WHERE IN THE WORLD WAS BARACK OBAMA?

DATELINE: SearchMeville, May 6 –  One of the questions being asked in the revitalized Benghazi investigation is the whereabouts of President Obama during the attack. We know about his schedule earlier in the day. It centered around commemorating the September 11, 2001 attack. After that, things get a little hazy.

According to a self-described communications “bureaucrat” who helped edit the Rice talking points, Obama was in the White House during the attack. The President was briefed initially in the Oval Office. After that, the bureaucrat couldn’t say where he was since the President wasn’t wearing a tracking device.

One place where the President wasn’t was in the White House Situation Room, at least according to our bureaucrat who was there. The Situation Room is a 5,000 square-foot complex located on the first floor of the West Wing.

It is staffed around the clock to monitor national and international intelligence feeds. It is equipped with televisions for secure video conferences and communications hardware linking the President with leaders abroad.

The President may not have been in the Situation Room, but he does know where it is. Three years ago, as a drone flying overhead sent a live video feed to the Room, Navy SEALS killed Osama bin Laden. The White House immediately released photos showing the President, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and others watching with rapt attention as the attack took place.

According to our bureaucrat, a live video feed from a drone overflying Benghazi was also shown in the Situation Room during that attack. Yet, despite repeated press requests for photos of the room at the time, the White House has effectively declined by ignoring them.

It is difficult to understand Obama’s absence from the one place that had accurate and timely information about the Benghazi attack. A U.S. Ambassador was missing in action. Stevens called Tripoli 20 minutes after the attack began, informing them of the assault and asking for help. He was last seen 25 minutes later. His body would not be located for almost 12 hours. What was so important that Obama could not drop by the Situation Room to see for himself if there were any updates on Stevens?

Obama’s specific whereabouts from mid-afternoon and later on September 11, 2012 may be a mystery, but we do know where he was the next day. He was in Las Vegas making a scheduled campaign speech in his bid for re-election. The fact that a U.S. Ambassador had been killed less than 24 hours earlier did not delay Air Force One even briefly. First things first.

We also know that the President was at Andrews Air Force Base on September 14 for a photo op when the caskets returned from Benghazi. That appearance is understandable enough. It was one of the few times that the tragedy conveniently meshed with Obama’s re-election effort.

Maybe President Obama avoided the Situation Room because they ran out of popcorn or he didn’t like the movie. Or maybe he preferred plausible deniability as in all he got were briefings that just weren’t that specific. Or, maybe he was there, which, if it were known, would make his Internet video spiel even more difficult to swallow.

Or maybe it’s just that the White House only wants to publicize the positive. Showing photos of disbelief and sorrow over the death and destruction of failed policies are nothing if not negative.