The Effort to Disappear Benghazi

[Valin]

Why does this idiot keep saying 'we ended the war in Iraq and Afghanistan'? We threw up our hands and quit. Left our allies to fend for themselves.

I put a lot of the blame on the Bush Administration. They did a horrible, terrible job of explaining the who, what why how of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Someone would write an Op-Ed, or go on the Sunday shows, then that would be it for a couple of weeks, then someone else would do the same a couple of months later. Meanwhile the opposition were out everyday. I was saying they should send men coming back (and I'm talking Grunts) out to talk on local tv shows, give speeches...spread the word as to what was really going on.

Very Frustrating!

[Valin]

Bin Laden Raid vs. Benghazi

The “most transparent administration in history”?

Jonathan Strong

5/23/13

 

Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes isn’t afraid to talk to the press. After the Navy SEAL raid in which Osama bin Laden died, he spoke to The New Yorker, Newsweek, the Washington Post, National Journal, and Vanity Fair — at least. He also helped coordinate access for the filmmakers of Zero Dark Thirty.

 

He recently cooperated with a New York Times profile of himself, and his mother, Jane Rhodes, answered questions for a GQ feature about him and his brother, CBS News President David Rhodes — the byline of which included Ben’s former White House colleague Reid Cherlin.

 

But when Fox News camped out on his doorstep to interview him about his role in scrubbing the infamous Benghazi talking points of key information about the attack, all they got was a shot walking into his apartment complex, his dry cleaning slung over his shoulder.

 

It’s a contrast that extends more broadly than just to Rhodes. Cataloguing public information about the bin Laden raid is a somewhat overwhelming task — there’s just so much of it. Meanwhile, almost nothing is known about President Obama’s actions on the night of the Benghazi attack. A top adviser dismissed the president’s location that night as a “largely irrelevant fact” on Fox News Sunday.

 

(Snip)

 

 

_____________________________________________________________________

 

It really is a mystery, the difference!

[Draggingtree]

Benghazi auditor will appear for congressional deposition on June 3

 

The co-author of the State Department's independent report on Benghazi has agreed to be deposed by congressional Republicans on June 3, the State Department said Thursday.

House oversight chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said Wednesday that he'd lifted his subpoena mandating Thomas Pickering's appearance after the retired diplomat “voluntarily” agreed to appear for a closed-door deposition with committee staff. But the State Department made it clear Thursday that Pickering still feels compelled to appear.

Well I would prefer an investigation rather than a audit but it is what it is

[Valin]

Just A Blast From The Past.

 

[Valin]

Washington Post blames Benghazigate on Petraeus

Paul Mirengoff

5/26/13

 

Washington Post reporters Karen DeYoung and Scott Wilson (prompted, undoubtedly, by Team Obama) find that David Petraeus is to blame for the trouble in which the administration finds itself over the Benghazi talking points. Its not exactly a case of blame the dead guy more like blame the unfaithful guy, even if he is an American hero.

 

In the Posts telling, Petraeus drafted talking points that exceeded the scope of what the House Intelligence Committee asked for. Thus, the talking points had to be changed, and that led to Benghazigate.

 

Team Obamas defense has thus come full circle. As Totus Porcus at Ricochet notes, originally David Petraeus was to blame for the administrations misstatements about Benghazi because the administration relied on information the intelligence community provided. Now that this story has fallen apart Susan Rice and company didnt use what Petraeus provided Petraeus is to blame for not writing the kind of talking points he was asked to.

 

(Snip)

 

 

 

Team Obamas attempts to shift blame to David Petraeus arent the worst part of the Benghazi scandal. Indeed, it runs well behind (1) the administrations failure to heed warnings to beef up security at our facilities in Libya; (2) the fact that Obama apparently took a powder on the night of the crisis; (3) the subsequent cover-up, including the scrubbing of the talking points and the invention of the video as the motive for the attacks, (4) the subsequent mistreatment of whistleblowers, and (5) the failure of the administration so far to move against individuals it knows participated in attacking our facilities.

 

(Snip)

 

Ricochet Comments

Severely Ltd.

 

I hope this stokes Petraeus's anger to the point that he explodes. I 'd like to see information and reputations strewn everywhere.

[Valin]

The Other Benghazi Scandal

Did we really do all we could have to respond to the attack?

TOD LINDBERG

6/3/13

 

The complexity of Washington scandals as they unfold usually involves many moments at which it is possible to lose sight of the forest for the trees. Two such instances have come into sharper relief in recent weeks. One is that we still have no good explanation for U.N. ambassador Susan Rice’s talking points for her round of talk show appearances the Sunday after the 9/11/12 attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi. A second is that focusing on the question of whether the loss of four lives there could have been avoided is actually a clever diversion from a serious inquiry into the adequacy of the response to the crisis as it unfolded.

 

(Snip)

 

 

From the hundred pages of redacted email printouts the administration finally released, however, it looks like we do now know of a document that might hold some answers, though we do not yet know its contents. Someone with the United States U.N. mission sent Rice and her deputy an email at 1:23 p.m. on Saturday, September 15, the day before she made the rounds of the Sunday shows, with the subject line “SBU[sensitive But Unclassified]/CLOSEHOLD: 0800 SVTS [secure Video Teleconferencing System] on Movie Protests/Violence.” The content of the email, redacted from the beginning for more than a page, then shows a one-word heading “Libya:” followed by another redacted passage and then a paragraph concerning the origin of the request for talking points, which came from the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. But the subject line suggests that Rice was being briefed that morning on the connection between the movie trailer and “Protests/Violence” in Libya and elsewhere.

 

(Snip)

 

 

Pentagon officials have claimed that it would have taken as long as 20 hours to get available forces in Italy to the scene. Therefore, it was too late. That would be reassuring only if somebody had actually made a decision by 11 p.m. Libyan time on September 11 to send them. Otherwise, the claim it was too late is completely hollow, since no one knew when too late was at that point.

 

(Snip)

 

 

__________________________________________________________________________

 

20 hours to launch 2 fighters (you always have a wingman) and a tanker? 20 bleeping hours! I'm sorry one of two things is happening with this line

A. Someone is pissing on my leg and telling me its raining

or

B. Houston we have a real problem!

 

I'm not buying it takes 20 hours to load up 2 fighters and a tanker and fly them 800 miles. I'm not even renting that!!! I may have been born at night...but it wasn't last night. Someone screwed the pooch...and I want their head

[NCTexan]

I'm not buying it takes 20 hours to load up 2 fighters and a tanker and fly them 800 miles. I'm not even renting that!!!

 

@Valin You seem to be a bit more skeptical than the average "Low Information Voter" that Rush often mentions.

 

Maybe you should seek help for your "trust issues".

 

There are some great "trust/confidence" exercises to help you deal with those issues.

 

[Valin]

 

I'm not buying it takes 20 hours to load up 2 fighters and a tanker and fly them 800 miles. I'm not even renting that!!!

@Valin You seem to be a bit more skeptical than the average "Low Information Voter" that Rush often mentions.

 

Maybe you should seek help for your "trust issues".

 

There are some great "trust/confidence" exercises to help you deal with those issues.

 

 

 

[Valin]

Issa Slaps State Department With Subpoena for Benghazi Documents

Eliana Johnson

May 28, 2013

 

House Oversight Committee chairman Darrell Issa today issued a subpoena to secretary of state John Kerry, requesting that he turn over all documents and communications relating to the Benghazi talking points, including those belonging to Cheryl Mills, Hillary Clinton’s chief of staff at the time.

 

In a letter to Kerry, Issa said that the e-mails released by the White House in mid May did not indicate who at Foggy Botton aside from former State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland had expressed reservations about various aspects of the original talking points written by the intelligence community, “including language that made clear the State Department that had received prior warnings of threats in the region and was aware of previous attacks on foreign intersts in eastern Libya, and that extremists linked to al Qa’ida may have participated in the attacks.”

 

The State Department has thus far refused to turn over the documents voluntarily and, according to Issa, the materials are key to understanding why State Department leadership had reservations about acknowledging that extremists were involved in the attack that left four Americans dead.

 

(Snip)

[Rheo]

Officials instructed Benghazi hospital to list Stevens as "John Doe"

By Sharyl Attkisson /CBS News/ May 30, 2013, 4:54 PM

 

U.S. officials gave instructions for Benghazi Medical Center to use a "John Doe" pseudonym on the death certificate of Ambassador Christopher Stevens after he died of asphyxiation in the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attacks on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya. That's according to a U.S. official speaking on condition of anonymity because the official isn't authorized to speak publicly on the matter. The reason for the pseudonym, says the official, was to avoid drawing undue attention to the importance of the victim as Americans rushed to figure out how to recover Stevens' body and return it to the U.S.

 

The official provided the most complete accounting yet of Stevens' whereabouts and passing in the eight and a half months since his death.

 

According to the official, U.S. officials aren't certain to this day whether Stevens was still alive when local Libyans made cell phone video recordings of his body being carried or dragged from the U.S. mission, possibly by looters. And they still don't know exactly who transported him to the Benghazi Medical Center where they say medical personnel attempted resuscitation, unsuccessfully, for about 40 minutes (90 minutes, according to published accounts from a Libyan doctor). When pieced together with previously provided information, this is how the search for Stevens is said to have unfolded, according to the official:

[Valin]

Officials instructed Benghazi hospital to list Stevens as "John Doe"

By Sharyl Attkisson /CBS News/ May 30, 2013, 4:54 PM

Latest Fox Benghazi Conspiracy Crumbles

ANDREW LAWRENCE

 

Media Mutters: Fox News is attempting to revive the manufactured Benghazi scandal by highlighting a new report that U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens was labeled a "John Doe" when checked into a Libyan hospital following the September 11, 2012, attack on U.S. diplomatic facilities in Benghazi. While some on the right have described hiding Stevens' identity as "simple" and "common sense," Fox News claims that the decision is further proof of a Benghazi cover-up.

 

(Snip)

 

 

It's all a Faux News Plot!!!

[Valin]

House chairman subpoenas documents on Benghazi

5/31/13

 

WASHINGTON (AP) — The chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee issued subpoenas on Tuesday for State Department documents related to the widely debunked talking points about the cause of the deadly attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, last year.

 

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., is pressing for material from 10 current and former department officials, including several who had worked for former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. He gave the department until June 7 to comply.

 

"The State Department has not lived up to the administration's broad and unambiguous promises of cooperation with Congress. Therefore, I am left with no alternative but to compel the State Department to produce relevant documents through a subpoena," Issa said in a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry.

 

(Snip)

[Valin]

Why is the Benghazi military story still classified?

Byron York

June 1, 2013

 

 

(Snip)

 

 

The second part of the answer was very specific to Benghazi. Why wasnt the U.S. government more prepared for what happened? For years now, the government has taken care to be especially ready for action on the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Did the Obama administration let down its guard on a particularly dangerous day?

 

The question is particularly important to Congress because on Sept. 10, 2012, the day before the Benghazi attack, the Obama White House released a statement claiming that the government would be particularly prepared for trouble the next day. Here is that Sept. 10 statement:

 

 

Earlier today the President heard from key national security principals on our preparedness and security posture on the eve of the eleventh anniversary of September 11th. Over the past month, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism John Brennan has convened numerous meetings to review security measures in place. During the briefing today, the President and the Principals discussed specific measures we are taking in the Homeland to prevent 9/11 related attacks as well as the steps taken to protect U.S. persons and facilities abroad, as well as force protection. The President reiterated that Departments and agencies must do everything possible to protect the American people, both at home and abroad.

(Snip)

___________________________________________________________

 

Well I certainly am....relieved to see Obama and his Crack team were on the job!

[SrWoodchuck]

Why is the Benghazi military story still classified?

Byron York

June 1, 2013

 

 

(Snip)

 

 

The second part of the answer was very specific to Benghazi. Why wasnt the U.S. government more prepared for what happened? For years now, the government has taken care to be especially ready for action on the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Did the Obama administration let down its guard on a particularly dangerous day?

 

The question is particularly important to Congress because on Sept. 10, 2012, the day before the Benghazi attack, the Obama White House released a statement claiming that the government would be particularly prepared for trouble the next day. Here is that Sept. 10 statement:

 

 

Earlier today the President heard from key national security principals on our preparedness and security posture on the eve of the eleventh anniversary of September 11th. Over the past month, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism John Brennan has convened numerous meetings to review security measures in place. During the briefing today, the President and the Principals discussed specific measures we are taking in the Homeland to prevent 9/11 related attacks as well as the steps taken to protect U.S. persons and facilities abroad, as well as force protection. The President reiterated that Departments and agencies must do everything possible to protect the American people, both at home and abroad.

(Snip)

___________________________________________________________

 

Well I certainly am....relieved to see Obama and his Crack team were on the job!

 

They were on Crack.....well that explains a lot.......

[Draggingtree]

Barack Obama unilaterally tries to recuse Susan Rice from #Benghazi testimony.

By: Moe Lane (Diary) | June 6th, 2013 at 11:00 AM

 

Via Ed Driscoll comes something I hadn’t considered: Susan Rice as National Security Advisor means that Barack Obama thinks that he can claim executive privilege to keep her from testifying.

 

A Google News search on ["Susan Rice" "executive privilege"] (typed exactly as indicated between brackets) returns two stories. The main one is at Fox News, where K.T. McFarland pointed out that President Obama, now that he has appointed Susan Rice to be his National Security Adviser, can invoke executive privilege to keep her from testifying before Congress. The second is at Mediate, and notes that McFarland said the same thing to Fox News Channel anchor Martha MacCallum earlier today.

 

So I think that we have established here that the President is hiding something about Benghazi; we’re now just trying to figure out what Barack Obama is hiding*.

 

Although… it may simply be that Barack Obama is engaged in running out the clock.

http://www.redstate.com/2013/06/06/barack-obama-executive-privilege-susan-rice-benghazi/

[Casino67]

I think some here came to the conclusion that Susan is being protected. Benghazi is not going away and one day, soon hopefully, the truth will out and some folks will be held accountable. They can run, but they cannot hide.

[Draggingtree]

Egypt's Morsi Connected to Assault
on US Embassy in Benghazi

FrontPageMag.com

The terrorist attack in Benghazi is far more disturbing than previously thought. Although it has not been reported in the US media, the possibility exists that the Egyptian government may have played an operational role in the attack.

raise a serious problem that only an Arabic speaker would detect: some of the terrorists are speaking in the Egyptian dialect of the Arabic language.

Indeed, one of the videos shot with a cell phone of one of the attackers emerged around the time four Americans were killed. It shows a mob approaching the American compound under siege, clearly telling the terrorists in the dialect of Upper Egypt: "Mahadesh, mahadesh yermi, Dr. Morsi ba`atna" -- which translates to: "Don't shoot, don't shoot, Dr. Morsi sent us."

The words "Mahadesh yermi" for "don't shoot" are characteristically spoken in Egyptian Arabic, while Libyans from Benghazi would say, "Matermey" for "don't shoot."

 

Egyptian regime's connection to Benghazi also helps explain why it denied US the ability to interrogate Abo Ahmed http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/9556

[Draggingtree]

YouTube videos of the terrorist strike

[Draggingtree]

Benghazi, Russia and Syria…Why Obama, Clinton and Biden are ALL Unqualified to Lead

Posted on June 7, 2013 by Larry Kelley

What Difference Does it Make?

Perhaps Hillary Clinton’s now famous outburst, made during her testimony before congress, will do more to end her political career than all her lies and blunders as our Secretary of State combined. One can only hope. Among her serial lies, she asserted that she was unaware that requests for greater security at our Libyan installations were denied by her State Department, while in actuality

[Valin]

For What Its Worth.....

CBS: Benghazi: Majority thinks administration is hiding something

Poll analysis by Sarah Dutton, Jennifer De Pinto, Anthony Salvanto, and Fred Backus

6/6/13

 

Amid investigations into the terrorist attacks on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, a majority of Americans - including more than three in four Republicans (77 percent) and six in 10 independents (59 percent) - think the Obama administration is mostly hiding something on the issue of Benghazi. A majority of Democrats (59 percent) think the Obama administration is mostly telling the truth.

 

But most Americans (57 percent) also think the Republicans in Congress have been critical of the Obama administration's handling of the Benghazi attack mainly for political reasons - including eight in 10 Democrats (81 percent) and most independents (57 percent). Most Republicans (59 percent) think that Republicans in Congress have been critical because they want to find out what really happened.

 

 

A majority of Americans (59 percent) say they are following news about the investigations into the Obama administration's handling of the attacks in Benghazi at least somewhat closely, including a quarter who are following it very closely - though Republicans and independents are following the issue more closely than Democrats.

 

(Snip)

[Valin]

Report: Inadequate Security at "Decrepit" US Embassy...in Beirut

Guy Benson

Jun 07, 2013

 

Echoes of pre-attack Benghazi. What could go wrong? The Washington Guardian reports:

The State Department is failing to adequately protect U.S. diplomats in Beirut, leaving them without necessary counterterrorism training and serving in a decrepit, aged embassy compound that fails to meet security protocols, according to an internal investigation that raises new questions about the Obama administration's commitment to protecting Americans overseas in the aftermath of the Benghazi tragedy. In fact, the department did not place Beirut on its latest list of high-threat diplomatic missions even though Lebanon is listed at the "critical" threat level for potential violence with its frequent rocket attacks, spillovers from the Syrian civil war and heavy presence of the terror group Hezbollah, the agency's inspector general said in a report reviewed by the Washington Guardian. Beirut was also the site of one of America's deadliest terror attacks, the 1983 bombing of a Marine barracks that killed more than 240 servicemembers...

 

Diplomats face serious threats while working at the 18-acre “cramped, aged and difficult to maintain office" located on a "steep and hilly compound” located 20 minutes from downtown Beirut, the report said. And their superiors back home in Washington seem unaware of the threat level, failing to harden weak physical security or provide needed counterterrorism training, the inspector general observed. The risks remain high as the civil war in Syria continues to threaten the stability of Lebanon due to the influx of more than 325,000 refugees, and tensions with Hezbollah remain high with frequent rocket attacks and other skirmishes.

The State Department hasn't seen fit to classify its top diplomatic outpost in a Middle Eastern nation in the thrall of Hezbollah, with a brutal civil war raging next door, as "high risk." Worse, our embassy compound there failed to meet basic security protocols........(Snip)

[Draggingtree]

WAS EGYPT BEHIND BENGHAZI?

 

Posted on June 9, 2013 by Steven Ahle

 

The Obama administration is no closer to assigning blame for Benghazi (other than to Bush and the sequester) than they were on the day of the attacks. But by piecing together bits and pieces of information, we can make some logical guesses. We know that some Al Qaeda militants were involved, but whose idea was it? Early on a theory emerged that the attack was actually a plot to kidnap Stevens and trade him for the blind sheik, Omar Abdel-Rahman. Coincidentally, the attack came at the same time as the attack on Benghazi.

After the attack, there were reports that Egyptian fighters had crossed into Libya the two weeks prior to the attack. It has also been reported that http://dcclothesline.com/2013/06/09/egypt-behind-benghazi-steven-ahle/#more-9604

[Draggingtree]

Extortion 17: A Bridge to Benghazi

 

Posted on June 10, 2013 by Dr. Sharon Schuetz

 

A lot of people believe Joe Biden is responsible for the deaths of the SEAL Team 6 members who killed Osama Bin Laden. On May 3, 2011, two days after that raid, Biden publicly identified them to the Atlantic Council, at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Washington D.C. In a brazen, public act of treachery he said:

 

“Let me briefly acknowledge tonight’s distinguished honorees: Adm. Jim Stavridis is the real deal; he could tell you more about and understands the incredible, the phenomenal, the just almost unbelievable capacity of his Navy SEALS and what they did last — last Sunday.”

 

What Joe Biden did was a huge breach of trust that caused the death of some of our bravest American heroes. Unfortunately, he has not been held accountable. Why would he “out” SEAL Team 6 to the world, knowing that he was signing their death warrants? Was it on purpose or was it just one of his blunders? If it was only a “slip of the tongue”, then he actually must be as stupid as he appears in public, and he should be removed from office and face criminal charges. If it was for a more nefarious reason, he should be impeached, trialed, and imprisoned. Either way, like every other crime perpetrated in Washington D.C., he will get a pass on this. http://dcclothesline.com/2013/06/10/extortion-17-a-bridge-to-benghazi/#more-9700

[pollyannaish]

I have to admit that this White house has the most fascinating crisis management strategy I've ever seen!

 

Release info about so many scandals all at once no one knows what too look at first and they all just fade away. Outrage overload.

 

Benghazi is still important.

[Valin]

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