Benghazi Select Committee [Official Thread]

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Fact Check: Clinton?s Benghazi chapter has holes

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/05/31/fact-check-clintons-benghazi-chapter-has-holes/

Excerpts of Hillary Clinton's forthcoming memoir obtained by Politico conflict with the factual record about what happened during and after the 2012 Benghazi terror attack.

Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kan., who sits on the newly formed Benghazi select committee and the House Intelligence Committee, told Fox News before the excerpts were released that he is concerned the administration has not fully grasped the impact of the terrorist assault.

"We know that intelligence analysts on the ground knew instantaneously that this was Al Qaeda and its affiliates who had led this attack. And yet it took an awfully long time -- indeed today, it's still not clear this administration has acknowledged the depth and the risks associated with what it means to have an Al Qaeda affiliate actually take down an American [consulate]," he said.

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First on CNN: GOP chairman of Select Benghazi Committee reacts to Hillary Clinton book chapter


http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2014/05/30/first-on-cnn-gop-chairman-of-select-benghazi-committee-reacts-to-hillary-clinton-book-chapter/

Washington (CNN) ? The chairman of the House Select Committee on Benghazi waved off questions Friday about former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's criticism of GOP congressional investigations of the 2012 attacks in her forthcoming book ?Hard Choices.?

"There is a time and a place for everything and her book tour is neither for me," Rep. Trey Gowdy of South Carolina told CNN about the chapter of the book that covers the attack in Benghazi, which left the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans dead.

Politico, which obtained the chapter on Benghazi, reported on it Friday morning, ahead of next month's publication of the memoir.

In the section of the book Clinton writes, "I will not be a part of a political slugfest on the backs of dead Americans. It?s just plain wrong, and it?s unworthy of our great country. Those who insist on politicizing the tragedy will have to do so without me.?

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Fact Check: Hillary came up with Benghazi video explanation

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/06/11/fact-check-what-hillary-left-out-benghazi-chapter/?intcmp=latestnews

Hillary Clinton?s newly released memoir leaves little doubt she was the first member of the Obama administration to publicly link an anti-Islam video to the 2012 Benghazi terror attack ? though she does not explain what intelligence she relied on to make the faulty connection.

The former secretary of State and potential Democratic presidential candidate discussed the Benghazi attack in her memoir ?Hard Choices.? The 33-page Benghazi chapter sheds some light on events, but it leaves plenty of inconvenient details out.

According to the chronology she offers, Clinton issued the statement linking Benghazi to the video before she called President Obama on the night of the attack to provide an update, suggesting she was the originator of the flawed explanation.

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US spy agencies heard Benghazi attackers using State Dept. cell phones to call terrorist leaders

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/06/11/cia-heard-benghazi-attackers-using-state-dept-cell-phones-to-call-terrorist/

The terrorists who attacked the U.S. consulate and CIA annex in Benghazi on September 11, 2012 used cell phones, seized from State Department personnel during the attacks, and U.S. spy agencies overheard them contacting more senior terrorist leaders to report on the success of the operation, multiple sources confirmed to Fox News.

The disclosure is important because it adds to the body of evidence establishing that senior U.S. officials in the Obama administration knew early on that Benghazi was a terrorist attack, and not a spontaneous protest over an anti-Islam video that had gone awry, as the administration claimed for several weeks after the attacks.

Eric Stahl, who recently retired as a major in the U.S. Air Force, served as commander and pilot of the C-17 aircraft that was used to transport the corpses of the four casualties from the Benghazi attacks ? then-U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens, information officer Sean Smith, and former Navy SEALs Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods ? as well as the assault?s survivors from Tripoli to the safety of an American military base in Ramstein, Germany.

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Testimony: Elements of Militia State Dept. Hired to Station Members Inside Benghazi Compound Were ?Complicit? in 9/11/12 Terrorist Attack

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/testimony-elements-militia-state-dept-hired-station-members-inside-benghazi-compound

(CNSNews.com) -- Elements of the February 17 Martyrs Brigade, the Libyan militia hired by the U.S. State Department to station members as residents inside the U.S. compound in Benghazi and to protect the U.S. diplomats there, were ?complicit? in the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attack that killed Amb. Chris Stevens and three other Americans, according to the testimony of Greg Hicks, who was the department's second-ranking diplomat in Libya at the time of the attack.

?Certainly, elements of that militia were complicit in the attacks,? Greg Hicks, the State Department?s former deputy chief of mission in Libya told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Wednesday. ?The attackers had to make a long approach march through multiple checkpoints that were manned by February 17 militia."

Rep. Blake Farenthold (R.-Texas), who asked Hicks about the militia's complicity in the attacks, also asked Eric Nordstrom, who had been the State Department?s regional security officer (RSO) at the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli until July 26 of last year, whether the department was aware that the militia had any ties to Islamic extremists.

?Absolutely,? said Nordstrom. ?Yeah, we had that discussion on a number of occasions, the last of which was when there was a Facebook posting of a threat that named Ambassador Stevens and Senator McCain, who was coming out for the elections that was in the July time frame. I had met with some of my agents and then also with some Annex personnel. We discussed that.?

Farenthold expressed his incredulity that the State Department would hire militia of this nature to provide security.

?I'm stunned that the State Department was relying on a militia with extremist ties to protect American diplomats,? said Farenthold. ?That doesn't make any sense. How does that happen??

?You mean like in Afghanistan where Afghanis that are working with our military that are embedded and turn on them and shoot them?? asked Nordstrom rhetorically. ?Or Yemen, where our embassy was attacked in 2008 by attackers wearing police uniforms? Or in Saudi Arabia, in Jedda, we had an attack in 2004? The Saudi National Guard that was protecting our facility reportedly ran from the scene, and then it took 90 minutes before we could get help.?

Nordstrom added that the February 17 Martyrs Brigade ?was the unit that the Libyan government had initially designated for VIP protection? for Americans and that it would be ?very difficult to extract ourselves from that.?

According to a report published by the Senate Homeland Security Committee on Dec. 30, 2012, a member of the February 17 Martyrs Brigade had warned the RSO at the State Department compound in Benghazi on Sept. 8, 2012, that the militia would no longer protect the movements of Americans diplomats in the city. That specifically included the then-imminent visit of Amb. Stevens.

?In early September, a member of the February 17 Brigade told another RSO [State Department regional security officer] in Benghazi that it could no longer support U.S. personnel movements,? said the Senate committee report. ?The RSO also asked specifically if the militia could provide additional support for the Ambassador?s pending visit and was told no.?

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U.S. Spy Agencies Heard Benghazi Attackers Using State Dept Phones to Call Their Commanders During the Attack

http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2014/06/11/us-spy-agencies-heard-benghazi-attackers-using-state-dept-phones-to-call-their-commanders-during-the-attack/?print=1

Well, this is a bombshell.

    The terrorists who attacked the U.S. consulate and CIA annex in Benghazi on September 11, 2012 used cell phones, seized from State Department personnel during the attacks, and U.S. spy agencies overheard them contacting more senior terrorist leaders to report on the success of the operation, multiple sources confirmed to Fox News.

    The disclosure is important because it adds to the body of evidence establishing that senior U.S. officials in the Obama administration knew early on that Benghazi was a terrorist attack, and not a spontaneous protest over an anti-Islam video that had gone awry, as the administration claimed for several weeks after the attacks.

    Eric Stahl, who recently retired as a major in the U.S. Air Force, served as commander and pilot of the C-17 aircraft that was used to transport the corpses of the four casualties from the Benghazi attacks ? then-U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens, information officer Sean Smith, and former Navy SEALs Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods ? as well as the assault?s survivors from Tripoli to the safety of an American military base in Ramstein, Germany.

    In an exclusive interview on Fox News? ?Special Report,? Stahl said members of a CIA-trained Global Response Staff who raced to the scene of the attacks were ?confused? by the administration?s repeated implication of the video as a trigger for the attacks, because ?they knew during the attack?who was doing the attacking.?

As you might have already guessed, Hillary Clinton?s Accountability Review Board never interviewed Stahl at all. Nor did it interview another official, quoted in the Fox story backing Stahl?s assertion up.

In addition to disclosing that the terrorists were heard using U.S. phone to ring up their superiors during the attack, Stahl says that his crew could have gotten to Benghazi in time to rescue the Americans under siege there.

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Walid Shoebat: Infamous ?Muhammad-video? filmmaker actually a Muslim agent for Obama admin

http://therightscoop.com/walid-shoebat-infamous-muhammad-video-filmmaker-actually-a-muslim-agent-for-obama-admin/

I?ve been trying to get to this story for a couple of days now, but there are so many tentacles to it I?ve had trouble making the time to put it together.

In short, Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, the alleged ?Coptic Christian? who made the infamous Muhammad video that the Obama administration blamed the Benghazi attack on ? well it turns out Nakoula is really a Muslim, not a Coptic Christian. And that?s been confirmed.

It also turns out that the official terms of Nakoula?s parole in 2009 was bogus, and that the administration used his parole as leverage to help him with their agenda: To create a climate for non-Muslim governments to enact laws that make criticism of Islam a criminal offense.

Sound far fetched? Well then I guess you haven?t heard about the ?Istanbul Process? meetings Hillary went to in Turkey as Secretary of State that were designed to help facilitate the creation of a ?climate for non-Muslim governments to enact laws that make criticism of Islam a criminal offense.?

But before Nakoula could get the video finished, Benghazi happened and the administration quickly blamed it on that video.

One more compelling note: Nakoula called Walid on his private home number, a number he should have never been able to get through non-government channels, and asked Walid not to expose this. Seriously.

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More Evidence the Obama Administration Lied About Benghazi

http://eaglerising.com/6774/evidence-obama-administration-lied-benghazi/#A2PGUM5O2ZS3xZj0.99

In a recent bombshell interview with a military insider, Fox News? James Rosen and Brett Baier uncovered some startling new information about the attack on Benghazi. Rosen did the investigative work, while Baier interviewed Reitred Major Eric Stahl, who was the commander of a C-7 Aircraft that was stationed at Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany.

Stahl makes some shocking assertions about what happened that night, and about the lies that the Obama administration made in the aftermath of the attack. His testimony seems to be damning evidence that both the State Department and the Department of Defense had a hand in lying to the nation about what really happened at Benghazi on 9/11/2012.

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Benghazi?s Most Important Whistleblower Just Came Forward

http://shoebat.com/2014/06/15/benghazis-important-whistleblower-just-came-forward/

Garcia?s phone call with Nakoula three weeks ago provides the key to what Benghazi was all about. It was agitprop (agitation / propaganda to push communism), a vehicle to be used by the Obama administration to launch an all out assault on the first amendment. To quote Hillary Clinton at the 2011 ?Istanbul Process? meeting, it would be an example of?:

    ??some old-fashioned techniques of peer pressure and shaming, so that people don?t feel that they have the support to do what we abhor.?

When riots across the Middle East broke out in response to the video, Hillary and the bunch were able to use those ?old-fashioned techniques? in an attempt to shame people into not using their freedom of expression to be critical of Islam.

The problem they did not foresee ? aside from the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi

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Benghazi panel ramps up

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/07/benghazi-trey-gowdy-108625.html?hp=t1_3

And while the South Carolina Republican isn?t committing to specifics, such as whether there will be public hearings with high-profile witnesses like former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, his methodical approach could help the GOP savor a scandal that has at times looked more like a political sideshow.

(Also on POLITICO: No bail for Benghazi suspect)

?No one [has] defended the five-minute questioning [process] as the most calculated way of eliciting the most amount of information,? Gowdy said in an interview. ?There is most assuredly a place for hearings but not if your primary focus is to gather facts.?

While there isn?t much happening publicly, the House select committee investigating the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks on the U.S. facility in Benghazi, Libya, is busy behind the scenes.

The panel is examining subpoenas from committees that previously investigated the Benghazi attacks to develop a list of unanswered questions from the Obama administration. There is also outreach to agencies that received requests for information.

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Commanders suggest a 2nd group in Benghazi attacks

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_BENGHAZI_TWO_ATTACKS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-07-09-19-25-43

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Well-trained attackers executed the deadly dawn assault on a CIA complex in Benghazi, Libya, suggesting different perpetrators from those who penetrated the U.S. diplomatic mission the previous night, according to newly revealed testimony from top military commanders.

The initial attack, on Sept. 11, 2012, killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and communications specialist Sean Smith and set the mission ablaze. Nearly eight hours later at the CIA complex nearby, two more Americans, contract security officers Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty, died in a mortar attack that showed clear military training, retired Gen. Carter Ham told Congress in closed-door testimony earlier this year.

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Officers say no 'stand-down order' for Benghazi

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_BENGHAZI_STAND_DOWN_ORDER?SITE=MYPSP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-07-10-17-15-11

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Military officers testified that there was no "stand-down order" that held back military assets that could have saved the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans killed at a diplomatic outpost and CIA annex in Benghazi, Libya. Their testimony undercut the contention of Republican lawmakers.

The "stand-down" theory centers on a Special Operations team - a detachment leader, a medic, a communications expert and a weapons operator with his foot in a cast - that was stopped from flying from Tripoli to Benghazi after the attacks of Sept. 11-12, 2012, had ended. Instead, it was instructed to help protect and care for those being evacuated from Benghazi and from the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli.

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Oversight Committee Details State Department Efforts to Obstruct Benghazi Investigation in 37 Page Letter to Select Committee

Oversight Letter Responds to Select Committee?s Request for Information

WASHINGTON ? House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) today, in a 37 page letter to House Select Committee on Benghazi Chairman Trey Gowdy, detailed State Department efforts to obstruct the Congressional investigation into the Benghazi terrorist attacks.

?In response to your request, I am providing detailed background information regarding the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform?s outstanding Benghazi-related document requests to the Executive Branch, as well as the status of any Benghazi-related production and compliance issues,? wrote Issa to Gowdy.  ?To be precise, the Department has not provided a full and complete response to two subpoenas, nor has the Department provided all documents responsive to many written requests.  Moreover, the Department used numerous tactics to obstruct this investigation.?

Among the topics covered in the 37 page letter covering the Oversight investigation from September 2012 until May 2014:

    The Committee?s early attempts beginning in September 2012 to obtain voluntary cooperation from the Department
    The Department?s repeated promises to cooperate, but continued failure to actually meet requests
    The Department?s efforts to hide important documents behind a talking point that it had made 25,000 pages available
    The Department?s wasteful efforts to cart documents in and out daily instead of turning them over to the Oversight Committee
    The Committee?s eventual decision in 2013 to issue subpoenas
    The State Department?s refusal to make all documents made available to and created by the Accountability Review Board (ARB) empanelled and selected by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
    State Department threats to destroy Committee property necessary for internal organization of in camera documents
    Abusive State Department document redaction practices
    Department unwillingness to cooperatively make witnesses available
    State Department efforts to selectively withhold and produce documents to support a pre-determined agency narrative
    Efforts to use the Justice Department as excuse for non-cooperation
    Possibly illegal efforts to retroactively classify documents to prevent their release


http://oversight.house.gov/release/oversight-committee-details-state-department-efforts-obstruct-benghazi-investigation-37-page-letter-select-committee/

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Good grief talk about the fix being in.

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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

The Republican head of the Benghazi Select Committee warned Tuesday that no witnesses would be off limits in its upcoming probe and that he would consider going to court, if necessary, to compel testimony.

"I can't skip over a witness that I think we ought to talk to simply because there is an assertion of either privilege or immunity," Chairman Trey Gowdy of South Carolina told Fox News in an exclusive interview.

He said that while he has received good cooperation to date, and the issue had not yet arisen, "if you mean to say that 'not only can they not talk, they don't have to come,' you have to litigate that."

Gowdy said the investigation will be driven by facts, characterizing as strongly bipartisan his work with the committee's ranking Democrat, Elijah Cummings of Maryland, to review documents and identify witnesses.