Posted by Tina
The House Select Committee on Benghazi will begin hearings this week. The proceedings will feature new testimony provided by former Deputy Assistant Secretary Raymond Maxwell who alleges orders were given to separate out any documents that would put Hillary Clinton and the State Department in a bad light before turning over documents to the Accountability Review Board investigating security lapses:
Maxwell says the weekend document session was held in the basement of the State Department’s Foggy Bottom headquarters in a room underneath the “jogger’s entrance.” He describes it as a large space, outfitted with computers and big screen monitors, intended for emergency planning, and with small offices on the periphery.
When he arrived, Maxwell says he observed boxes and stacks of documents. He says a State Department office director, whom Maxwell described as close to Clinton’s top advisers, was there. Though the office director technically worked for him, Maxwell says he wasn’t consulted about her weekend assignment.
“She told me, ‘Ray, we are to go through these stacks and pull out anything that might put anybody in the [Near Eastern Affairs] front office or the seventh floor in a bad light,'” says Maxwell. He says “seventh floor” was State Department shorthand for then-Secretary of State Clinton and her principal advisors.
“I asked her, ‘But isn’t that unethical?’ She responded, ‘Ray, those are our orders.’ “
Raymond Maxwell was one of several State Department employees that were singled out for discipline following the incident. Maxwell claims he was scapegoated for so-called security lapses then later cleared.
An update to the original story, which appears in the Daily Signal, alleges that Hillary Clinton’s Chief of Staff was present during the after hours document review.
What could be in those documents that were removed and where are they? these are not hard drives but hard copy…have they been shredded, burned…or, is it thought that someone will mysteriously find (some of) them in the map room years from now when Hillary again resides in the WH?
Excellent review of the situation at Conservative Treehouse
Guys when can we stop the wasteful spending on Benghazi!
One sentence… CIA arming rebels and classified FBI and CIA operation.
Military Industrial Complex and the Arms industry. Benghazi!
What about the thousands killed in a war on fake propaganda? Iraq
and they are starting another one! profits is all that matter not lives!
I would love to see how much money the fake scandals have cost taxpayers…
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A drone coming over your home ran by your local PD real soon!
No more wasteful spending crap Tea party fake scandals in Congress and then they support making cops an army against citizens ..they are not the military!
so much wasteful spending here is a list of free stuff!
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LDU9IG3my6-h4gO2i2pyINP565ajo7-3LbCWIotFIbE/pubhtml
here is a link to the police trade show vendors, Look at all the stuff they are being sold on…. They say they want the drones soon!
Police setting up FBI like intelligence centers using license plate captures and face recognition on everybody whether you have ever broke the law or not!
http://www.urbanshield.org/index.php/contacts/urban-shield-vendor-directory
Benghazi? Enough Already!
Dewey I’m beginning to think the people that inhabit the world where you play are all just figments of your imagination….boogadaboogadaboogadah!
It will be refreshing when Shrillary is called to testify again. This time around, former prosecutor Gowdy will be asking the questions.
No matter how many documents hidden or shredded will ever wash the blood off of Shrillary’s hands in Benghazi. And that doesn’t even count her complicity with the “blame the video” cover-up.
Very well said J. Soden. It better keep her out of the White House. If it doesn’t, I don’t hold out much hope for America.
If Hillary does get into the WH I would expect a huge drop in our military enlistments and those already serving to get out as soon as possible. Who would want to serve under a commander they believe refused to provide the necessary security, send help during an attack and tried to cover their actions with lies, hiding those who were on the ground during the attack and refusing to let them testify?
She’d have to instil a draft during peace time to force people to serve with the threat they may be left behind too.
Reminder Benghazi hearings begin tomorrow morning at 10am eastern – 7am pacific.
Peggy: “Who would want to serve under a commander they believe refused to provide the necessary security, send help during an attack and tried to cover their actions with lies, hiding those who were on the ground during the attack and refusing to let them testify?”
Not many people would. Of course, the logical solution to that problem is for people to stop believing those things, since none of them are in any way true.
If you’d watched the Benghazi select committee hearing today and heard the testimony you just might feel differently, Chris.
Both Democrats and Republicans were on an honest quest to find out why the security request was not only turned down, but was even reduced after Chris Stevens’ request for addiction security. It was the first time in a long time I’d watched both parties actually working together toward a common goal. I sure didn’t expect it, but I am glad I witnessed it.
Also astounding was why prior the ARBs recommendations, dealing with security, dating all of the way back to 1983 had not been implemented. In fact the #1 recommendation from the Benghazi ARB was rejected and no one knew why or who rejected it.
Senator Cummings even recommended a specific hearing dealing with the chain of command for security.
Before you go shooting your mouth off again, I suggest you watch the whole three hours like I did. I think you’ll see a BIG positive change for the Democrats who all seemed committed and concerned for our men and women who serve abroad and their safety.
[WATCH] Trey Gowdy Kicks Off the Benghazi Hearings With a BANG:
“Gowdy’s opening statements were quite different from what we’re used to, with him generally being fired up and making a fool out of whoever he’s speaking with. However, the points he made should resonate with almost every American who wants to find out the truth about the deadly attacks and see justice for the four men whose deaths seem to have been due to negligence from the Obama administration.”
http://madworldnews.com/trey-gowdy-kicks-benghazi/
Chairman Gowdy’s Questioning in First Benghazi Select Committee Hearing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvdKOPjHlH8&list=UUVvxvugtuNZSygB4z4aVfsg
Peggy: “If you’d watched the Benghazi select committee hearing today and heard the testimony you just might feel differently, Chris.”
Really? What did they bring to the table that wasn’t already endlessly discussed in the other eight congressional investigations?
“Both Democrats and Republicans were on an honest quest to find out why the security request was not only turned down, but was even reduced after Chris Stevens’ request for addiction security.”
Christopher Stevens turned down offers for additional security twice. This has been public knowledge for over a year.
You are comically uninformed.
6 Takeaways From the Benghazi Panel’s First Hearing on Security Failures:
“Although no fireworks erupted, the State Department’s failure to follow through on an independent group’s No. 1 security priority after the attacks proved a major highlight. Here’s a look at that issue and five others that surfaced as the House Select Committee on Benghazi began its work in public.
1. ‘Most Important’ Idea Not Adopted
The State Department rejected the suggestion that it create the new position of under secretary for diplomatic security. Out of 40 recommendations made last year, it was one of only two that the agency didn’t accept.
Todd Keil, testifying as a member of the Independent Panel on Best Practices that made that recommendation, said the panel was “disappointed” the State Department didn’t accept this first and “most important” priority.
The independent panel was created to review the work of the Accountability Review Board that initially examined events before, during and after the attacks on the U.S. consulate and another facility in Benghazi, Libya, which left Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans dead.
“Talk about State Department arrogance,” Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said at one point.
Greg Starr, the State Department’s assistant secretary for diplomatic security, told the Benghazi committee that the department “looked long and hard” at whether it needed the new under secretary slot.
“If you’re not doing the No. 1 thing…what changes are you making?”–@Jim_Jordan
“We decided what was more important is if I have direct access to the secretary of state,” Starr told the lawmakers, adding:
We have modified it so I directly report to the secretary for threats to people. I am responsible [for security] no matter what it’s called.
>>> Update: Asked after the monthly Conversations With Conservatives event Thursday how the hearing went, Jordan told The Daily Signal:
I think the main takeaway is if you’re not listening to the guys on the ground and not doing the No. 1 thing they asked you to do, what changes are you really making?”
Continued..
http://dailysignal.com/2014/09/17/six-takeaways-benghazi-panels-first-hearing/
Chris #10: “Christopher Stevens turned down offers for additional security twice. This has been public knowledge for over a year.”
And those lies have been repeatedly proved false. Chris Steven’s request went unanswered and denied. PERIOD! Read below, before you show your ignorance again.
“The U.S. official who served as slain Ambassador Christopher Stevens’ second-in-command in Libya fired back at critics of his late boss, who blamed Stevens for a lack of security at the Benghazi compound before the Sept. 11, 2012 terror assault that left Stevens and three other Americans dead.
“Chris Stevens was not responsible for the reduction in security personnel,” Gregory Hicks, the former deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli, wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed Thursday. “His requests for additional security were denied or ignored. Officials at the State and Defense Departments in Washington made the decisions that resulted in reduced security.”
The Senate Intelligence Committee last week released a bipartisan report saying that the attack could have been prevented and laid most of the blame on the State Department. While Republicans have said that should extend to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, some media commentators have clung to a portion of the report that states Stevens declined an offer from then-Africa Commander Gen. Carter Ham for increased security.
“Since Chris cannot speak, I want to explain the reasons and timing for his responses to Gen. Ham,” Hicks wrote, explaining that much of the matter revolved around when to shift command of U.S. Special Forces from the State Department – where soldiers had diplomatic immunity – to the Defense Department – where they would not.
“Chris had requested on July 9 by cable that Washington provide a minimum of 13 American security professionals for Libya over and above the diplomatic security complement of eight assigned to Tripoli and Benghazi,” Hicks wrote. “On July 11, the Defense Department, apparently in response to Chris’s request, offered to extend the special forces mission to protect the U.S. Embassy.”
“However, on July 13, State Department Undersecretary Patrick Kennedy refused the Defense Department offer and thus Chris’s July 9 request. His rationale was that Libyan guards would be hired to take over this responsibility,” Hicks continued.
Diplomatic immunity was a serious consideration, Hicks explained in the op-ed.
“[Stevens] explained to Rear Adm. Charles J. Leidig that if a member of the special forces team used weapons to protect U.S. facilities, personnel or themselves, he would be subject to Libyan law,” Hicks wrote. “The law would be administered by judges appointed to the bench by Moammar Gadhafi or, worse, tribal judges.”
Blaming Stevens in the Media”
The New York Times editorialized, “The [Senate intelligence committee] report also addressed a more delicate subject, implicitly criticizing Mr. Stevens. It said that on several occasions he requested more security resources from the State Department, which made few significant improvements.”
As a guest on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” BBC journalist Katty Kay explained Stevens was “fallible,” and that “he didn’t ask for and even rejected some of the security he might have had.”
Continued..(To long to copy it all.)
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/01/23/benghazi-whistleblower-takes-another-stand-since-chris-cannot-speak/
And this from the hearing on Wednesday.
Benghazi hearing testimony from former DHS Official: Multiple security requests were ignored by State Dept
Read more: http://therightscoop.com/benghazi-hearing-testimony-from-former-dhs-official-multiple-security-requests-were-ignored-by-state-dept/#ixzz3DhDen0Wv
Jordan, Kiel video continued..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mQnpYUsQWE
Chris, you and your liberal buddies are in the gutter when you try and blame a dead man who can’t defend himself.
You may think it’s “comical,” but most of us and now even Elijah Cummings are taking the death of four Americans and doing what is necessary to prevent more deaths in the future.
Jordan rips State Dept. in Benghazi hearing:
“Jordan, who has investigated Benghazi as part of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, listed steps that the State Department could’ve taken to prevent the attack, grilling a former State Department official today on why Benghazi — a consulate in a notoriously turbulent part of the world — did not receive additional security after Stevens requested it.
“If you were an agent on the ground in Benghazi, would you have been lobbying for more help?” he asked witness Todd Keil, a former State Department official and a member of the Independent Panel on Best Practices, which gave 40 recommendations to the State Department on improving security.
“I’d probably be extremely frustrated,” Keil said. “I’d be pushing every button I could push.”
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2014/09/17/Benghazi_hearings_open_in_congress.html
Correction: The Jordan, Kiel video should be viewed after the dispatch.com video. My error, I copied it to the wrong place.
Peggy this testimony just adds to the across the board failures that resulted in unnecessary deaths.
We all know that these people serve in terrible and dangerous places. They are working in high risk situations which makes it more deplorable that we didn’t take the necessary security and response steps before during and after.
The security was the topic agenda for Wednesday’s hearing. The very first reprehensive who spoke was a woman who had a flow chart for the whole Sec. of State dept. She pointed out on the chart the position that is in charge of security was down on the chart about 5 or 6 levels removed from the Sec. of State with no direct line of communication.
Other members of the committee pointed out several of the past review board committee recommendations after prior attacks going back 25 years had all recommended reorganization to include the correction of the security position’s chain of command. It was NEVER done, including the Benghazi ARB’s recommendation was struck down by, guess who? Drum roll please…. The State Dept. (aka Hillary) Now that’s INSANE!
Oh, I forgot Tina. The reason marines were not stationed at Benghazi is because it was considered a “temporary” station. Marines are not allowed to be stationed at temporary stations. That’s why contractors were used instead.
No one seems to know why Benghazi was only a temporary site with no plans apparently to make it permanent, which put Chris Steven’s and the others assigned there lives at risk.
This is why the contractors were hired to protect the CIA annex and the Libyan February 17th Brigade, with it’s al-Qaeda connection was hired to guard the Mission.
HURRAY!!!!!
Hey Libby and Chris, read the below USA Today article and weep your little eyes out while the rest of us shout for joy that the truth IS finally coming out!
USA Today
Senate says no doubt al-Qaeda in on Benghazi:
“Terrorists from four groups linked to al-Qaeda attacked Benghazi, Senate committee says.
A Senate report on the Benghazi attack that killed a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans bolsters Obama administration critics who suspected from the start that al-Qaeda was involved and that it was not a spontaneous protest that went out of control.
The report, released Wednesday by the committee’s Democratic majority, said individuals affiliated with groups such as al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula were in on the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. compound.
Whether the attack was ordered by a high-level al-Qaeda chief or planned on short notice by people on the ground remains unclear, the report said. But the report left no doubt that it was an organized terrorist attack — a fact denied for days after the deaths by President Obama and former secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Republicans say the finding again calls into question the motives at the time of Obama, who was embroiled in a re-election campaign that claimed al-Qaeda was largely defeated.
The White House and Clinton have said that no one was sure it was a terrorist attack or that al-Qaeda was involved until well after the incident. But within 24 hours the CIA station chief in Libya reported that it was a terrorist attack, and the CIA advised the White House that it appeared likely that al-Qaeda-linked terrorists were involved.
The report alluded to “contradictory” intelligence accounts it said came out in the immediate aftermath of the attack that may have confused the picture of how the attack happened.
But Gen. Carter Ham, head of AFRICOM at the time of attack, said Defense officials did not believe the attack was from an out-of-control demonstration and had no evidence of it, according to declassified testimony released this week by House investigators.
Ham said a U.S. military surveillance drone was sending back to Washington real-time video of the attack within minutes of its start.
“When we saw a rocket-propelled grenade attack, what appeared to be pretty well-aimed small-arms fire — again, this is all coming second- and third-hand through unclassified, you know, commercial, cellphones for the most part, initially,” he told House Armed Services.
“To me, it started to become clear pretty quickly that this was certainly a terrorist attack and not just not something sporadic.”
He said his conclusion was relayed to then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, a member of the White House Cabinet.
But the White House has continued to insist that the nature of the attack was not clear and that was the reason for Obama and Clinton and then-U.N. ambassador Susan Rice saying the attack was the result of a protest over an anti-Islam video by an American filmmaker. Ham said he was not aware of any protest that night and never relayed such information to Washington, according to the declassified testimony.
The Senate report also named Ansar al Sharia, an al-Qaeda-allied militia operating based in Benghazi, as having taken part in the attack. Its founder in the Libyan city of Darnah, Sufian bin Qumu, is a former U.S. detainee who was released from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in 2007.
Also named was the Mohammad Jamal Network, headed by an Egyptian trained by al-Qaeda in the 1980s who answers to al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, said Thomas Joscelyn, an analyst at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies who follows extremists in North Africa.
“Jamal was in direct contact with Zawahiri in 2011 and 2012. And, according to both the U.S. government and the United Nations, Jamal conspired with AQAP, AQIM and al-Qaeda’s senior leadership,” Joscelyn said.”
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/01/16/al-qaeda-benghazi-role-known-early/4520871/
Peggy:” Hey Libby and Chris, read the below USA Today article and weep your little eyes out while the rest of us shout for joy that the truth IS finally coming out!”
Peggy, that USA Today article is nearly a year old, rehashes details and claims that I’ve gone over dozens of times before, and mostly relies on the same Senate report that found no evidence that the Obama administration engaged in any kind of lie or cover-up about the video.
You suck at this.
You’re right Chris the Senate did release their report last January, eight months ago not a year, and I did miss the date.
But, based on information that came out in Wednesday’s hearing that ties into the al-Qaeda connection to the February 17th Brigade and General Hams immediate report after the attack are even more important today than it was in January.
Sorry for “sucking” at this, in your opinion. I’ve never claimed to be perfect, like some people. I at least will admit when I make a mistake and will try to improve in the future. You see I’m neither afraid to make a mistake or apologize when I do.
I would expect the other three families to be pursuing the same action.
Family of CIA contractor killed in Benghazi attack files $2 million in claims:
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/09/20/family-cia-contractor-killed-in-benghazi-attack-files-2-million-in-claims/
Peggy: “No one seems to know why Benghazi was only a temporary site with no plans apparently to make it permanent, which put Chris Steven’s and the others assigned there lives at risk.”
Unless it has to do with those clandestine meets to facilitate arms shipments that just happened to get moved into the wrong hands. This bunch is good at arming thugs, criminals, and terrorists.
It’s like all the hypocrisy from Vietnam forward has come home to roost in a matter of six years under this bumbling bunch of narcissist radicals.
All they have done for decades is criticize and attempt to undermine America’s efforts to defend freedom, liberate the oppressed, and assist emerging nations in forming democratic governments. They have sided with communist aggressors against us.
Placed in charge they reverse gains and commit the most horrendous errors in judgement and application…and leave a total mess in their wakes.
Tina: “Unless it has to do with those clandestine meets to facilitate arms shipments that just happened to get moved into the wrong hands. This bunch is good at arming thugs, criminals, and terrorists.”
Do you mean the ones that went from the Benghazi CIA Annex through Turkey to Syria before ending up in the hands of ISIS/L, that no one knows anything about and the media has been silent about?
You would think they would have learned their lesson from Fast and Furious that shipping guns to arm Mexican cartels would end up killing people. But, hey they got away with that one because Obama used his executive privilege and Holder has refused to turn over the records as the judge ordered.
We won’t find out the truth about Benghazi and Fast and Furious until this administration is gone and we get honest people filling those positions.
Obama DOJ Refuses to Release Fast and Furious Docs:
September 19, 2014
“The “most transparent administration in history” is once again revealing the rank hypocrisy of President Obama’s assessment. In a motion filed Monday night, lawyers from the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) asked U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson to delay the transfer of documents related to the Fast and Furious gun-running scandal to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, until after her rulings requiring that transfer can be appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. If their bid is successful, it could push the appeals process past the Obama administration’s time in office. In short, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is trying to run out the clock.”
http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/arnold-ahlert/obama-doj-refuses-to-release-fast-and-furious-docs/
This is off topic, but the irony of it cracked me up.
This is What ‘Irony’ Looks Like: Occupy Wall Street Founders Suing Each Other Over Twitter Account:
“One of the administrators of the Occupy Wall Street movement is suing another for control over the group’s @OccupyWallStNYC account. The story came out in an article published at the New York Times on Wednesday.
Originally created by the Canadian magazine “Adbusters,” the Twitter account was turned over to Marisa Holmes, an activist filmmaker who was involved in the NYC protest. Last month, however, another administrator of the group, Justin Wedes, changed the account passwords and locked out the other leaders of the group.
So Holmes is suing for control of the account and $500,000 in compensatory damages.”
http://www.ijreview.com/2014/09/179322-laugh-loud-irony-file-occupy-wall-street-founders-suing-twitter-account/