Posts

GOP Ready to Push Benghazi Case Into 2014, Beyond

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: APSteady drips of information about a horrific night in Libya are fueling Republican arguments and ads designed to fire up the conservative base and undercut the Democrats’ early favorite for president in 2016.

Strategists in both parties disagree on the issue’s power to influence elections next year and beyond. But after eight months of trying, Democrats are still struggling to move past the terrorist attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi last Sept. 11 that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

Democrats insist that an independent inquiry, the dismissal of several State Department officials, and nine congressional hearings leave little new to say on the matter. But Friday turned up the sort of nuggets that feed conservative activists’ belief that a major scandal may be at hand.

Newly revealed communications show that senior State Department officials pressed for changes in the talking points that U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice used a few days after the Benghazi attacks. These senior officials expressed concerns that Congress might criticize the Obama administration for ignoring warnings of a growing threat in Libya.

The White House has contended it only made stylistic changes to the intelligence agency talking points, in which Rice suggested that spontaneous protests over an anti-Islamic video set off the deadly attack. The new details suggest a greater degree of political sensitivity and involvement by the White House and State Department.

Read more from this story HERE.

They Say Success has Many Fathers, but Benghazi Libya is the Orphan on the White House Step

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Irish CentralThis snippet from a CNN feature story after the fall of Libya’s strongman Moammar Gadhafi put the whole gambit in Libya into proper political perspective:

“The fall of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi is a significant foreign policy triumph for U.S. President Barrack Obama.” It further went on to say “Gadhafi’s utter defeat seemingly put new wind in the sails of humanitarian intervention.”

This was to be the “good” foreign policy military intervention for the administration to show us how it’s done.

Hillary Clinton sealed the deal for the removal of Gadahfi when she stated: “left unchecked, Gadahfi will commit unspeakable atrocities.”

National Security Council Senior Director Samantha Power, led the drafting of PSD-10, the Presidential Study Directive on Mass Atrocities, used as the policy justification to topple Gadahfi.

So there was a lot of prestige riding on the decision to remove Gadahfi by the Obama administration and see a triumphant Libya blossom under a new government.

Although Gadahfi was brutal in his attempts to stifle dissension, there were also many reasons to leave the country alone and let it settle its own differences without interfering.

Gadahfi had become an ally in the terror war and was providing valuable intelligence to us …He had even given up his nuclear ambitions to show his sincerity. Under Gadahfis 40 year rule, Libya became one of the most prosperous and peaceful countries in Africa.

But the decision was made to get rid of Gadahfi by the Obama administration. After his regime collapsed, his arsenals were left unguarded and an estimated 20 thousand shoulder launched missiles and countless high powered weapons, were let into the hands of terrorists and extremists. Israel reported these missiles were right on their border.

Military experts say to leave these arsenals unguarded was a grievous error in planning and should have been taken into account by the Obama administration when they moved to help topple Gadahfi.

The looting of the arsenals was downplayed and ominously, so was the emergence of strong militant groups linked to Al Qaeda and Islamic radicals, evidently unforeseen by the Obama administration.

But to give the air of success and normalcy, especially with a presidential election on the horizon, evidently it was felt best to keep a low profile for embassy security in Libya….In spite of repeated requests by the soon to be murdered ambassador Stevens for more force to protect him.

Eight months after the attack on our consulate, many of the key players involved in the decisions on Libya have distanced themselves from the administration. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has retired, so have Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and CIA Director David Petraeus. Senior National Security Advisor, Samantha Power & UN Ambassador Susan Rice, both resigned to “spend more time with their families.” Many of the top military commanders in that region of the world have been replaced.

Eight months after the murder of our ambassador and 3 other Americans, no one has been brought to justice, as President Obama promised.

With the announcement of new Congressional hearings on Benghazi coming at the beginning of May and the promise whistle blowers will be testifying, perhaps we will be seeing someone brought to justice soon.

_____________________________________

Ed Farnan is the conservative columnist at IrishCentral, where he has been writing on the need for energy independence, strong self defense, secure borders, 2nd amendment, smaller government and many other issues. His articles appear in many publications throughout the USA and world. He has been a guest on Fox News and a regular guest on radio stations in the US and Europe.

Obama Claims Ignorance of Admin. Pressure on Benghazi Survivors Not to Testify (+video)

/0 Comments/in , /by

During the President’s press conference today, a Fox News reporter directly ask Obama about his knowledge of the administration’s ongoing efforts to block the testimony of Benghazi’s survivors:

“… there are people in your own State Department saying they have been blocked from coming forward, that they survived the terror attack and they want to tell their story. Will you help them come forward and say it once and for all?”

Obama responded that, although he was “not familiar with this notion that anybody has been blocked from testifying,” he would “find out what exactly you’re referring to.”

The President continued, “What I’ve been very clear about from the start is that our job, with respect to Benghazi has been to find out exactly what happened, to make sure that U.S. embassies, not just in the Middle East but around the world, are safe and secure, and to bring those who carried it out to justice. But I’ll find out, what exactly you’re referring to.”

The Fox News reporter then pointed out that the Benghazi whistle-blowers “hired an attorney because they say they’ve been blocked from coming forward.”

Obama insisted that he was “not familiar with it.”

Obama Admin. Threatening Benghazi Whistle-Blowers at CIA, State

/6 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Jonathon NarveyAt least four career officials at the State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency have retained lawyers or are in the process of doing so, as they prepare to provide sensitive information about the Benghazi attacks to Congress, Fox News has learned.

Victoria Toensing, a former Justice Department official and Republican counsel to the Senate Intelligence Committee, is now representing one of the State Department employees. She told Fox News her client and some of the others, who consider themselves whistle-blowers, have been threatened by unnamed Obama administration officials.

“I’m not talking generally, I’m talking specifically about Benghazi – that people have been threatened,” Toensing said in an interview Monday. “And not just the State Department. People have been threatened at the CIA.”

Toensing declined to name her client. She also refused to say whether the individual was on the ground in Benghazi on the night of Sept. 11, 2012, when terrorist attacks on two U.S. installations in the Libyan city killed four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens.

However, Toensing disclosed that her client has pertinent information on all three time periods investigators consider relevant to the attacks: the months that led up to the attack, when pleas by the ambassador and his staff for enhanced security in Benghazi were mostly rejected by senior officers at the State Department; the eight-hour time frame in which the attacks unfolded, and the eight-day period that followed the attacks, when Obama administration officials incorrectly described them as the result of a spontaneous protest over a video.

Read more from this story HERE.

Congressman: ‘Explosive’ Benghazi Hearings ‘Coming Quickly’

/12 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Washington TimesRep. Trey Gowdy, appearing on Fox News on Saturday afternoon, promised that “explosive” congressional hearings over the Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, are “coming quickly.”

“There are more Benghazi hearings coming; I think they’re going to be explosive,” Mr. Gowdy, a South Carolina Republican who is a member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, told Fox’s Uma Pemmaraju.

Mr. Gowdy wasn’t able to give out too many details, but he hinted that the public for the first time might hear from witnesses to the terror attack that left four Americans dead.

“I am bound by certain measures of confidentiality, but I would tell you that you are getting very warm,” Mr. Gowdy said when asked by Ms. Pemmaraju whether witnesses could be coming forward…

Read more from this story HERE.

Marine Corps Rapid-Response Team Ordered To Africa To Thwart Another Benghazi Attack

/0 Comments/in , /by

U.S. Marine CorpsU.S. Africa Command will get a new Marine Corps rapid response force as part of a plan to beef up its crisis response capabilities.

More Leathernecks will be at the ready after the military was unable to get timely aid to Benghazi, Libya last year, during a terror attack that killed U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and members of his security detail.

Gen. Carter Ham, Africom’s commander, told Congress this week about the planned new force, Stars and Stripes reported Friday.

“The Marine Corps have proposed a new … Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force specifically tailored for crisis response in Africa,” he told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

The force had not yet been formally approved, he said, but added, “we think that that will be available in the relatively near future.”

Read more from this story HERE.

WH: Obama Called Hillary at 10PM on Night of Benghazi Attack–About Same Time Clinton First Publicly Linked Attack to YouTube Video

/4 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Evan Vucci President Barack Obama called Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at approximately 10 p.m. on the night of the terrorist attacks on the U.S. facilities in Benghazi, Libya, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told CNSNews.com.

That was more than six hours after the attacks started, more than an hour before Tryone Woods and Glen Doherty were killed–and about the time that Clinton first released a statement linking the attacks to “inflammatory material posted on the Internet,” a reference to an anti-Muslim video on YouTube.

“Like every president before him, he has a national security adviser and deputy national security adviser,” Carney told CNSNews.com on Tuesday. “He was in regular communication with his national security team directly, through them, and spoke with the secretary of state at approximately 10 p.m. He called her to get an update on the situation.”

Carney was responding to questions from CNSNews.com about who Obama communicated with on the evening of Sept. 11, 2012. Outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, told the Senate Armed Services Committee they first notified the president of the attack during a Sept. 11, 2012 meeting that began at 5 p.m. and ran for about 30 minutes. They also told the committee they did not talk to Obama or anyone else at the White House after that meeting.

U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, State Department Information Management Officer Sean Smith, and former Navy SEALs Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty, who worked for CIA, were killed in the Benghazi attacks.

Read more from this story HERE.

Four Missionaries Arrested in Benghazi May Face Libya Death Penalty

/4 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Ryk Neethling Four foreign missionaries were arrested in Benghazi, Libya, last week on charges of printing and distributing materials that promote Christianity. One is an American citizen.

The Associated Press, which broke the news, reports that Benghazi police claim to have “found 45,000 books in [the missionaries’] possession and that another 25,000 have already been distributed.”

“They were arrested on Tuesday at a publishing house where they were printing thousands of books that called for conversion to Christianity,” Hussein Bin Hmeid, spokesman for Libya’s Preventative Security, told Reuters. “Proselytizing is forbidden in Libya. We are a 100 percent Muslim country and this kind of action affects our national security.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama Made No Phone Calls On Night Of Benghazi Attack, White House Says

/31 Comments/in , /by

President Obama didn’t make any phone calls the night of the Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, the White House said in a letter to Congress released Thursday. “During the entire attack, the president of the United States never picked up the phone to put the weight of his office in the mix,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, South Carolina Republican, who had held up Mr. Obama’s defense secretary nominee to force the information to be released.

Mr. Graham said that if Mr. Obama had picked up the phone, at least two of the Americans killed in the attacks on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi might still be alive because he might have been able to push U.S. aid to get to the scene faster.

The White House has said Mr. Obama was kept up to date on the attack by his staff, though after being alerted to the attack in a pre-scheduled afternoon meeting he never spoke again with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Martin E. Dempsey or then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Mr. Panetta told Congress last week that he knew immediately the attacks were a terrorist assault, though the White House downplayed that notion in the first five days after the attack.

Republican senators said they will still push for more information on who changed the talking points given to U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, who went on the Sunday talk shows after the attacks and blamed protests against an anti-Islam video.

Read more from this story HERE.

Source: New Info On Benghazi Is Going To Come Out And Leave People ‘Amazed And Shocked’ (+video)

/22 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: APNoted author and Islamic terrorism expert Brigitte Gabriel during a Saturday appearance on Fox News discussed both President Barack Obama’s controversial use of unmanned drones and the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that left four Americans dead, including Ambassador Chris Stevens:

And although the discussion involving unmanned drones presented some fascinating points, perhaps the most interesting moment in the segment occurred when Gabriel claimed that there is unreleased information regarding the Benghazi attack that will leave people “amazed and shocked.”

Read more from this story HERE.