Benghazi Select Committee [Official Thread]

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Boehner Names Members for Benghazi Select Committee

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/boehner-names-members-benghazi-select-committee_791211.html

?This investigation is about getting answers for the families of the victims and for the American people. These members have each demonstrated a commitment to this goal, and I have confidence that they will lead a serious, fact-based inquiry. As I have expressed to each of them, I expect this committee to carry out an investigation worthy of the American lives lost in Benghazi. I also urge my Democratic colleagues to treat this tragedy with the proper respect and appoint members so that we can finally, on a bipartisan basis, get answers, provide accountability, and help deliver justice. It is critical that this committee do its work in a focused, timely manner, so that the House can continue to make the economy and job creation its priorities.?

The Republican members of the Select Committee will be:

    Rep. Susan Brooks (R-IN)
    Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC), Chairman
    Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH)
    Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-KS)
    Rep. Martha Roby (R-AL)
    Rep. Peter Roskam (R-IL)

Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA)

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Gowdy Carries ?Confidence? of Boehner and Hopes of Right as Benghazi Chairman

http://pjmedia.com/blog/gowdy-carries-confidence-of-boehner-and-hopes-of-right-as-benghazi-chairman/?print=1

WASHINGTON ? The lawmaker chosen to lead the House panel investigating the 2012 Benghazi tragedy is an unabashed supporter of the Tea Party movement who still considers himself more of a prosecutor than a professional politician.

Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) was tabbed to fill the chairmanship of the newly formed select committee to investigate the State Department?s handling of the 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that led to the deaths of four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens.

Several House and Senate committees have been delving into the events surrounding the attack and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) had exhibited reluctance about forming a special committee. He decided to proceed on May 2, asserting that the White House is so ?intent on obstructing the truth about Benghazi that it is even willing to defy subpoenas issued by the standing committees of the people?s House.?

?Four of our fellow citizens were murdered, and a facility emblematic and representative of our country was attacked and burned on the anniversary of 9-11,? Gowdy said. ?Our fellow citizens are full well capable of processing the truth about the attacks and aftermath, and most assuredly entitled to hear it.?

Twenty months after the Sept. 11, 2012, Benghazi attacks, Gowdy said, unresolved questions remain about inadequate security, the U.S. response and the government?s interaction with the public after the attack.

?All of those lines of inquiry are legitimate and should be apolitical,? Gowdy said. ?Facts are neither red nor blue.?

The House on Thursday voted 232-186 along party lines, Republicans forming the majority, to investigate all policies, decisions and activities that contributed to the attacks on U.S. facilities in Libya and affected the ability of the U.S. to prepare for the onslaught. The committee also is empowered to look into the Obama administration?s efforts to identify and bring to justice the perpetrators and gather information related to lessons learned from the attacks.

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GOP will start Benghazi probe without Dems after Nancy Pelosi rejects committee rules

http://washingtonexaminer.com/gop-will-start-benghazi-probe-without-dems-after-nancy-pelosi-rejects-committee-rules/article/2548287?custom_click=rss

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has rejected the terms of a GOP-created select committee on Benghazi, but Republicans are moving ahead without them.

A top aide to House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, told the Washington Examiner that the Benghazi Select Committee met today for the first time and plans to move ahead with its investigation, despite the missing Democrats.

"We made a fair offer," Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said. "We hope they appoint Democrats. At this point, it's time to get to work."

Pelosi, D-Calif., rejected the panel's terms in letter to Boehner that was in response to GOP proposal about the select panel would operate.

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Trey Gowdy Silences the Press.....must watch video!

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1jeJmeeMjs" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1jeJmeeMjs</a>

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State tells House Oversight Committee to find a ?more appropriate witness? than Kerry on Benghazi

http://hotair.com/archives/2014/05/13/state-tells-house-oversight-committee-to-find-a-more-appropriate-witness-than-kerry-on-benghazi/

If Darrell Issa expected John Kerry to abide by a subpoena in the issue of e-mails withheld by the White House on Benghazi, the State Department wants to temper those expectations. Earlier today, spokesperson Jen Psaki offered a suggestion to the House Oversight Committee ? find someone ?more appropriate? for such testimony:

    The State Department is doubling down on its opposition to Secretary of State John Kerry testifying on the deadly Benghazi attack, saying in a statement overnight that a congressional committee should find ?a more appropriate witness.?

    Kerry will be on a previously scheduled official trip to Mexico on May 21, the day the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee subpoenaed him to testify, State spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in the statement.

    Psaki said State Department officials had been in touch with the committee to ?determine how to resolve their subpoena,? but she stopped short of confirming that Kerry would ever appear at a hearing related to the Sept. 11, 2012, attack, which predated his time in office.

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?Danged if I know?: Susan Rice seems to scoff at Benghazi probe question

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/05/15/danged-if-know-susan-rice-seems-to-scoff-at-benghazi-probe-question/

National Security Adviser Susan Rice, at a foreign policy lunch on Wednesday, seemed to scoff at a question on whether a select committee investigation on Benghazi would reveal new evidence.

"Danged if I know," Rice said, to audience laughter. "I mean honestly, the administration has produced, I think, 25,000 pages of documents. ... It's hard to imagine what further will come of yet another committee. What I think about and focus on as the national security adviser is what we must do with Congress to increase our security of our embassies and facilities around the world."

She was addressing the decision last week by the House to establish a select committee investigation. Rice on Wednesday steered away from the issue of her national TV appearances in 2012 in which she wrongly linked an anti-Islam video to the terrorist attack.

"What is lost in all of this discussion about Sunday shows and talking points is that we lost four brave Americans on that day, " Rice said.

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Lawmakers say Rice?s story has ?absolutely collapsed? amid more questions on Benghazi account

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/05/15/lawmakers-say-rices-story-has-absolutely-collapsed-amid-more-questions-on/

questions on Benghazi account
Catherine Herridge

By Catherine Herridge
Published May 15, 2014
FoxNews.com
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Leading Republican senators charged Thursday that National Security Adviser Susan Rice?s public account of the Benghazi terror attack has now ?absolutely collapsed,? citing inaccuracies in her statements not only on the origin of the attack but the level of security at the U.S. compound.

The lawmakers said she is clearly ?frustrated? that her story is falling apart, a day after Rice appeared to scoff at a question on whether a congressional select committee probe would reveal new evidence. ?Danged if I know,? Rice said in response to the question Wednesday.

"She's frustrated this won't go away,"Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told reporters at a Capitol Hill news conference along with Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H. "She's frustrated that she appeared on national television and told a story about Benghazi that has absolutely collapsed."

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Trey Gowdy Names GOP Aide Turned Lobbyist As Director Of Benghazi Panel

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/trey-gowdy-phil-kiko-staff-director-benghazi

Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) on Thursday named Phil Kiko, a lobbyist and former Republican aide, as the majority staff director for the House select committee on Benghazi, which he chairs.

Since April 2013 Kiko has been vice chairman of the Smith-Free Group, a lobbying outfit in Washington D.C. Before that he worked in various GOP roles on Capitol Hill including as a legal counsel for the National Republican Congressional Committee and as chief of staff to the Republican-led Judiciary Committee under Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI).

"Phil brings with him years of experience serving in various capacities in the House and the

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ALAN GRAYSON: Here's How I Plan To Make The Benghazi Investigation A 'Nightmare' For Republicans

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/alan-grayson-heres-plan-benghazi-190600278.html

Rep. Alan Grayson, a Democrat from Florida, has a plan to become Republicans' "worst nightmare" if he is indeed appointed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to the select committee investigating the 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya.

Pelosi has not yet decided whether Democrats will participate in the panel. However, in an interview with Business Insider, Grayson gave a preview of what he'd do if he gets the job.

Grayson said the creation of the select committee dedicated to investigating Benghazi proves House Oversight Committee Chair Darrell Issa's probe of the incident is a "failure." He compared Republicans still focusing on Benghazi to so-called birthers who questioned President Barack Obama's citizenship.

"It's ridiculous. They just dredge up one fake scandal after another fake scandal, going all the way back to the president's birth certificate," Grayson said.

Grayson said he would use the Benghazi hearings as an opportunity to draw attention to other issues important to "ordinary Americans" that have not received as much attention.

"That's where we are at this point," he added. "They're scandalmongers without a scandal. They're trying to offer the American people bread and circuses ? without the bread."

Grayson has repeatedly said he would love to be appointed to the committee if Democrats do participate. The committee was established earlier this month by House Speaker John Boehner to investigate Benghazi attack and subsequent government response.

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Nancy Pelosi names Democrats for Benghazi panel

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/05/nancy-pelosi-benghazi-john-boehner-panel-106937.html

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi ? after a heated debate over the issue within her caucus ? officially tapped five Democrats to the special committee charged with investigating the Benghazi attacks.

Democratic Reps. Elijah Cummings (Md.), Adam Smith (Wash.), Adam Schiff (Calif.), Linda Sanchez (Calif.) and Tammy Duckworth (Ill.) will serve on the panel, which is headed by South Carolina Republican Trey Gowdy.

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House Demands Report From Obama on Efforts to Capture Benghazi Attackers

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/05/21/house-demands-report-from-obama-on-efforts-to-capture-benghazi-attackers/

The U.S. House on Wednesday night quickly approved an amendment to a defense policy bill that would require President Barack Obama to report to Congress on what is known about those who attacked the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi in 2012 ? and also what actions have been taken to capture the attackers.

The language also requires Obama to determine whether he has the authority to use force against the attackers, and makes a finding that the attackers still pose a security threat to the United States.

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One of the White House?s First Responses During the Benghazi Attack: Call YouTube

http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2014/05/22/one-of-the-white-houses-first-responses-during-the-benghazi-attack-call-youtube/?print=1

While Ambassador Chris Stevens was missing on September 11, 2012, and while Tyrone Woods, Sean Smith and Glen Doherty were fighting for their lives, with military assets within a quick flight to provide aid, the Obama White House decided to call?YouTube.

    A still-classified State Department e-mail says that one of the first responses from the White House to the Benghazi attack was to contact YouTube to warn of the ?ramifications? of allowing the posting of an anti-Islamic video, according to Rep. Darrell Issa, the Republican chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

    The memo suggests that even as the attack was still underway ? and before the CIA began the process of compiling talking points on its analysis of what happened ? the White House believed it was in retaliation for a controversial video.

    The subject line of the e-mail, which was sent at 9:11 p.m. Eastern Time on the night of the attack, is ?Update on Response to actions ? Libya.? The was written hours before the attack was over.

    Issa has asked the White House to declassify and release the document. In the meantime he has inserted a sentence from the e-mail in the Congressional Record.

    ?White House is reaching out to U-Tube [sic] to advice ramification of the posting of the Pastor Jon video,? the e-mail reads, according to Issa.

U-Tube?

What did the White House want YouTube, a privately-owned website, to do?

Wouldn?t a call to the military have been more appropriate?

The White House spin on this is that the memo shows that senior officials genuinely believed that the video had caused the attack. Giving them the benefit of the doubt, it was always obvious that the attack was pre-planned. It was also obvious that the movie was being used by terrorists who had major plans for the unrest they were causing.

None of that excuses anyone at the White House for continuing to blame the video for weeks after the attack. It doesn?t excuse Hillary Clinton for blaming the movie with the bodies of the dead resting behind her, on September 14, 2012, and vowing to jail the filmmaker. It doesn?t excuse Ambassador Susan Rice blaming the movie, and it doesn?t come within a country mile of excusing Barack Obama for saying this to the UN on September 26.

?The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam.?

He has certainly made good on that.

Issa has a different take on the memo.

    He contends the document contradicts the White House assertion that it was the CIA who first pinned blame for the attack on protests in response to the anti-Islamic video.

    ?The e-mail shows the White House had hurried to settle on a false narrative ? one at odds with the conclusions reached by those on the ground ? before Americans were even out of harm?s way or the intelligence community had made an impartial examination of available evidence,? Issa said.

While the White House was ringing up YouTube, Americans on the ground in Benghazi were reporting that Ansar al-Sharia jihadists were running the attack. Personnel in Tripoli wanted to help. The White House settled on blaming a movie, rather than re-examining its own policies and decisions leading up to the attack, or sending in troops and air assets that could have saved lives, pretty darn early.

And the terrorists who mounted the attack remain at large.

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Vallely: Stevens Was in Benghazi Negotiating Arms Deal

http://www.newsmax.com/PrintTemplate.aspx/?nodeid=573872

American Ambassador Christopher Stevens, who was murdered with three other Americans in Benghazi in 2012, was involved in a secret U.S. arms deal with al-Qaida-backed Libyan rebels, retired Army Maj. Gen. Paul Vallely has claimed.

"We now have pretty good evidence to answer the question of why Ambassador Stevens was in Benghazi," Vallely exclusively told "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV.

"He was there because of an arms deal that was a covert plan within the State Department ? to arm the Libyan rebels whom the United States government was supporting, and who ultimately ousted former Libyan Prime Minister Moammar Gadhafi in October 2011,'' Vallely said.

There have been ongoing rumors about Stevens' true purpose in Benghazi since he was slain by terrorists on Sept. 11, 2012. Stevens, who was based in Tripoli, arrived in Benghazi on Sept. 10, the day before the attacks on the mission compound.

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First order for Benghazi committee members: drawing up attack timeline

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/05/30/first-order-for-benghazi-committee-members-drawing-up-timeline-attack/

Members of the Republican-led Benghazi select committee are getting down to work, with the first order of business a detailed timeline of the attack.

But it already is apparent to some committee members that previous investigations, including the State Department review known as the Accountability Review Board, were not as exhaustive as the administration claimed.

"If you go look at the other reports that were done, whether it be the Accountability Review Board or the Senate case (last January?s intelligence committee report), there are places where they have enough details but many, many gaps in the fact pattern," Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kan., a West Point graduate who sits on the Benghazi select committee, told Fox News.

"We still don't have all of the facts that surrounded the events of that night. Did the Department of Defense speak to the State Department? Did the State Department have good contacts with our intelligence operations folks?Where was the White House and its National Security staff, that entire team that's responsible?"

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Special Operation Speaks' letter to Rep. Gowdy on Benghazi

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/interactive/2014/05/29/special-operation-speaks-letter-to-rep-gowdy-on-benghazi/