Benghazi Select Committee [Official Thread]

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Head of Benghazi probe says no witnesses off limits, including Clinton

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/07/30/head-benghazi-probe-says-no-witnesses-off-limits-including-clinton/?intcmp=trending

will he ask obi/valjar where they were that night?

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IT?S HAPPENING: Trey Gowdy Announces the First Benghazi Hearing

http://conservativetribune.com/first-benghazi-hearing/

It?s been almost two years since the terror attacks on a U.S. diplomatic mission and nearby CIA complex in Benghazi, Libya that took the lives of four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens on September 11, 2012. Since the events of that fateful evening, the left has done all they could to keep the American public from knowing what really happened at Benghazi.

Reports indicate that the Obama administration began working that very evening to hide the truth that terrorists were behind the attack?a truth that would have contradicted Obama?s 2012 campaign narrative that he had al-Qaeda ?on the run.? Other reports claim that the administration was hiding an illegal State Department gunrunning operation.

When blaming the attacks on an anti-Islam video didn?t work, senior Democrats including Nancy Pelosi, Senator Harry Reid, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and even President Barack Obama himself went on record, claiming that rumors of scandal and cover-up were nothing more than a Republican creation to undermine the president and the likely 2016 Democratic Party presidential nominee.

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The Ben Rhodes Story: How A Hack Writer Crafted the Benghazi Talking Points of a Lifetime

http://dailycaller.com/2014/08/03/the-ben-rhodes-story-how-a-hack-writer-crafted-the-benghazi-talking-points-of-a-lifetime/?print=1

Republican South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy, chairman of the Benghazi Select Committee, said this week that no witnesses are off limits in his committee?s investigation into the Benghazi cover-up. So who will he subpoena? Here?s a suggestion: How about Ben Rhodes.

Ben Rhodes, the 37-year old little brother of CBS News president David Rhodes, is a national security adviser to President Obama. He also happens to be an Upper East Side literary type who took a Master?s in Fiction from NYU. Real serious artist. Rhodes was the one who edited the White House?s Benghazi talking points to focus the blame on spontaneous reaction to a YouTube video, rather than an al-Qaeda attack.

Ben even published a short story in the spring 2002 edition of Beloit Fiction Journal called ?The Goldfish Smiles, You Smile Back,? about an extremely good note-taker who edits talking points. ?Goldfish? appears to be Rhodes? only credit.

So what went wrong, Ben? No takers on that screenplay you had rattling around in the glove compartment? Seed money running out and still couldn?t pop a weekend piece in Reader?s Digest? Find yourself on Gower Avenue staring in your empty coffee cup, listening to the air conditioner hum? Had to take a little day job in politics to tide you over? No shame in that.

One minute you?re sipping kambucha with your peer-workshop buddies, the next you?re in a suit working on ?The YouTube Video Project.? Happens to the best of us. So tell us the story, Ben. Tell us of the YouTube video talking points. Spin us this tale of power, romance, and intrigue. This is your Washington thriller. Finally. Make it count.

Viral Crucifix By Ben Rhodes (Chapter 1: ?Download of Death?)

?Out of coffee and cigs,? Barack sighed, running a weary hand across his scalp. I could sense the momentum in the room shifting. We?d been up for hours, with still no workable premise and our deadline approaching. He stood and headed for the door, mumbling about picking up a bagel and a cup of black coffee. Youthful. Youthful. How do I do youthful? My specialty in grad school had been austerity. Density. I was out of my element. Then, suddenly, like the final orgasmic thrust of an unfaithful lover in a Paris motel, it came to me. ?Wait. I?VE GOT IT.? Barack turned. ?Mr. President, it was a YouTube video! It was a YouTube video!?

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Will Closed-Door Benghazi Hearings Keep the Circus Away?

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2014/08/will-closed-door-benghazi-hearings-keep-the-circus-away/

Rep. Trey Gowdy was bombarded with requests from fellow Republicans, eager to take part in the latest congressional investigation of the Benghazi attack. But when it became clear that he intended to lead the inquiry behind closed doors, far from the spotlight, the requests soon fell silent.

?If you want to get on the news, then go rob a bank,? Gowdy, R-S.C., said, recounting his message to several Republicans on both sides of Capitol Hill, dashing their hopes of being featured in what they assumed would be high-profile televised hearings.

Boehner Pledges Benghazi Select Committee ?Not Going to Be a Circus?

Boehner Taps Gowdy to Head Benghazi Probe as Dems Express Doubt

Boehner Backs Vote for Select Committee to Probe Benghazi Attack

?It?s going to be a professional investigation, despite folks who may want to see it be something else,? Gowdy told ABC News. ?They?re going to be disappointed.?

The blunt talk from Gowdy,  appointed by Speaker John Boehner to lead the House Select Committee on Benghazi, Libya, helps explain why the investigation hasn?t generated politically explosive headlines that were anticipated at the beginning of summer.

The committee has been quietly interviewing family members, witnesses and poring over documents from the 2012 deadly attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission, but lawmakers have been doing nearly all of their work in private.

When Republicans voted in May to create a new committee to investigate the attack, Democrats bristled and several Republicans were hoping to play at least some role in any hearings during the summer and fall. But Gowdy said he had no interest in letting the process ?become a circus.?

Instead, he has approached the investigation like the work he did as a prosecutor before being elected to Congress in 2010 as one of the rising stars in the tea party wave. He said he has placed a vow of silence over the details of the investigation, with the hope of being fair and ?respectful of the four people who were killed.?

He and the top Democrat on the committee, Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, have sought to work together as partners ? albeit adversarial ones ? absent the public clashes and feuds that have become the soundtrack of this deeply divided Congress.

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House Benghazi panel to hold first hearing next week

http://washingtonexaminer.com/benghazi-panel-to-hold-first-hearing/article/2553016

A new special committee created to investigate the 2012 terrorist attacks in Benghazi, Libya, will hold its first public hearing next week, the panel announced Monday.

The hearing will focus on the implementation of security recommendations made by the State Department's Accountability Review Board that was set up to investigate the surroundings that led to the attacks.

The review board issued almost 30 recommendations in late 2012 after concluding that "systemic? State Department failures led to inadequate security at the diplomatic outpost in Benghazi.

Details of the hearing, including a witness list and on what day it will take place, haven't been announced.

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I don't have any high hopes of anyone being held accountable for Benghazi. I do know that valjar/obie will have a major event for a distraction next week.

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Benghazi panel begins hearings with questions on US diplomats' safety

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/09/14/special-benghazi-panel-starts-hearings-with-questions-on-us-diplomats-safety/

The select Benghazi Committee holds its first open hearing Wednesday, employing broad congressional powers to try to answer lingering questions ranging from what led to the fatal 2012 terror strikes on a U.S. outpost in Libya to what is being done to better protect U.S. diplomats worldwide.

The hearing by the Republican-led House committee will focus on the extent to which the State Department has implemented post?attack recommendations made by the Accountability Review Board.

The department created the five-member, independent board just weeks after the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks in which four Americans -- Ambassador Chris Stevens, information specialist Sean Smith and Navy SEALs Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty -- were killed.

[jafo2010]

While I agree it should not be a media circus, I oppose closed door investigations.  Too easy to cover up the findings.

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While I agree it should not be a media circus, I oppose closed door investigations.  Too easy to cover up the findings.

yep

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Benghazi bombshell: Diplomat tells of secret operation to withhold damaging docs from review board

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2014/09/benghazi_bombshell_diplomat_tells_of_secret_operation_to_withhold_damaging_docs_from_review_board.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=facebook

A potentially damaging and explosive revelation in the investigation of the Benghazi affair by the Daily Signal's Sheryl Attkisson. You may recall that Attkisson was forced out of her job at CBS for aggressively reporting on various Obama administration scandals.

This has the potential to derail Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.

Former Deputy Assistant Secretary Raymond Maxwell told Attkisson that there was an after hours operation set up in the basement of the State Department building that was supposed to go through all the documentation to be handed over to the Accountability Review Board and remove documents that may reflect badly on anyone in his department or on "the seventh floor" - a euphemism for the office of the Secretary of State.

    Maxwell says the weekend document session was held in the basement of the State Department?s Foggy Bottom headquarters in a room underneath the ?jogger?s entrance.? He describes it as a large space, outfitted with computers and big screen monitors, intended for emergency planning, and with small offices on the periphery.

    When he arrived, Maxwell says he observed boxes and stacks of documents. He says a State Department office director, whom Maxwell described as close to Clinton?s top advisers, was there. Though the office director technically worked for him, Maxwell says he wasn?t consulted about her weekend assignment.

    She told me, ?Ray, we are to go through these stacks and pull out anything that might put anybody in the [Near Eastern Affairs] front office or the seventh floor in a bad light,?? says Maxwell. He says ?seventh floor? was State Department shorthand for then-Secretary of State Clinton and her principal advisors.

    ?I asked her, ?But isn?t that unethical?? She responded, ?Ray, those are our orders.? ?

    A few minutes after he arrived, Maxwell says in walked two high-ranking State Department officials.

    Maxwell says the two officials, close confidants of Clinton, appeared to check in on the operation and soon left.

The ARB report was a transparent phony - a whitewash. But pehaps the co-chairs of the committee were sandbagged:

    When the ARB issued its call for documents in early October 2012, the executive directorate of the State Department?s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs was put in charge of collecting all emails and relevant material. It was gathered, boxed and?Maxwell says?ended up in the basement room prior to being turned over.

    In May 2013, when critics questioned the ARB?s investigation as not thorough enough, co-chairmen Ambassador Thomas Pickering and Adm. Mike Mullen stated, ?we had unfettered access to everyone and everything including all the documentation we

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Benghazi hearing: State Department accused of relying on 'pre-Benghazi' approach to security

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/09/18/benghazi-hearing-state-department-accused-relying-on-pre-benghazi-approach-to/

A former security official who served on a panel reviewing State Department policies raised concerns Wednesday that the department continues to rely on a "pre-Benghazi" approach to overhauling diplomatic security, at the first public hearing of the House committee probing the Benghazi attack and its aftermath.

"Now's the time. Clear the smoke, remove the mirrors," Todd Keil, member of The Independent Panel on Best Practices, testified, calling on the department to "finally institutionalize some real, meaningful and progressive change."

Later in the hearing, Keil specifically alleged the department "does not have that process" to evaluate whether they need to be in certain high-risk places. He said that when his panel interviewed ambassadors and other officers overseas and asked about the department's risk management process, "without exception, each one said 'there is none, and they make it up'."

Greg Starr, assistant secretary for diplomatic security, objected to Keil's characterization, claiming the department has concentrated on that very issue since the 2012 attack.

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Benghazi Select Committee Expects to Hear Testimony from Panetta

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2014/10/10/Benghazi-Select-Committee-Expects-to-Hear-Testimony-From-Panetta

A spokesperson for the House Select Committee on Benghazi told Breitbart News that it ?expects to talk? with Leon Panetta, who served as President Obama?s CIA director and Pentagon chief.

Amanda Duvall, a spokesperson for the Benghazi Select Committee, made that revelation when asked to comment on a letter addressed to the House panel?s chairman from the Benghazi Accountability Coalition, which is made up of prominent conservative figures.

In the October 10 open letter addressed to Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), the House select committee chairman, the coalition requests that Panetta testify before the panel this month.

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New Benghazi indictment confirms computers with classified information stolen

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/10/14/new-benghazi-indictment-confirms-computers-with-classified-information-stolen/

An indictment Tuesday of a Libyan militant already behind bars for the 2012 Benghazi attack that killed four Americans confirms that computers with sensitive and classified information were stolen from the consulate during the assault.

Fox News was first to report in July that at least two computers were stolen from the consulate.  While the State Department initially dismissed Fox's report, the new, 18-count indictment against Ahmed Abu Khattala confirms that sensitive and classified information was lost, including the location of the top secret CIA annex.

Abu Khattala, 43, the first militant to be prosecuted for the Benghazi violence, had initially been charged with conspiracy to provide support to terrorists, resulting in death. U.S. officials had described that initial, one-count indictment as a placeholder to allow for him to be brought into court and for a grand jury to hear more evidence.

The new indictment does not add to the public account of how the attack unfolded but it does include multiple counts that make Abu Khattala eligible for the death

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BENGHAZI HEROES DEBUNK HOUSE INTEL REPORT AS 'FULL OF INACCURACIES' WITH FIRSTHAND ACCOUNT

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2014/12/02/CIA-Benghazi-Heroes-Debunk-House-Intel-Report-As-Full-Of-Inaccuracies-With-Firsthand-Account-From-The-Ground

by KRIS 'TANTO' PARONTO AND JOHN 'TIG' TIEGEN  2 Dec 2014, 11:16 AM PDT

Since the release of the U.S. House Intelligence Committee?s report on the Benghazi attacks this November, many uninformed people in the political and media world insisted the report ?debunks? claims that the government did not sufficiently defend its embassy on September 11, 2012.

The report, however, is full of inaccuracies?but the authors of the report printed them anyway, despite testimony and other information that proved those statements wrong.

Global Response Staff, security contractors on the ground working for the CIA in Benghazi on September 11, 2012 to September 12, 2012, provided testimony to the House Intelligence Committee. The team of CIA security contractors consisted of Kris ?Tanto? Paronto, John ?Tig? Tiegen, Mark ?Oz? Geist, Ty ?Rone? Woods (now deceased), Jack Silva, and DB Benton?all sources of the book 13 Hours, which is a first-hand account of what happened at both Benghazi locations during the attacks on September 11, 2012.

We provided the same unchanging and accurate information of what took place in Benghazi on September 11, 2012 through September 12, 2012 to our immediate chain of command in the CIA?s office of security, during several FBI interviews, and to Congressman Mike Rogers and his committee. The purpose of this article that we are writing as former CIA Global Response Staff security contractors, who fought and bled together that night in Benghazi, Libya, is to point out the major inaccuracies in the Committee's faux ?investigative? report.

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Benghazi chairman wants Clinton to talk

http://thehill.com/policy/defense/226668-partisan-split-on-clinton-benghazi-testimony

The Republican chairman of the House Select Committee on Benghazi said Wednesday he wants to hear from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) told reporters after the panel's second hearing that he wants to talk to Clinton about the 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Libya, which left four Americans dead.
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Separately, Gowdy indicated he wants his panel to have several more hearings at the beginning of next year, but left it unclear when Clinton might make a public appearance.

Clinton is ?a witness that we would like to talk to. I cannot tell you when,? he said.

Clinton, who is widely expected to run for president in 2016, was the nation?s top diplomat at the time of the attack and has been repeatedly chastised by the GOP over her handling of the episode that left four Americans dead.

A second appearance on Capitol Hill about Benghazi would be catnip for political operatives, Republican politicians and cable television producers.

In a memorable appearance before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in January 2013, Clinton had a testy exchange with Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) that has since been repeatedly telecast, and is likely to make its way into many 2016 ads.

Of course she will show up right away and tell the total truth......... : State dept isn't releasing her SoS files so NO way she does this.