Tag Archives: Hillary Clinton

#BENGHAZI: ‘At best a misinformation campaign, at worst a coverup’ (Updates)

Posted on May 6, 2013 by

Bombshells abound. Darrell Issa hit Face The Nation with Bob Schieffer this weekend with a look at some of the testimony to be given by three witnesses on Benghazi.

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Key Articles and Reactions:

Sharyl Attkisson:

Hicks was number two to Ambassador Christopher Stevens, who was killed in the attacks. With Stevens in Benghazi on September 11, Hicks was the top Foreign Service official at the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli. When the first U.S. compound in Benghazi fell under attack, Hicks reportedly took the frantic call.

“Greg, we are under attack,” Ambassador Stevens told Hicks on the phone. Those were the last words he heard from Stevens.

According to Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., who appeared Sunday on “Face the Nation,” Hicks recently testified privately to the House Oversight Committee: “I never reported a demonstration. I reported an attack on the consulate…I thought it was a terrorist attack from the get-go. I think everyone in the mission thought it was a terrorist attack from the beginning.”

There’s more, there were calls for help and for reinforcements from the ground and they were told ‘no’:

Throughout the night, sources say Americans on the ground in Libya at times felt helpless and abandoned.

“We relied on Washington for dispassionate assessment,” one eyewitness told CBS News. “Instead, they [Washington officials] were asking us what help we needed. We answered: ‘Send reinforcements!’ ”

But they were told immediate help wasn’t available.

Embassy personnel say they repeatedly asked the Defense Attache on site in Tripoli for military assistance.

“Isn’t there anything available?” one Embassy official says he asked. “But the answer was ‘no.’”

“What about Aviano?” the official pressed, referencing the NATO air base with US assets in northeastern Italy. “No,” was the answer.

Two of the four Americans killed that night died hours after the first attack began.

Plus, assistance and input by the experts who should have been involved was blocked by senior officials of the Obama administration:

Another witness for Wednesday’s hearing, Mark Thompson, is a counterterrorism expert. He’s likely to address another sore spot surrounding the night of the attacks: the fact that the Obama Administration did not convene its top interagency counterterrorism resource, the Counterterrorism Security Group (CSG). According to Rep. Issa, Thompson will testify that he was locked out of the process “even though he was the individual who was supposed to react to these kinds of things.”

Counterterrorism sources and internal emails reviewed by CBS News express frustration that key responders were ready to deploy, but were not called upon to help in the attack. National Security Council Spokesman Tommy Vietor told CBS News the CSG was not needed.

“From the moment the president was briefed on the Benghazi attack, the response effort was handled by the most senior national security officials in governments. Members of the CSG were of course involved in these meetings and discussions to support their bosses,” said Vietor.

“The CSG is the one group that’s supposed to know what resources every agency has. They know of multiple options and have the ability to coordinate counterterrorism assets across all the agencies,” a high-ranking government official told CBS News. “They were not allowed to do their job. They were not called upon.”

Absent coordination from Counterterrorism Security Group, a senior U.S. counterterrorism official says the response to the crisis became more confused. “The response process was isolated at the most senior level,” says an official referring to top officials in the executive branch. “My fellow counterterrorism professionals and I (were) not consulted.”

This administration left them there to die while they fought over talking points to keep up appearances that ‘Al Qaeda is dead’. Read the whole thing.

Flashback: Obama has touted Al Qaeda is dead 32 times since Benghazi Continue reading →

Posted in 9/11, jihad, Obama, Scandals, Terrorism, The Articles | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

#BENGHAZI: Interim Progress Report Published; Clinton Lied.

Posted on April 23, 2013 by

The Interim Progress report on the attacks in Benghazi on September 11, 2012 was published today. You can read the full report via The Hill. The write up of the report by The Hill hits the nail on the head in the title, GOP Benghazi Report Blames Clinton.

The 46-page report accused Clinton — a possible White House contender in 2016 — of seeking to cover up failures by the State Department that could have contributed to the attack last year that killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans.

The report, compiled by five House panels after a seven-month investigation, said Clinton approved reductions in security levels prior to the Sept. 11, 2012, attack, contradicting Clinton’s testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Jan. 23.

“Senior State Department officials knew that the threat environment in Benghazi was high and that the Benghazi compound was vulnerable and unable to withstand an attack, yet the Department continued to systematically withdraw security personnel,” the report states.

“Repeated requests for additional security were denied at the highest levels of the State Department,” it said. “For example, an April 2012 State Department cable bearing Secretary Hillary Clinton’s signature acknowledged then-Ambassador [Gene] Cretz’s formal request for additional security assets but ordered the withdrawal of security elements to proceed as planned.”

There’s more, read the whole thing.

Maggie’s Notebook cuts to the chase, highlighting Hillary Clinton indeed did see the cables requesting more security and that it would appear she lied in her testimony about them.

One of the huge questions, among so many huge questions, has been why Benghazi did not have sufficient security after specifically requesting more at least several times. Now we know the answer. Secretary of Hillary Clinton not only saw the request from Benghazi, she signed the request and then denied it. My second question is who, if anyone, told former SEALs Woods and Dohoerty to “stand down.” If it’s there, I missed it. I outlined some things from the report that I found especially interesting. Read the report in full here.

PULLOUT QUOTE:

PAGE 7: However, in a cable signed by Secretary Clinton in April 2012, the State Department settled on a plan to scale back security assets for the U.S. Mission in Libya, including Benghazi

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

An ongoing Congressional investigation across five House Committees concerning the events surrounding the September 11, 2012, terrorist attacks on U.S. facilities in Benghazi, Libya has made several determinations to date, including:

● Reductions of security levels prior to the attacks in Benghazi were approved at the highest levels of the State Department, up to and including highest levels of the State Department, up to and including Secretary Clinton. This fact contradicts her testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on January 23, 2013.

 ● In the days following the attacks, White House and senior State Department officials altered accurate talking points drafted by the Intelligence Community in order to protect the State Department.

● Contrary to Administration rhetoric, the talking points were not edited to protect classified information. Concern for classified information is never mentioned in email traffic among senior Administration officials.

These preliminary findings illustrate the need for continued examination and oversight by the five House Committees. The Committees will continue to review who exactly was responsible for the failure to respond to the repeated requests for more security and for the effort to cover up the nature of the attacks, so that appropriate officials will be held accountable.

Maggie does a very thorough run down of the report and of prior related testimony and timelines. Clinton also tried to blame funding for the lack of security, an item that was debunked in the beginning and re-iterated in the report. Read the whole article.

Clinton’s full testimony; relevant testimony to the cables roughly begins at the 1:35:30 mark:

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But… what difference does it make?

It makes a big difference. Continue reading →

Posted in 9/11, Obama, Scandals, Terrorism, The Articles | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

#BENGHAZI: Hacker Intercepts Clinton-Blumenthal Emails

Posted on March 20, 2013 by

A hacker going by the name ‘Guccifer’ has intercepted emails from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to a former Clinton administration assistant, Sidney Blumenthal; some pertaining to the attack in Benghazi. Let’s set aside that Blumenthal holds no official office and that Clinton was discussing this with him rather than with someone who should be involved, like perhaps Leon Panetta or the President, and focus on the zeroing in on the YouTube video.

Breitbart reports:

Russia Today has released excerpts of what are said to be highly sensitive emails sent from a former Clinton administration staffer to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton following the September attacks on the consulate in Benghazi, obtained this week by a hacker known as “Guccifer.”

“Guccifer” claims to have obtained the emails by compromising the AOL account of Sidney Blumenthal, a former assistant to President Bill Clinton. If authentic, the emails appear to contain information about the Benghazi attack, and were leaked by the hacker to a number of select news outlets and other individuals, including many members of Congress.

The Breitbart piece links to the Russia Today article, that contains this paragraph:

According to the Blumenthal memos, though, even the US secretary of state was being fed disinformation directly after the attack. In the email dated Sept. 12, Sec. Clinton is told that the anti-Islamic film was likely the catalyst for the assault.

“A senior security officer told [interim Libyan President Mohammed Yussef] el Magariaf that the attacks on that day were inspired by what many devout Libyans viewed as a sacrilegious internet video on the prophet Mohammed originating in America,” the memo reads. “The Libya attacks were also inspired by and linked to an attack on the US mission in Egypt on the same day.”

Elsewhere in the first memo, Blumenthal tells Clinton that another source had even more to say about the assault:

“According to a separate sensitive source, el Magariaf noted that his opponents had often tried to connect him to the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) through the National Front for the Salvation of Libya (NFSL), a group established in opposition to former dictator Muammar al-Gaddafi, which el Magariaf led in the 1980s. In the opinion of this individual el Magariaf believes that he can survive potential negative publicity in this regard, but if this situation continues to develop in this manner it will complicate his efforts to establish an orderly administration in the country. Again, he stated that the attacks on the US missions were as much a result of the atmosphere created by this campaign, as the controversial video.”

We’re back to the obscure YouTube video as an excuse for ignoring multiple warnings, including several from Ambassador Stevens, in the days prior to the attack. This ‘source’ Blumenthal was talking to was clearly not correct, as we see the quote below regarding being warned about a pre-planned attack. Continue reading →

Posted in 9/11, Foreign Affairs, jihad, Obama, The Articles | Tagged , , ,

#BENGHAZI: Obama Did Nothing

Posted on February 15, 2013 by

I recently reported Panetta’s incredible statement that the President was not around during the night of the Benghazi attack. Now, it’s confirmed. The night four Americans were murdered at the hands of terrorists in Benghazi, President Obama was not involved. No calls were made by him nor did any instructions come from him as an over 8 hour engagement raged at our consulate. Was he just too busy getting some shut-eye so he could jet off to Vegas the next day?

Utter dereliction of duty:

President Obama didn’t make any phone calls the night of the Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, the White House said in a letter to Congress released Thursday.

“During the entire attack, the president of the United States never picked up the phone to put the weight of his office in the mix,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, South Carolina Republican, who had held up Mr. Obama’s defense secretary nominee to force the information to be released.

Also:

“We still don’t know what the president of the United States was doing the night of the attack and who he was talking to. We know who he wasn’t talking to,” Mr. McCain said.

(Source: Washington Times)

More deck chair shuffling.

So now we are to believe that the Commander-in-Chief was briefed and then just went missing while Americans fought for their lives abroad? Remember, this past Fall this administration made the claim that the President not participating in the ongoing Benghazi investigation. This disinterest and lack of participation easily can be viewed as the first step in protecting the President from future fallout. That begs the question: Is this recent declaration a move to further insulate the President from coming revelations by removing him from the equation completely? It would certainly seem so. If this was a Republican President who just admitted this, we’d already be gearing up for impeachment.

Gross negligence or willfully dismissing the events – to borrow from Mrs. Clinton, “What difference does it make?” No matter how you try to put this one in context, the President was AWOL from his primary job: defending Americans and their interests.

We are pretty sure at this point that Ambassador Stevens was involved in the running of guns and weapons to Syria; some with the assistance of the Turkey. This scenario is a likely tie in with the White House now standing firm that the President had nothing to do with what happened on 9/11 in Benghazi.

More from NiceDeb: Senator Graham: “Benghazi Was About Breakdown of Security, Failure of Leadership, and a Prez Who Was Virtually Disengaged” (Video)

U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) held a press conference, today, to make a statement in response to Obama’s letter acknowledging he did not call anyone in Libya on September 11, 2012 during the 8 hours the U.S. mission was under attack. He didn’t pick up the phone to call any government officials in Libya until Sept. 12, after everyone was dead.

If it were not for the three of us and other colleagues, you would still believe – the American people would still believe that this was a spontaneous event caused by a hateful video, Graham told reporters. “That’s what was being told by Susan Rice five days after the attack, that’s what was being said by the POTUS for weeks. The reason we know that’s not true, is because we dug, and we pushed, and we prodded. And now we know, that during the entire attack, POTUS never picked up the phone to put the weight of his office into the mix, and there’s no stronger voice in the world than the President of the United States.”

Video via NiceDeb:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=hYA9MJ2MpUc]

“The record needs to be clear”, Graham continued, “this was not about a hateful video, it was about a breakdown of national security, it was about an ambassador who was begging the State Dept. to send reinforcements for months, this was about a deteriorating security situation, this is about a attack you could see coming, this is about a complete failure of leadership Sec of Defense never talked to the Sec of State, and a President who as far as we know was virtually disengaged.”

He concluded, “America needs to learn what happened, and we need to learn from our mistakes.”

Yes, we do need to know what happened — with the White House confirming this President,in essence, blew off his job, the time to request an independent counsel has come.

Still more from Politico:

President Barack Obama did not speak with Libyan leaders as the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi was under way last September, the White House acknowleged Thursday in a letter to lawmakers.

White House Counsel Kathy Ruemmler said then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did reach out to Libyan President Mohamed Magariaf at Obama’s request on the same day the attack began, but Obama didn’t personally call the Libyan leader until the following night.

“Secretary Clinton called Libyan President Magariaf on behalf of the president on the evening of September 11, 2012 to coordinate additional support to protect Americans in Libya and access to Libyan territory. At that time, President Magariaf expressed his condemnation and condolences and pledged his government’s full cooperation,” Ruemmler wrote. “The President spoke to President Magariaf on the evening of September 12.”

The big story here is that our President was absent as an act of war was committed but the other big story here is that, according to this letter, Hillary Clinton was the only one on record having communicated with Libyan officials. Now that she’s gone, the narrative is being steered her way. Convenient.

Flashback to Obama on Responsibility:

Obama did not provide a direct answer, but said: “When I say that we are going to find out exactly what happened, everybody will be held accountable, and I am ultimately responsible for what’s taking place there, because these are my folks, and I’m the one who has to greet those coffins when they come home, you know that I mean what I say.” (Source: FOX)

The buck stops here…or in my bed or Vegas. Whatever.

In an interview that aired today, President Obama said that “if we find out that there was a big breakdown and somebody didn’t do their job” regarding the attack on the U.S. outposts in Benghazi, Libya, “then they’ll be held responsible.” (Source: ABC)

Well, funny he should say that since HE was the one not doing his job.

Small wonder we have no photos from the situation room that night. According to the White House, he wasn’t even there. This confirmation of his absence makes his junkyard dog act at the press conference where he defended Susan Rice all the more insulting. The President stood in the room and defended a woman he sent out to lie to the American people, but the lie about the YouTube video wasn’t the only lie. She was out there distracting from the fact he was nowhere to be found during the attack.

Flashback: Obama the next day… (Transcript here.)

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…and then he jetted off to Vegas.

More from LL1885 on Benghazi here and here. Continue reading →

Posted in 9/11, CIA, Foreign Affairs, Obama, The Articles | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments