Posted on 01/23/2014 10:14:17 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
Senate Intelligence Committee members did not include important testimony from Benghazi whistleblower Gregory Hicks about security at the U.S. mission in their final report, which had the effect of blaming the fallen ambassador and protecting a top State Department official from responsibility for the attack.
"I was interviewed by the Select Committee and its staff, who were professional and thorough. I explained this sequence of events," Hicks (who worked with the late U.S. Ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, in the lead-up to the attack) explained in a Wall Street Journal op-ed published Thursday. "For some reason, my explanation did not make it into the Senate report."
Hicks' narrative contradicts the Senate report's finding that Stevens "declined" to have 30 special forces operators protect his team, rather than the nine present in Tripoli and Benghazi when the Sept. 11, 2012, terrorist attack took place. The decision to reduce the security was made against Stevens' wishes by Undersecretary of State Patrick Kennedy, according to Hicks.
"Because Mr. Kennedy had refused to extend the special forces security mission, State Department protocol required Chris to decline Gen. [Carter] Ham's two offers to do so, which were made after Aug. 6," Hicks wrote.
Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., said Hicks' indictment of the Senate report demonstrates the need for a select committee to investigate the Benghazi attack, as opposed to the current system that has different congressional committees, with various areas of jurisdiction, investigating the aspects of the attack that fall within their bailiwick.
"Perhaps, if we had such a Select Committee, the recent Senate report would have better represented Mr. Hicks' testimony about the administration's failure to provide adequate security in Benghazi, rather than forcing him to pen an op-ed to correct the record," Wolf wrote in a Thursday letter to House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.
Boehner has rebuffed Wolf's previous requests for a select committee, according to Wolf's press secretary, Jill Shatzen, who explained that Boehner has maintained a preference for allowing the five House committees to work.
"Look at the discrepancies between the House interim report last April and the Senate report released this month," Wolf urged Boehner in the letter. "The Senate report -- released by Democrat Chairman Dianne Feinstein -- raised key new issues and findings that the House committees have never shared before. Why? And speaking of the House's nearly year-old 'interim progress report,' when will the final report of the committees be published, if ever?"
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has blocked all efforts to have the Senate participate in such a select committee process, but Wolf would at least like to see a bipartisan House select committee investigate the attack.
“You know me well enough to know that my persistence in pursuing answers isn't about politics or a vendetta, it's about the Legislative Branch conducting its most basic responsibility: strong oversight,” Wolf wrote. “To date, we can't honestly say we've fulfilled this Constitutional responsibility with regard to Benghazi.”
Where is the “intelligence” in LYING to the American people?
Where is the Honor in letting an Ambassador be gang-raped
for an arms transfer to al Qaeda AND THEN COVERING IT UP?
The EXEMPT US Senate is hated by the American people
for some clear reasons. And this ... is but one.
This is a perfect 10
Hillary is really ducking...Bubba is silent!!
Sure...Blame the dead guy!!
Boner takes more than a small share of the blame for this. He simply refuses to do his job.
So, Patrick Kennedy made the decision to refuse more protection to the ambassador? But, but, surely Patrick Kennedy is a foreign policy genius, straight from the Land of Camelot! Why else would Obama have given him such an important job?
There is no intelligence in the Senate except Cruz, Lee, & Paul.
You would think; and that’s exactly why it won’t happen. I guarantee Republicans will run a losing campaign with mostly rino’s and none of the barrels of ammo they have will be used. Instead they will eat their own and push for amnesty giving the dems and Obama everything they desire.
I wish this wasn’t the case.
Nothing can be allowed to cloud Hillay’s campaign. The wheels have been put into motion.
Priorities USA, the country’s largest liberal super-PAC, has started to raise money for Hillary Clinton’s potential presidential bid in 2016, The New York Times reports.
President Obama’s 2012 campaign manager, Jim Messina, has been named co-chairman of the political action committee, according to the Times. Former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D) will also help lead the operation.
“I think the numbers clearly show that she’s the strongest presidential candidate on the Democratic side,” Messina told the Times. “And Priorities is going to be there for her if she decides to run.”
Messina’s move had been expected for a while after The Washington Post and Buzzfeed reported in November that he had been in talks with Priorities.
The Times says Messina declined to say whether he had informed Obama and Vice President Biden about his new position. Biden is considered another potential contender in the Democratic race, and could challenge Clinton.
John Podesta had also been in negotiations to join Priorities, which Buzzfeed reported in November. Podesta, however, joined the Obama White House as a top adviser last month. He previously served as former President Clinton’s chief of staff.
Priorities says it hopes to raise more money than the $67 million used to fund ads attacking Mitt Romney during the 2012 presidential cycle.
Messina says he would try to reproduce the progress the Obama campaign made in television microtargeting.
“Priorities did not have that ability last time, because we were on the other side of the wall inventing it,” Messina said.
Other campaign veterans loyal to Obama and Clinton are also heading up Priorities’s operation. Buffy Wicks serves as the super-PAC’s executive director, and worked as a field director during the Obama campaign. Jonathan Mantz, Clinton’s finance director for her 2008 campaign, and Peter Kauffmann, press secretary during Clinton’s 2000 U.S. Senate bid, have also joined Priorities.
Clinton has not yet announced whether she intends to run for the White House again.”
________________________________________________
These groups are coalescing, gearing up for Hillary’s run.
Organizing for Action - Jim Messina w/ contracts with the DNC
Priorities USA Action - John Podesta/Paul Begala
Ready for Hillary Super PAC - Paul Begala, Craig Smith, Harold Icke, Tracy Sefl
Media Matters/Correct the Record - David Brock, Burns Strider
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/11/jim-messina-john-podesta-priorities-usa-99849.html
My thoughts exactly.
Democrats and the media willing to lie, cheat and steal to protect their man in the white house.
Benghazi ping.
Let Republicanprofessor know if you want on or off this ping list.
We don’t need a select committee to investigate Benghazi. That is too limited. We need a select committee to investigate LIBYA. Why did Hillary and Obama use American taxpayer provided funds, equipment, personnel and facilities to overthrow the government of Libya? Where is Libya’s gold? Where are the Libyan antiaircraft missiles? Why are there no courts martial for the Special Forces Officers who “lost” American weapons, night vision equipment and armored vehicles in Libya? Why can’t THE BENGHAZI 40 speak to anyone about what was going on in Libya? Is the United States paying blackmail money to Al-Qaeda to coverup what Democrat politicians did in Libya?
Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Members
Demonrats:
Dianne Feinstein, California, Chairman
John D. Rockefeller IV, West Virginia
Ron Wyden, Oregon
Barbara A. Mikulski, Maryland
Mark Udall, Colorado
Mark Warner, Virginia
Martin Heinrich, New Mexico
Angus King, Maine
Republicans:
Saxby Chambliss, Georgia, Vice Chairman
Richard Burr, North Carolina
James E. Risch, Idaho
Daniel Coats, Indiana
Marco Rubio, Florida
Susan Collins, Maine
Tom Coburn, Oklahoma
And at the first SOTU address, Boner will say “It’s my honor to be the first to say ‘Madame President’.” Just like W said “It’s my honor to be the first to say ‘Madame Speaker’.”
Any article that puts ‘Senate’ and ‘Intelligence’ in the same sentence is suspect.
I remember hearing the open testimony before the senate...at the time I thought it was the smoking gun...it appeared the intentional draw-down of security was almost an assassination plot on the Ambassador....But here we are at.....â€What difference does it make now!â€
I'm sick of these soft-spoken, cowardly Republicans.. We need fighters with STRONG VOICES that resonate in the capitol and the media. 0bama's, Hillary's and Biden's voices carry and resonate with people and trump anything we have.
We need a conservative who's a relentless fighter with BOOM BOX VOICE!!!
Constantly ask “What was Stevens doing in Benghazi?” Why was he there with two ex Seals on 9/11? Why were there over 30 CIA weapons experts on the ground that are not talking? The answer will tell us why they fabricated such a blatant lie to tell the media.
Didn’t the British Embassy, United Nations and Red Cross withdrew their personnel from Benghazi before Americans were attacked?
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