Will Libyan Watergate Incriminate Obama?

The Obama administration has increasing difficulties explaining why the American Ambassador to Libya, who died a month ago, had such poor security. Romney, Obama’s rival, also has a Libyan problem.

The tragedy that happened in Libya has been an election campaign topic from the beginning. The American Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans died in the U.S. consulate in Benghazi on Sept. 11. So far, nobody knows exactly how and why it happened. At first, it was reported that the consulate had been spontaneously attacked by a crowd infuriated by a short film from YouTube that mocked the Prophet Muhammad. The film, shot in California, evoked violent protests in front of U.S. Embassies in many Muslim countries. It seems strange, though, that “spontaneous demonstrators” had grenade launchers on them, with which they fired on the consulate and afterward forced their way inside.

The Republicans accused the Obama administration of twisting the facts from the beginning — the attack wasn’t spontaneous or evoked by the film, it was a planned terrorist attack on the anniversary of al-Qaida’s attacks in New York and Washington. The president allegedly doesn’t want to admit it, because then it would become obvious that his politics of “new openness” to the Islamic world had suffered a defeat and that terror is still threatening America. Why did the Ambassador to the U.N., Susan Rice, and Obama’s spokesman, Jay Carney, insist for many days on the version concerning a “spontaneous attack”?

At present, they acknowledge that it wasn’t fully spontaneous, but explain the change in their view by new information coming from progress in the investigation. The more they explain, the louder the right-wing propaganda television company, Fox News, is shouting from the rooftops that the scandal is “worse than Watergate.”

However, even if the Washington officials’ explanations are true, it is a scandal despite everything. Ambassador Stevens undoubtedly had inadequate security. A year after Gadhafi was overthrown, the situation in Libya remains chaotic. In the last six months, someone placed a homemade bomb on the consulate premises; another bomb breached the wall; the seat of the Red Cross, located a kilometer away from the consulate, was fired on and the deputy of the U.S. Embassy security chief in Tripoli was kidnapped for a short time by a militarized youth organization.

On Wednesday, officials from the Department of State admitted to the commission in Congress that requests from the embassy in Tripoli to increase the security of the American facilities in Libya were refused. The Republicans warn that Obama’s cabinet is preparing a propaganda campaign to get itself out of trouble. James Carafano, from the conservative Heritage Foundation, thinks that the president will issue an order for the attack on the Islamic radicals’ camps in Libya in order to present himself to the voters as a decisive leader.

Not only Obama, but also his rival, Mitt Romney, has a problem with Libya. Recently, he has begun to talk at rallies about how he had met Glen Doherty — former commando from the elite SEAL unit, and one of the Americans killed in Benghazi — at a party. “When I found out that he died, it broke my heart,”* said Romney. He held Doherty up as a model and counterexample for President Obama, who is allegedly a passive observer of U.S. problems and the machinations of its enemies.

“When a crowd gathered in front of the consulate,” Romney reminded, “Doherty and his comrades were ‘in another building’ a kilometer away.”* “They didn’t hunker down where they were in safety. They rushed there to go help. This is the American way. We go where there’s trouble. We go where we’re needed. And right now we are needed. Right now the American people need us.”

The last sentences obviously referred to Romney himself, whom Americans need in the White House. Barbara Doherty, the killed commando’s mother, couldn’t stand it.

“I don’t trust Romney,” she said to Boston local television. “He shouldn’t make my son’s death part of his political agenda. It’s wrong to use these brave young men, who wanted freedom for all, to degrade Obama.”

The Republican congressmen, who track down the “Libyan Watergate,” also have a problem with Libya. On Wednesday, during the questioning of officials from the Department of State, they disclosed inadvertently that “another building” a kilometer away — the one where Doherty was — is a local CIA station. It was a comical scene — congressmen, after having second thoughts, wanted to hide a map that thousands of viewers, who were watching live coverage from Congress, had already seen.

*Editor’s note: While accurately translated, these quotes could not be independently verified.