Free Republic

Driving the Republican jihad was a claim, first reported in October 2012 by Fox News, that CIA personnel had wanted to respond more quickly to the Benghazi attack but were ordered to “stand down,” perhaps by political higher-ups. Although this claim was promptly rebutted by CIA officials, it was repeated by Fox News at least 85 times, according to a review by the liberal advocacy group Media Matters. This barrage fueled Republican charges that the Democrats were engaging in a coverup. The Senate intelligence report addressed this inflammatory charge head-on. “The committee explored claims that there was a ‘stand down’...

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...

January 20, 2014 The ongoing shame of Benghazi cries out for deeper investigation Cal Thomas When anything bipartisan comes out of a polarized Washington, one should be grateful. That's why a Senate Intelligence Committee report on the September 11, 2012, attacks in Benghazi that killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans represents progress of sorts. The committee, chaired by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., faults the State Department and intelligence community for failing to prevent the attacks. The committee determined that the U.S. military command did not know about a CIA annex in Benghazi and that, writes the Washington...

By REBECCA KAPLAN January 16, 2014 Sen. Feinstein: Hillary Clinton Isn’t To Blame For Benghazi Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., has come to the defense of Hillary Clinton against Republicans who she says are trying to inflate the former secretary ofstate’s role in the Sept. 2012 attacks on the U.S. diplomatic facility and CIA annex in Benghazi, Libya. Feinstein, the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and vice chairman Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., led the committee’s review of the attacks that werepublished in a bipartisan report that was declassified Wednesday. Though their the report faults the State Department for failing to sufficiently...

The truth about the terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, is finally coming out. An explosive intelligence report made public this week revealed that officials knew it was a terrorist attack that killed four Americans on September 11, 2012—and they knew right away. It also revealed that the lapse in security was preventable, based on intelligence the U.S. already had about the area. These new answers are unsettling.

Review of the terrorist attacks on U.S. facilities in Benghazi Libya , September 11-12 , 2012 , together with additional views . January 15th , 2014

A long-delayed Senate Intelligence Committee report released Wednesday faulted both the State Department and the intelligence community for not preventing attacks on two outposts in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans, including a U.S. ambassador, about 16 months ago. The bipartisan report laid out more than a dozen findings regarding the assaults on a diplomatic compound and a CIA annex in the city. It said the State Department failed to increase security at its mission despite warnings, and blamed intelligence agencies for not sharing information about the existence of the CIA outpost with the U.S. military. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------snip----------------------------------------------------- The report also...

A long-delayed Senate intelligence committee report released on Wednesday spreads blame among the State Department and intelligence agencies for not preventing attacks on two outposts in Libya that killed four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens. The bipartisan report lays out more than a dozen findings regarding the assaults on Sept. 11 and 12, 2012 on the diplomatic compound and a CIA annex in the Libyan city of Benghazi. It says the State Department failed to increase security at the sites despite warnings, and faults intelligence agencies for not sharing information about the existence of the CIA outpost with...