The Benghazi Report: 2013

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Howard Dean: ‘Benghazi is a Laughable Joke’

By Andrew Johnson

May 21, 2013 10:17 AM

Former Democratic National committee chairman Howard Dean considers the controversy over Benghazi a “joke” and “silly.”
“Benghazi is a laughable joke,” Dean proclaimed twice last week in a discussion with Republican National Committee communications chairman Sean Spicer.
“With all due respect, governor, when four Americans die serving this country, that’s not a joke, sir,” Spicer responded.
“Oh, stop it,” Dean said.
The former Democratic presidential candidate also said that there were “no serious questions being asked about Benghazi” and brushed off the controversy over the administration’s response to the terrorist attack as an effort by Republicans to score political points. ”It’s very clear what happened with Benghazi, this is ridiculous,” he said.

Wow: CBS News President and WH Official Tied to Benghazi Scandal Are Brothers

Guy Benson | May 11, 2013

One of the mainstream media journalists whose pursuit of the truth has been truly tenacious and nonpartisan is CBS News' Sharyl Attkisson. Her tough reporting has made life difficult for everyone from Hillary Clinton to the Bush administration and Congressional Republicans. She's also been relentless on the Obama administration's Fast & Furious gun-running scandal -- and, of course, Benghazi. As we mentioned this week, Attkisson's tough investigative journalism is starting to bother unnamed CBS News executives. Here's Politico's scoop, in case you missed it:

But from where Attkisson is sitting, there are actually two Goliaths, one of which is almost entirely absent from the Post profile. The second Goliath is CBS News, which has grown increasingly frustrated with Attkisson's Benghazi campaign. CBS News executives see Attkisson wading dangerously close to advocacy on the issue, network sources have told POLITICO. Attkisson can't get some of her stories on the air, and is thus left feeling marginalized and underutilized. That, in part, is why Attkisson is in talks to leave CBS ahead of contract, as POLITICO reported in April. Farhi mentions "internal conflicts" in the final paragraph, though he seems to dismiss them. The "internal conflicts" are indeed real -- Attkisson is still eyeing an exit, according to sources -- and provide important context for today's piece.

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Nixama: What we can expect next.

May 21, 2015
John Sacs

What are the Similarities between Obama and Nixon?
Part 1 – The Enemies list then and Now

The multitude of scandals that is brewing around President Obama is increasing every day. The White House is in full deny and obfuscation mode. Obama has fallen back to his usual, “I didn’t know that. The first I heard of that was on the news.” Obama has used this many times in the past and the media had always given him a pass. Press Secretary Jay Carney is using the classic “No Comment” defense when asked about the Department of Justice (DOJ) seizing Associated Press (AP) reporters phone lines. Attorney General Eric Holder is claiming he recused himself from the AP investigation very early on. We know Richard Nixon had his enemies list. His list though was easily compiled by watching the major news networks, newspapers and anyone from singers or actors to average people who spoke at rallies who opposed him. Nixon’s list was manually compiled and was pretty simple and limited. Obama’s is much more dangerous. Obama, who is the first president to win the presidency in a large part due to Big Data and a mastery of Social Media. The office in Chicago set up by David Axelrod to use Big Data and Link Social Media to voters was simply brilliant. There are many articles looking into it from ARStecnica.com to MIT’s Technological review, but the most comprehensive is from Sasha Issenberg who wrote a book called the Victory Lab. http://www.amazon.com/Victory-Lab-Science-Winning-Campaigns/dp/030795479X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1368646723&sr=1-1&keywords=sasha+issenberg We still don’t know the details of what data, algorithms, and pattern matching criteria they used. This is kept under lock and key and no one from the Chicago “Cave” as it was called is talking. This is not surprising as Obama and his team’s penchant for secrecy is Nixonian or worse. At least the media hated Nixon and were doing their job as a watchdog on power as the Founders intended when they wrote the Bill of Rights and made Freedom of Speech the very 1st Amendment. They did this on purpose; it wasn’t an accident that Freedom of Speech is the 1st Amendment. Obama’s hatred of truth tellers and whistle blowers is legendary. In Obamaland, no person, not even a journalist is safe as the Associated Press is finding out. http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/09/in-america-journalists-are-considered-terrorists.html What is truly frightening is that Obama’s use of Big Data and Social Media can be used to find any small collection between two people. It may be able to link your reading of this article to your Google and Facebook accounts and the numbers you have called on your smartphone. From there it can determine everyone you have emailed, texted, called and read on the Web. If you hit enough parameters, then you may be determined to be an enemy of Obama. What I just wrote might not even be true, but from where I sit in Silicon Valley, I know people who are writing these sorts of type of correlation algorithms. It is truly Orwellian. The Soviet Union and the East German Stasi could only dream of control like this. Here is my favorite story about the East German Stasi and their ability to track enemies and remember they had one officer per every 2000 people. An opponent of the East German President, Erich Honecker would buy a newspaper and cut out a picture of Honecker and write, “pig” over Honecker’s face and mail it to the Communist headquarters. This went on for weeks and then months. This infuriated the Communist Party. The then put the Stasi in charge of catching this man. The Stasi was able to determine the man lived in East Berlin from the Post Office Stamping. That was all they knew. The Stasi then had the local newspaper print a different number on the back of each picture of Honecker in each newspaper and associate it with either an home address, business address or where each paper would be sold. Once, this was done, they caught the write of “pig” very quickly and I am sure he must have been tortured in a Stalag for at least a decade if he was lucky. This took an unbelievable amount of manpower and effort for the Stasi in a Police State. The power Obama has is something the Stasi could only dream of.

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Obama admits he made a mistakeMay 16, 2013
John Sacs

You know President Obama is in trouble when 2 things happen.

The first is that Obama actually fires someone. He fired the acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service on Wednesday and announced it at 6:30 pm EST in a televised White House statement.

Cleverly enough, the evening news broadcasts had just finished on the East Coast. The only thing better would have been if he could have done it on a Friday night at 11:00 pm. Sadly, time does not care that he is Barack Obama, aka “the Chosen One” by Oprah and himself.

President Obama despises firing anybody. I am not sure he had actually fired anyone. He believes every decision and appointment he has ever made is beyond questioning by any person. It is part of the administration’s bunker mentality.

The fact he fired someone and the timing of it shows he knows that the three scandals, Benghazi, IRS, and AP spying on reporters, are getting hotter. The fastest way to try to cool things down is to fire someone and hope that appeases the media and Congress.

The second reason you know the President is in trouble is that the New York Times and NBC have joined the Wall Street Journal in their coverage opinions of Obama.

Today’s NYT front page seems the same as yesterday’s WSJ front page. Here is a quote “But the controversies of recent days have reinforced fears of an overreaching government while calling into questions Mr. Obama’s ability to master his own presidency.”

Later in the article, the NYT mentions that Obama portrayed himself as an onlooker to the IRS scandal and he is angry about it.

Left unsaid is why he is angry. Is he angry because what the IRS did is wrong? Is he angry because the IRS was caught? Or is he angry because he had to fire someone?

Later in the article Obama is mentioned as saying he had nothing to do with Justice Department seizure of phone records of Associated Press reporters.

On Benghazi, Obama is reported, as saying is a dispute that is “brazen politics”. They then realized a document of emails to give the press and Congress something to look at.

The Obama administration is in pure damage control mode as they are desperately trying to get their arms around the three scandals.

Besides, the document dump on Benghazi, the administration has suddenly announced that they have decided to work with Congress on a Journalist Shield Law.

Despite this, the media and Congress don’t seem to be impressed with Obama’s speeches and actions.

The story that Obama is most concerned of appears to be the IRS story. This is a story that resonates with the American people. The people understand the power and fear that the IRS has. This is simple and terrifying government overreach.

Benghazi does not appear yet to have the ability to connect with the American people.

The AP story is believed to be least threatening, as they believe the popularity of the media is very low and the people don’t care what happens to the media.

Hannity guest claims IRS scandal means Obama stole 2012 election

Hannity guest claims IRS scandal means Obama stole 2012 election (via Raw Story )

A panel discussion on Wednesday night’s episode of the Republican talk show “Hannity” ended with everyone agreeing that President Barack Obama must have used the Internal Revenue Service to steal the 2012 election, keeping tea partiers so busy with filling out documents to obtain tax exempt status…

BETWEEN THE LINES The Benghazi lies just keep coming Exclusive: Joseph Farah on key officials: 'The rats are beginning to abandon the ship'
It was just on May 8 that former Ambassador Thomas Pickering, co-chairman of the State Department’s Accountability Review Board, criticized those who accused the Obama administration of a cover-up in the Benghazi scandal.

“I think the notion of a quote, cover-up, has all the elements of Pulitzer Prize fiction attached to it,” Pickering said on MSNBC.
He rebutted claims his review board tried to protect former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the way it conducted its investigation.

“I saw no evidence of it,” he said. “She did publicly take responsibility for what happened below her and indeed one of the things the Congress did in preparing the legislation that established the Accountability Review Board was to say we don’t want a situation where heads of agencies take responsibility and then nobody who made the decision in the chain has to suffer any consequences for failure for performance. I believe in fact the Accountability Review Board did its work well.”

But wait just a minute.
Only a few days later, on Sunday, on “Meet the Press,” even Pickering was scampering for the tall grass, saying his review only looked at what led up to the Benghazi attack with an eye toward security concerns. He said the review board did not examine the spin that followed the attack. In other words, all the changing talking points, after the fact, were not part of his review.

So how could he have said a few days ago there was no cover-up, which, by definition, is what occurs after an attack, if his investigation didn’t look at that?
What’s particularly distressing about Pickering’s role in the Benghazi scandal is his own personal history.

Lt. Col. Oliver North recalls a time when he served as with the National Security Council in the Reagan administration that Pickering was in a pickle very similar to Ambassador Christopher Stevens. Pickering was the target of assassination threats while serving as ambassador to El Salvador. He was, in all likelihood, saved from such an attack because of decisive action taken on his behalf.

Benghazi Emails Released Messages Show State Department, CIA Had Often-Tense Debate Over What to Disclose About Attacks

By COLLEEN MCCAIN NELSON and ADAM ENTOUS

Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

Marines at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland last September carry caskets of the remains of the four Americans killed in Benghazi, Libya.

WASHINGTON—More than 100 pages of emails released by the White House on Wednesday depict a protracted, frustrating and often tense debate about what should be contained in public "talking points" about last year's deadly assault in Benghazi, Libya.
The emails reveal a tussle within the administration about what it could confidently say about the attacks while an investigation into the assault was ongoing.
Senior administration officials said the emails—which the White House released to try to quell a partisan controversy—encompassed a two-day discussion among several agencies as officials wrote and rewrote the talking points on the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks.
Republicans have charged that the White House had political motives—less than two months before the presidential election—for changing the talking points to remove references to terrorist involvement in the assault.

Storm clouds gathering -- your safety, your freedoms and the Obama White House

By Judge Andrew P. Napolitano

Published May 16, 2013

FoxNews.com

Government is bad for personal freedom. That argument is premised upon the truism that everything government does interferes with freedom because it either prohibits or compels.Everything it owns it has taken from others. Much of what it says is divorced from the truth.
President Obama, like President George W. Bush, has argued that his first job is to keep America safe, and if he impairs personal freedom in the process, that is a small price to pay for safety. Many of my colleagues in the media on the left and right have bought this argument, notwithstanding its fallacies.
Until now.
This past week, we learned that the IRS has targeted for additional scrutiny the tax exemption applications of groups with whose messages it disagrees. We also learned that the Department of Justice obtained the personal telephone records of hundreds of reporters and editors employed by the Associated Press without a search warrant issued by a judge. And during this past week we learned that the White House, the Department of State and the CIA all engaged in a conspiracy of disinformation so that the official version of events of what caused the murders of four Americans at our consulate in Benghazi, Libya, would not impair Obama’s re-election campaign in 2012.

Is this really a surprise to anyone. With our wonderful transparent administration

Benghazi Emails Directly Contradict White House Claims

12:09 AM, MAY 16, 2013 • BY STEPHEN F. HAYES

The White House on Wednesday released 94 pages of emails between top administration and intelligence officials who helped shape the talking points about the attacks in Benghazi, Libya, that the CIA would provide to policymakers in both the legislative and executive branches.

The documents, first reported by THE WEEKLY STANDARD in articles here and here, directly contradict claims by White House press secretary Jay Carney and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that the revisions of those talking points were driven by the intelligence community and show heavy input from top Obama administration officials, particularly those at the State Department.

The emails provide further detail about the rewriting of the talking points during a 24-hour period from midday September 14 to midday September 15. As THE WEEKLY STANDARD previously reported, a briefing from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence shows that the big changes came in three waves – internally at the CIA, after email feedback from top administration officials, and during or after a meeting of high-ranking intelligence and national security officials the following morning.

Breitbart Exclusive: EXCLUSIVE: HOLDER SAYS 'NO' TO SPECIAL COUNSEL TO INVESTIGATE BENGHAZIBreitbart News has obtained an exclusive video of Attorney General Eric Holder flatly rejecting the idea of appointing a special counsel to investigate Benghazi.
Filmed on May 15 and provided to Breitbart News by Special Operations Speaks, the video shows Holder emerge from his car and walk towards the Rayburn House Office Building for hearings on the IRS scandal. Holder is clearly asked, "Mr. Holder, will you appoint a Special Counsel to investigate Benghazi?"
In equally clear tones, Holder answers, "No," and disappears into the building.

Inside the Latest Benghazi Emails: No One Knew Much of Anything

Four days after the attacks on 9/11 anniversary attacks in Benghazi, Libya, the U.S. intelligence community knew very little about who did it, how it happened, and whether it was planned or not, according to 100 pages of internal emails released Wednesday afternoon by the White House.

President Barack Obama prays at a recent event in Washington, DC. (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)

Those emails provide the clearest record to date of the genesis of government-wide talking points for senior Obama administration officials that asserted that the Benghazi attacks stemmed from a demonstration that never occurred.

House Republicans have been calling for weeks for the White House to release the emails, claiming in a report issued last month from Republican leadership that the emails show the edits to the talking points were not done to protect classified information as the White House initially claimed.

The talking points were first generated by the CIA for a briefing of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

The real reason for the scnadle?: Petraeus email objected to Benghazi talking pointsBy NEDRA PICKLER
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) - Then CIA-Director David Petraeus objected to the final talking points the Obama administration used after the deadly assault on a U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, because he wanted to see more details revealed to the public, according to emails released Wednesday by the White House.

Under pressure in the investigation that continues eight months after the attacks, the White House on Wednesday released 99 pages of emails and a single page of hand-written notes made by Petraeus' deputy, Mike Morell, after a meeting at the White House on Saturday, Sept. 15. On that page, Morell scratched out from the CIA's early drafts of talking points mentions of al-Qaida, the experience of fighters in Libya, Islamic extremists and a warning to the Cairo embassy on the eve of the attacks of calls for a demonstration and break-in by jihadists.

Petraeus apparently was displeased by the removal of so much of the material his analysts initially had proposed for release. The talking points were sent to U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice to prepare her for an appearance on news shows on Sunday, Sept. 16, and also to members of the House Intelligence Committee.

2 Day Gap?: White House’s Benghazi email dump shows critical two-day gap, CIA objectionThe Benghazi-related emails released by the White House late May 15 exclude the critical emails between administration officials that were sent during the crucial first two days after the deadly jihadi attack that killed four Americans last September.
The 100 pages of partially redacted emails also conclude with a dismissive message from CIA chief David Petraeus.
“Frankly, I’d just as soon not use this,” Petraeus said about the heavily edited, four-sentence “talking points” that the White House used to downplay Al Qaeda’s role in the Sep. 11 attack on the poorly protected diplomatic compound.

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Hubris isn’t just the stuff of Greek tragedies

May 15, 2012
John SACS
Original Content: Full Story

The Curse of the Second Term – Benghazi, IRS attack on Tea Party/Patriot groups, and Justice Department Spying on Journalists

Barely 100 days has passed since Barack Hussein Obama was inaugurated to his second term on January 21, 2013.

In that time, he has failed miserably in his attempt to exploit the Newtown Tragedy. Obama’s, Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s, and Senator Diane Feinstein’s goal was to begin the assault against the 2nd amendment and destroy it slowly one bill at a time.

Sadly, for Obama, but not for the 2nd Amendment, he couldn’t even pass a watered down anti-gun bill that supposedly ninety percent of the American people support. Who are these 90 percent? They are certainly not any believer in the Bill of Rights that I know.

What else was on Mr. Obama’s agenda? Oh yes, Immigration Reform. Here is another item that was critically important to Obama, the Democrats, and many Republicans.

Where are Congress and the White House on the Immigration Bill? Nowhere as far any one can see nothing and nothing will come of it based on Obama’s drive and legislative effectiveness.

All of the above items plus the sequester redo and lowering how Social Security payments are made and other items on the Obama agenda are grinding to a halt.

What is amazing is that Obama was becoming a lame duck based on his own arrogance, laziness, and ineptitude at governing.

But, then Monday May 13, 2013 occurred.

What happened? Three seemingly different stories began to get linked. Benghazi, the IRS targeting of Tea Party and Patriot groups, and the Justice Department (led by Attorney General Eric Holder) spying on the Associated Press (AP).

The establishment and the incestuous main stream media were going to give Obama their usual free pass on Benghazi and the IRS stories, by claiming they were the usual Democrat versus Republican stories but then the AP story broke.

The media adores Obama, but they love themselves even more.

The Justice Departments attack on AP and all of their reporters, phone lines, cell phones and who knows what else is just to much for media to take.

If the media doesn’t circle their wagons and protect each other and go after Obama ferociously and immediately, their 1st Amendment right will be gone and they know it.

As long as it was just our Bill of Rights, especially the 2nd and 4th Amendments, the media was only too happy to dance to Obama’s tune and support him obsequiously.

However no that it is the media’s rights that are under assault, they will not stand for it and they will go on the attack.

The AP story is the only story that will get the media to do their job on Benghazi and the IRS stories and many others.

The press is beyond angry. Obama crossed a line that should never be crossed by anyone including the President, Congress, and business leaders.

Going after the press is career suicide. Ask Richard Nixon, Patricia Dunn (former Chairman of HP, who authorized spying on reporters) or General Motors in the 1970s when they spied on Ralph Nader and his Raiders (yes, the same Ralph Nader who ran for President on 2000 and 2004)

President Obama, promised to have the most transparent administration in history, is proving to be the second coming of Richard Nixon, without having Nixon’s brains, foreign policy chops (unless you count Leading From Behind in Libya) and his legislative agenda successes.

Obama has Nixon’s arrogance, sneakiness, and overall meanness and now he has made Nixon’s great mistake of going after the press.

For a person who we are constantly told is so smart, how could he have done something so stupid?

Hubris. Hubris isn’t just the stuff of Greek tragedies, it the key ingredient for all monumental human failings and it looks like President Barack Hussein Obama is about to join the long list of presidents, which includes Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush, who destroyed their second terms, some worse than others, based on hubris.

It couldn’t have happened to a more arrogant guy.

The Benghazi lies just keep coming
It was just on May 8 that former Ambassador Thomas Pickering, co-chairman of the State Department’s Accountability Review Board, criticized those who accused the Obama administration of a cover-up in the Benghazi scandal.

Why is Boehner Resisting a Special Committee on Benghazi?Some things don't stack up. On Monday, Politico headlined that Speaker John Boehner was fixated with the bubbling Benghazi scandal. In fact, Politico termed the speaker's fixation as "big."
So why is Boehner dragging his feet on empanelling a special (or select) committee to tackle the Benghazi disaster? Why is the speaker standing pat on last week's statement that House standing committees are getting the investigative job done?
Most everyone has Boehner's snapshot: cautious by nature, a Washingtonized pol who'd rather play than fight. But, as Politico contends, the speaker is invested in the growing Benghazi controversy. Politico outlined the speaker's behind-the-scenes involvement:

With Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) as the public face and the speaker's office as the muscle, House Republicans are turning turn [sic] the story of the Sept. 11, 2012, attack in Libya that left four Americans dead from a mesh of confusing details into a defining political fight with President Barack Obama.

And more from Politico:

Backfire: ABC, CNN Call for White House to Release Libya Emails

Assuming they are the ones who leaked to CNN an email written by Ben Rhoades (a Deputy National Security Advisor close to the President), the White House might have been too clever by half Tuesday. An act that was obviously meant to pour water on the Benghazi fire started by an ABC News report, has only ended up being gasoline. Now both CNN and ABC have joined conservative media in calling for the White House to release all the emails surrounding the editing of the CIA talking points.

Friday, in a bombshell report that blew the long-simmering Libya scandal wide open and right into the arms of the mainstream media, ABC's Jonathan Karl reported that an email written by Rhoades specifically mentioned the State Department's concerns about the CIA talking points. Here is how Karl transcribed the Rhoades' email:

We must make sure that the talking points reflect all agency equities, including those of the State Department, and we don’t want to undermine the FBI investigation. We thus will work through the talking points tomorrow morning at the Deputies Committee meeting.

Though this point wasn't the main focus of Karl's report, it was important because it showed that the White House was backing State in pushing inconvenient facts out of the talking points -- this included the fact that terrorists were behind the attack and that State had been negligent when it came to providing security for our diplomatic mission.

O’s scandals take nation by storm

By MICHAEL GOODWIN
Last Updated: 2:49 AM, May 15, 2013
Posted: 2:09 AM, May 15, 2013

Michael Goodwin

As a metaphor for big government, it is hard to top the Justice Department’s seizing of journalists’ phone records from The Associated Press.
Unless, of course, you think the best example is the Internal Revenue Service turning the screws on groups it viewed as conservative and, therefore, unworthy of fair treatment.
Or maybe the winner is the sneaky spreading of ObamaCare’s tentacles, with insurance companies now predicting the law will drive up the cost of individual premiums by as much as 400 percent.
There are no losers in this race to the bottom — except the American people. It is tempting to ask whether they’ve had enough Hope & Change, but the question is premature. With 44 months to go in the reign of the Great Mistake, the gods are not done punishing us.

BOOM! WHI Interview Confirmed – “CIA Source Says Another Shoe To Drop On ObamaAs his administration buckles under the weight of several serious scandals, Drudge Report editor Joseph Curl releases a hint from a CIA source that there is yet “another shoe to drop” atop the already fearful head of the Obama White House…

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Heads of Benghazi review board say they'll testifyWASHINGTON (AP) — The leaders of the panel that independently reviewed the attack last year in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans have agreed to testify publicly before Congress to counter what they consider unfounded criticism of their work.
In a letter to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, veteran diplomat Thomas Pickering says he and former Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen will answer any questions lawmakers have.
Pickering calls criticism of the Accountability Review Board "unfounded." He says he and Mullen stand by its findings.
Republicans believe the board's report was flawed, and they want to know why top officials like Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton weren't interviewed.
GOP lawmakers had sought a private hearing with Pickering and Mullen.
Democrats said any hearing should be open.

More Details on Benghazi Talking Points EmergeCNN’s Jake Tapper this afternoon obtained a version of the same White House e-mail I reported on last week that showed the evolving Benghazi talking points being shaped by the Obama administration last September.
That e-mail, authored by then-Deputy National Security Adviser for Strategic Communications Ben Rhodes on the evening of Sept. 14, 2012, reads, according to CNN:

“Sorry to be late to this discussion. We need to resolve this in a way that respects all of the relevant equities, particularly the investigation.
“There is a ton of wrong information getting out into the public domain from Congress and people who are not particularly informed. Insofar as we have firmed up assessments that don’t compromise intel or the investigation, we need to have the capability to correct the record, as there are significant policy and messaging ramifications that would flow from a hardened mis-impression.
“We can take this up tomorrow morning at deputies.”

This helps fill out the portrait of the inter-agency deliberations that went into shaping the now-discredited talking points. Assuming, as appears to be the case based on time stamps, that this is a version of the same e-mail ABC News reported on last week, there are some differences.
This is how I reported the contents of that e-mail, quoting verbatim a source who reviewed the original documents and shared detailed notes:

Benghazi timeline: How the probe unfoldedAs soon as it was revealed that U.S. diplomatic offices in Benghazi, Libya, had been attacked on the Sept. 11, 2012, leaving four Americans -- Ambassador Christopher Stevens, Sean Smith with the U.S. Foreign Service, Glen Doherty and Tyrone S. Woods -- all dead, questions arose over how it could have been allowed to happen.
Obama administration officials initially gave differing explanations, and the ensuing political firestorm over what they knew, and when, is still raging in Washington. In early May, three "whistleblowers" appeared before a congressional committee and gave accounts of the events preceding, during and after the attacks that differed from previous administration responses.
President Obama on Monday forcefully dismissed the ongoing controversy over the talking points that the administration initially crafted to describe the attacks, calling it a politically-motivated "sideshow" that "defies logic."
The following is a timeline of events that begins on the day after the attacks on the U.S. outposts in Benghazi.

EXCLUSIVE: HOUSE MAJORITY WHIP: 'WE WILL INVESTIGATE' IRS, BENGHAZI, AP SCANDALSOn Monday, House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) responded to reports that the Department of Justice had secretly obtained two full months of phone records from the Associated Press, prompting the AP’s President and Chief Executive Officer Gary Pruitt to call it a “massive and unprecedented intrusion.” He also commented on the administration’s ever-changing story with regard to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2012 in Benghazi, Libya, and the IRS’ admissions that it politically targeted conservative organizations for scrutiny.
McCarthy told Breitbart News:
I am deeply concerned by the numerous reports of misconduct by the Administration, from whistler blower testimony regarding Benghazi to the Internal Revenue Service targeting groups based on political ideology and now the Department of Justice monitoring journalists with Associated Press. The House has both the authority and the prerogative to conduct oversight of the executive branch and agencies. We will investigate these matters fully. There is nothing I take more seriously than our constitutional freedoms and liberties.

Adina Kutnicki A Zionist & Conservative Blog

BENGHAZIGATE About To Be Blown Wide Open: General Petraeus Has MEGA Scores To (Rightfully) Settle…Commentary
How many times has this blog used the metaphor, “beat like a dead horse”? ( http://adinakutnicki.com/2012/11/17/the-radicalislamist-in-chief-his-forward-march-towards-a-green-red-tyranny-commentary-by-adina-kutnicki/ …ditto… http://adinakutnicki.com/2013/02/11/john-brennan-obamas-cia-pick-is-a-muslim-convert-brotherhood-mafias-infiltration-near-complete-commentary-by-adina-kutnicki/). Well, too many times, but it is not for nothing. And when the stakes are so high there is no room to quibble.
Kal v’chomer (as is said in Israel), even more so, when it comes to Benghazigate, the BIGGEST scandal in U.S. history, it is incumbent upon all of us to beat this horse’s essence into the public’s consciousness. No crevice should be left unmolested, so listen to Beck’s clear timeline, but it is not as if this is news herein – http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=j_Oqm6xCCyU#!

Video!: Cheney: President Obama Involved In Ongoing Benghazi Cover-Up

FORMER VICE PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY: "They tried to cover it up by constructing a false story, claiming there was confusion about what happened in the Benghazi compound. There was no confusion. It was obvious as soon as we got Ambassadors Stevens on the phone that night and he said, quote, 'we are under attack.' The cover-up included several officials up to and including President Obama, and the cover-up is still ongoing." (Hannity, May 13, 2013)

Please use the link to view the video. Sorry I can't embed it.

I'll be honest I'm not sure this has much to it, but I am trying to log everything Benghazi

Obama’s claim he called Benghazi an ‘act of terrorism’
"The day after it happened, I acknowledged that this was an act of terrorism.”
— President Obama, remarks at a news conference, May 13, 2013
Once again, it appears that we must parse a few presidential words. We went through this question at length during the 2012 election, but perhaps a refresher course is in order.
Notably, during a debate with Republican nominee Mitt Romney, President Obama said that he immediately told the American people that the killing of the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans in Libya “was an act of terror.” But now he says he called it “an act of terrorism.”
Some readers may object to this continuing focus on words, but presidential aides spend a lot of time on words. Words have consequences. Is there a difference between “act of terror” and “act of terrorism”?

The Facts

Immediately after the attack, the president three times used the phrase “act of terror” in public statements:
“No acts of terror will ever shake the resolve of this great nation, alter that character, or eclipse the light of the values that we stand for.”
— Obama, Rose Garden, Sept. 12
“We want to send a message all around the world — anybody who would do us harm: No act of terror will dim the light of the values that we proudly shine on the rest of the world, and no act of violence will shake the resolve of the United States of America.”
— Obama, campaign event in Las Vegas, Sept. 13
“I want people around the world to hear me: To all those who would do us harm, no act of terror will go unpunished. It will not dim the light of the values that we proudly present to the rest of the world. No act of violence shakes the resolve of the United States of America.”
— Obama, campaign event in Golden, Colo., Sept. 13T

Top Dem calls for public testimony on Benghazi
WASHINGTON — The top Democrat on the House Oversight panel said Monday that the authors of an independent investigation into the deadly assault in Benghazi, Libya, should answer questions about their work at a congressional hearing, not in a private deposition that the Republicans want.
“If our committee is truly interested in improving the security of American diplomatic personnel overseas, members of our committee and the American public should hear first-hand from the individuals who have done the most exhaustive review of these attacks,” Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland wrote in a letter to Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., the panel’s chairman.
In a Sunday talk show appearance, Issa said he would seek sworn testimony from veteran diplomat Thomas Pickering and retired Adm. Mike Mullen, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The two conducted an independent investigation of the Sept. 11 attack that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

Benghazi, IRS: Son of Watergate?

Cal Thomas Tribune Media Services

4:30 a.m. CDT, May 14, 2013

In his defense of President Obama, Press Secretary Jay Carney is beginning to sound a lot like Ronald Zeigler, Richard Nixon's spokesman. Carney only has to use the word "inoperative," as Ziegler did when incriminating evidence surfaced that proved his previous statements untrue.

Following what appears to be a cover-up in the Benghazi attack, the Washington Post has obtained documents from an audit conducted by the IRS's inspector general that indicate the agency targeted for special scrutiny conservative groups with "tea party" and "patriot" in their names, as well as "nonprofit groups that criticized the government and sought to educate Americans about the U.S. Constitution."

IRS official Lois Lerner described the targeting efforts as "absolutely inappropriate," but said IRS actions were not driven by partisanship. How, then, would she explain why no groups with "progressive" in their titles were similarly targeted? Carney labeled Lerner an "appointee from the previous administration." In other words: Bush's mistake, not Obama's.

Monday, May 13, 2013

Media is becoming the story on Benghazi

RICHARD GRENELL: I think the media's becoming the story, let's face it. CBS News President David Rhodes and ABC News President Ben Sherwood, both of them have siblings that not only work at the White House, that not only work for President Obama, but they work at the NSC on foreign policy issues directly related to Benghazi. Let's call a spade a spade.
Let's also show you why CNN did not go very far in covering these hearings because the CNN deputy bureau chief, Virginia Moseley, is married to Hillary Clinton’s deputy, Tom Nides. It is time for the media to start asking questions why are they not covering this. It's a family matter for some of them.
JON SCOTT, HOST: So they don't want to bring embarrassment upon folks who, who they're close to?
GRENELL: Who directly are related to this story. Absolutely. They're covering for them. There's no question about it.

Presidents of ABC and CBS News Have Siblings Working at White House With Ties to Benghazi Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2013/05/11/fox-abc-and-cbs-news-presidents-have-siblings-working-white-house-tie#ixzz2TBR1haPe
"CBS News President David Rhodes and ABC News President Ben Sherwood, both of them have siblings that not only work at the White House, that not only work for President Obama, but they work at the NSC on foreign policy issues directly related to Benghazi."
So stated political consultant and media commentator Richard Grenell on Saturday's Fox News Watch (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Spinning Benghazi: The New Yorker

It’s a cliché, of course, but it really is true: in Washington, every scandal has a crime and a coverup. The ongoing debate about the attack on the United States facility in Benghazi where four Americans were killed, and the Obama Administration’s response to it, is no exception. For a long time, it seemed like the idea of a coverup was just a Republican obsession. But now there is something to it.
On Friday, ABC News’s Jonathan Karl revealed the details of the editing process for the C.I.A.’s talking points about the attack, including the edits themselves and some of the reasons a State Department spokeswoman gave for requesting those edits. 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, who used them in Sunday show appearances that became a central focus of Republicans’ criticism of the Administration’s public response to the attacks. Over the course of about twenty-four hours, the remarks evolved from something specific and fairly detailed into a bland, va

Friday, May 10, 2013

Benghazi Consulate Could Have Used Marines With Bayonets
Scandal: More than six hours after terrorists attacked our consulate, former Navy SEALs manned a blood-soaked machine gun to defend U.S. territory. Meanwhile Apache helicopters sat on the ground in Italy.
At 4 a.m. local time on Sept. 11 — six hours and 20 minutes after the initial attack began — former Navy SEALs Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty were killed at the CIA annex not far from the consulate by a mortar shell. The machine gun they were firing was encrusted with blood, an indication they continued to fight after being wounded.
During that eternity, Woods and Doherty might have wondered between gunfire and explosions where the military, with bases strewn across Europe, was. U.S. forces were indeed being moved like chess pieces as the attack unfolded, but none came to their aid because no one gave the order.

CBS/AP/ September 12, 2012, 6:24 AM Assault on U.S. consulate in Benghazi leaves 4 dead, including U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens
CBS/AP) U.S. Ambassador to Libya J. Christopher Stevens was among four Americans killed in an attack by Muslim protesters on the U.S. consulate compound in Benghazi the previous evening, the U.S. government confirmed Wednesday.
"I strongly condemn the outrageous attack on our diplomatic facility in Benghazi, which took the lives of four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens," President Obama said in a written statement released Wednesday morning. The U.S. government had confirmed one American death on Tuesday.
President Obama said he had ordered heightened security at all U.S. diplomatic offices around the world in the wake of the attack in Benghazi and a similar but less violent incident in Cairo on Tuesday. Both incidents were sparked by hardline Muslims protesting a film made in the U.S. which insults the Muslim prophet Muhammad.

Do Not Forget Those Who Died in Benghazi
Hearings begin this morning, in the United States House of Representatives, into the events of last 11 September in which our ambassador to Libya and three others were killed. They were killed, you may recall, during a multi-hour firefight in Benghazi with a “spontaneous street demonstration” armed, among other things, with rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons.

SHOCK!!!!!! Fox Host wonders if Sasha Or Malia Obama Died In Benghazi, would different questions be asked

WATCH: Diplomat Gregory Hicks Describes Night Of Benghazi Attack In Excruciating Detail

Hillary: " I wasn't there" Possible impeachment?
Then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Jan. 23, 2013:
“I wasn’t involved in the talking points process.... As I understand it, as I’ve been told, it was a typical interagency process where staff, including from the State Department, all participated, to try to come up with whatever was going to be made publicly available, and it was an intelligence product.”

Fox News Insider: Gripping Firsthand Account: Gregory Hicks Recounts Details of Benghazi Attack

Gregory Hicks, who was in Benghazi at the time of the September 11 attack on the U.S. Consulate, recounted the events of the day during Capitol Hill testimony Wednesday.

The day was a “routine day” at the embassy, until an aide ran into his villa in Tripoli as he was watching television, and said, “Greg, Greg, the Consulate is under attack.”

Ex-Official Details Benghazi Attack

Washington — A former top diplomat in Libya yesterday delivered a riveting minute-by-minute account of the chaotic events during the deadly assault on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi last September, with a 2 a.m. call from Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and confusion about the fate of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens.

In a slow, halting and sometimes emotional voice, Gregory Hicks, the deputy chief of mission who was in Tripoli, described for a House committee how a routine day on Sept. 11, 2012, quickly devolved as insurgents launched two nighttime attacks on the facility in eastern Libya, killing Stevens and three other Americans.

WSJ: Diplomat Airs Benghazi Attack Details In Riveting Account of Libya Raid, Official Knocks Administration ResponseWASHINGTON—A high-ranking American diplomat delivered an emotional reconstruction Wednesday of the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, providing the first detailed public account from an American official who was on the ground in Libya.

U.S. diplomat recounts lack of response to deadly Benghazi attack

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A former U.S. diplomat in Libya told lawmakers on Wednesday more could have been done to prevent last year's deadly assault on the U.S. mission in Benghazi in which the U.S. ambassador was killed.

In a congressional hearing marked by emotional testimony and angry charges of political partisanship, Gregory Hicks, deputy chief of mission in Libya at the time of last year's attack, became the first U.S. official on the ground in Libya during the attacks to testify publicly.

MSNBC: The Benghazi attack ad Romney nixed and the one Rove aired
The Republican National Committee cut an attack ad weeks before the 2012 election, blaming then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for the deadly Benghazi attacks, but the Romney campaign pulled the plug.
The ad, unearthed and aired for the first time by ABC News, splices together Clinton’s famous “3 a.m. phone call” ad from her presidential campaign in 2008 with images of the burning U.S. consulate in Benghazi.

U.S. diplomat recounts frustration at lack of help during Benghazi attack
(Reuters) - A former U.S. diplomat in Libya gave a dramatic account on Wednesday of the attack on the mission in Benghazi that killed the U.S. ambassador, and told lawmakers that more could have been done to stop the assault by suspected Islamist militants.

CNN: Doomed Libya ambassador: 'We're under attack'
Washington (CNN) -- Late on the night of last September 11, U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens spoke to his deputy for the final time from the diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya.

"Greg, we're under attack," Stevens told Gregory Hicks.

Fox News: THE CHAOS OF THE BENGHAZI ATTACK
At 9:45 pm RSO [Regional Security Officer] John Martinec ran into my villa yelling, “Greg! Greg! The consulate’s under attack.” And I stood up and reached for my phone. I got the ambassador on the other end. And he said, “Greg, we’re under attack.”
John Martinec told me that the consulate had been breached, and there were at least 20 hostile individuals armed in the compound. So I next called the annex chief to ask him if he was in touch with the Benghazi annex to activate our emergency response plan.
And he said that he had been in touch with the annex in Benghazi, and they said they were mobilizing a response team there to go to our facility and provide reinforcements and to repel the attack.

Wiki for the Benghazi Attack:

Benghazi attack: Hicks 'stunned' at Rice explanation

A top US official who was in Libya during the deadly attack on the US Consulate in Benghazi has given the first public account of the event.

Gregory Hicks, deputy chief of mission in Tripoli, said he was "stunned" by UN Ambassador Susan Rice's comments that the attack was spontaneous.
He also told lawmakers he received a phone call from US Envoy Christopher Stevens, just before he died.
Three other Americans were killed in the attack on 11 September 2012.

“Start Quote

My jaw dropped and I was embarrassed”

Gregory Hicks on his reaction to Susan Rice's comments

During several hours of emotional testimony before a House of Representatives committee on Wednesday, Mr Hicks described the moment he was informed of the attack.

Diplomat Says Questions Over Benghazi Led to Demotion

Benghazi Hearing Revelations: 'The YouTube Video Was a Non-Event in Libya'

Democrats Actively Working to Undermine Testimony of Benghazi Whistleblower

Scrubbing the Truth from Benghazi

ABC NEWS! Benghazi Talking Points Underwent 12 Revisions, Scrubbed of Terror Reference

CIA director David Petraeus was surprised when he read the freshly rewritten talking points an aide had emailed him in the early afternoon of Saturday, September 15. One day earlier, analysts with the CIA’s Office of Terrorism Analysis had drafted a set of unclassified talking points policymakers could use to discuss the attacks in Benghazi, Libya. But this new version—produced with input from senior Obama administration policymakers—was a shadow of the original.

Liberal media spin Benghazi scandal to protect Team Obama