Mr. Speaker! We Need To Get Back To Benghazi

Benghazi Whistleblower: Hillary Clinton Cut Counterterrorism Bureau Out During Attack On Consulate, “You Should Have Seen What She Tried To Do To Us That Night”…




We now know why the Obama administration has fought tooth and nail to stop the Benghazi whistleblowers from talking.

Via Fox News:


On the night of Sept. 11, as the Obama administration scrambled to respond to the Benghazi terror attacks, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and a key aide effectively tried to cut the department’s own counterterrorism bureau out of the chain of reporting and decision-making, according to a “whistle-blower” witness from that bureau who will soon testify to the charge before Congress, Fox News has learned.

That witness is Mark I. Thompson, a former Marine and now the deputy coordinator for operations in the agency’s counterterrorism bureau. Sources tell Fox News Thompson will level the allegation against Clinton during testimony on Wednesday before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, chaired by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif.

Fox News has also learned that another official from the counterterrorism bureau — independently of Thompson — voiced the same complaint about Clinton and Under Secretary for Management Patrick Kennedy to trusted national security colleagues back in October.

Extremists linked to Al Qaeda stormed the American consulate and a nearby annex on Sept. 11, in a heavily armed and well-coordinated eight-hour assault that killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, and three other Americans.

Thompson considers himself a whistle-blower whose account was suppressed by the official investigative panel that Clinton convened to review the episode, the Accountability Review Board (ARB). Thompson’s lawyer, Joseph diGenova, a former U.S. attorney, has further alleged that his client has been subjected to threats and intimidation by as-yet-unnamed superiors at State, in advance of his cooperation with Congress. [...]

Sources close to the congressional investigation who have been briefed on what Thompson will testify tell Fox News the veteran counterterrorism official concluded on Sept. 11 that Clinton and Kennedy tried to cut the counterterrorism bureau out of the loop as they and other Obama administration officials weighed how to respond to — and characterize — the Benghazi attacks.

“You should have seen what (Clinton) tried to do to us that night,” the second official in State’s counterterrorism bureau told colleagues back in October. Those comments would appear to be corroborated by Thompson’s forthcoming testimony.

Vettebigot said:

This from Peggy Noonan:

“The Obama White House sees every event as a political event . Because of that, it could not tolerate the idea that the armed assault on the Benghazi consulate was a premeditated act of Islamist terrorism. That would carry a whole world of unhappy political implications and demand certain actions. And the American presidential election was only eight weeks away. They wanted this problem to go away, or at least to bleed the meaning from it.”
To rephrase Sen. Howard Baker famous questions from an earlier congressional investigation of a presidential cover-up called Watergate: What did Ms. Jarrett do, and when did she do it?"

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Jon Stewart annihilates Peggy Noonan

Seriously, folks, this might be Stewart's best clip of the year.

RobDownSouth said:

Jon Stewart annihilates Peggy Noonan

Seriously, folks, this might be Stewart's best clip of the year.

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good to know

a JOKE of a President,

Chauncey Gardner, is "defended by a cum e dian!

How approppriate

vetteman said:

The best they have to offer is a joker on Comedy Central, the new name for the DNC.

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Can't refudiate the message, so it's shoot-teh-messenger time for brave wittle Marine.

I notice there was a 3-week gap in posts in this thread. Apparently "CIA waters down talking points to mask extent of its own operations in Benghazi" is less titillating than "Obama orders assassination of ambassador, staff."

Wrong Element said:

I notice there was a 3-week gap in posts in this thread. Apparently "CIA waters down talking points to mask extent of its own operations in Benghazi" is less titillating than "Obama orders assassination of ambassador, staff."

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Sometimes it takes the Rapepublican High Command a while to "dumb down" a talking point to the extent that Vetty can regurgitate it successfully.

It is an entirely valid question what the ambassador was doing in such a poorly defended outpost on a day freighted with symbolism.

Rumors are some arms deal re Syria, but that's info yet to emerge from the debacle.

Somehow it's inconceivable that the US President wouldn't know immediately and exactly what was happening on the other side of the world.

Apparently, State knew almost instantly it was terrorism.

But, with an election looming and trying to suggest killing bin Laden had tamped down terrorism, the W House decided to spin a fable about a video.

Really still? Let's see what actual media sources have to say. Oh not looking good still and now creating evidence. Tsk tsk.

Republicans Altered Benghazi Emails, CBS News Report Claims

One day after The White House released 100 pages of Benghazi emails, a report has surfaced alleging that Republicans released a set with altered text.

CBS News reported Thursday that leaked versions sent out by the GOP last Friday had visible differences than Wednesday's official batch. Two correspondences that were singled out in the report came from National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes and State Department Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland.

The GOP version of Rhodes' comment, according to CBS News: "We must make sure that the talking points reflect all agency equities, including those of the State Department, and we don't want to undermine the FBI investigation."

The White House email: "We need to resolve this in a way that respects all of the relevant equities, particularly the investigation."

The GOP version of Nuland's comment, according to CBS News: The penultimate point is a paragraph talking about all the previous warnings provided by the Agency (CIA) about al-Qaeda's presence and activities of al-Qaeda."

The White House email: "The penultimate point could be abused by members to beat the State Department for not paying attention to Agency warnings."

The news parallels a Tuesday CNN report which initially introduced the contradiction between what was revealed in a White House Benghazi email version, versus what was reported in media outlets. On Monday, Mother Jones noted that the Republicans' interim report included the correct version of the emails, signaling that more malice and less incompetence may have been at play with the alleged alterations.

In that April interim report on Benghazi (which Buck noted), the House Republicans cited these emails (in footnotes 56 and 57) to note an important point: "State Department emails reveal senior officials had 'serious concerns' about the talking points, because Members of Congress might attack the State Department for 'not paying attention to Agency warnings' about the growing threat in Benghazi."

Despite the White House's Wednesday move to release emails, Republicans continued to call for more information on Thursday.

"While these hundred are good and they shed light on what happened, we have nearly 25,000 that they haven't released," Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) told Fox News on Thursday.

landslider2000 said:

Apparently, State knew almost instantly it was terrorism.

But, with an election looming and trying to suggest killing bin Laden had tamped down terrorism, the W House decided to spin a fable about a video.

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UPON FURTHER REVIEW: Where that "video" business came from

Hint: it wasn't the White House

Once again, we see L'il Andy lying to protect his beloved Rapepublicans.

phrodeau said:

Somehow it's inconceivable that the US President wouldn't know immediately and exactly what was happening on the other side of the world.

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The attack timeline according to CBS news:

9:40 p.m. (3:40 p.m. ET): Gunfire and an explosion are heard. A TOC agent sees dozens of armed people over security camera flowing through a pedestrian gate at the compound's main entrance. It is not clear how the gate was opened.

The agent hits the alarm and alerts the CIA security team in the nearby annex and the Libyan 17th of February Brigade, one of several powerful militias serving as a de facto security presence in Benghazi. The embassy in Tripoli and the State Dept. command center were also alerted.

State Dept. Diplomatic Security follows events in real time on a listen-only, audio-only feed, according to testimony of Charlene Lamb, the deputy assistant director for international programs, given before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Oct 10.


10:05 p.m. (4:05 p.m. ET): An alert from the State Department Operations Center is issued to a number of government and intelligence agencies, including the White House Situation Room, the office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the FBI. "US Diplomatic Mission in Benghazi Under Attack" -- "approximately 20 armed people fired shots; explosions have been heard as well.

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According to CBS, State, FBI, White House situation room, and the DNI all knew about the attack 25 minutes after it started.

To compare that real time information flow between the Benghazi consulate and the upper tiers of the United States government to the flawed analysis and assumptions surrounding WMD in Iraq is the type of mindless, butt-dumb illogical associations for which you are NOT typically known. WTF, did you have for breakfast?

Without knowing the actual number, I'm going to guess that 97% of Americans have no fucking idea what the "Benghazi" thing is actually about, have some vague sense that the Republicans think the President got something wrong, and wouldn't care if it went away tomorrow.

He's a lame-duck president. Republicans forgot to shift tactics after the last election. They're closing in on costing themselves the next one(s)...

Sending out Dan Pfeiffer, who wasn't even in diapers during Watergate, proved unavailing.

Wks later, Obama et al. were repeating the video tale, which wouldn't convince an 8th grader.

Releasing all email traffic, plus a precise timeline of Obama's actions that evening, would be the next step if the W House wanted to be honest.

Didn't Obama next day have a quick briefing and depart on crucial business -- a fundraising trip to Vegas?

CHNOPS said:

Without knowing the actual number, I'm going to guess that 97% of Americans have no fucking idea what the "Benghazi" thing is actually about, (s)...

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what a JACKASS you turned into

CHNOPS said:

Without knowing the actual number, I'm going to guess that 97% of Americans have no fucking idea what the "Benghazi" thing is actually about, have some vague sense that the Republicans think the President got something wrong, and wouldn't care if it went away tomorrow.

He's a lame-duck president. Republicans forgot to shift tactics after the last election. They're closing in on costing themselves the next one(s)...

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I would not dispute your assessment of most people's interest in the Benghazi affair for a single minute, but it never ceases to amaze me nonetheless.

If people are up in arms about a President who has approved the targeted killings of Americans who have embedded themselves in the leadership structure of Al Qaeda, one might think that people would be more unnerved than they are about a President and his minions who have deceived us about what they knew and believed about the deaths of four State Department officials including the U. S. Ambassador to the entire fucking country. That deception was quite obviously constructed and disseminated based on strategic political campaign considerations.

I can understand why Republicans might have thought that would have been fertile ground to plow.