Posted on 12/31/2012 5:45:43 AM PST by Libloather
A new bipartisan report from the Senate Homeland Security Committee faults both the State Department and Pentagon for failing to adequately protect the Americans killed in the deadly September attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
The report, titled “Flashing Red,” comes after a critical independent State Department-ordered review, and widens the blame for the assault, which left four Americans dead, to the Pentagon and White House.
The Committee found that the State Department failed to appropriately assess and heighten security measures after intelligence showed that Americans stationed in Benghazi could be threatened by terror groups, according to reports from media groups which obtained an advance copy of the findings. The report will be released Monday.
While the committee report acknowledges that there was no specific intelligence pointing to an imminent attack, officials in Washington failed to take “effective steps” to protect the Benghazi facility and the diplomats there.
The report also blames the Pentagon, finding that the Defense Department (DOD) had failed to place adequate resources in the region to respond “in the event of a crisis.”
"Although DOD attempted to quickly mobilize its resources, it did not have assets or personnel close enough to reach Benghazi in a timely fashion," the report concludes.
The report is also harshly critical of the administration’s handling of the attack, finding the White House explanation in the days following the assault “inconsistent.”
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice initially blamed the attack on a spontaneous protest which spun out of control. While Rice later acknowledged that it was a planned terrorist attack, GOP anger over the claim led her to withdraw her name from consideration to replace Clinton during Obama’s second term.
The White House has said that Rice relied on intelligence “talking points” provided to her and never intended to mislead the public.
The Senate report criticizes intelligence agencies for removing a reference to al Qaeda from the notes provided to public officials and for changing the word “attacks” to “demonstrations.”
The report is likely to intensify congressional scrutiny of the White House’s handling of Benghazi.
Lawmakers have said they intend to continue their investigation into the deadly attack, and have pressed Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to testify on Capitol Hill.
Clinton was slated to speak at a hearing earlier this month but was forced to send two senior aides in her place after suffering a concussion during a fall.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.) and House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) have both said they expect Clinton to answer their questions.
On Sunday, Clinton was admitted to a hospital in New York after doctors discovered a blot clot stemming from her concussion.
Reports last week said some Republican senators were considering delaying the confirmation of Sen. Kerry, who has been nominated for Secretary of State, until Clinton testifies.
An independent panel report ordered by Clinton released its findings earlier this month, blaming “systemic failures and leadership and management deficiencies” at “senior levels” for the poor security the night of the attack.
The State Department said that three officials had subsequently resigned.
In an interview aired Sunday, President Obama said that he expected the department to implement the recommendations of the independent panel to prevent a repeat of Benghazi.
"My message to the State Department has been very simple, and that is we're going to solve this," said. Obama. "We're not going to be defensive about it. We're not going to pretend that this was not a problem. This was a huge problem.
Obama don’t care.
Back in the days when America had leaders as President, They would have accepted responsibility for what happened on their watch.
We now have a political hack who will throw several people below him under the bus and then expect everyone to move on..
There was no need for a “stand down” order, since the POTUS and only the POTUS can grant the required “cross border authority” to conduct a rescue with armed U.S. forces coming from outside of Libya. If Obama merely ignored military requests for CBA, the rescue is automatically stillborn.
No State Department officials resigned. All are on the payroll.
I would be happy to answer that question as soon as my treatment for a blood clot is over,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,hope that treatment doesnt diminish my rememberer cells.
This congress treats this situation like a parent treats a child that doesn't want to admit his punk kid DID do something wrong. In a few days it will be January 11 which is 4 months late. The general public is beginning to FORGET. That's what the Dem disgusting administration is counting on. ASK THE QUESTIONS, darn it!
The explanation that fits is that 0bama & Co. WANTED this attack to happen, and that it was planned WITH THE ATTACKERS.
The ambassador was supposed to be kidnapped,
a rescue operation enacted and succeeded,
and 0bama comes out as the hero.
When the Seals didn’t obey the stand down order,
it enraged the kidnappers because they had been “betrayed”,
so this is why they murdered and sodomized the ambassador.
What doesn’t fit with this explanation?
Only one person can give it.
The site locked up my computer.
Who do you suppose is responsible for both of them?????
“We now have a political hack who will throw several people below him under the bus and then expect everyone to move on..”
He’s not throwing them under the bus. He’s simply moving them to a different bus at the taxpayers expense.
Ding....we have a winner in the connect the dots game.
Now Hillary will be unable to testify about her role in Bengazigate due to loss of all memory involving that incident.
Move on. Nothing more to see.
Hillary Clinton hospitalized for blood clot
December 30, 2012 by DEON J. HAMPTON / deon.hampton@newsday.com
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivers remarks
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was admitted to a NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital facility in Manhattan Sunday night for a blood clot stemming from the concussion she sustained earlier this month, State Department officials said.
Where were Obama and Hillary during this time?
Funny how one of them, The IWON, says nothing and the other cannot say a word due to a mystery condition. I did not know one got blood clots from visiting Ft. Marcy Park.
Obama don’t care.
And the media don’t care...
Big deal. No one cares no one will be he’ll liable.
I believe Stevens was supposed to be held and released on the day Romney was sworn in, an October Surprise repeat, to set Hillary up to run against Romney in 2016.
You would have 4 years of “Romney collaborated with terrorist” which is exactly what was started against Bush when Hillary held up a newspaper proclaiming “Bush Knew”.
If you listen to Hillary's statements closely you will notice by the emphasis she places on words and phrases that she is pointing fingers at someone trying to make the Zippo adm. look bad.
Hillary is also the one that came up with the “spontaneous” lie.
It's not the first tome the “spontaneous” lie or something very smilier has been used. The first time was December 2005 - January of 2006 with the release of the UBL tape.
In both cases the idea was to make it appear as if the terrorist are so in tune with the news that the terrorist can pick up on a news story and plan an attack around the news story instead of the news being orchestrated for the attack.
With the news being orchestrated for the attacks you simply have to go back to the previous attacks and you will see it has been the Clinton's orchestrating the news before the attacks since the 1st WTC bombing.
I believe the underwear bomber before this attack, that turned out to be an agent, got the goods on the terrorist planning their attacks in coordination with the left ginning up civil unrest.
In other words the terrorist attacks are following the Weather underground playbook.
Orchestrate civil unrest and race riots then carry out terrorist attacks.
This is what Hillary calls the “Scorched Earth Policy”.
It seems the conservative or any fair media cannot bring themselves to mention “cross border authority”.
Why can’t they raise this issue other than to protect Obama?
other than the obvious attempt to build a fraudulent case for her “i don’t recall” testimony [if that ever happens], i’m wondering if Hillary is having some [a lot of] plastic surgery in preparation for her ascendancy to the now permanent democratic throne, the White House, in 2016?
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