Benghazigate
February 14, 2013 — John Hinderaker
The White House admitted today that President Obama made no phone calls–none, zero–on the evening of September 11, 2012, during the seven or eight hours when Americans were being murdered in Benghazi. He didn’t talk to Leon Panetta, or any military personnel, or Hillary Clinton. What was he doing that night? We may never know; perhaps writing the speech that he gave at a campaign event the next day in
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February 10, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Lindsey Graham says he will ask that the nominations of Chuck Hagel (Secretary of Defense) and John Brennan (CIA Director) be held up until President Obama answers questions about what he did and did not do in response to the Benghazi attack. Graham cites the slogan of then-Senator Joe Biden during the confirmation hearings on John Bolton: “No confirmation without information.” Graham is off base. His information request has nothing
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February 7, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Joint Chiefs Chairman Dempsey and Secretary of Defense Panetta have testified today before the Senate Armed Services Committee. Bill Kristol summarizes their testimony as follows: The White House left Ambassador Chris Stevens, Glen Doherty, Tyrone Woods, and Sean Smith on their own on September 11 in Benghazi. That is the upshot of today’s Capitol Hill hearing featuring Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin
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January 23, 2013 — John Hinderaker
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made her long-awaited appearance before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee this morning to testify on Benghazi. In her prepared remarks, Clinton said: “As I have said many times since September 11, I take responsibility.” But this is responsibility in its unique Washington sense of responsibility without consequences. Clinton remains in her cabinet position and, while four underlings have been reassigned, she herself has suffered no
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January 2, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Daniel Greenfield called out Frontpage’s Men of the Year: Three Who Died in Benghazi in an excellent year-end column. Our friends at FrontPage have granted us permission to republish it. Lest we forget: In every war there are those we leave behind; buried in graves in the green fields or falling as ashes scattered on the desert floor. When soldiers die in war, they are honored and remembered, but when
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January 1, 2013 — John Hinderaker
Yesterday the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs released a report on its investigation of the Benghazi disaster. The report, which can be accessed here, is titled “Flashing Red: A Special Report On The Terrorist Attack At Benghazi.” It is signed by Committee chairman Joe Lieberman and ranking member Susan Collins. Presumably because of Lieberman’s involvement, the report is not a whitewash of the Obama administration. On the
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December 26, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
There was always a whiff of misdirection in connection with the story that four State Department officials at or below the Assistant Secretary level would lose their jobs over the Benghazi killings. After all, it is highly likely that officials further up the chain knew of the dangerous situation in Benghazi and, quite possibly, of the requests for additional security there. Thus, there was reason to suspect that the State
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December 20, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
We have discussed the Benghazi scandal in terms of three aspects: the failure to provide adequate security before the attack; the response during the attack; and, in the aftermath, the White House’s failure to provide truthful information about the attack. The report of the Accountability Review Board confirms and details the first aspect of the scandal. According to the ARB, the failure to provide adequate security was gross and systemic.
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December 20, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
Four State Deparment officials have been removed from their posts after the Accountability Review Board criticized the “grossly inadequate” security at a diplomatic compound in Benghazi. Three of the four have been identified by name. They are Eric Boswell, the assistant secretary of state for diplomatic security, Charlene Lamb, the deputy assistant secretary responsible for embassy security, and Raymond Maxwell, a deputy assistant secretary who had responsibility for North Africa.
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December 19, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
An independent investigation of the attack on the U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi has confirmed the obvious — “grossly” inadequate security and reliance on local militias left U.S. diplomats and other personnel vulnerable. The review of the assault that killed Ambassador Stevens and three other Americans faulted systemic failures of leadership and management deficiencies at senior levels within two bureaus of the State Department. The investigation was conducted by the
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December 16, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
Hillary Clinton will not testify before Congress about Benghazi this coming Thursday, as scheduled, because she is recovering from a concussion suffered due to a fall. Apparently, after suffereing from a stomach flu, she became dehydrated, and this caused the fall. The heads of the Senate and House Foreign Relations Committees, Sen. John Kerry and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, both excused Clinton from testifying next week, and reasonably so. But Ros-Lehtinen
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December 13, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
Let me offer my thoughts about Susan Rice’s withdrawal from consideration as Secretary of State. First, this decision probably came from the White House. Susan Rice, from everything I’ve heard, isn’t the kind of person who simply walks away from a job like Secretary of State in order to spare the country a contentious confirmation hearing. Second, pushing Rice out, assuming that’s what happened, is a wise decision on Obama’s
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December 2, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
In a 2001 article about Rwanda in the Atlantic Monthly, called “Bystanders to Genocide,” Samantha Power wrote: At an interagency teleconference in late April [1994], Susan Rice, a rising star on the NSC who worked under Richard Clarke, stunned a few of the officials present when she asked, “If we use the word ‘genocide’ and are seen as doing nothing, what will be the effect on the November [congressional] election?”
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November 29, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
Susan Collins met with Susan Rice today. Rice was hoping, no doubt, to make a better impression on the Maine moderate than she did earlier this week on John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and Kelly Ayotte. If Rice succeeded, she did so only marginally. Collins said afterwards that the meeting left her with a sense of disappointment with Rice. She added that she is not ready at this point to support
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November 27, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
Over the weekend, Susan Rice asked to meet with Senators McCain, Graham, and Ayotte so that she could defend, or at least explain, why she provided erroneous information about the deadly Benghazi assault. That meeting happened today. Not surprisingly, Rice failed to mollify the Senators, at least two of whom would have been hard to mollify even if Rice had a decent defense, which she doesn’t. Lindsey Graham declared, “The
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November 25, 2012 — Scott Johnson
Reader Peter Rice is retired from the United States Foreign Service. He spent his first four years with the government as an Army officer, including one year of service in Vietnam. Mr. Rice writes to comment on Susan Rice and the Washington Post editorial “The GOP’s bizarre attack on Susan Rice.” As Mr. Rice points out below, the adjective “bizarre” more aptly applies to the Post editorial: This past Thursday
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November 23, 2012 — Scott Johnson
Referring to United States Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice, Paul Mirengoff has been asking (here and here) whether we want a dupe as Secretary of State. Good question. On Wednesday at a UN press briefing, a reporter asked Rice to explain her view of the controversy concerning her 9/16 comments on five Sunday news shows regarding the 9/11 Benghazi attack that took the lives of four Americans. Thus spake
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