Foreign press on the Benghazi investigation

UK Guardian;Whistleblower says Stevens went to Benghazi to prep for Clinton visit – as it happened
"The Obama administration has admitted misstatements on the part of UN ambassador Susan Rice and others in the immediate wake of the attacks, which were initially portrayed as a spontaneous raid when in fact they were multi-pronged and organized. But the administration has denied fault in the defense of the mission, saying that Benghazi was within a conflict zone, and denied any cover-up, saying Benghazi was a scene of distant chaos and it's natural that all the facts did not come out instantly. The state department has published an accountability review board report on the attacks that supports this view. Republicans call the report nonsense."

In their time line of the testimony, the Guardian gives an example of this administration's ineptitude:

Hicks takes on Clinton directly. Replying to her question of "what difference does it make" whether the attack was the result of a protest or was pre-planned, Hicks says, "I think the question is, 'what difference did it make.'"
He says it made a huge difference because by putting out the narrative of a protest gone wrong, the Obama administration undercut Libyan president Magarief, who was calling the attack a terror attack. That angered Magarief, who then put up bureaucratic blocks, Hicks says, to the FBI entering the country, securing the scene and investigating the attack.
Hicks:

President Magarief was insulted in front of his own people, in front of the world. His credibility was reduced. His ability to govern was [damaged]. He was angry... He was still steamed about the talk shows two weeks later. I definitely believe it negatively affected our ability to get the FBI team quickly to Benghazi.

 

Coulter: Beware of Liberals who come in Evangelicals’ clothing

Ann Coulter;  "One Evangelical after another told the Times that they no longer believe Americans should have control over who immigrates here on the basis of having met illegal aliens in their pews. The millions harmed by illegal immigration are left out of the equation. They don’t go to church here.
Similarly, the pro-choice crowd is brimming with compassion for girls who have gotten pregnant by accident. They’re in high school, their whole lives are ahead of them, it’s one mistake! The babies don’t count because they’re out of sight."
....
"They won't hear from hospitals and school systems in border states forced into bankruptcy because they have to provide free services to illegals. They won't chat with farmers and ranchers whose livestock and property are stolen or destroyed by illegal aliens."

Senator Lindsey Graham says Hillary Clinton’s management of the Benghazi crisis could cost her a “promotion” to the presidency.

Hot Air   "The hearing also showed the chasm between the culture of career civil servants ready to risk their lives and the vicious political culture of Washington. No doubt politics motivated some of the Republicans, but due to the nature of the hearing they were cast as investigators. Most Democrats appeared far more dedicated to defending Mrs. Clinton and the Obama administration than to finding out exactly what happened, and any criticism of Ms. Rice was rebutted. After all, Chris Stevens is gone but 2016 is just around the corner."

Hat tip to Rich Cutter Avallone

 

‘The Queen's Henchmen’  "Last December, Hillary Clinton's State Department famously threw four career officials under the bus for Benghazi (while of course exculpating all senior and political appointees). One of them was Raymond Maxwell, the deputy assistant secretary for Maghreb Affairs in the Near East Bureau. But Hillary didn't reckon on the fact that Maxwell was also an aspiring poet. He soon became a participant in National Poetry Writing Month, and Diplopundit has republished one of his efforts, a poem a clef about the former secretary of state called "Invitation.""  (23rd and C Street NW is the location of the State Department):

Read the entire poem

Imagine a generation protesting for MORE government!

http://terrellaftermath.com/

What difference does it make!?

The Difference It Made   The whistleblowers’ testimony is recounted here with little adornment, because to read it is to understand its import. It shows an administration characterized ex ante by incompetence and ex post facto by panic and cold calculation, willing to subvert national security for campaign-season politics. And it paints Hillary Clinton’s inner circle as eager to shift blame from political appointees to mid-level career employees, to intimidate foreign and civil servants into toeing the company line, and to punish those who refused (Hicks was demoted).

What difference does it make now, Hillary?
"What became crystal clear at today’s hearings is that both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton knew immediately that Benghazi was a terrorist attack and not a protest."

That Clinton-Obama apology video Out of all this president's serial apologies, this one has to be the most reprehensible.

Hicks: Special Forces ‘Furious’ Upon Being Told to Stand Down

Hearings revealed that more questions are important, and necessary.
"Hicks said that administration lawyers had instructed him not to meet in Libya with a congressional delegation led by Representative Jason Chaffetz (R., Utah) in the wake of the attack — the first time in his career he had ever received such a request. Hicks took the meeting, but a State Department lawyer who tried to sit in was barred because he lacked a security clearance. Hicks later received an angry phone call from Mills demanding a report from the meeting. “A phone call from that near a person [to the secretary of state] is generally not considered to be good news,” Hicks said."

What came out of the Benghazi hearings today, May 8th, 2013

Bookworm Room found this on Facebook "One of my Facebook friends who is, like me, a refugee from the Left, put together a perfect summary of what came out of today’s testimony.  If you’re on Facebook, please share this article or just block and copy this summary and send it around:"....

....8. Greg Hicks – the top diplomat in Libya – is shocked and embarrassed by Susan Rice’s appearances. When he raises the issue with his superiors at State they turn hostile.
9. When a congressional investigation team comes to Libya, Greg Hicks – still the top diplomat in Libya – is ordered by State Department lawyers for the first time in his 22 year long career not to talk to a Congressional committee. A State Department lawyer is sent along with the committee to make sure Hicks is kept away.
10. When he does talk to the committee, a furious Hillary Clinton’s chief of staff, Cheryl Mills, calls Hicks and demands an explanation and a report.
11. Gregory Hicks – a diplomat with a stellar record – has been harassed by the State Department and has not had an appointment since the Benghazi affair.

Diplomat Says Questions Over Benghazi Led to Demotion  "Mr. Hicks offered an unbecoming view of political supervision and intimidation inside the Obama administration. When Representative Jason Chaffetz, Republican of Utah, visited Libya after the attack, Mr. Hicks said his bosses told him not to talk to the congressman. When he did anyway, and a State Department lawyer was excluded from one meeting because he lacked the necessary security clearance, Mr. Hicks said he received an angry phone call from Mrs. Clinton’s chief of staff, Cheryl Mills."
Hicks: ‘I’ve been demoted’ for challenging Susan Rice’s claims

Powerline; The Benghazi Hearing: Did It Matter?  "... For example, we now know that there were multiple instances when special ops would-be rescuers were told to stand down, leading Lt. Col. Gibson to tell Greg Hicks, “This is the first time in my career that a diplomat has more balls than somebody in the military.” Obvious questions remain to be answered: Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton hide behind the military, saying or implying that doing nothing to try to save the besieged Americans in Benghazi was a military decision. But we don’t know that: who actually gave the order to give up on the Americans who eventually died? So far, there is no evidence on the record.

Whistleblower: “YouTube video was a non-event in Libya.” 

"Hicks gave a moving, harrowing account of the night of the attack, sometimes visibly overcome by emotion as he spoke.  Nothing in his account gave even the smallest hint of any “spontaneous video protest.”  He was very clear about discussing events with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that very night, at around 2 AM… and yet she, and the rest of the Administration, continued peddling a blatantly false narrative about a video protest for days afterward."

Flashback: Obama One Week After Benghazi – “Extremely Offensive Video Directed At Mohammed And Islam” Responsible For Attack…

Weasel Zippers

As witnesses today make clear that there was real-time information that the Benghazi attack was terrorism, and as reports circulate that initial talking points were changed to suggest it was an anti-Islamic video that was responsible, it’s important to recall that President Obama was still parroting the video line one week after the attack.

 

 Flashback: Jay Carney On Benghazi, “Let’s Be Clear. These Protests Were In Reaction To A Video”…

 

Remember Baghdad Bob?

Moonbat Vet Offers Her Spot In Arlington National Cemetery To Dead Boston Jihadist Tamerlan Tsarnaev…

Weasel Zippers   

 

Now why would anyone have a problem with a terrorist being buried among America’s heroes? 

“I feel sympathy for them in that as long as this issue is open, they can’t have closure… Nobody deserves to rot above ground.”

More commentary on Benghazi

Sharyl Attkisson of CBS News, a persistent voice of media skepticism on Benghazi
"From the start, the Obama administration’s account of what happened in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11 last year didn’t quite square for Sharyl Attkisson.
So the veteran CBS News reporter dug in, and kept digging."

The Profound Moral Failure of Benghazi  "If the most current reports can be believed, after depriving our men and women on the ground of the security they begged for, our leaders didn’t just stand by and watch as a tiny band of courageous but out-gunned Americans gave their last full measure of devotion to try to save an ambassador, save their fellow diplomats, and save themselves against an overwhelming terrorist force; those same leaders told potential rescuers to “stand down.” This isn’t just a tactical failure, or a failure of process. It’s a failure of character, and if there is any honor left in Washington, those responsible should resign."

Blackfive; What Needs to Be Answered about Benghazi  "NPR goes on to post speculation that this is really about Hillary Clinton's presidential ambitions and the Republicans attempts to thwart them."

The Blackfive article cites this column from PJ Media:
5 Benghazi Mysteries that Must Be Solved  "As the Benghazi story has unfolded, many mysteries have persisted. Why wasn’t the Benghazi mission’s security enhanced? Where was President Obama? What role, if any, did Obama campaign officials play in crafting the government’s communications after the attack? Perhaps Wednesday’s witnesses can help shed some light on them."
...."The question is, how far up in the U.S. chain of command was that decision made, and why was it made? Additionally, how did U.S. forces react to that order? Was anyone relieved of command for considering or attempting to disobey that order, as has been rumored for months?"

How Obama Betrayed America; A policy of appeasement and intervention abets our enemies.

David Horowitz  “If we have to use force, it is because we are America. We are the indispensable nation. We stand tall. We see farther into the future.” — Madeleine Albright, secretary of state (1997–2001), Clinton administration

"It is a judgment on Barack Obama’s timorous, apologetic, and irresponsible conduct of foreign affairs that Madeleine Albright’s words, spoken little more than 15 years ago, now sound as antique as a pronouncement by Harry Truman at the onset of the Cold War, the great challenge America confronted bravely and without equivocation generations ago. Obama has set in motion policies meant to make America far from indispensable — a diminished nation that “leads from behind,” if at all; a nation with a downsized military, chronically uncertain about its meaning and its mission as it skulks in the wings of the world stage."

Putin keeps John Kerry waiting for THREE HOURS during his visit to Russia for meetings over Syria as relationship between the U.S. and Russia remains frosty  "Differences over Syria have deepened strains in ties between the United States and Russia that are also hampered by what Washington views as a crackdown on Russian civil society since Putin began a third term as president a year ago after the biggest protests since he first rose to power in 2000."

 

The most America-bashing president ever

David Limbaugh  "Can he ever set aside his agenda for a brief moment? Can he ever pass up an opportunity to politicize?
"I don’t believe I’m exaggerating when I say we’ve never seen anything like this before – not to this extent, anyway." Next we hear from David's brother:

Rush: Obama sending secret signals in speeches  "When has a president of the United States ever attacked America’s sovereignty? I think this is a first. I am not aware of any president ever attacking America’s sovereignty. And in coded language, which is what this was, he’s winking and nodding and dog whistling to the radicalized – not all of them – the radicalized Hispanics. (imitating Obama) “I get it, I get it, we should never have taken Mexico. It’s really yours. I get it, I get it. We’ve been mean. We’ve been imposing our way too long.” Time for a new mind-set."
Even if this president never makes another regulation, the damage done by his mouth may never be undone. Those who elected this man are looking more like nincompoops as time goes by. TD

Obama Blames U.S., Repeats 90% Gun Lie In Mexico  "
Once again blaming his own country for Mexico's gun violence without mentioning Fast and Furious, the gun runner in chief pledges to find and jail gun smugglers. Perhaps he should start with his own administration."

Obama Bashes America On Foreign Soil: Blames America, NOT Him Or Eric Holder, For Gun Violence In Mexico

Obama, in Mexico, Credits Latinos for Winning Presidency " then he pledged immigration reform in the United States to legalize those who are here illegally."

Statecraft as Malpractice; The president’s “red line” is meaningless, and the world will take note.

I heard a statement somewhere about a man whose mouth wrote checks his brain couldn't cash. Don't know why I thought about that. Just did.

Rich Lowry  "This possibility is noted by friend and foe alike. Surely the Iranians will be even more likely to discount the president’s Churchillian statements of resolve in stopping their nuclear program. Surely the Israelis, who just bombed Iranian missiles in Syria making their way into Lebanon, will be even more likely to believe in no red line except their own. Our other allies around the world, who depend on security guarantees that, at the end of the day, are based only on our word, will wonder, too."