Scandals Expose Truth about Obama

By John Kass, Chicago Tribune May 15, 2013 11:01 am

(AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Dogged by scandal, and with his press secretary presumably now curled up in the fetal position and breathing into a brown paper bag, it’s obvious President Barack Obama is in need. 

Our president must find his happy place again, away from irritating controversies.

Like Benghazi, where four Americans died and he stood before the United Nations and made a phony reference to a ridiculous video in order to save his politics at the expense of the truth.

And now it’s known that his Internal Revenue Service was used to threaten conservative and tea party groups and quash political dissent. The IRS also leaked damaging information from secret files against his political enemies to the media, prompting some to call him President Barack Milhous Obama.

Another scandal, involving the Justice Department seizing reporters’ phone records hoping to find administration leaks, is a chilling assault on the First Amendment that would have made Nixon or J. Edgar Hoover smile.

What Obama requires is another relaxing vacation. This time, the man needs a visit to Happy Land.

So please take my hand, Mr. President, and we’ll fly there, over those political storm clouds in Washington, to where things were just about perfect:

Back home to Chicago. Grant Park. November 2008.

Can you remember the looks of genuine adoration in their eyes?

Some were so overcome they couldn’t help but weep for joy. Others barely stopped their lips from twitching. Still others were wiggly with excitement, like puppies unable to keep still, and we know what puppies do when they’re excited.

Many hugged and offered high-fives, or loudly clapped, or clinked glasses and gave each other profound smiles of satisfaction and joy.

And that was just the journalists.

The rest of Obama’s voters were ecstatic too. But as historians will no doubt tell us, American journalists were especially thrilled.

Not all. A few grumpy types complained that messianic politics is never healthy for the Republic. But who could listen with all that joy in their ears?

The Republican establishment — the War Party — had been vanquished, and deservedly so, for talking out of both sides of its mouth about the need for a smaller government while feeding from that monstrous defense industry trough. They’re in the wilderness still, and should remain there for a while.

And Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton had already had her wings clipped. Remember? She and Bill had dared suggest that Obama had played the old Chicago race card on her in the Democratic presidential primary — that primary of the 3 a.m. phone call. The media response was to crush her.

There was no memo, but the messengers gathered with common purpose, as if compelled by journalistic pheromones to do what must be done. And it was done. To Hillary. For her apostasy, she was almost cast out.

Because Obama wasn’t just another politician. Reporters flocked to him as if he was the gentle forest faun, Mr. Tumnus straight out of the Narnia tales.

And American journalism was like that little girl in the C.S. Lewis stories, Lucy Pevensie, graciously accepting his tea and cakes, nodding off to the music of his woodland pipes, sleeping on his couch, smiling.

It was odd and somewhat frightening to watch so-called journalistic iconoclasts cleaving desperately to the myth of Obama as savior. His mouthpieces came up with excellent lines that were repeated endlessly, my favorite being that the guy from Chicago would transcend “the broken politics of the past.”

Obama doesn’t bother me. I disagree with his politics, but that’s not what’s galling. What’s appalling was the pack mentality of journalists — and I don’t need polls to tell me that most are liberals — who were so eager to wag their tails at his approach.

Benghazi is trouble enough for Obama, so troubling that a liberal soccer friend (yes, I do appreciate diversity of opinion) greeted me by sarcastically chanting, “Benghazi! Benghazi! Benghazi! Benghazi!” as if that dusty, bloody town in Libya doesn’t mean a thing.

But it means something to Obama’s credibility, which is now in tatters. And it means something to the four dead Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens. It means something to the whistle-blowers who say they were pressured not to talk.

And Benghazi means something to the presidential prospects of Hillary Clinton. The former secretary of state’s snarky comment “What difference, at this point, does it make?” will hang from her neck like the dead albatross in the poem. By 2016 it should be exceedingly ripe.

These days, Benghazi is no longer being viewed as some isolated artifact in a glass jar. The other scandals have joined it, and combine in organic fashion to produce a president on the defensive. The Obama administration insists its fingerprints aren’t on this IRS business, and the president himself condemns it as an outrage.

But it is worse than an outrage. And the president was the beneficiary. If he were truly angry, he’d have fired people immediately. The push by the White House for an “independent” investigation is also an outrage.

It is the Congress’ job to investigate. Let them ask the IRS why it provided information damaging to tea party members and conservatives to investigative reporters at ProPublica.

Using the IRS to smother dissent and grabbing the phone records of The Associated Press isn’t something a gentle Mr. Tumnus would do.

But it is something done by politicians from Chicago, where government is the muscle that shuts the mouth.

jskass@tribune.com

Twitter @John_Kass

Judge Jeanine” fact Blasts”

Roe gave abortion opponents a target » News — GOPUSA

go pusa.co m http://www.go pusa.co m/news/2013/05/13/ginsburg-ro e-gave-abo rtio n-o ppo nents-a-target/?subscriber=1

Roe gave abortion opponents a target » News — GOPUSA

CHICAGO – U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

says she supports a woman’s right to choose to have an

abortion, but f eels her predecessors’ landmark Roe v. Wade

ruling 40 years ago was too sweeping and gave abortion

opponents a symbol to target.

Ginsburg, one of the most liberal members of the nation’s

high court, spoke Saturday at the University of Chicago Law

School. Ever since the decision, she said, momentum has

been on abortion opponents’ side, f ueling a state-by-state

campaign that has placed more restrictions on abortion.

“That was my concern, that the court had given opponents of access to abortion a target to aim at

relentlessly,” she told a crowd of students. “… My criticism of Roe is that it seemed to have stopped the

momentum that was on the side of change.”

Four decades later, abortion is one of the most polarizing issues in American lif e, and anti-abortion activists

have pushed legislation at the state level in an ef f ort to scale back the 1973 decision. This year, governors in

North Dakota and Arkansas signed strict new abortion laws, including North Dakota’s ban on abortions as

early as six weeks into a pregnancy.

Ginsburg would have rather seen the justices make a narrower decision that struck down only the Texas law

that brought the matter bef ore the court. That law allowed abortions only to save a mother’s lif e.

A more restrained judgment would have sent a message while allowing momentum to build at a time when a

number of states were expanding abortion rights, she said. She added that it might also have denied

opponents the argument that abortion rights resulted f rom an undemocratic process in the decision by

“unelected old men.”

Ginsburg told the students she pref ers what she termed “judicial restraint” and argued that such an approach

can be more ef f ective than expansive, aggressive decisions.

“The court can put its stamp of approval on the side of change and let that change develop in the political

process,” she said.

A similar dynamic is playing out over gay marriage and the speculation over how the Supreme Court might act

on that issue.

The court decided in December to take up cases on Calif ornia’s constitutional ban on gay marriage and a

f ederal law that denies to gay Americans who are legally married the f avorable tax treatment and a range of

health and pension benef its otherwise available to married couples.

Among the questions now is whether the justices will set a nationwide rule that could lead to the overturning of

laws in more than three dozen states that currently do not allow same-sex marriage. Even some supporters of

gay marriage f ear that a broad ruling could put the court ahead of the nation on a hot-button social issue and

provoke a backlash similar to the one that has f ueled the anti-abortion movement in the years f ollowing Roe.

The court could also decide to uphold Calif ornia’s ban – an outcome that would not af f ect the District of

Columbia and the 11 states that allow gay marriage.

Ginsburg did not address the pending gay marriage cases.

Asked about the continuing challenges to abortion rights, Ginsburg said that in her view Roe’s legacy will

ultimately hold up.

“It’s not going to matter that much,” she said. “Take the worst-case scenario … suppose the decision were

overruled; you would have a number of states that will never go back to the way it was.”

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Missouri lawmakers pass bill to nullify federal gun control laws

Published May 09, 2013

Associated Press

• 

  Dec. 22, 2012: People look over a table of handguns for sale at a gun show in Kansas City, Missouri. (Reuters)

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. –  The Missouri Legislature sent the governor a bill Wednesday that would expand gun rights and declare all federal gun regulations unenforceable, in a response to President Obama’s push for gun control legislation.

The Republican-led Legislature passed the measure hoping to shield the state from federal proposals that would ban assault weapons and expand background checks. But the U.S. Senate’s defeat of a background check expansion three weeks ago did nothing to assuage the fears of Missouri Republicans who pressed forward with their legislation.

The Missouri House voted 118-36 Wednesday to send the bill to Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon. The Senate passed the measure earlier this month.

Supporters argue the measure protects the rights of law-abiding gun owners, and it includes language condemning the theft and illegal use of firearms. The measure’s sponsor, Rep. Doug Funderburk, said his aim is to ensure Missouri is the only regulator when it comes to firearms.

“We have the authority to enforce these laws. We are trying to position us so that we in this state can have safer neighborhoods,” said Funderburk, R-St. Peters.

Opposition came mostly from House Democrats who said the measure would increase access to guns and make schools less safe. They argued the measure doesn’t address gun violence in urban areas.

“I don’t understand why this body continues to turn their back and ignore gun violence in order to increase access to weapons,” said Rep. Stacey Newman, D-University City.

In addition to declaring federal gun laws unenforceable, the bill would allow concealed weapons to be carried by designated school personnel in school buildings. It would allow appointed “protection officers” to carry concealed weapons as long as they have a valid permit and register with the state Department of Public Safety. The officers would also be required to complete a training course.

The bill would also allow people with a firearms permit to openly carry weapons less than 16 inches in length even in localities that prohibit open-carry of firearms.

Privacy rights of gun owners have been a hot topic this legislative session after lawmakers learned the state Highway Patrol shared the list of concealed weapons permit holders with a federal agent in the Social Security Administration.

The legislation passed Wednesday would prevent people from publishing any identifying information on gun owners. A person who publishes such information would be guilty of a class A misdemeanor. It also would prevent doctors or nurses from being required to ask patients about firearm ownership.

The measure would also lower the minimum age required to obtain a concealed weapons permit from 21 to 19.

Even if Gov. Jay Nixon signs the legislation, it may face legal hurdles that will prevent its implementation. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder sent a letter to Kansas last month saying the federal government would challenge its recent gun law. The Kansas legislation would prohibit federal regulation of guns that are manufactured and remain in the state. It would also criminalize the enforcement of federal gun control laws.

Missouri lawmakers are also considering a constitutional amendment that would declare gun rights “inalienable.”

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/05/09/missouri-lawmakers-pass-bill-that-would-nullify-federal-gun-control-laws/?test=latestnews#ixzz2SrT3LOQ1

Sept. 12 E-mail Identified Terrorist Group in Benghazi Attack

 

Thursday, 09 May 2013 10:51

Written by  Jack Kenny

A previously undisclosed e-mail from a top State Department official identified the terrorist organization that carried out the September 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.)said Wednesday. The e-mail went out four days before U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said in several TV interviews that the assault grew out of a “spontaneous demonstration.”

Gowdy said the September 12 e-mail was sent to senior State Department officers from Elizabeth Jones, acting secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs. The South Carolina Republican, a member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, read the message aloud at a committee hearing on the attack that killed U.S. Ambassador to Libya J. Christopher Stevens and three members of his staff. Gowdy said the e-mail is not classified, but claimed Democrats on the committee had blocked its release. He urged the Democrats to exercise “bi-partisanship” by agreeing to make the document public.

Jones wrote that she had spoken with the Libyan ambassador to Washington, Gowdy said, quoting: “I told him that the group that conducted the attacks, Ansar al-Sharia, is affiliated with Islamic terrorists.”

“Let me say that again,” Gowdy said. “She told him. The State Department, on September 12, days before our ambassador went on national television, is telling the ambassador to Libya the group that conducted the attacks, Ansar al-Sharia, is affiliated with terrorists.”

Gregory Hicks, deputy chief of mission under Stevens, said Libyan President Mohammed Magariaf was on U.S. television talking about the planned terrorist attack on the U.S. mission on the same day Rice was on five Sunday morning interview programs saying a “spontaneous demonstration” at the consulate had been “hijacked” by extremists. Hicks, who was at the U.S. embassy in Tripoli at the time, told the committee there was no evidence of a demonstration prior to the heavily armed assault and that he was certain Stevens would have called to tell him about it if there had been.

When asked what impact Rice’s comments had on relations between the United States and the Libyan government, Hicks said U.S. officials ran into bureaucratic resistance and that it took about 18 days before the FBI was allowed in to investigate.

“The crime scene was unsecured for 18 days?” Gowdy asked, his voice rising.

“Yes,” Hicks replied.

Ansar al-Sharia is an affiliate of al-Qaeda and House Republicans have accused the Obama White House and senior State Department officials of deleting references to al-Qaeda or terrorism from the “talking points” given to Rice. The attack occurred during last year’s presidential election campaign, when the killing of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and success in the war on terrorism were major Obama campaign themes.

According to a report from House Republicans released in April, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland wrote in an e-mail that “my building leadership” at the State Department was not happy with the original talking points prepared by the CIA. Within the next 24 hours, the talking points had been edited and references to Islamic terrorism removed, the report said.

Rep. John Tierney (D-Mass.) said the House Intelligence Committee had already investigated the talking points issue. “Gen. Petraeus, the former head of the CIA, made it clear that the change was made to protect classified sources of information — not to spin it, not to politicize it — and it wasn’t done at the direction of the White House,” Tierney said.

Hicks, one in a panel of three State Department “whistleblowers” appearing before the committee Wednesday, is the first person who was in Libya at the time to publicly testify about the Benghazi attack. He described the three waves of attacks that occurred from the night of September 11 into the next morning, and became choked up at times when describing the courage and heroism of the diplomats trapped in the compound during the heavily armed assault. He also repeated previous testimony he had given to committee investigators about a four-man team of special operations forces that was ordered not to fly from Tripoli to Benghazi to reinforce troops defending U.S. diplomatic personnel in the early morning hours of September 12. A previous team had arrived in Benghazi at 1:15 a.m., Hicks said, and the second Special Forces unit was about to drive to a C-130 aircraft when its commander, Lt. Col. Gibson, got a phone call from a superior at Special Operations Command Africa. “They were told not to board the flight, so they missed it,” Hicks told the committee.

Asked how the unit responded to the order, Hicks said, “They were furious.” He quoted Gibson as saying “I have never been so embarrassed in my life that a State Department officer has bigger balls than somebody in the military.”

The State Department cited a report by an Administrative Review Board appointed by then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to investigate the attack and its aftermath.

“The interagency response was timely and appropriate, but there simply was not enough time given the speed of the attacks for armed U.S. military assets to have made a difference,” according to a statement issued by the department. “Senior-level interagency discussions were underway soon after Washington received initial word of the attacks and continued through the night.”

Mark Thompson, former deputy coordinator of the State Department’s counterterrorism bureau, was questioned by committee member Eleanor Holmes, a Democrat form the District of Columbia, about a statement attributed to him in news reports alleging that Clinton and Under Secretary for Management Patrick Kennedy had tried to keep the bureau out of the discussion and decision-making process on the night of the attack. Homes cited an emphatic denial issued Monday by Daniel Benjamin, then the head of the bureau. Thompson said it was the bureau’s Foreign Emergency Support Team, known by its initials, FEST, that was not involved in the discussions. Thompson said the FEST unit, which he headed, had responded to similar attacks in the past, including the 1998 attack on the U.S. embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, and the bombing of the USS Cole off coast of Yemen in October 2000.

Eric Nordstrom, the former regional security officer in Libya, has criticized the State Department over denials of requests for added security in Benghazi in the months leading up to the attack. He told the committee Wednesday that he had spoken up because he wanted to get the truth out.

“It matters to me personally and it matters to my colleagues at the Department of State,” he said. “It matters to the American public for whom we serve, and most importantly it matters to the friends, the family” of those killed.

Democrats accused Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) of using the witnesses in an effort to score partisan political points against the Obama administration and against Clinton, generally considered a likely presidential candidate in 2016. Holmes and ranking Democrat Elijah Cummings of Maryland were among the committee members taking Issa to task over his previous statement that Secretary Clinton had lied and misled the American people by denying she had seen requests that had come to the State Department for added security in Benghazi. Issa claimed Clinton had signed a document refusing such a request. Holmes said the document Issa had cited did not have the Secretary’s signature, but only her printed name at the bottom of the page, as is the case with thousands of documents that go out from the State Department. The D.C. Democrat noted that the Washington Post fact checker had given Issa “four Pinnochios” over the charge.

“I don’t think there’s a smoking gun here today,” said Rep. Mark Pocan, (D-Wisc.) “Not even a lukewarm slingshot.” He suggested the committee stop “rehashing” old stories. That brought a rejoinder from Gowdy, who said the committee needed to keep probing for the truth.

“The good news is there is no statute of limitations on truth,” he said

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Arkansas—— Religion Is Not Welcome: How a Prayer Wrecked a Graduation

 

Religion Is Not Welcome: How a Prayer Wrecked a Graduation

Takepart.com – 2 hrs 43 mins ago 

The debate over school prayer has reared it’s head in Arkansas this week.

Two sixth grade graduations were cancelled in Riverside Unified School District after a parent protested against a prayer that was to be recited during the ceremony.

“Those campuses for the last several years had discussed whether we should continue with sixth grade graduation or not,” Tommy Knight, the superintendent of the Riverside School District told Fox News. “The controversy arose out of this one. When it came to my attention, the board and I decided to go ahead and discontinue sixth grade graduations.”

The school received a letter from Freedom From Religion Foundation, a Wisconsin’s nonprofit with a mission to educate the public “on matters relating to nontheism, and to promote the constitutional principle of separation between church and state.”

A group of Arkansas freethinkers called the cancellation “selfish.”

“The Arkansas Society of Freethinkers is disappointed that Riverside school cancelled its graduationsimply because the school couldn’t sponsor a prayer,” Anne Orsi, a member of the Arkansas Society of Freethinkers, told TakePart. “We think that the students are the big losers in this astonishing display of religious selfishness on the part of the school’s administration. There is absolutely no reason thegraduation ceremony cannot continue without forcing the attendees to submit to a public prayer. There is no reason to punish these children.”

School prayer and religion in public schools remains a hot button issue that has resulting in numerous court cases. Many schools throughout the country are trying to delicately deal with religion during upcoming graduation activities.

In 1992, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that public schools cannot sponsor prayer at graduation ceremonies, citing a violation of the establishment clause of the First Amendment. But students can express themselves during graduation and that might include prayer.

In Georgia, a school was recently forced to stop saying prayers or playing songs with religious references at graduation ceremonies after the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) sent a warning letter.

“Public schools should not be seeking out songs that exclude students and create a divisive environment,” FFRF attorney Andrew Seidelan wrote in the letter.

In Kentucky, the Lincoln County High School principal is trying to find middle ground on the prayer front. Traditionally, the school’s graduating class has had student-led prayer during the ceremony. But, to do so, graduating students had to okay the prayer with a unanimous vote. This year, six students said they did not want the prayer. It has since been cancelled.

Earlier this month, a former Navy chaplain offered a $1,000 reward to any student who says a prayer during a graduation ceremony at a school in St. Johns County, Florida.

Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee told TakePart that there is a current fear of prayer in this country.

“How very sad that our culture is collapsing under the weight of religious intolerance that it is fearful of a prayer,” he said. “Prayers are said in Congress, at presidential inaugurations, and by chaplains in our military. To forbid a prayer at a school activity because one person objects is just sad. Can one person protest our accommodating Muslim food and prayers at Gitmo and get that stopped?”

In Lake City, Arkansas, parents are meeting Thursday night to decide on a church that will host a private graduation ceremony for Christian students who attend the public school.

This thrills Arkansas school prayer supporters.

“I am personally definitely a proponent of prayer, even prayer in school. I believe guiding our children to seek a relationship with God is the ultimate in community service,” Laurie Lee, a conservative activist in Arkansas, told TakePart. “What inspires me most, is how these parents are handling the situation. It’s wonderful that they are taking what could have been a very disappointing event and it is evolving into a celebration based on faith and inclusion for all in the community.”

Related Stories on TakePart:

• ACLU Demands Mississippi Principal Stop ‘Pervasive’ School Prayer

• Sing It, Don’t Say It? Preschool Owner Finds Loophole in Arkansas Law Banning School Prayer

• Is This Just a New Way to Get Prayer Inside Schools?

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Suzi Parker is an Arkansas-based political and cultural journalist whose work frequently appears in The Washington Post and The Christian Science Monitor. She is the author of two books.@SuziParker | TakePart.com 

Guns in Schools: Superintendent Ready to Accept New Responsibility

By: KARK

Updated: May 6, 2013

Hot Springs, AR- Guns in Schools, it is a topic that continues to be a part of the public conversation, months after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings.

Here in Arkansas, it is illegal to take a gun to school unless you are certified, but in one district, a school administrator is working to get that certification so she can take her gun on campus.

Nancy Anderson is the Superintendent of the Cutter Morning Star School District.

She loves her students, is dedicated to education, and she is serious about school safety.

“I am very comfortable around guns,” says Anderson.

She has decided to take the students’ protection into her own hands.

In the next school year, Anderson says she plans to keep a gun in a lock-box in her office, and carry it if deemed necessary.

Anderson says if there is ever a threat on campus, or she feels students are at risk, she will strap on the gun.

“The lockster is a locked holster, so students will not be able to pull it out.”

Anderson is in the process of receiving full certification to keep a gun at school.

“There are four different tests and then you have to go to a range and qualify to be able to carry.”

Essentially, she is becoming a security guard on top of being a superintendent.

“I respect firearms, I know it’s dangerous. I’m very serious about firearms and very cautious.”

She says thiw wasn’t her first choice, and she wishes she didn’t have to go to this measure, but Anderson says she would rather be safe than sorry.

Shedding Light on Benghazi

May 8, 2013      

The Foundation

“Man, once surrendering his reason, has no remaining guard against absurdities the most monstrous, and like a ship without rudder, is the sport of every wind. With such persons, gullibility, which they call faith, takes the helm from the hand of reason and the mind becomes a wreck.” –Thomas Jefferson

Editorial Exegesis

Hillary’s been bored since the beginning

“Ever since Sept. 11, 2012, when Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed in a terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, the Obama administration has done its best to confuse and conceal what actually happened. On Wednesday, when three career State Department officials testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Americans may finally start to get the real story. In the aftermath of the attack, the Obama administration tried to focus attention on a silly YouTube amateur video mocking Muhammad, which President Obama repeatedly mentioned during a speech to the United Nations. … Gregory Hicks, one of the witnesses scheduled to testify [today], is expected to drive home the point. Hicks, a 22-year Foreign Service veteran who was the deputy chief-of-mission at the U.S. Embassy, didn’t mince words when interviewed by House investigators, according to a transcript obtained by CBS News. ‘I think everybody in the mission thought it was a terrorist attack from the beginning,’ he said. According to CBS, Hicks also told investigators that ‘a team of Special Forces prepared to fly from Tripoli to Benghazi during the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks was forbidden from doing so by U.S. Special Operations Command Africa.’ … The committee will also hear testimony from Mark Thompson, acting deputy assistant secretary for counterterrorism at the State Department, and Eric Nordstom, a diplomatic security officer and former regional security officer in Libya for the Department of State. The hearing comes on the heels of a report by House Republicans last month that contained evidence that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton may have misrepresented events and her role in them while testifying under oath to Congress concerning requests for additional security in Benghazi. … Americans have endured eight months of purposeful opacity from Obama administration officials on Benghazi. [Today's] hearing will likely bring some credible answers.” –The Washington Examiner

Upright

“September 11, 2012, was a profound moral failure. … 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.” –National Review’s David French

“[Hillary] Clinton’s role in Benghazi is particularly damaging because it risks becoming the signature legacy of her tenure at the State Department. Despite racking up an exhaustive travel record, Clinton had few actual achievements to show for her four years as Secretary of State–a burden as she contemplates her 2016 ambitions.” –columnist Joel B. Pollak

“It’s this corrupt and vengeful White House that wields the sharpest axes and biggest grindstones. The casualty count in Obama’s war on whistleblowers is double-digit. ATF insiders who testified before Congress about Obama’s Fast and Furious gun-running nightmare faced systemic retaliation and harassment — both from government supervisors who openly declared witch hunts against them and from liberal media water-carriers. … No stone will be left unturned in the effort to slime, sully and squelch the Benghazi truth-tellers. Mark my words: This is how Obama’s thugs roll.” –columnist Michelle Malkin

Morning Bell: Ghosts of Benghazi

- The Foundry: Conservative Policy News Blog from The Heritage Foundation - http://blog.heritage.org -

Morning Bell: Ghosts of Benghazi

Posted By James Carafano On May 8, 2013 @ 7:03 am In Protect America | No Comments

The White House might have wanted to mute its response to the terrorist attack in Benghazi for fear of inflaming Anti-American sentiment. Perhaps the President did not want to acknowledge a successful attack by an al-Qaeda affiliate on the anniversary of 9/11—right before a national election. Maybe it was just all “Keystone Kops” at the national command authority on the night four Americans were killed at their posts. It could be a bit of all three. The problem is, nine months later, we still don’t know for sure.

Dramatic hearings are expected today as Gregory Hicks ^[1], a State Department official who was on the ground in Libya during the 9/11 attack when four Americans died, talks to a House panel.

Some of his testimony from pre-hearing interviews with committee staff has already been released to the press. It includes claims that a Special Forces team that could have helped save lives and safeguard evidence and classified materials at the U.S. facility had been ordered to “stand down.” In addition, Hicks contends that from the outset, the ambassador’s team knew that they were under attack and reported that to Washington.

Hicks’s testimony follows a House Republican Conference report ^[2] and a detailed article on the “Benghazi Talking Points ^[3]” in The Weekly Standard that further call into question the credibility of the Obama Administration’s response.

What is becoming increasingly clear is that (1) the Administration bungled security before the incident; (2) the response to the assault was disjointed and inadequate; and (3) the Administration made a consistent and considerable effort to hide these facts.

The timeline ^[4] still does not add up.

That Hicks is only just now being allowed to testify before Congress reinforces concerns that the Administration continues to slow-roll the truth coming out. Yet the White House continues to stick to the increasingly incredulous line that it has been forthcoming at every step.

Just recently, the White House press spokesperson defended the State Department’s internal review ^[5] of the attack as “rigorous and unsparing ^[6],” even after the State Department Inspector General announced it is investigating the conduct of the panel ^[7] that produced the report.

Fundamental questions ^[8] about the security breakdown in Benghazi still have not been fully answered. With a White House that is still in denial about sharing the truth, it remains up to the Congress to press for answers and the press the Administration to take its responsibility of protecting our personnel overseas more seriously than protecting its political reputation at home.

The hearing will be streamed live here ^[9]beginning at 11:30 a.m. ET.

Read the Morning Bell and more en español every day at Heritage Libertad ^[10].

Quick Hits:

• Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) said yesterday that the Gang of Eight’s immigration bill sounds like another Obamacare ^[11].
• Gun crime in the U.S. is actually down substantially ^[12], but a new survey says more than half of Americans think it is up.
• The Hill reports that the Obamas had a “hush-hush, swanky, ultra-A-list party ^[13]” to celebrate the President’s second term that wasn’t listed on any inauguration schedules.
• South Korean President Park Geun-hye will address Congress in Washington today. Heritage’s Bruce Klingner wrote about the importance of her visit ^[14].
• At 8:30 a.m. ET on C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal,” Heritage Vice President Derrick Morgan is discussing Heritage’s new study on the cost of amnesty. Tune in! ^[15]

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Article printed from The Foundry: Conservative Policy News Blog from The Heritage Foundation: http://blog.heritage.org

URL to article: http://blog.heritage.org/2013/05/08/morning-bell-ghosts-of-benghazi/

URLs in this post:

[1] Gregory Hicks: http://washingtonexaminer.com/meet-gregory-hicks-the-whistleblower-upsetting-obamas-benghazi-narrative/article/2528940?custom_click=rss

[2] report: http://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Libya-Progress-Report-Final-1.pdf

[3] Benghazi Talking Points: http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/benghazi-talking-points_720543.html

[4] timeline: http://www.factcheck.org/2012/10/benghazi-timeline/

[5] State Department’s internal review: http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/202446.pdf

[6] rigorous and unsparing: http://thehill.com/blogs/global-affairs/middle-east-north-africa/297957-carney-benghazi-review-was-rigorous-and-unsparing

[7] investigating the conduct of the panel: http://hotair.com/archives/2013/05/02/report-state-departments-benghazi-review-panel-now-under-investigation/

[8] Fundamental questions: http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2013/03/lessons-from-benghazi-investigation-leaves-important-questions-unanswered

[9] here : http://oversight.house.gov/hearing/benghazi-exposing-failure-and-recognizing-courage/

[10] Heritage Libertad: http://www.libertad.org/

[11] another Obamacare: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2013/05/07/rand_paul_on_rubios_immigration_plan_to_me_its_a_little_bit_like_obamacare.html

[12] down substantially: http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-gun-crimes-pew-report-20130507,0,3022693.story

[13] hush-hush, swanky, ultra-A-list party: http://thehill.com/capital-living/cover-stories/298069-theres-no-party-like-a-white-house-party

[14] importance of her visit: http://blog.heritage.org/2013/05/07/use-south-korean-presidential-visit-to-affirm-the-bilateral-relationship/

[15] Tune in!: http://www.c-span.org/Journal/

 

 

Benghazi Whistleblower: Requests for Military Backup Denied

by Eli Lake May 6, 2013 12:21 PM EDT

 

A new Benghazi whisteblower will testify this week that requests for military support were shot down. Eli Lake reports.

• U.S. special operations teams were told to stand down the night of the attack on the U.S. intelligence and diplomatic facility in Benghazi on the eleventh anniversary of 9-11, according to a new whistleblower who will testify this week before Congress.

Gregory Hicks in Tripoli, Libya, August 12, 2012. (Akram Elsadawie/Demotix/Corbis)

Gregory Hicks, who was the top deputy to the slain U.S. ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens, will say his in written testimony that a second team of special operations officers were told not to fly to Benghazi on the evening of the attack. That team was scheduled to depart on a C-130 airplane to Benghazi that eventually took flight at 6:00 am on the morning of September 12. Less than one hour earlier, a round of mortar fire killed two CIA contractors—Glenn Doherty and Tyrone Woods — standing guard at a CIA annex in Benghazi.

While a team of CIA contractors from Tripoli did arrive in Benghazi late in the evening of the attack, Hicks’ testimony sheds new light on the military’s response to the attack as it was taking place. The testimony from Hicks, who served as chief of mission for the U.S. embassy at Tripoli after Stevens was killed in the initial attack on the U.S. compound in Benghazi, contradicts what senior Obama administration officials told Congress in briefings last year.

“So Lieutenant Colonel Gibson, who is the SOCAFRICA commander, his team, you know, they were on their way to the vehicles to go to the airport to get on the C­130 when he got a phone call from SOCAFRICA which said, you can’t go now, you don’t have authority to go now.  And so they missed the flight,” Hicks said in written testimony given to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Hicks is scheduled to testify Wednesday before that committee, along with other witnesses who are expected to cast doubt on the administration’s narrative about the attack.

“I have never been so embarrassed in my life that a State Department officer has bigger balls than somebody in the military.”

In his written testimony, Hicks – who was in Tripoli when the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi was attacked – said he recalled that Gibson told him at the time: “I have never been so embarrassed in my life that a State Department officer has bigger balls than somebody in the military.”

Hicks also pressed the embassy’s Defense, attaché Lt. Colonel Keith Phillips, to send F-15 fighter jets as well to Benghazi and to scramble those jets after the attack began, according to his written testiomny. But Hicks was told the closest jets were at Aviano Airbase, around three hours away, and that they did not have the refueled tankers to make the trip.

That account seems to contradict the briefings that senior administration officials gave to Congress in November, when they stated that the State Department had never requested air support or other military backup.

“I believe if we had been able to scramble a fighter or aircraft or two over Benghazi as quickly as possible after the attack commenced, I believe there would not have been a mortar attack on the annex in the morning because I believe the Libyans would have split,” Hicks said. “They would have been scared to death that we would have gotten a laser on them and killed them.”

Representative Jason Chaffetz, the Republican chairman of the House oversight subcommittee investigating the Benghazi attacks, told The Daily Beast in November that General Carter Ham, the outgoing U.S. commander of Africa Command, “told me directly that he had no directive to engage in the fight in Benghazi.”

Earlier sections of the Hicks testimony were shared Sunday on the CBS news program, “Face the Nation.” In that part of the written testimony, Hicks said he told Washington that evening that the attack on the Benghazi compound was a terrorist attack and that no one at the embassy believed it resulted from a spontaneous protest that evening. Top Obama administration officials, including U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice, said in the days after the attack that it stemmed from a protest.

The Hicks testimony corresponds with a report released last month from House Republicans contending that the talking points used by Rice in the days after the attack were edited to remove any reference to al Qaeda or previous terrorist attacks on the Benghazi facility.

 

Susan Rice went on the Sunday talk circuit to assure Americans that the attack was not orchestrated by terrorists.

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Eli Lake is the senior national-security correspondent for Newsweek and the Daily Beast. He previously covered national security and intelligence for theWashington Times. Lake has also been a contributing editor at The New Republic since 2008 and covered diplomacy, intelligence, and the military for the late New York Sun. He has lived in Cairo and traveled to war zones in Sudan, Iraq, and Gaza. He is one of the few journalists to report from all three members of President Bush’s axis of evil: Iraq, Iran, and North Korea.

 

For inquiries, please contact The Daily Beast at editorial@thedailybeast.com.

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