At a campaign event today in Wisconsin, President Obama once again misled the country about the status of the terrorist group al Qaeda.
"Al Qaeda has been decimated," he said to the crowd.
This statement is simply not true.
Recently, "al Qaeda is on the run" was dropped from Obama's campaign trail stump speeches due to the fallout over the 9/11 attack in Benghazi which was carried out by al Qaeda terrorists. That move by the campaign doesn't change the fact that al Qaeda has not been "decimated" and is not "on the run" as President Obama suggested to the American people for months.
In Libya alone, al Qaeda has had a strong presence, especially in the Benghazi area, since the beginning of this year. Congressional testimony given by State Department officials both on the ground in Libya and in Washington revealed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and other officials repeatedly requested more security for the consulate in Benghazi and all of their requests were denied. In July, Stevens received a death threat from al Qaeda on Facebook and even sent a request for more security on 9/11, the day he was killed. While the State Department denied more security, they did increase the amount of "hardship" pay officials in Benghazi received.
Overall, al Qaeda has regained strength in many sensitive areas of the world. Some say al Qaeda is stronger than ever. More on that from Bloomberg:
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, he said, is using ransom money to expand its reach and influence, and as of earlier this year was expected to provide hundreds of thousands of dollars to other extremist groups in Africa.
Cohen said the two, as well as other terrorist groups in the Philippines, Pakistan and elsewhere use ransom money to help finance all their activities, “including recruiting and indoctrinating new members, paying salaries, establishing training camps, acquiring weapons and communications gear, staging deadly attacks,” and “helping to support the next generation of violent extremist groups.
Obama says al Qaeda has been "decimated" when it is politically convenient. It's too bad he wasn't willing to face the reality of al Qaeda getting stronger before four Americans were killed in Benghazi.