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Clinton Ally Pens E-Book: ‘The Benghazi Hoax’

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Photo Credit: ReutersMedia Matters founder and Hillary Clinton ally David Brock has co-authored a 90-page e-book called “The Benghazi Hoax,” a tome intended as a counterweight of sorts to criticisms of the former Secretary of State and President Barack Obama over the 2012 attacks in Libya.

Brock previewed the book in an interview with POLITICO last week in the liberal group’s Washington offices. He described it as an important and necessary resource on the Benghazi attacks that left four Americans dead last Sept. 11 — and which some congressional Republicans have shown continued interest in probing.

Brock insisted the book is not intended as a de facto defense of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as she comes under scrutiny ahead of a likely 2016 presidential bid. Supporting the Clintons is a fraction of Media Matters’ mission, he said, and her role in the Benghazi attacks is not the sole focus of the book.

But the mere fact of the book’s existence is an acknowledgement that Benghazi will remain a topic of debate, and one that could harm Clinton with independent and center-right Republicans. And it comes as Brock-affiliated groups could fill an organizational void for Clinton, who has no machinery of her own beyond a handful of staffers since leaving the State Department.

The book, which comes out Tuesday, is as much about pushing back against criticisms by the right that Obama is a weak president who has hurt America in the world, Brock said.

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House Panel on Benghazi Eyes White House Document, Panetta Testimony

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Photo Credit: Fox News As they wrap up their 13-month probe into the terrorist attacks in Benghazi that killed four Americans, congressional investigators have zeroed in on a press release issued the day before the murders by White House Press Secretary Jay Carney.

They also are seeking fresh testimony from former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.

Staffers with the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations told Fox News they have reached the preliminary conclusion – as the Obama administration has long maintained – that no military rescue or remedy was feasible on the night of September 11, 2012, when U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens and three other Americans died amid an eight-hour assault by terrorists on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi and a nearby annex.

However, House investigators have also determined that the reason no military forces could be rallied to intervene in Benghazi is because U.S. military assets were poorly postured amid the turmoil of that period, as the eleventh anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks approached.

“My job was to look at the days and the weeks and the months and the years leading up to that day, and ask the question: Why weren’t we prepared, and who is responsible?” said Rep. Martha Roby, R-Ala., chair of the HASC subcommittee. “If the White House is projecting that we were safe, the White House has to take responsibility of our lack of preparedness.”

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Issa: Benghazi Attack Result of Hillary Clinton’s Reckless, Ill-Advised ‘War on Terror’ Policies (+video)

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Photo Credit: Chris MaddaloniResponsibility for the September 11 Benghazi assault and the deaths of four U.S. citizens — including Libyan ambassador Chris Stevens — lies personally at the feet of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, according to California Republican Rep. Darrell Issa.

“The investigation really is now not about what we know, but about how we can prevent abuse of security before the fact, how we respond during the fact, and how we hold people accountable after the fact for deliberate misinformation — if you want to be kind — [and] outright lies, if not,” said Issa, who serves as head of the Oversight and Government reform committee.

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Spitting on Their Graves: Democrats Leave Benghazi Hearing Before Testimony From Families of Victims

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Photo Credit: Townhall

Photo Credit: Townhall

During the second portion of a House Oversight and Government Reform hearing about Benghazi Thursday on Capitol Hill, the majority of Democrats on the Committee left the room and refused to listen to the testimony of Patricia Smith and Charles Woods.

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Report: CIA Employee who Refused to Sign Non-Disclosure Agreement on Benghazi Suspended

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Photo Credit: Getty Images

Photo Credit: Getty Images

A CIA employee who refused to sign a non-disclosure agreement prohibiting him from speaking out about last year’s deadly terror attack in Benghazi, Libya has been suspended and forced to hire an attorney, the Washington Free Beacon reported.

Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) said Monday that his office received an anonymous call about the employee’s suspension, the Free Beacon reported. Wolf previously revealed that Benghazi survivors had been forced to sign non-disclosures in a speech on the House floor in July.

“The reports on the NDA are accurate. We’re getting people who call,” Wolf said at an event launching the new Citizens’ Commission on Benghazi…

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State Department Obstructs Benghazi Investigation, Refuses to Hold Memorial Service

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Photo Credit: FrontPagMag

Photo Credit: FrontPagMag

First up, the House Oversight Committee is accusing the State Department of obstructing the investigation into the Benghazi attack.

The State Department willfully obstructed a congressional investigation of the deadly attack on a U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi last year, according to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

State Department officials routinely refused requests for documents on its investigation into the September, 2012, attack, including interview transcripts and summaries of eyewitnesses to the attack, according to a committee report obtained by The Hill.

Additionally, members of the independent Accountability Review Board (ARB) tasked with reviewing the events that led up to the Benghazi attack were rife with “actual and perceived conflicts of interest” with State, the House report adds.

“The State Department’s refusal to turn over ARB documents has made an independent evaluation of the ARB’s review difficult,” according to the report.

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Congress: Hillary’s Benghazi Investigation Let Top Officials Escape Blame

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Photo Credit: Getty

Photo Credit: Getty

The State Department’s investigation into the Sept. 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi was not independent and failed to hold senior State Department officials accountable for the failures that led to the death of four Americans, according to a new investigative report compiled by the House Oversight Committee.

The Administrative Review Board, chosen by then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, unfairly placed the blame for the terrorist attack on four mid-level officials while ignoring the role of very senior officials in Clinton’s State Department for decisions about security in Benghazi, according to the new report led by Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA). Also, the structure of the ARB and the culture in Clinton’s State Department raised questions about the independence and integrity of the review, according to Issa’s committee.

“The ARB blamed systemic failures and leadership and management deficiencies within two bureaus, but downplayed the importance of decisions made at senior levels of the Department. Witnesses questioned how much these decisions influenced the weaknesses that led to the inadequate security posture in Benghazi,” the report stated. “The ARB’s decision to cite certain officials as accountable for what happened in Benghazi appears to have been based on factors that had little or no connection to the security posture at U.S. diplomatic facilities in Libya.”

The Daily Beast first reported in May that the four officials removed from their jobs and placed on administrative leave as a result of the State Department’s ARB report on Benghazi had never been told what they were accused of, never been given any opportunity to appeal their punishments, and never were officially fired. One of the officials, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Ray Maxwell, had little to no role in Libya security policy and was not even alleged to have been connected to the security failures leading up to the Benghazi attack.

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Col. West: Benghazi Can’t Be ‘the New Normal’ (+video)

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Photo Credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images

Photo Credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images

“We abandoned four Americans who were under attack, and that’s not who we are as a people. That’s not who we are as a nation,” a somber, but determined, Col. Allen West told WND.

“We, as a people, have to stand up, because we can not settle for this and come to believe the new normal is that an ambassador can call up and say ‘We’re under attack’ and have elected officials do nothing about it.”

West was in the nation’s capital to speak at the Justice for Benghazi Rally on the one-year anniversary of the attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, and the twelfth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington, D.C.

The former Florida congressman told the crowd President Obama lacked a sense of “moral obligation” about the deaths of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and security personnel who “ran to the sound of the guns, while others on that night ran to bed.”

President Obama’s representatives have repeatedly refused to divulge what he was doing the night of the attacks.

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Hillary Clinton Heckled on Benghazi During Award Ceremony

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Photo Credit: Matt Rourke

Photo Credit: Matt Rourke

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton fielded hecklers who hounded her on Benghazi at the tail end of an award acceptance speech she delivered at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia on Tuesday evening.

Mrs. Clinton was accepting the 2013 Liberty Medal, an honor to recognize her career in public service and advocacy for women’s rights, CBS reported. She told the crowd of hundreds of the U.S. need to balance national security with human rights issues in Syria, and called for American politicians to cross party aisles and strike a chord of unity.

“When we fail to make progress on the challenges facing our people at home, our standing in the world suffers,” she said, Breitbart.com reported.

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Marines on Alert, Moved Near Libya Ahead of Sept. 11 Anniversary

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

The military is ramping up its ability to respond to a potential attack on the eve of the one-year anniversary of the Benghazi terror attack that left four Americans dead.

Fox News has confirmed that 250 Marines have moved closer to Libya – from Moron, Spain, to the U.S. naval air station in Sigonella, Italy. Military officials say Marines could move from Italy to Benghazi in under three hours if needed.

Two-hundred and fifty Marines will also remain in Moron, ready to respond in the European theater if needed.

Wednesday marks one year since the Benghazi terror attack, and 12 years since the Al Qaeda attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

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