White House knew 2 hrs after attack started

[Kowalski]

So I FINALLY found some information on the hearings that happened today:

Benghazi whistleblower Eric Nordstrom said the Benghazi consulate was listed as “high threat” before the attacks and the only person who could add more security personnel to a facility that does not meet standards is the Secretary of State – Hillary Clinton – at the time.

Nordstrom was asked: “By statute, Mr. Nordstrom, who has the authority to place personnel in a facility that does not meet the minimum OSPB standards?”

Top U.S. Diplomat in Libya Knew Benghazi Was Terrorism

Daily Beast

For eleven days after the 9/11 anniversary assault on the U.S. diplomatic facility in Benghazi, top Obama administration officials told the public that the assault stemmed from a protest of an anti-Muslim YouTube video. That was the public line from the White House in the closing weeks of a presidential election season, but it was not the view of several State Department officials at the time or the U.S. personnel on the ground in Libya.

At a hearing of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Benghazi Wednesday, Trey Goudy, a Republican from South Carolina, read into the record an email from Beth Jones, the acting assistant secretary of state for Near East Affairs. The September 12 email—disclosed for the first time on Wednesday—said Jones had spoken to Libya’s ambassador to Washington who said the attack was the work of former Gadhafi regime loyalists. Jones said she told the ambassador: “The group that conducted the attacks, Ansar al-Sharia, is affiliated with Islamic terrorists.”

Jones was not the only one who viewed the attack as the work of terrorists. Gregory Hicks, the deputy chief of mission at the U.S. embassy in Tripoli at the time, said there were no reports from U.S. personnel in Libya there was a demonstration. In often-dramatic testimony, Hicks provided new details of the attack in the evening of Benghazi. He said he had no doubt the assault on the U.S. compound in Benghazi at the time was a terrorist attack, noting that Ansar al-Sharia had claimed credit for the assault on its twitter feed. Indeed, the U.S. embassy in Tripoli believed it would be attacked next. Hicks said embassy personnel smashed hard drives, loaded weapons into armored vehicles and that the 55 embassy employees in Tripoli that evening were gathered in a safe annex all in anticipation of the attack.

Benghazi witness: State Department told me not to speak to members of Congress

Washington Examiner

During today’s House and Oversight Committee hearing, Gregory Hicks, the deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Libya, confirmed that he was told by the State Department not to speak to members of Congress while they were investigating the details of the Benghazi consulate attacks.

Hicks testified that State Department lawyers instructed him to avoid an interview with Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, who traveled to Libya to investigate the attacks.

“I was instructed not to allow the RSO, the acting deputy chief of mission and myself to be personally interviewed by Congressman Chaffetz,” Hicks replied when questioned by Rep. Jim Jordan R-Oh

taken from: http://washingtonexaminer.com/article/2529183

[Kowalski]

Benghazi victim’s mother tells CNN she blames Hillary Clinton for her son’s death

dailymail.co.uk

The mother of one of the four Americans killed in the September 11, 2012 terror attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya told CNN’s Jake Tapper that she blames former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for her son’s death.

Pat Smith’s son, State Department Information Officer Sean Smith, was one of the four Americans who perished when Islamic terrorists destroyed the consulate compound on the eleventh anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in New York City and Northern Virginia.

‘You blame Secretary of State Clinton?’ Tapper asked Smith? ‘Yes,’ she replied.

'That's her department,' she explained. 'She is supposed to be on top of it. Yet she claims she knows nothing. "It wasn't told to her." Well, who is running the place?'

Smith said the U.S. State Department has refused to give her details about how her son died, even insisting that she's not entitled to information because she's 'not part of the immediate family.'

'I still remember the labor pains,' she said.

Taken from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2321390/Benghazi-victims-mother-tells-CNN-blames-Hillary-Clinton-sons-death-She-supposed-Yet-claims-knows-nothing.html

If anyone else has the latest information please post it!!

[Merc14]

Taken from http://www.dailymail...ws-nothing.html

If anyone else has the latest information please post it!!

Great links. I wish I could stay home and watch this but someone has to pay for the Obama supporters. They linked the below specs security directly to Hillary and started showing the bullying. Can you imagine the leftists screaming here is this had been the Bush administration with Condie Rice as SECSTATE? Now the leftist b******* are saying who cares.

Edited May 8, 2013 by Merc14

[Kowalski]

Here Are the 5 Key Things to Take Away From Wednesday’s Benghazi Hearing

Three Benghazi whistleblowers appeared before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday to shed some light on the deadly terrorist attack that claimed the lives of four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens, State Department official Sean Smith and former Navy SEALs Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods.

Several stunning revelations were made throughout the hearing, however, there were a few things that stood out.

Here are the five key things to take away from Wednesday’s Benghazi hearing:

• State Department Official Fingered Terror Group Day After Attack
  
• Who Is Lt. Col. Gibson?
  

Benghazi whistleblower Gregory Hicks repeatedly brought up a man by the name of Lt. Col. Gibson. Other than the fact that he was a Special Operations Command (SOC) Africa commander, we don’t know much else about him.

But more importantly, we don’t know what else he knows about the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2012. On the night of the Benghazi attack, Gibson was “furious” when a stand down order was given, preventing Special Forces from intervening in Libya, Hicks testified.

Hicks said Gibson wanted to bring the Americans trapped in Benghazi home, but was unable to act. Does Gibson know who personally issued the stand down order? Does he know how far up the chain of command the order originated?

• Benghazi Witness Told Not to Speak With Congressional Investigator Alone
  
• Whistleblower ‘Effectively Demoted’ After Questioning Benghazi Talking Points
  
• There Was a Stand Down Order
  

Though some the details are still fuzzy, someone issued a stand down order that prevented Special Forces from traveling to Benghazi to intervene after the attack.

Hicks, the former deputy chief of mission for the U.S. in Libya and the highest ranking official in the country at the time of the Benghazi attacks, testified that either AFRICOMM or SOCAFRICA issued the stand down order, though he didn’t have a name or where the command originated.

Hicks said Lt. Col. Gibson, a Special Operations Command (SOC) Africa commander, was “furious” after receiving the stand down order. “Lt. Col. Gibson was furious. I had told him to go bring our people home. That’s what he wanted to do,” he said.

Taken from http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/05/08/here-are-the-5-key-things-to-take-away-from-wednesdays-benghazi-hearing/

[preacherman76]

Heads better roll over this. Then again, I wont hold my breath.

[ninjadude]

What really happened and not what "theblaze" thinks.

The “whistleblowers” at today’s House Oversight Committee hearing on what really happened in Benghazi, Libya last September were supposed to break the dam that would lead to President Obama’s eventual downfall, in the eyes of conservatives. Instead, these witness actually served to debunk several theories that the right-wing has pushed on Benghazi, leaving the hearing a fizzle for the GOP:

1. F-16s could have been sent to Benghazi

Part of the prevailing theory surrounding the events the night of the Benghazi attacks is that the Obama administration did not do enough militarily to respond to the crisis. Gregory Hicks — a Foreign Service Officer and the former Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Libya — claimed during his pre-hearing testimony that fighter jets could have been flown over Benghazi, preventing the second wave of the attack from occurring.

Ranking Member Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) questioned that statement, asking Hicks whether he disagreed with Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff Gen Martin Dempsey’s assessment that no air assets were in range the night of the attack. Hicks didn’t disagree, saying he was “speaking from [his] perspective” and what “veteran Libyan revolutionaries” told him, rather than Pentagon assessments.

2. Hillary Clinton signed cables denying additional security to Benghazi

House Republicans came to the conclusion in their interim report on Benghazi that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lied to them about what she knew and when during her testimony this January. This includes her statement that at no time was she aware of requests for additional security at the diplomatic facility in Benghazi prior to the attack.

Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) used her time to take issue with this claim, asking all three witnesses about standard protocol for cables leaving the State Department. All three agreed with Maloney, that the Secretary of State’s name is placed at the bottom of all outgoing cables and telegrams from Foggy Bottom, whether the Secretary has viewed them or not, shooting down the GOP claim.

3. A Special Forces Team that could have saved lives was told to stand down

One of the most shocking reveals in the lead-up to today’s hearing was that a team of Special Forces in Tripoli were told not to deploy to Benghazi during the attack. That decision has led to an uproar on the right, including claims of dereliction of duty towards Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey for not taking actions that could have saved lives.

During questioning, Hicks confirmed that the team was ready to be deployed — not to join the fighting at the CIA annex — but “to secure the airport for the withdrawal of our personnel from Benghazi after the mortar attack.” Hicks also confirmed that it was the second such team to be readied for deployment, with the first having proceeded to Benghazi earlier. Despite the second team not deploying, the staff was all evacuated first to Tripoli, then to Germany, within 18 hours of the attack taking place.

4. The State Department’s Accountability Review Board isn’t legitimate

Republicans have been attacking the State Department’s official in-house review of the shortcomings seen before, during, and after the assault in Benghazi. That criticism prompted House Republicans to write their own report. When asked point blank about the recommendations of the Board, however, the witnesses didn’t cooperate with the GOP narrative. “Absolutely,” Eric Nordstrom, the Regional Security Officer for Libya prior to the assault in Benghazi, answered when asked if he believes implementing the recommendations would improve security. “I had an opportunity to review that along with other two committee reports. I think taken altogether, they’re fairly comprehensive and reasonable.” Hicks, when questioned, said that while he had some issues with the process by which the Board gathered its information, he demurred on criticizing the report itself.

http://thinkprogress.org/security/2013/05/08/1982151/witnesses-debunk-benghazi/

[Merc14]

What really happened and not what "theblaze" thinks.

http://thinkprogress...ebunk-benghazi/

LMFAO. That is your go-to site??? No wonder. LMFAO

[Clarakore]

Cheney said they should subponea Hillary Clinton, in order to force her to testify on what happened at Benghazi.

Boehner said he would allow the chairman and committees to decide if they should subponea Hillary.

This would seem like a good idea except....Hillary has already testified!

What clowns we have wasting what time they have to fix our country and instead they spend it on conspiracy theories and political witch hunts.

Dick Cheney Suggests Republicans Subpoena Hillary Clinton On Benghazi

Edited May 10, 2013 by Leave Britney alone!

[Clarakore]

Heads better roll over this. Then again, I wont hold my breath.

They won't but we all know this is the true purpose.

Nothing to do with insuring security to minimize risk in the future.

[preacherman76]

Wow ninja. Did you actualy listen to the hearings at all? Think process must think you are a freakin idiot.

[Clarakore]

Wow ninja. Did you actualy listen to the hearings at all? Think process must think you are a freakin idiot.

Is there a need for that?

[Clarakore]

Did Obama & Susan Rice Lie, Why “Put a Softer Touch” on What Happened in Benghazi?

The simplest answer is because the CIA didn’t want to tip off the terrorists, responsible for the attack, that they were on to them and on their tail. In essence the CIA cleared the most benign intelligence report they had for dissemination to the press.

Had Susan Rich or President Barack Obama gone on national, and international, television and stated what the absolute facts of Benghazi were they would both be guilty of treason to the United States of America.

Even the President of the United States can not declassify intelligence as he sees fit and to do so would have been not only illegal but irresponsible.

Petraeus: Susan Rice/Obama Did NOT Lie, CIA Wanted Info On Terrorists Kept Secret

Petraeus has said they did not lie. Some want to say that he did and it was so the White House would not reveal his affair.

Is There Any Truth To The Reports by FOX “News” About a Cover Up & Blackmail of David Petraeus?

It is no secret that FOX “News” is a purely Conservative political entity and is at odds with Democratic President Barack Obama but let’s assume for a moment that the questions that FOX “News” are raising have any merit to them.

The first problem with the FOX “News” conspiracy theory that the White House blackmailed David Petraeus by using the brewing sex scandal as leverage, you would have to ignore that Eric Cantor knew about the Petraeus sex scandal long before the election or the events in Benghazi ever took place.

CNN reported; “House Majority Leader Eric Cantor knew in October about former CIA Director David Petraeus’ involvement in an extramarital affair, a spokesman for the congressman told CNN on Sunday.”

It’s at this very first step that the entire FOX “News” conspiracy theory falls entirely apart because in order for this conspiracy theory to work, FOX would have to be saying that Eric Cantor knew of this and was part of a conspiracy which includes the President.

The very same President whom Cantor was actively campaigning against. So Cantor helped the President silence the CIA and FBI to cover up something or other. Back to the conspiracy, so Cantor, who’s against Obama, teamed up with Barack Obama to inexplicably silence David Patraeus about the very issue that the Republicans, and FOX “News”, were trying to make front and center during the Presidential debates. Cantor would have had to do this so Obama could win the election and then, for another inexplicable reason, throw Patraeus under the bus.

Petraeus: Susan Rice/Obama Did NOT Lie, CIA Wanted Info On Terrorists Kept Secret

Here is the CIA narrative of that day. At least the part that they can tell us...since so much they cannot because it is classified. Loose lips sink ships!

• 11:11 p.m.: An unarmed military Predator drone arrives over the compound to provide aerial reconnaissance. The drone had been diverted from a mission over Darnah, about 90 minutes away. But without weapons, it can’t help much.
  
• 11:15 p.m.: The CIA team puts a group of State Department officers into a vehicle and sends it to the agency base; at 11:30, the CIA officers depart under fire and reach the annex six minutes later.
  
• 11:56 p.m.: CIA officers at the annex are attacked by a rocket-propelled grenade and small arms. Sporadic attacks continue for about another hour. The attacks stop at 1:01 a.m., and some assume the fight is over.
  
• 1:15 a.m.: CIA reinforcements arrive on a 45-minute flight from Tripoli in a plane they’ve hastily chartered. The Tripoli team includes four GRS security officers, a CIA case officer and two U.S. military personnel on loan to the agency. They don’t leave the Benghazi airport until 4:30 a.m. The delay is caused by negotiations with Libyan authorities over permission to leave the airport; obtaining vehicles; and the need to frame a clear mission plan. The first idea is to go to a Benghazi hospital to recover Stevens, who they rightly suspect is already dead. (Also killed was a State Department communication specialist.) But the hospital is surrounded by the al-Qaeda-linked Ansar al-Sharia militia that mounted the consulate attack.
  
• 5:04 a.m.: The team from Tripoli arrives at the CIA base. Glen Doherty, one of the GRS men from Tripoli, goes to the roof and joins Woods in firing positions.
  
• 5:15 a.m.: A new Libyan assault begins, this time with mortars. Two rounds miss and the next three hit the roof. The rooftop defenders never “laser the mortars,” as has been reported. They don’t know the weapons are in place until the indirect fire begins, nor are the mortars observed by the drone overhead. The defenders have focused their laser sights earlier on several Libyan attackers, as warnings not to fire. At 5:26 the attack is over. Woods and Doherty are dead and two others are wounded.
  
• 6 a.m.: Libyan forces from the military intelligence service finally arrive, now with 50 vehicles. They escort the Americans to the airport. A first group of 18, including two wounded, depart at 7 a.m. A second group of 12, plus the four dead, leave at 10 a.m. for Tripoli and then the long flight back to America.
  

In Benghazi timeline, CIA errors but no evidence of conspiracy

[Merc14]

The cover-up didn't happen over there, it happened over here when the WH and State Dept. decided that this wasn't an attack, it was a demonstration for no reason that anyone can see. Thisoutright lie humiliated and alienated the President of Libya, stopped the FBI from deploying for 17 days which compromised the crime scene and likely endangered other embassies that didn't know al qaeda was atatcking US facilities. The other question is who stopped reinforcements in tripoli from deployiing and why. Also, why weren't aircraft from Brindisi launched to at least fly over the area? The attack lasted for over 9 hours and Brindisi is an hour and a half away. Clinton said tehre was no drone in teh area and there was one overhead watching the whole event unfold.

Edited May 10, 2013 by Merc14

[Dan'O]

As far as I am concerned they are liable for all of the many attacks after Benghazi. After they spewed out some rubbish about a idiotic youtube video to the world and incited riots from Africa to Asia resulting in hundreds of deaths. Impeach'em on that Lindsey...

[tapirmusic]

None of this will stick to the Teflon president, but hopefully this is destroying Hillary's chances in 2016.

[Clarakore]

The fashionable Jay Carney delivered an excellent dialogue at the press conference just a while ago with the only discrepancy to the otherwise flawless presentation was that tie which was set slightly off-center.

[Merc14]

The fashionable Jay Carney delivered an excellent dialogue at the press conference just a while ago with the only discrepancy to the otherwise flawless presentation was that tie which was set slightly off-center.

LMFAO.

[Kowalski]

None of this will stick to the Teflon president, but hopefully this is destroying Hillary's chances in 2016.

Oh God, I hope so! I REALLY REALLY do not like Hillary.

This is really bad, but I'm gonna post it anyway. I was laughing my butt off. I'm sure you will too.

[tapirmusic]

The fashionable Jay Carney delivered an excellent dialogue at the press conference just a while ago with the only discrepancy to the otherwise flawless presentation was that tie which was set slightly off-center.

That's either really funny or really weird...

[Merc14]

Frightening in a very funny way.

[Harte]

Here is the CIA narrative of that day. At least the part that they can tell us...since so much they cannot because it is classified. Loose lips sink ships!

In Benghazi timeline, CIA errors but no evidence of conspiracy

Guess I'm losing my eyesight.

Can you direct me to the portion of the CIA narrative which reveals that the whole thing began as a protest to a Youtube video?

Harte

[Kowalski]

Check this out: http://news.yahoo.co...-191836494.html

Democrats and other left-leaning sources are clearly on the defensive, and with good reason.

“Americans are more likely to disapprove than approve of the way President Barack Obama has handled the aftermath of last September's attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya, and many think that the administration intentionally misled the American people about the attack,” according to a new HuffPost/YouGov poll.

The poll found that 42 percent of Americans said they disapprove of the way it has been handled, while 27 percent said they approve, reports Huffington Post.

Not surprisingly, Republicans disapprove 78-4 percent and Democrats approve 56-7 percent. Most troubling for the White House, Independents disapprove by a margin of more than two-to-one (47-19 percent).

Republican strategist Kyle Downey tells the Associated Press that Benghazi has exposed a trove of Democratic vulnerabilities, which might grow as inquiries continue. For example, he said, Republicans should use the findings to challenge the competence, truthfulness and judgment of 2016 presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton – Secretary of State at the time, who has taken “full responsibility” for the episode.

The drip-drip-drip of trouble for the administration regarding Benghazi continued Friday when ABC News reported State Department e-mails showing that official talking points on the attack were “extensively edited as they evolved from the drafts first written entirely by the CIA to the final version distributed to Congress and to US Ambassador to the United NationsSusan Rice before she appeared on five talk shows the Sunday after that attack.”

“Summaries of White House and State Department emails … show that the State Department had extensive input into the editing of the talking points,” ABC reported.

In a piece headlined “Spinning Benghazi,” the New Yorker’s Alex Koppelman writes: “For a long time, it seemed like the idea of a cover-up was just a Republican obsession. But now there is something to it.”

“It’s striking to see the twelve different iterations that the talking points went through before they were released to Congress and to United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice,” Koppelman writes. “Over the course of about twenty-four hours, the remarks evolved from something specific and fairly detailed into a bland, vague mush.”

Edited May 11, 2013 by Kowalski

[redhen]

Mark Steynhas a poignant and pertinent article on this issue.

"An hour later, Gregory Hicks received a call from the then–Libyan prime minister, Abdurrahim el-Keib, informing him that Stevens was dead. Hicks immediately called Washington. It was 9 p.m. Eastern time, or 3 a.m. in Libya. Remember the Clinton presidential team’s most famous campaign ad? About how Hillary would be ready to take that 3 a.m. call? Four years later, the phone rings, and Secretary Clinton’s not there. She doesn’t call Hicks back that evening. Or the following day."

[media=]

[/media]

[Merc14]

Britney, you have to show us where anyone that was reporting back to teh White House and Sec Satate, including the Libyan Prime Minister, ever mentioned a protest. If you can't do that you should admit your error. Or just shaddup, I'd go for that as well.

Edited May 11, 2013 by Merc14

[Merc14]

No I'm old enough and not stupid enough to think we have push button McDonalds instant response all over the world.

Hey NJ, I just read this and want to ask how many years you spent in the military and what your job was while there that gave you the authority to claim this and then insult me? Did you operate in the area?