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GOP report faults State Dept. on Libya security
WASHINGTON—An interim report by House Republicans faults the State Department and former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton for security deficiencies at the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, prior to last September’s deadly terrorist attack that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. Senior State Department officials, including Clinton, approved reductions in security at the facilities in Benghazi, according to the report by GOP members of five House committees. The report cites an April 19, 2012, cable bearing Clinton’s signature acknowledging a March 28, 2012, request from then-U.S. Ambassador to Libya Gene Cretz for more security, yet allowing further reductions. “Senior State Department officials knew that the threat environment in Benghazi was high and that the Benghazi compound was vulnerable and unable to withstand an attack, yet the department continued to systematically withdraw security personnel,” the report said. Release of the report comes as dozens of House Republicans separately have pushed for Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, to create a select committee to investigate the Sept. 11, 2012, attack. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the report Tuesday. The report also is highly critical of President Barack Obama and White House staff. In the days following the attack, White House and senior State Department officials altered what the report said were accurate “talking points” drafted by the U.S. intelligence community in order to protect the State Department. And contrary to what the administration claimed, the alterations were not made to protect classified information. “Concern for classified information is never mentioned in email traffic among senior administration officials,” according to the 43-page report. Last December, senior State Department officials acknowledged major weaknesses in security and errors in judgment that had been revealed in a scathing independent report on the deadly assault. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns and Deputy Secretary of State Thomas Nides admitted that serious management and leadership failures left the mission in Benghazi woefully unprepared for the terrorist attack. Clinton, testifying before Congress in the final weeks of her tenure, took responsibility for the department’s missteps and failures leading up to the assault. But she insisted that requests for more security at the diplomatic mission in Benghazi didn’t reach her desk, and reminded lawmakers that they have a responsibility to fund security-related budget requests. The report from the House committees is the latest broadside in what has been a long-running and acrimonious dispute between the Obama administration and congressional Republicans who have challenged the White House’s actions before and after the Benghazi attack. House and Senate Republicans for weeks fought for access to information about the attack and used the nominations of two key Obama administration national security officials—Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and CIA Director John Brennan—as leverage to obtain internal documents about the raid.
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Sean Smith’s Mom: Obama Didn’t Follow-Up on Personal Promise; Asks Congress: ‘Please, Please Help Me Find Out Who is Responsible’
President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton at Andrews Air Force Base on Sept. 14, 2012, when the caskets of Sean Smith, Chris Stevens, Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty returned to the U.S.A. (AP Photo)
(CNSNews.com) – Patricia Smith–the mother of Foreign Service Officer Sean Smith, who was murdered by terrorists in Benghazi seven months ago today–says that President Barack Obama and other administration officials did not follow-up on promises they made to her personally when she traveled to Washington, D.C. last September to meet the return to the United States of her son’s casket.
Mrs. Smith says she wants to know why her son and the others at the State Department compound in Benghazi on Sept. 11, 2012 were abandoned by their government.
“Please, Please help me find out who is responsible and fix it so no more of our sons and daughters are abandoned by the country they love,” she said in a letter sent Monday to Rep. Frank Wolf (R.-Va.)
“When I was in Wash. DC at the reception of the caskets, I asked for and received promises from Pres. Obama, Hillary Clinton, Leon Panetta, VP Biden and several other dignitaries in attendance,” Mrs. Smith said in her letter. “They all looked me directly in the eyes and promised they would find out and let me know. I got only one call from a clerk about a month later quoting from the time line, which I already had.”
Terrorists murdered State Department Information Management Officer Sean Smith in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11, 2012. (State Dept. photo)
Mrs. Smith told Rep. Wolf–to whom she had also placed an unsolicited telephone call on Monday afternoon–that she was endorsing legislation he has proposed—H. Res. 36—to establish a special House committee specifically for the purpose of investigating the Benghazi attack and how the Obama administration handled it and its aftermath.
Sean Smith, who signed up to serve in the U.S. Air Force when he was only 17 years old, was 34 when he died last Sept. 11. By then, he had served a decade in the State Department, working as information management specialist.
In addition to his mother and father, Smith also left behind his wife, Heather, and two children, Nathan and Samantha.
Wolf’s resolution now has 89 co-sponsors in the House and was endorsed last week by a group of 700 special operations veterans, led by retired Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin, who worked with the Central Intelligence Agency, and was commander of Delta Force, and the U.S. Special Forces Command before becoming assistant secretary of defense for intelligence.
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FLASHBACK: Obama on Day of Benghazi Attack and Tsarnaev’s Naturalization: ‘Our Country Is Safer’
President Barack Obama with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta an Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey at the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2012. (AP Photo)
(CNSNews.com) – On Sept. 11, 2012, as he was campaigning for reelection, President Barack Obama went to the Pentagon to give a speech commemorating the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and tell Americans that he was successfully bringing the post-9/11 wars to a conclusion.
“Our country is safer,” Obama said.
Later that day, terrorists would attack the U.S. State Department mission and CIA Annex in Benghazi, Libya, and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, one of the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing, would be granted U.S. citizenship in Massachusetts.
“Today, the war in Iraq is over,” Obama said in his Sept. 11, 2012 speech at the Pentagon. “In Afghanistan, we’re training Afghan security forces and forging a partnership with the Afghan people. And by the end of 2014, the longest war in our history will be over.”
Obama said at the Pentagon that prior to 9/11/12 most of the victims would not have thought that a small number of terrorists could travel from overseas, enter the United States, and do great harm to us here.
Published on Apr 17, 2013
Sec.of State John Kerry testifies before the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Questioned by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA)
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U.S. National Intelligence Office sued for Benghazi documents
- Benghazi 9/11 attack
- February 24, 2013
- By: Jim Kouri
The Obama White House has decided to turnover documents related to the attack on a U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, according to news reports on Friday evening. But a non-government organization is continuing its lawsuit against Obama’s Office of National Intelligence to access the documents for itself.
Despite continuous cover-up allegations, misstatements, verbal gymnastics and other evasions, a top public-interest, watchdog group on Thursday announced that its officials had filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against President Barack Obama‘s Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The FOIA lawsuit seeks access to records regarding the Sept. 11, 2012, attack by Islamists on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
During the violent terrorist attack, Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were brutalized and murdered by radical Muslims associated with al-Qaeda. The documents requested from the Director of National Intelligence James Clapper include emails between top national security officials showing the debate within the administration over how to describe the attack and as well as other documents.
The non-profit, non-partisan Judicial Watch is seeking a questionable “talking points” memo indicating that intelligence officials believed from the outset that Islamic terrorists perpetrated the vicious attack despite public statements issued by Obama administration officials, including UN Ambassador Susan Rice and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that attributed the attack to a response to a YouTube anti-Mohammad video.
Judicial Watch seeks the following records in its FOIA request:
Any and all memoranda, assessments, analyses, and/or talking points regarding the September 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya and/or the killing of U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens produced by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence between Sept. 11, 2012 and Sept. 20, 2012. This request includes, but is not limited to, the “speaking points” memorandum referred to by Senator Dianne Feinstein during a televised interview on Oct. 17, 2012.
Related articles
- House GOP Report: State Dept. Approved Benghazi Security Reductions (freebeacon.com)
- GOP report faults State Dept. on Libya security (sfgate.com)
- GOP report faults State Dept. on Libya security (seattletimes.com)
- FLASHBACK: Obama on Day of Benghazi Attack and Tsarnaev’s Naturalization: ‘Our Country Is Safer’ (cnsnews.com)
- GOP report faults State Dept. on Libya security (charlotteobserver.com)
- Benghazi Mom Told To “Shut Up” (familysurvivalprotocol.com)
- Kerry: Let’s Face It, We Have “More Important Things” to Worry About Than Benghazi (townhall.com)
- FLASHBACK: Obama on Day of Benghazi Attack and Tsarnaev’s Naturalization: ‘Our Country Is Safer’ (sgtreport.com)
- Benghazi Mom Told To “Shut Up” (youviewed.com)
- Benghazi Survivors: Are They Not Being Allowed To Speak Because Of This? (freedomoutpost.com)
