CSPAN: Live testimony by Clinton on Benghazi

[Scotth]

WRONG!

FY starts on 1 October, September is the end of the FY. The money was taken back when it became clear State was not going to spend it.

Face it, Hildabeast fucked up, and they can't admit it was a terrorist event because it would get turned into Obama's version of "Mission Accomplished!".

Your right October to September, my bad. Do you have a link to how much money was still left in the account because I haven't read about that yet?

Of course ultimately Hillary and Obama are responsible. Obama did say that the attack was an "Act of Terror" the day after the attack in his speech from the Rose Garden.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press...marks-president-deaths-us-embassy-staff-libya

 

[TLDR20]

Your right October to September, my bad. Do you have a link to how much money was still left in the account because I haven't read about that yet?

Of course ultimately Hillary and Obama are responsible. Obama did say that the attack was an "Act of Terror" the day after the attack in his speech from the Rose Garden.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press...marks-president-deaths-us-embassy-staff-libya

Washington Post fact checker disagrees.

http://m.washingtonpost.com/blogs/f...b65b83e-bc14-11e2-97d4-a479289a31f9_blog.html

 

[DA SWO]

Your right October to September, my bad. Do you have a link to how much money was still left in the account because I haven't read about that yet?

Of course ultimately Hillary and Obama are responsible. Obama did say that the attack was an "Act of Terror" the day after the attack in his speech from the Rose Garden.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press...marks-president-deaths-us-embassy-staff-libya

Then why send Ms Rice out to claim it was caused by a video (whose producer was quickly thrown back into jail)?
Why send money to Pakistan denouncing said video?
Plus cback0220 link takes the WH to task on the word terror.

Here is a (clipped) transcript via Breitbart:

From Breitbart: On Fox News Sunday this morning, White House spokesman Dan Pfeiffer was asked by Chris Wallace where in the White House President Obama was during the September 11, 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi that killed four Americans. “Question,” asked Wallace. “What did the President do the rest of that night to pursue Benghazi?” Pfeiffer answered, “Look, the President was kept up to date on this as it was happening the entire night, from the moment it started until the very end …. I recognize that there’s a series of conspiracy theories Republicans have been spinning about it since the time it happened.” He then added, “The question here is not what happened that night.”

Wallace pressed him further: “With due respect, you didn’t answer my question: what did the president do that night?” Pfeiffer said that Obama was in touch with his national security team, but as Wallace pointed out, he didn’t talk to the Secretary of State except for one time after the attack was over, didn’t talk to the Secretary of Defense, didn’t talk with the Joint Chiefs of Staff as it developed.

Finally, Wallace asked whether Obama was in the Situation Room. “I don’t remember what room the President was in on that night,” shot back Pfeiffer, “and that’s a largely irrelevant fact.” Wallace continued to press the point, and Pfeiffer continued to evade.

Ben Shapiro is Editor-At-Large of Breitbart News and author of the New York Times bestseller “Bullies: How the Left’s Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences America” (Threshold Editions, January 8, 2013).

Now the WH is trying to spin POTUS location that night; after repeadtedly saying he was not in the situation room for the attack. So where was POTUS during the attack? Why the secrecy and evasions?

Platoon Leaders are held to a higher standard.

 

[Blizzard]

Sorry for the late reply, I was on vacation fishing and my internet access was limited.

I can't cite the 13 deaths completely. I can only site 8 American dead but in my defense State doesn't clearly publish a list of lost personal or the lost of American contractors working for State.
3 Deaths: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,100102,00.html
American citizens deaths and kidnapping are found on the links of this page:
http://www.state.gov/j/ct/rls/crt/
5 Deaths from Thomas Jefferson Award:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson_Star_for_Foreign_Service

Not even close! None of those deaths occured at a U.S. Embassy or during an attack on a U.S. Embassy. Attempting to compare those to Benghazi is silly.

 

[Scotth]

Then why send Ms Rice out to claim it was caused by a video (whose producer was quickly thrown back into jail)?

Because that is what the intelligence community was saying at the time.
Link to CIA exchange on the subject: http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/interac...mails/white-house-benghazi-emails.pdf#page=29

If you listen to what Ms. Rice said she qualified her remarks that "at this time" this was the best assessment of what was happening and why.
From the transcript of her ABC appearance:

For more on what happened and why, let's bring in the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Dr. Susan Rice. Dr. Rice, thank you for joining us.
RICE: Good to be with you, Jake.
TAPPER: So, first of all, what is the latest you can tell us on who these attackers were at the embassy or at the consulate in Benghazi? We're hearing that the Libyans have arrested people. They're saying that some people involved were from outside the country, that there might have even been Al Qaida ties. What's the latest information?
RICE: Well, Jake, first of all, it's important to know that there's an FBI investigation that has begun and will take some time to be completed. That will tell us with certainty what transpired.
But our current best assessment, based on the information that we have at present, is that, in fact, what this began as, it was a spontaneous -- not a premeditated -- response to what had transpired in Cairo. In Cairo, as you know, a few hours earlier, there was a violent protest that was undertaken in reaction to this very offensive video that was disseminated.
We believe that folks in Benghazi, a small number of people came to the embassy to -- or to the consulate, rather, to replicate the sort of challenge that was posed in Cairo. And then as that unfolded, it seems to have been hijacked, let us say, by some individual clusters of extremists who came with heavier weapons, weapons that as you know in -- in the wake of the revolution in Libya are -- are quite common and accessible. And it then evolved from there.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/week...ons-susan-rice/story?id=17240933#.UZkMf3oo7Gj

Then we have the current situation were Republican were caught releasing doctored quotes trying to prove a point that it was the WH driving those statements when it was the CIA. The WH was actually worried about preserving information for the following investigation. A very good summary of the ABC story based on doctored Republican quotes:
http://thelead.blogs.cnn.com/2013/05/14/cnn-exclusive-white-house-email-contradicts-benghazi-leaks/

A very good time line for the two separate attacks in Libya:
http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/09/world/africa/libya-benghazi-timeline

Plus cback0220 link takes the WH to task on the word terror.

cback's link is a criticism of his statement at an election debate. It doesn't change the fact that he repeatedly called it an "Act or Terror" immediately following the incident which is what the right is trying to say he didn't. You can have an argument about the differences in the phrase "Act of Terrorism" vs. "Act of Terror" really means but we all know what the President says has consequence. If he overstates something he gets held to account just like after the arrest of Obama professors friend when he made comments not knowing the facts. People also try to hold him to some arbitrary standard of what is appropriate in there "opinion". The right wants to conveniently forget the events that proceeded Libya and everything that happened after Libya. The right wants to believe that none of those 30ish protest that followed after Cairo were motivated by that YouTube video and none of those events impacted the administrations reaction. Libya was just an isolated event.

 

[Scotth]

Not even close! None of those deaths occured at a U.S. Embassy or during an attack on a U.S. Embassy. Attempting to compare those to Benghazi is silly.

Neither did the 4 people in Libya. 2 died at the State Department Annex in Benghazi and 2 more died at a separate CIA facility also in Benghazi. The US Consulate is in Tripoli.

 

[Blizzard]

Neither did the 4 people in Libya. 2 died at the State Department Annex in Benghazi and 2 more died at a separate CIA facility also in Benghazi. The US Consulate is in Tripoli.

Quit while you're behind. You can try to split hairs all you want (FWIW, the U.S. Embassy is in Tripoli, Benghazi was a consulate). Regardless, either way, they were U.S. diplomatic facilities and they were killed because it was being overrun. The scenarios you posted are in no way comparable.

 

[DA SWO]

Because that is what the intelligence community was saying at the time.
Link to CIA exchange on the subject: http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/interac...mails/white-house-benghazi-emails.pdf#page=29

If you listen to what Ms. Rice said she qualified her remarks that "at this time" this was the best assessment of what was happening and why.
From the transcript of her ABC appearance:

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/week...ons-susan-rice/story?id=17240933#.UZkMf3oo7Gj

Then we have the current situation were Republican were caught releasing doctored quotes trying to prove a point that it was the WH driving those statements when it was the CIA. The WH was actually worried about preserving information for the following investigation. A very good summary of the ABC story based on doctored Republican quotes:
http://thelead.blogs.cnn.com/2013/05/14/cnn-exclusive-white-house-email-contradicts-benghazi-leaks/

A very good time line for the two separate attacks in Libya:
http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/09/world/africa/libya-benghazi-timeline



cback's link is a criticism of his statement at an election debate. It doesn't change the fact that he repeatedly called it an "Act or Terror" immediately following the incident which is what the right is trying to say he didn't. You can have an argument about the differences in the phrase "Act of Terrorism" vs. "Act of Terror" really means but we all know what the President says has consequence. If he overstates something he gets held to account just like after the arrest of Obama professors friend when he made comments not knowing the facts. People also try to hold him to some arbitrary standard of what is appropriate in there "opinion". The right wants to conveniently forget the events that proceeded Libya and everything that happened after Libya. The right wants to believe that none of those 30ish protest that followed after Cairo were motivated by that YouTube video and none of those events impacted the administrations reaction. Libya was just an isolated event.

Wrong again, CIA documents were changed and the words Terror/Terrorism were removed by the State Deptarment (was was/is in full CYA mode).

How many attcks previous to this, lasted 8 hours?

 

[Scotth]

Wrong again, CIA documents were changed and the words Terror/Terrorism were removed by the State Deptarment (was was/is in full CYA mode).

If you read through the released email in this link: http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/interac...mails/white-house-benghazi-emails.pdf#page=29

You will see from the very beginning the talking points were CIA owned. If you go to anywhere in the middle you will find Victoria Nuland (State Dept Rep) was very unhappy with the wording of the talking points. If you go to page 53 and look at an email from Jacob Sullivan to Victoria Nuland you will see that the CIA wasn't allowing State to edit the CIA's talking points.

 

[Chopstick]

Just curious. Thoughts on Adm. Mullen's statement?

At another point Rep. Jason Chaffetz, Utah Republican, questioned why no military rescue mission had been mounted, saying the U.S. didn’t even ask for assistance from NATO allies who were close to the scene.
“I actually commanded NATO forces, and the likelihood that NATO could respond in a situation like that was absolutely zero,” Adm. Mullen fired back

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news...enghazi-investigators-gave-clinton-he/?page=2

 

[Chopstick]

Anybody watch this?

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57609479/60-minutes-benghazi/?pageNum=3

Five months before that night, Morgan Jones first arrived in Benghazi, in eastern Libya about 400 miles from the capital, Tripoli.

He thought this would be an easy assignment compared to Afghanistan and Iraq. But on his first drive through Benghazi, he noticed the black flags of al Qaeda flying openly in the streets and he grew concerned about the guard forces as soon as he pulled up to the U.S. compound.

Morgan Jones: There was nobody there that we could see. And then we realized they were all inside drinking tea, laughing and joking.

Lara Logan: What did you think?

Morgan Jones: Instantly I thought we're going to have to get rid of all these guys.

 

[Chopstick]

I suppose this is pretty much the nail in the coffin for that "spontaneous reaction to a youtube video" story that Susan Rice was sent out to peddle and that we had no assistance in the area.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/oct/30/us-military-commandos-made-it-to-benghazi/?page=3

But a second thread of the administration’s story line was that no U.S. special operations forces were deployed to Benghazi because none was within range to arrive during the eight-hour onslaught.

But sources directly familiar with the attack tell The Washington Times that a unit of eight special operators — mostly Delta Force and Green Beret members — were in Tripoli the night of the attack, on a counterterrorism mission that involved capturing weapons and wanted terrorists from the streets and helping train Libyan forces.

The two special operators were awarded medals for valor for helping repel a complex attack that killed Ambassador J. Christopher Stephens, another American diplomat and two former Navy SEALs, but spared many more potential casualties.

“Yes, we had special forces in Tripoli, and two in fact did volunteer and engaged heroically in the efforts to save Americans,” one source told The Times. “The others were asked to stay behind to help protect Tripoli in case there was a coordinated attack on our main embassy.

Pressed why the Pentagon and administration officials did not publicly acknowledge the special operations forces’ contribution that tragic night, the sources said officials decided that their anti-terror work inside Libya was sensitive and closely guarded. In addition, U.S. officials did not have a Status of Forces Agreement in place that would have authorized the troops’ presence, the sources said.

 

[Centermass]

This whole situation has been blown out of proportion for partisan politics and nothing more.

The truth is the administration fucked up. Congress fucked up when they cut the security budget. Nobody wants to take responsibility, this is about 2016 pure and simple.

Um, no it isn't or ever was, this was about November 6th, 2012. When you have the Israelis that knew who was responsible blown off, and Rice continuously spouting off at the mouth her talking points, just goes to show how someone can lack a smidgen of common sense not to mention intelligence and still move up the ladder.

All they've done is posture, delay and shift the subject matter elsewhere before the election and have been doing it ever since.

In a video tape released a few hours before the attack, Zawahri called on the faithful to take revenge on the United States for liquidating one of the organization's top operatives, Libyan-born Abu Yahya al-Libi in June by a US drone in northwestern Pakistan. Its release was the "go" signal for the hit team to attack the US diplomats in Benghazi. To mask their mission, they stormed the consulate on the back of a violent protest by hundreds of Islamists against a film said to insult Prophet Muhammed produced by a Florida real estate agent called Sam Bacile, who has been described as of Israeli origin.

So tell me Scott, when was this article posted?

Then, you have this tidbit that was posted 2 weeks prior to the attack.

The Department of State warns U.S. citizens against all but essential travel to Libya. The incidence of violent crime, especially carjacking and robbery, has become a serious problem. In addition, political violence in the form of assassinations and vehicle bombs has increased in both Benghazi and Tripoli.

Frank's post on page 1 was spot the fuck on, whether this, the ACA mess, Lois Lerner, Fast and Furious etc etc:

Did you notice? The buck no longer stops anywhere. It's a fucking volleyball game.

 

[Scotth]

Um, no it isn't or ever was, this was about November 6th, 2013. When you have the Israelis that knew who was responsible blown off, and Rice continuously spouting off at the mouth her talking points, just goes to show how someone can lack a smidgen of common sense not to mention intelligence and still move up the ladder.

All they've done is posture, delay and shift the subject matter elsewhere before the election and have been doing it ever since.

If this "investigation" in all about the truth and the people lost that day like you want to suggest. Why did Issa make a secret trip to Libya to interview people that were on the ground that day, but he didn't invite any Democrats from the committee to come on the trip?

 

[racing_kitty]

Because the Democrats lined up lockstep and said this was a nonissue, blamed a video so bad as to be laughable, and got pissed when people didn't buy the bullshit.

 

[Scotth]

or it might be argued that after Issa's committee went to Cincinnati to interview the IRS agents involved in that "scandal". Issa came back to Washington he release a few select quotes from the interviews to try an suggest White House involvement. Democrats objected to the quotes and wanted the full interviews released. Issa didn't release the full transcripts and the Democrats ended up releasing the full transcripts a week later. After that we haven't heard dick about the IRS Scandal.

People would probably suggest that Issa learned from that incident and doesn't want anyone around that can contradict his "investigations" in the future.

 

[racing_kitty]

Oh bullshit. The problem with your example is that with the trickle of information coming out in THAT scandal (it'sup to what, 120+ days now?) has implicated White House involvement without Issa's input.

But that's not Libya.

 

[Centermass]

If this "investigation" in all about the truth and the people lost that day like you want to suggest. Why did Issa make a secret trip to Libya to interview people that were on the ground that day, but he didn't invite any Democrats from the committee to come on the trip?

You going to answer the question I asked or just ignore it?

This ain't about politics scott, it's about the lives of several good men that were lost and accountability-something no one from rice on up want anything to do with. They would rather it just go away.

 

[Mad boomer]

Lies and deceit live from DC.

 

[Scotth]

You going to answer the question I asked or just ignore it?

This ain't about politics scott, it's about the lives of several good men that were lost and accountability-something no one from rice on up want anything to do with. They would rather it just go away.

If you want me to comment on something you post then site your quote. I'm not going to comment on some random post.

If you want to arm chair quarterback this event by all means do it. Hind-sight is always 20-20.

As far as travel warning being a precursor. Since May 10th of this year the State Department has issued 34 Travel Warnings. How many embassies have been attacked during this time?
http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/tw/tw_1764.html

Let me ask you this question. When do you think this is going to end? At least 13 hearings so far, how many is it going to take 20, 25, 30? Am I the only guy that remembers the 90's? When did the Republican's ever end an investigation that they started against Clinton? Can you say with a straight face that this is going to end before the 2016 elections? Republican's sure did end the investigation into the lack of WMD in Iraq, which was an argument that lead are country to war costing us 4500+ American deaths and x10 wounded. The House Oversight Committee sure didn't hold 13 hearings over that debacle. But hey that was no more political than this investigation.