Benghazi Update – “What Does it Matter?”

This is a follow on to the story submitted by Tina, Greg Hicks on Benghazi: “I never reported a demonstration; I reported an attack on the consulate”  See her story below for more details.

by Jack Lee

“What does it matter?”   Hillary Clinton at the Benghazi hearing.   Only a tepid reply was heard from empanaled Republicans. 

I was appalled that my GOP representatives didn’t respond to Hillary more forcefully, but then few facts were known and thankfully it’s not over.  Redemption and justice may still be possible.  

Congressman Darrell Issa-R from CA (49th district) is continuing to aggressively investigate Benghazi and this Wednesday we’re going to hear some very interesting testimony that could expose not only Clinton as a liar, but other’s within the Obama Administration, possibly right up to the President.   

 “The American people still don’t have the full truth about what happened both before and after the murders of four brave Americans.  Our hearing will examine new facts about what happened and significant problems with the administration’s own review of Benghazi failures. While President Obama and his administration may be inclined to give free passes to senior officials who bungled their responsibilities, this committee will expose what they did and hold them accountable to the public. Getting the full story is critical to ensuring that this does not happen again.” Congressman Darrell Issa

The following are findings from five Congressional panels that have been investigating Benghazi and these revelations are more than enough to justify further investigation:

• Reductions of security levels prior to the attacks in Benghazi were approved at the 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 the Obama Administration’s claim, the talking points were not edited to protect classified information. Concern for classified information is never mentioned in email traffic among senior Administration officials.

We’ve only recently learned that our FBI investigators were refused entry to Lybia for three weeks following the Benghazi attack because of a riff between the White House and the newly elected Lybian President, Mohamed Magarief.   One day after the Benghazi attack Magarief went on national television and stated unequivocally that an Islamic terrorist group connected to Al Qaeda had attacked the US Embassy.   The White House, for reasons yet to be determine, said this wasn’t true.  They countered and undermined his statement.   Using Ambassador Susan Rice (shown here) as the lead spokesperson,  she went on a media blitz claiming the attacks in Lybia and Egypt were not premeditated, but simply a mob response to a YOUTube video defaming the Profit Mohamed.  

President Magarief was incensed by this and rightly so.  His integrity was challenged and his honor was insulted by the Obama Administration and as a result he immediately cut off cooperation denying the FBI entry to investigate the attack.  

President Magarief came to hold office right after Mohamar Kaddafy was taken out by force.  His control over Lybia was tentative at best and here is the White House essentially telling the world he didn’t know what he was talking about.   As it turns out Magarief was 100% right and it was the White House that was utterly and completely wrong.   (No wonder he was livid and told the FBI to take a hike.) 

The Benghazi hearing this week will feature a key witness previously unknown.  He is Mark I. Thompson, a former Marine and now the deputy coordinator for operations in the agency’s counterterrorism bureau. 

It’s been leaked to the press that Thompson will give his account of what happened on the night of Sept. 11, as the Obama administration scrambled to respond to the Benghazi terror attacks.  It’s believed he will give damning evidence that then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and a key aide cut her department’s own counterterrorism bureau out of the chain of reporting and decision-making.  

Thompson is considered a whistle-blower and it’s believed that his account was suppressed by the official investigative panel that Clinton convened.   The Accountability Review Board (ARB). Thompson’s lawyer, Joseph diGenova, a former U.S. attorney, says his client (Thompson) has been subjected to threats and intimidation by as-yet-unnamed superiors at State, in advance of his cooperation with Congress. 

If these findings and the latest allegations hold up,  it will not only be a public relations disaster for the Obama Administration, but it will expose petty interagency turf wars, bureaucratic deceit and a conspiracy by a number of high ranking officials to deliberately fool the American public for personal political gain.  By comparison such audacious and deliberate wrong-doing makes Watergate look like a high school prank.