment, indeed!

Hail to the chief!

Obama: 'We will never erase evil', Which "evil" is he referring to? - Speech, National Defense University

Speaking at the National Defense University on Thursday, President Obama asserted that, "We will never erase the evil that lies in the hearts of some human beings."

Question: Which "evil" was the President referring to? Was he referring to the "evil" that President George W. Bush wrought upon the Iraqi people when he freed them from the reigns of [Saddam Hussein's] tyranny? Or, was he referring to his own exit strategy in Afghanistan, which has left the Afghan people in a state of fear, and forced a mass exodus from the country?

Or, was he referring to the IRS & Obama administration's targeting of Tea Party and Conservative groups?

IRS: Obama said ASU officials would be targeted, but he decided to target Tea Party & Conservative groups

Speaking at the Arizona State University commencement ceremony in 2009, President Obama chided University officials because of their decision not to award him an honorary degree.

A school spokesman told the student newspaper at the time that Obama would not be awarded an honorary degree because "his lifetime body of work was still ahead of him."

However, ASU later announced that it was renaming a scholarship program for Obama. The scholarship program would be called the President Barack Obama Scholars Program.

But Obama wasn't about to let ASU officials off the hook.

"I'd just like to clear the air about that little controversy everybody was talking about a few weeks back," Obama stated in his commencement address. "I have to tell you, I really thought this was much ado about nothing, but I do think we all learned an important lesson. I learned never again to pick another team over the Sun Devils [the ASU basketball team] in my NCAA bracket. (Applause.) It won't happen again."

Obama added: "President Crow and the Board of Regents will soon learn all about being audited by the IRS." (Applause.)

The crowd laughed off Obama's comments, but in hindsight, it wasn't a laughing matter at all; just ask the Tea Party, and other Conservative groups, who've been targeted by Obama and the IRS.......

AP: Obama reluctant to seize Benghazi terrorists because 1) it could "harm fledgling relations with Libya" 2) he wants to close Gitmo

The AP reported on Tuesday that the Obama administration is disinclined to send a military force into Libya to seize the terrorists who perpetrated the attacks in Benghazi because there isn't enough evidence to try them in a U.S. civilian court as the Obama administration prefers.

The AP added:

The decision not to seize the men militarily underscores the White House aim to move away from hunting terrorists as enemy combatants and holding them at the military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The preference is toward a process in which most are apprehended and tried by the countries where they are living or arrested by the U.S. with the host country's cooperation and tried in the U.S. criminal justice system. Using military force to detain the men might also harm fledgling relations with Libya and other post-Arab-Spring governments with whom the U.S. is trying to build partnerships to hunt al-Qaida as the organization expands throughout the region...

Some of the men have... been in contact with a network of well-known regional Jihadists, including al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb...

The option most likely off the table would be taking suspects seized by the military to Guantanamo Bay, the facility in Cuba that Obama has said he wants to close.

"Just as the administration is trying to find the exit ramp for Guantanamo, [it] is not the time to be adding to it," said the former chief prosecutor for Guantanamo.

The AP cited a senior administration official, and four senior U.S. officials - who were briefed on the investigation into the attacks and on high level strategy debates among White House, FBI and other counterterror officials - as the source of the above information. All five officials spoke on condition of anonymity.

Let me preface my remarks with the following comment: Although President Obama constantly feigns righteous indignation about the leaking of highly sensitive information, it is he and his administration who are actually the biggest leakers of 'em all.

Obama and his cronies have consistently used the AP and other media outlets as vehicles to leak out their [highly sensitive] misinformation campaigns - and their spin. "U.S. officials" are often quoted in the mainstream media reports as sources of "newly" obtained information - but these U.S. officials are, in actuality, Obama proxies who are tasked with relaying the President's misinformation campaign to the media and to the public. Hence, I have a hard time believing anything coming out of the mainstream media, especially when anonymous "senior U.S. officials" and/or anonymous "senior administration officials" are cited as sources of new information. Which is why I'm a bit skeptical about certain aspects of this latest AP report. Nevertheless, two significant observations can be gleaned from this report.

1) [As others have pointed out:] The reluctance on the President's part to seize the terrorists militarily if it entails bringing the terrorists to Guantanamo Bay.

Incredible!

2) The Obama administration's concern that, "Using military force to detain the [terrorists] might harm fledgling relations with Libya and other post-Arab-Spring governments."

Incredible!

Is this also the reason why the President refused to conduct a military rescue operation in Benghazi last year?

In truth, as I've noted previously, there are a host of reasons, and motives, that might explain why the President refused to carry out a rescue mission in Benghazi last year. Among those reasons is the fact that it was Obama who empowered the Al Qaeda-affiliated rebels in Libya, and thus the President was reluctant to send in boots on the ground to fight the very terrorists that he empowered, particularly when he had promised the American people that the U.S. involvement in the ouster of Muammar Gaddafi would not entail sending in boots on the ground. The reluctance to send in boots on the ground was compounded by the fact that the U.S. Presidential election was right around the corner.

Fort Hood Shooter received $278,000 military pay while awaiting trial

When U.S. soldiers are killed in insider attacks in Afghanistan, the Pentagon, in its casualty reports, often [deliberately] mislabels the deaths as combat-related casualties: "He died in a combat operation in Afghanistan," the reports typically state.

Admitting that the soldiers were gunned down by their supposed Afghan allies - who they're supposed to be training and partnering with - reflects poorly on President Obama's exit strategy, hence the real cause of deaths are omitted from the casualty report, and the soldiers are falsely reported to have died in combat operations.

On the flip side, however, the Pentagon refuses to label the 2009 Fort Hood shooting spree a “combat related” incident; nor will it label the incident a “terrorist attack”; but has chosen instead to categorize the shooting - which took the lives of 13 soldiers and wounded more than 30 - as a case of “workplace violence".

Par for the course for this administration....

From NBC Dallas:

The Department of Defense confirms to NBC 5 Investigates that accused Fort Hood shooter Major Nidal Hasan has now been paid more than $278,000 since the Nov. 5, 2009 shooting that left 13 dead and 32 injured. The Army said under the Military Code of Justice, Hasan’s salary cannot be suspended unless he is proven guilty...

Meanwhile, more than three years later soldiers wounded in the mass shooting are fighting to receive the same pay and medical benefits given to those wounded in combat.

Retired Army Spc. Logan Burnett, a reservist who, in 2009, was soon to be deployed to Iraq, was shot three times when a gunman opened fire inside the Army Deployment Center.

“I honestly thought I was going to die in that building,” said Burnett. “Just blood everywhere and then the thought of -- that's my blood everywhere.”...

Burnett is now fighting a new battle; only this one is against the U.S. Army.

The Army has not classified the wounds of the Ft. Hood victims as “combat related” and declines to label the shooting a “terrorist attack”.

The “combat related” designation is an important one, for without it Burnett and other shooting victims are not given combat-related pay, they are not eligible for Purple Heart retirement or medical benefits given to other soldiers wounded either at war or during the Sept. 11, 2001 attack on the Pentagon.

As a result, Burnett, his wife Torey, and the families of other Fort Hood victims miss out on thousands of dollars of potential benefits and pay every year.

To Burnett the shooting felt like combat.

“You take three rounds and lose five good friends and watch seven other people get killed in front of you. Do you have another term that we can classify that as?” asked Burnett.

The Army has categorized the shooting as a case of “workplace violence.”...

"There have been times when my wife and I cannot afford groceries. We cannot afford gas in our car,” Burnett said. “Literally, times where we ate Ramen noodles for weeks on end. This [that Hasan is still earning a paycheck] makes me sick to my stomach,” said Burnett...

Rep. Thomas Rooney (R) Florida said: “What happened here is not a case of workplace violence. What happened here was an attack on our military by a terrorist element specifically targeting our military, which just so happened to be in the United States of America."...

Red tape, endless maze of FEMA regulations delayed funding Oklahoma Tornado shelter program

From Newsmax:

The tornado-devastated town of Moore, Okla., had complained in February about regulatory delays from state and federal agencies that were preventing it from getting money for its county-wide tornado shelter rebate program.

"The city's safe room rebate program is still 'on hold,' with not a lot changed from our update of last May [2012]," a statement posted on the City of Moore website said.

"Our county-wide Hazard Mitigation Plan still has not been approved by the state and FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency]," the statement continued, marking over a year since plan was first submitted seeking approval for $2 million to help 800 homeowners put in underground shelters.

The city blamed the delay on shifting regulations and apparent difficulty interpreting what was required for approval.

"There were changes to the federal requirements for this plan that occurred while our contractor was writing the document. He has had to rewrite it," the statement read.

"We've found that the FEMA requirements and their interpretations seem to be a constantly moving target, more so with the new wrinkles. We're still working out various wording changes with the state reviewers and hope to submit the final document in March."

Same old, same old: Obama & Nixon discuss the Watergate, Obamagate scandals (IRS, Benghazi, wiretapping etc. ad infinitum)

When analyzing the statements issued by the late President, Richard Nixon, and current U.S. President, Barack Obama, on the Watergate and Obamagate scandals - including the IRS, Benghazi, AP-wiretap scandals, and a multitude of other Obama administration scandals - one can't help but notice an uncanny similarity between their respective statements. There are also a few salient disparities in their statements, all of which can be seen in the video below.

IRS targeting Tea Party & Conservatives - Thank You President Obama! - Press Briefing

During a press briefing on Monday, President Obama was asked when he first learned that the IRS was targeting the Tea Party and other Conservative groups, and If he feels that the IRS has betrayed the Public's trust.

It goes without saying that the reporter's questions were totally inappropriate and unbefitting; a heartfelt "thank you" to the President on behalf of the Tea Party and Conservatives would certainly have sufficed. See the video below.

Benghazi: Obama administration receives call from Gregory Hicks

Gregory Hicks, the former deputy chief of mission in Libya, told lawmakers at a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on Wednesday that, several hours after the terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, he learned that U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens had died in a hospital under the watchful eye and the supervision of a Libyan terrorist group. Hicks said that he immediately contacted the Obama administration and relayed the sad news. Hicks later told lawmakers that U.S. Military personnel in Tripoli were prepared to go to Benghazi, but were ordered to stand down.

Boston police chief: Feds did not inform us of Russian warnings on Marathon bombers

Testifying on Thursday at a House Homeland Security Committee hearing on the Boston Marathon bombing, Massachusetts Undersecretary of Public Safety Kurt N. Schwartz and Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis told lawmakers that the F.B.I. did not inform Boston police of the warnings it had received from Russia about one of the bombers, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, or the investigation the FBI had opened on his younger brother, Dzhokhar, until after Tamerlan had died following a gun battle with police on April 19.

Davis and Schwartz also testified that four city police representatives who work with the F.B.I. on a Joint Terrorism Task Force were also never told about the warnings the FBI had received.

“When information is out there that affects the safety of my community, I need to know that,” Davis told lawmakers.

When asked whether he would have taken a closer look at Tamerlan had he been aware of the Russian intelligence warning, Davis replied: "Absolutely!"

Former committee chairman Joe Lieberman said in testimony that, "The fact that neither the FBI nor the Department of Homeland Security notified the local members of the Joint Terrorism Task Force is really a serious and aggravating omission."

“Though it would not have been easy," Lieberman said, "it was possible to prevent the terrorist attacks in Boston. Why didn’t they involve the local law enforcers who could have stayed on this case and picked up signals?”

However, President Obama - who is widely renowned both for his proficiency in keeping people misinformed and his deep admiration for the "low-information" crowd - recently praised the FBI and Department of Homeland Security, telling reporters at a news conference that, "Based on what I've seen so far, the FBI performed its duties, the Department of Homeland Security did what it was supposed to be doing."

Benghazi hearing: Consulate guards' militia threatened Stevens & McCain - was complicit in attacks

During Wednesday's House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on the [September 2012] terrorist attacks in Benghazi, "whistle-blower", Eric Nordstrom - the State Department's former regional security officer in Libya - testified that the Libyan guards who were - "supposedly" - watching the U.S. consulate on the night of the attack, were part of a militia that issued threats, in July of 2012, against former U.S. ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens and Senator John McCain.

A second "Whistle-blower", Gregory Hicks, the former deputy chief of mission in Libya, testified that the aforementioned militia was complicit in the Benghazi attacks - which begs the question: Why did the Obama administration allow these terrorist thugs to guard the consulate?

Obama assures Mexico: I'll strive to make you safer & more secure

Speaking to a group of Mexican students at the National Anthropology Museum during his visit to Mexico last week, President Obama pledged to do his utmost to enact legislation here in the U.S. that will help keep dangerous weapons out of the hands of criminals in both Mexico and the U.S.

Obama on the role of government - Commencement address, Ohio State University graduation

President Obama spoke about the role of government during a commencement address to the graduating class at Ohio State University on Sunday. Video below.

Mastermind in Benghazi attack walking free in Libya, but FBI releases photos of three men from Benghazi attack site?

The FBI on Thursday released the photographs of three men it said were at the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, when it was attacked last September, Reuters reported.

The FBI did not call the three men suspects in the attacks, saying only that they "may be able to provide information to help in the investigation."

Well, judging from the bungling job that the FBI did in monitoring Tamerlan Tsarnaev's extremist activities in the months and years leading up to the Boston Marathon bombing - including his trips abroad -  my first inclination is to assume that the photos which the FBI released of the three men who were at the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi on the day of the attack, who, the FBI says, are not necessarily suspects, but nevertheless "may be able to provide information to help in the investigation" - my first inclination is to assume that the FBI photos of these three individuals look something like this:



That's would be my first inclination......

I'm sorry about the cynicism and sarcasm, but bear in mind: We're talking about the Obama administration, which, not only has been engaged in a prolonged and extensive cover-up on the Benghazi attacks, but has also been dragging its feet in dealing with the perpetrators of the attacks.

One example, which you're probably aware of by now:

The U.S. has identified the mastermind of the Benghazi attack, sources tell Fox News, though the individual apparently is walking free in Libya. The confirmation from multiple sources comes more than seven months after the assault on two U.S. locations in Benghazi, Libya... But one source told Fox News the government is "sitting on" information.

"We basically don't want to upset anybody, and the problem is, if Ambassador Stevens' family knew that we were sitting on information about the people who killed their son, their brother, on and on, then, and we could look them as a government in the face, then we're messing up. We're messing up," the source said.

So, I hope you can understand my cynicism, and sarcasm.

Fox News spoke exclusively with the special operator who watched the events [in Benghazi] unfold in real time and has debriefed those who were part of the response.

[The special operator] remains anonymous for his safety and has decided to talk because he says he and others connected with the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks in Benghazi are frustrated with the excuses, [lies] and lack of a military response since Stevens and three other Americans were killed. 

"We have all the capability, all the training, all the capacity, to kill and capture not only terrorists involved, with the specific events of 9/11, and Ambassador Stevens' death, but terrorists that are feeding other regions including Europe that could eventually affect our national security in the short term," the source said. "And we're not talking midterm or long-term, this is the short-term." 

The source said "it's a daily frustration." 

"Benghazi, the second-highest population of foreign fighters in the war in Iraq came from Benghazi, second to Saudi Arabia, so we are talking about a historic location and region that has fed foreign fighters to kill Americans, and kill other coalition forces," [the] source said. 

"The analysts, the intelligence experts all say the same thing, that if we just ignore the situation as it presents itself, eventually it will be another invasion will have to take place for us to eventually turn the tide." 


He says the region also remains a weapons hub after the overthrow of former leader Muammar Qaddafi in 2011, which saw massive stockpiles of weapons in Libya move freely across the Mediterranean...

Benghazi: The Panetta contradiction and the art of deception

Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has offered up two contradictory explanations why there was no military operation to rescue U.S. officials who were under attack in Benghazi on September 11, 2012.

During an October 2012 press briefing, Panetta claimed he was lacking real-time information at the time, and as a result of not having this information, he felt he couldn't send the FAST platoons, and other forces that were deployed in the region, into "harm's way" in "that situation". Hence, he made the decision not to send the  forces to Benghazi.

However, during a hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee in February of 2013, Panetta offered up a different excuse [prevarication]: There was no conscious decision, on his part, not to send forces to Benghazi into "harm's way". But rather, the reason why U.S. forces did not head out to Benghazi was because the attack at the U.S. consulate had ended before they could get off the ground. And, Panetta added, there was no reason to assume that the CIA annex would later come under attack - despite the fact that there were two attacks on the annex, more than four hours apart.

Two different, contradictory, explanations; par for the course, for this administration...

See the video below: