Tunisia, Egypt, Morocco and Libya crisis: Benghazi

[American Patriot]

DOD Time Line. I'm looking for the other time lines:


The State Department and the CIA have given their Benghazi timeline — now the Defense Department has provided this one

by Greta Van Susteren

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Nov 9 2012 - 6:59 PM ET

Below is an article written by my FNC colleague Justin Fishel:
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Military timeline on Libya shows it took nearly a day for special ops team to arrive at Italy staging base
By Justin Fishel

Published November 09, 2012


The Pentagon on Friday acknowledged that it took almost 22 hours from the start of the Libya consulate attack for the closest American Special Operations response team to arrive at a staging base in southern Italy.

While officials insisted that the military did not have armed aircraft that could have responded in time to rescue Americans fighting off the terrorist attackers, the revelation raises questions about whether the team of at least 30 special operators could have been there, or off the coast of Libya, at an earlier hour.

It was “not feasible” to have an armed aircraft there in time, a senior defense official told reporters in a briefing where the Defense Department released its own timeline of events.

But critics of the military response have said the Pentagon could have at least tried to scramble F-16′s from Aviano Air Base in Northern Italy.

Further, the special ops team, known as a Commanders in Extremis Force, or CIF, appeared to take an unusually long time to travel to Italy.

The team left on a modified C-130 aircraft from Croatia and was directed to head straight to Sigonella air base in Italy — rather than to Benghazi.

The final attack on the CIA annex, which killed Americans Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods, occurred at 5:15 a.m. local time on Wednesday.

The senior official said the CIF landed at Sigonella at 7:57 p.m. Libya time later that day — but he would not say when the aircraft left central Europe.

According to the Pentagon’s timeline of events, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta gave verbal approval for the CIF team to “prepare to deploy” somewhere between midnight and 2 a.m. Libya time. That means it took the CIF a minimum of 18 hours to go from Croatia to Sigonella. For some perspective, Sigonella is closer to Croatia than Benghazi and the distance between Croatia and Benghazi is roughly the same as Washington D.C. to Miami, Florida — about 900 miles.

It’s also important to note that AFRICOM only gave the order to deploy a C-17 in Germany to rescue surviving Americans at 6:05 a.m. on Sep. 12, Libya time, almost an hour after the final attack.

That aircraft departed Tripoli with the remains of Ambassador Chris Stevens and the three other Americans killed, at 7:17 p.m. that same day. That was almost 24 hours after the attack began.

The Pentagon did manage to scramble two unarmed unmanned surveillance aircraft, the first of which arrived about 90 minutes after the attack started.

The military’s release of its timeline follows detailed accounts by both the State Department and the CIA.

Intelligence officials last week said the first call that the consulate was under attack came into the nearby annex at around 9:40 p.m. local time. (That lines up with when the military says the attack began). They said a team of additional security personnel did land at the Benghazi airport in the early morning hours. The team had to negotiate for transport into town, though, according to officials, and did not arrive at the annex until 5:15 a.m., around when the final attack occurred.



Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012...#ixzz2BllEVsbG


TIME LINE

Timeline of Department of Defense Actions on September 11‐12, 2012
All times are Eastern Daylight Time (EDT, Washington, DC)
and Eastern European Time (EET, Benghazi)
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
EDT // EET
~3:42 pm // 9:42 pm The incident starts at the facility in Benghazi.
3:59 pm // 9:59 pm An unarmed, unmanned, surveillance aircraft is directed to reposition overhead
the Benghazi facility.
4:32 pm // 10:32pm The National Military Command Center at the Pentagon, after receiving initial
reports of the incident from the State Department, notifies the Office of the
Secretary of Defense and the Joint Staff. The information is quickly passed to
Secretary Panetta and General Dempsey.
5:00 pm // 11:00pm Secretary Panetta and General Dempsey attend a previously scheduled meeting
with the President at the White House. The leaders discuss potential responses
to the emerging situation.
5:10 pm // 11:10 pm The diverted surveillance aircraft arrives on station over the Benghazi facility.
~5:30 pm // 11:30 pm All surviving American personnel have departed the facility.
6:00‐8:00 pm //
12:00‐2:00 am Secretary Panetta convenes a series of meetings in the Pentagon with senior
officials including General Dempsey and General Ham. They discuss additional
response options for Benghazi and for the potential outbreak of further violence
throughout the region, particularly in Tunis, Tripoli, Cairo, and Sana’a.
During these meetings, Secretary Panetta directs (provides verbal authorization)
the following actions:
1) A Fleet Antiterrorism Security Team (FAST) platoon, stationed in Rota, Spain,
to prepare to deploy to Benghazi, and a second FAST platoon, also stationed
in Rota, Spain, to prepare to deploy to the Embassy in Tripoli.
2) A EUCOM special operations force, which is training in Central Europe, to
prepare to deploy to an intermediate staging base in southern Europe.
3) A special operations force based in the United States to prepare to deploy
to an intermediate staging base in southern Europe.
During this period, actions are verbally conveyed from the Pentagon to the
affected Combatant Commands in order to expedite movement of forces upon
receipt of formal authorization.
~6:30 pm // 12:30 am A six‐man security team from U.S. Embassy Tripoli, including two DoD
personnel, departs for Benghazi.
~7:30 pm // 1:30 am The American security team from Tripoli lands in Benghazi.
~8:30pm // 2:30 am The National Military Command Center conducts a Benghazi Conference Call
with representatives from AFRICOM, EUCOM, CENTCOM, TRANSCOM, SOCOM,
and the four services.
8:39pm // 2:39 am As ordered by Secretary Panetta, the National Military Command Center
transmits formal authorization for the two FAST platoons, and associated
equipment, to prepare to deploy and for the EUCOM special operations force,
and associated equipment, to move to an intermediate staging base in southern
Europe.
8:53pm // 2:53 am As ordered by Secretary Panetta, the National Military Command Center
transmits formal authorization to deploy a special operations force, and
associated equipment, from the United States to an intermediate staging base
in southern Europe.
~11:00 pm // 5:00 am A second, unmanned, unarmed surveillance aircraft is directed to relieve the
initial asset still over Benghazi.
~11:15 pm // 5:15 am The second facility in Benghazi comes under mortar and rocket propelled
grenade fire.
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
12:05 am // 6:05am AFRICOM orders a C‐17 aircraft in Germany to prepare to deploy to Libya to
evacuate Americans.
~1:40 am // 7:40 am The first wave of American personnel depart Benghazi for Tripoli via airplane.
~4:00 am // 10:00 am The second wave of Americans, including the fallen, depart Benghazi for Tripoli
via airplane.
8:15 am // 2:15 pm The C‐17 departs Germany en route Tripoli to evacuate Americans.
1:17 pm // 7:17 pm The C‐17 departs Tripoli en route Ramstein, Germany with the American
personnel and the remains of Ambassador Stevens, Sean Smith, Tyrone Woods,
and Glen Doherty.
1:57 pm // 7:57 pm The EUCOM special operations force, and associated equipment, arrives at an
intermediate staging base in southern Europe.
2:56 pm // 8:56 pm The FAST platoon, and associated equipment, arrives in Tripoli.
3:28 pm // 9:28 pm The special operations force deployed from the United States, and associated
equipment, arrives at an intermediate staging base in southern Europe.
4:19 pm // 10:19 pm The C‐17 arrives in Ramstein, Germany.

[American Patriot]

Can we rename the thread to "Benghazi"? Or add the name into the title? Vector?

Anyone have a problem with that?

[American Patriot]

Official: Intel Leaders Edited Benghazi Info

Nov 21, 2012
UPI
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The intelligence community made substantive revisions to talking points about the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, a government official said.


Shawn Turner, a spokesman for the director of National Intelligence, said Monday the unclassified talking points used by government officials who spoke about the deadly Sept. 11 attack on the diplomatic mission were not substantively changed by any agency outside of the intelligence community, CNN reported.



The attack resulted in the death of U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other diplomatic employees.


Republicans' already-withering criticism of the talking points intensified Friday after a closed-door House Intelligence Committee hearing with former CIA Director David Petraeus.


Some Republican congressional members suggested change came from the White House, the Justice Department or another agency.


The initial version included information linking individuals involved in the attack to al-Qaida, a senior U.S. official familiar with the draft told CNN. When the document was sent to the intelligence community for review, a decision was made to change "al-Qaida" to "extremists" for intelligence and legal reasons, the official said.


"First, the information about individuals linked to al-Qaida was derived from classified sources," the official said. "Second, when links were so tenuous -- as they still are -- it makes sense to be cautious before pointing fingers so you don't set off a chain of circular and self-reinforcing assumptions. Third, it is important to be careful not to prejudice a criminal investigation in its early stages."


Turner said the intelligence community "made substantive, analytical changes before the talking points were sent to government agency partners for their feedback. There were no substantive changes made to the talking points after they left the intelligence community."


The House intelligence panel indicated it wasn't satisfied with Turner's explanation.


"The statement released [Monday] by the DNI's spokesman regarding how the intelligence community's talking points were changed gives a new explanation that differs significantly from information provided in testimony to the committee last week," said committee spokeswoman Susan Phalen, adding that the panel looked forward to discussion the matter "as soon as possible to understand how the DNI reached this conclusion and why leaders of the intelligence community testified late last week that they were unaware of who changed the talking points."

[Ryan Ruck]

Go right ahead...

[American Patriot]

and add to or change the title? Ok

[American Patriot]

Renamed it... mostly because this is where all the Benghazi stuff is located and I forget things.... a lot lately.

[vector7]

Who didn't see this coming?

Egypt's president issues constitutional amendments, granting himself far-reaching powers - @AP

8 mins ago by editor

Egypt's President Morsi orders retrial of officials involved in killing protesters - @LBCINews_en

16 mins ago by editor

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood on security alert ahead of rallies planned by opposition - DPA

28 mins ago by editor

Egyptian court acquits police officers accused of killing 5 protesters, injuring 7 others last year - @Egyindependent

1 hour ago from www.egyptindependent.com by editor

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Police acquitted of killing revolution protesters

Thu, 22/11/2012 - 13:01

Cairo Criminal Court acquitted Thursday police officers Ahmed Mostafa al-Shazly and Khaled Abu Raid of killing five protesters and injuring seven others last year.

The officers were found not guilty of shooting revolution protesters outside the Darb al-Ahmar police station on 28 January 2011.

The defense lawyer argued the charges were false and based on malicious motives. Their attorney claimed criminals in the district made up the allegations out of hostility toward Shazly after his 11 years on the police force. He suggested that the protesters may have been killed by unknown gunmen who infiltrated the demonstrations.

The mother of Ahmed Khalifa, one of the protesters shot dead, burst in to tears when the verdict was announced.

"I was sure they would acquit the defendants. We will see what President [Mohamed] Morsy will do with them," she said.

According to the defense, Shazly was stationed at the Cairo Security Department on the day of the killings and Abu Raid was securing Al-Azhar Mosque during Friday prayers that day. Brigadier General Ahmed Helmy, Captain Mohamed Fawzy and Captain Ahmed Kilany all provided testimony corroborating Shazly’s alibi.

The lawyer also said the killed and injured protesters had been violent and tried to burn down the police station.

http://www.egyptindependent.com/news...ion-protesters

[vector7]

U.S.-Approved Arms for Libya Rebels Fell Into Jihadis’ Hands

By JAMES RISEN, MARK MAZZETTI and MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT

Published: December 5, 2012 198 Comments

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration secretly gave its blessing to arms shipments to Libyan rebels from Qatar last year, but American officials later grew alarmed as evidence grew that Qatar was turning some of the weapons over to Islamic militants, according to United States officials and foreign diplomats.

Bryan Denton for The New York Times



Libyans in Benghazi last year in front of a Libyan flag, right, and a Qatari flag painted on the wall.


Related

• Times Topic: Libya — the Benghazi Attacks
• Pressure Builds on Syrian Opposition Coalition; Fears of Chemical Weapons Rise (December 6, 2012)

• Read All Comments (198) »

No evidence has emerged linking the weapons provided by the Qataris during the uprising against Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi to the attack that killed four Americans at the United States diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, in September.

But in the months before, the Obama administration clearly was worried about the consequences of its hidden hand in helping arm Libyan militants, concerns that have not previously been reported. The weapons and money from Qatar strengthened militant groups in Libya, allowing them to become a destabilizing force since the fall of the Qaddafi government.

The experience in Libya has taken on new urgency as the administration considers whether to play a direct role in arming rebels in Syria, where weapons are flowing in from Qatar and other countries.

The Obama administration did not initially raise objections when Qatar began shipping arms to opposition groups in Syria, even if it did not offer encouragement, according to current and former administration officials. But they said the United States has growing concerns that, just as in Libya, the Qataris are equipping some of the wrong militants.

The United States, which had only small numbers of C.I.A. officers in Libya during the tumult of the rebellion, provided little oversight of the arms shipments. Within weeks of endorsing Qatar’s plan to send weapons there in spring 2011, the White House began receiving reports that they were going to Islamic militant groups. They were “more antidemocratic, more hard-line, closer to an extreme version of Islam” than the main rebel alliance in Libya, said a former Defense Department official.

The Qatari assistance to fighters viewed as hostile by the United States demonstrates the Obama administration’s continuing struggles in dealing with the Arab Spring uprisings, as it tries to support popular protest movements while avoiding American military entanglements. Relying on surrogates allows the United States to keep its fingerprints off operations, but also means they may play out in ways that conflict with American interests.

“To do this right, you have to have on-the-ground intelligence and you have to have experience,” said Vali Nasr, a former State Department adviser who is now dean of the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, part of Johns Hopkins University. “If you rely on a country that doesn’t have those things, you are really flying blind. When you have an intermediary, you are going to lose control.”

He said that Qatar would not have gone through with the arms shipments if the United States had resisted them, but other current and former administration officials said Washington had little leverage at times over Qatari officials. “They march to their own drummer,” said a former senior State Department official. The White House and State Department declined to comment.

During the frantic early months of the Libyan rebellion, various players motivated by politics or profit — including an American arms dealer who proposed weapons transfers in an e-mail exchange with a United States emissary later killed in Benghazi — sought to aid those trying to oust Colonel Qaddafi.

But after the White House decided to encourage Qatar — and on a smaller scale, the United Arab Emirates — to ship arms to the Libyans, President Obama complained in April 2011 to the emir of Qatar that his country was not coordinating its actions in Libya with the United States, the American officials said. “The president made the point to the emir that we needed transparency about what Qatar was doing in Libya,” said a former senior administration official who had been briefed on the matter.

About that same time, Mahmoud Jibril, then the prime minister of the Libyan transitional government, expressed frustration to administration officials that the United States was allowing Qatar to arm extremist groups opposed to the new leadership, according to several American officials. They, like nearly a dozen current and former White House, diplomatic, intelligence, military and foreign officials, would speak only on the condition of anonymity for this article.

The administration has never determined where all of the weapons, paid for by Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, went inside Libya, officials said. Qatar is believed to have shipped by air and sea small arms, including machine guns, automatic rifles, and ammunition, for which it has demanded reimbursement from Libya’s new government. Some of the arms since have been moved from Libya to militants with ties to Al Qaeda in Mali, where radical jihadi factions have imposed Shariah law in the northern part of the country, the former Defense Department official said. Others have gone to Syria, according to several American and foreign officials and arms traders.

Although NATO provided air support that proved critical for the Libyan rebels, the Obama administration wanted to avoid getting immersed in a ground war, which officials feared could lead the United States into another quagmire in the Middle East.

As a result, the White House largely relied on Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, two small Persian Gulf states and frequent allies of the United States. Qatar, a tiny nation whose natural gas reserves have made it enormously wealthy, for years has tried to expand its influence in the Arab world. Since 2011, with dictatorships in the Middle East and North Africa coming under siege, Qatar has given arms and money to various opposition and militant groups, chiefly Sunni Islamists, in hopes of cementing alliances with the new governments. Officials from Qatar and the emirates would not comment.

After discussions among members of the National Security Council, the Obama administration backed the arms shipments from both countries, according to two former administration officials briefed on the talks.

American officials say that the United Arab Emirates first approached the Obama administration during the early months of the Libyan uprising, asking for permission to ship American-built weapons that the United States had supplied for the emirates’ use. The administration rejected that request, but instead urged the emirates to ship weapons to Libya that could not be traced to the United States.

“The U.A.E. was asking for clearance to send U.S. weapons,” said one former official. “We told them it’s O.K. to ship other weapons.”
For its part, Qatar supplied weapons made outside the United States, including French- and Russian-designed arms, according to people familiar with the shipments.

But the American support for the arms shipments from Qatar and the emirates could not be completely hidden. NATO air and sea forces around Libya had to be alerted not to interdict the cargo planes and freighters transporting the arms into Libya from Qatar and the emirates, American officials said.

Concerns in Washington soon rose about the groups Qatar was supporting, officials said. A debate over what to do about the weapons shipments dominated at least one meeting of the so-called Deputies Committee, the interagency panel consisting of the second-highest ranking officials in major agencies involved in national security. “There was a lot of concern that the Qatar weapons were going to Islamist groups,” one official recalled.

The Qataris provided weapons, money and training to various rebel groups in Libya. One militia that received aid was controlled by Adel Hakim Belhaj, then leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, who was held by the C.I.A. in 2004 and is now considered a moderate politician in Libya. It is unclear which other militants received the aid.

“Nobody knew exactly who they were,” said the former defense official. The Qataris, the official added, are “supposedly good allies, but the Islamists they support are not in our interest.”

No evidence has surfaced that any weapons went to Ansar al-Shariah, an extremist group blamed for the Benghazi attack.

The case of Marc Turi, the American arms merchant who had sought to provide weapons to Libya, demonstrates other challenges the United States faced in dealing with Libya. A dealer who lives in both Arizona and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, Mr. Turi sells small arms to buyers in the Middle East and Africa, relying primarily on suppliers of Russian-designed weapons in Eastern Europe.

In March 2011, just as the Libyan civil war was intensifying, Mr. Turi realized that Libya could be a lucrative new market, and applied to the State Department for a license to provide weapons to the rebels there, according to e-mails and other documents he has provided. (American citizens are required to obtain United States approval for any international arms sales.)

He also e-mailed J. Christopher Stevens, then the special representative to the Libyan rebel alliance. The diplomat said he would “share” Mr. Turi’s proposal with colleagues in Washington, according to e-mails provided by Mr. Turi. Mr. Stevens, who became the United States ambassador to Libya, was one of the four Americans killed in the Benghazi attack on Sept. 11.

Mr. Turi’s application for a license was rejected in late March 2011. Undeterred, he applied again, this time stating only that he planned to ship arms worth more than $200 million to Qatar. In May 2011, his application was approved. Mr. Turi, in an interview, said that his intent was to get weapons to Qatar and that what “the U.S. government and Qatar allowed from there was between them.”

Two months later, though, his home near Phoenix was raided by agents from the Department of Homeland Security. Administration officials say he remains under investigation in connection with his arms dealings. The Justice Department would not comment.

Mr. Turi said he believed that United States officials had shut down his proposed arms pipeline because he was getting in the way of the Obama administration’s dealings with Qatar. The Qataris, he complained, imposed no controls on who got the weapons. “They just handed them out like candy,” he said.

[vector7]

7 Hours of Hell! Michelle Malkin Calls for Impeachment of Obama and Clinton

• Posted by Asst Natl Dir Melony B. DeFord on December 2, 2012 at 7:39am in Corruption
• View Discussions

30 November 2012

Malkin: Time to IMPEACH Obama and Hillary Clinton for Treason, Dereliction of Duty,
and Non-Stop Benghazigate LIES

Via Pat Dollard:

'Well, there are many constitutional provisions for recourse on this and I think that they have to be contemplated. I also think there needs to be grass-roots, nationwide PRESSURE.

...this administration -and this candidate- and this president was forced to see signs from people reminding them that they will not forget the seven hours of hell that the murdered Americans went through before they perished in Benghazi!

And it’s the same thing with the Camp Bastion attack, which I’ve raised questions about on behalf of murdered Marines in that case and the lack of security, questions about rules of engagement that have been compromised by this politically-correct, jihadi-coddling administration...' – Michelle Malkin

Naturally, Team Obama says that only mean Republicans
care about any of this yucky Benghazi stuff, and official WH spokesman and all-round toady Jay Carney had the unmitigated gall to unilaterally proclaim he and Susan Rice's blatant dishonesty a 'non-event'.

http://reaganiterepublicanresistance.blogspot.com/2012/11/malkin-ti...

[American Patriot]

Clinton Benghazi hearing set for Dec. 20

By Meghashyam Mali - 12/13/12 07:16 AM ET




Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, has been set for Dec. 20.


Clinton will appear at the opening hearing to discuss the deadly September attack that claimed the lives of four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens.








Clinton’s testimony will come after the anticipated release of an independent report reviewing the State Department’s handling of security for its diplomats in Benghazi.

Republican lawmakers have questioned if the Obama administration ignored earlier threats to the U.S. mission in Libya and denied requests from State officials on the ground for heightened security.


Clinton will also likely address the administration response to the attack.


U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice initially blamed the violence on a spontaneous protest sparked by an anti-Islam video. The White House later acknowledged that the attack was a planned terrorist assault.


GOP lawmakers question if the administration downplayed the terrorist angle for political gain ahead of the election.


President Obama, though, has defended Rice and said her statements were based on intelligence reports and were not intended to mislead.


Rice has been seen as a possible replacement for Clinton, but many GOP senators have suggested they would block her nomination over her handling of Benghazi.


Rice headed to Capitol Hill last month for a series of meetings with GOP lawmakers that failed to stem the criticism, with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) saying he was “more disturbed” after speaking with the ambassador.

[American Patriot]

Wag the fucking dog, men.... wag the dog.... Let's find a way to get attention off Benghazi. I know, what better way than to kill two birds with one stone? Let's have a school shooting somewhere, and make sure Hillary doesn't appear in front of Congress next week!

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[falcon]

Letter sent to Obama on Oct. 19, 2012 From the Committee on Oversight.

http://www.icaucus.org/images/storie...-President.pdf

[American Patriot]

State Department preparing for Libya bombshell?

Published December 14, 2012
FoxNews.com

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    New questions about whether Clinton will testify on...
    
    
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    Amb. Rice withdraws name for secretary of state
    
    
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    Is the State Dept. hiding Benghazi survivors?
    
    
  
  

Susan Rice's abrupt withdrawal from consideration for secretary of state, coupled with suggestions from the State Department that Secretary Hillary Clinton may not testify as scheduled next week, has stirred speculation that something big is brewing in the Libya terror attack investigation.
"You're starting to see the State Department squirm a little bit," Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, said.
For the better part of the last three months, an independent board has been conducting a review for the State Department of the Sept. 11 terror attack in Benghazi. In anticipation of the report's conclusion, two congressional committees scheduled hearings for next week in which Clinton was set to testify.
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland, though, surprised lawmakers and reporters on Thursday when she indicated the report, and the secretary, might not be ready.
"The Hill has talked about a planning date on the calendar. That presumes that the (report) is finished," Nuland said. "I don't have any dates, any schedule of the secretary's to announce here."
Asked whether Clinton has committed to testify, Nuland said "it's dependent on the work being finished."
Further, Nuland rejected the notion that the final report on Libya needed to be shared with Congress at all. She stressed, instead, that the only thing the statute requires is for "the secretary's response" to the report's conclusion to be sent to Congress.
The comments were met with surprise on Capitol Hill. A spokesman for House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., who scheduled a hearing for Dec. 20, said this was the first they heard a scheduling issue.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., said it's still "the plan" for Clinton to testify on his committee next week.
But Fox News is told that Rep. Mike Rogers, chairman of the House intelligence committee, believes there was gross negligence on behalf of the State Department for not providing adequate security to Ambassador Chris Stevens.
Chaffetz told Fox News that if done accurately, the final report will be a "very difficult thing" for the State Department, the CIA, the Department of Defense and the White House to explain.
Chaffetz also speculated that Rice's announcement Thursday that she's withdrawing from consideration for secretary of state is related.
"The State Department owes us a report," he told Fox News. "That's why I think Susan Rice made the announcement today, because I think we're on the verge of getting that report."
Nuland insisted Thursday that, whatever the timeframe, Clinton will be "transparent and open with Congress."
She said Washington needs to wait for the report to be completed, "and we'll go from there."
For her part, Rice said she was withdrawing because she did not want to subject the Obama administration to a "lengthy, disruptive and costly" confirmation process.
Many Republicans were opposed to the possibility of her nomination over concerns about her Sept. 16 comments in which she described the Libya attack as tied to a "spontaneous" demonstration. They questioned why she was chosen by the administration in the first place to do a round of Sunday show interviews.
Rice, though, tried to explain as she bowed out of the running Thursday. In an interview on NBC News, she said Clinton was originally asked to go on the networks, but "she had had an incredibly grueling week dealing with the protests around the Middle East and North Africa," as well as the deaths of department employees, and declined. So Rice stepped in.
In a Washington Post column, Rice said her comments were based on intelligence at the time. "It would have been irresponsible for me to substitute any personal judgment for our government's and wrong to reveal classified material," she wrote.




Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012...#ixzz2FKaiO8tU

[vector7]

Clinton accused of faking illness to avoid Benghazi testimony

• Comments814

Republicans may use Benghazi to spearhead attacks on outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

By Paul Richter December 19, 2012, 3:01 p.m.



The State Department slammed former United Nations envoy John Bolton over his suggestion that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton falsely claimed a concussion to avoid a potentially embarrassing appearance before Congress to explain the deadly terrorist attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya.

In an appearance on Fox News, Bolton said that Clinton’s claim that she had fainted because of the flu, hitting her head and suffering a concussion, was what foreign service officers call a “diplomatic illness,” intended to free a diplomat from an unpleasant duty. Clinton was supposed to appear before congressional foreign affairs committees on Thursday to respond to questions about whether security failures opened the way for the Sept. 11 attack.

“This is a diplomatic illness to beat the band,” said Bolton, who served during the George W. Bush administration. “I mean, I hope it’s nothing serious. But this was revealed in a way that I think was not transparent and I think there is an obligation here.”

Victoria Nuland, a State Department spokeswoman, insisted to reporters Tuesday that suggestions Clinton faked her illness are “completely untrue.”

PHOTOS: U.S. ambassador killed in Libya

She said that Bolton and others who have questioned the concussion “are people who don’t know what they’re talking about.”

“It’s unfortunate that in times like this people make wild speculation based on no information,” she said.

Clinton’s withdrawal from the hearing has prompted speculation that she is trying to finish her term as chief diplomat without suffering any criticism for the attack. Clinton has said she does not intend to serve in President Obama’s second term.

The secretary, considered a top Democratic presidential contender in 2016, declined to appear on Sunday talk shows five days after the attack, which killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, and three other Americans. Instead, the job went to U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice.

PHOTOS: Notable moments of the 2012 presidential election

Republicans have attacked Rice’s comments on those shows, saying that she was trying to avoid political fallout by saying that the attack was a “spontaneous” crowd reaction rather than a calculated terrorist attack.

The announcement that Clinton will not testify has been received skeptically by conservative bloggers and commentators. Fox News described the injury as a “purported concussion.”

Clinton said Monday in a letter to the committee that she would respond to the committee’s questions in January.

[American Patriot]

She's faking it. Oh, she'll testify... in January, AFTER she's already left office, that way she can't be censured or thrown out.

It's call "cutting your losses".

[American Patriot]

Sec. Clinton's letter to Senate Foreign Relations Committee

Following the report released after an independent investigation of the fatal attack on a U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sent a letter to the members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.



http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/doc...committee/221/

[American Patriot]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPFLxvS9RVg

[American Patriot]

Honestly, she's much sexier with the glasses.....

Hillary Clinton gives testimony to Congress on Benghazi attack – live

LiveAfter concussion delayed testimony, outgoing secretary of state to face questions on US anti-terror policy in North Africa

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Hillary Clinton was sidelined by illness at the end of the year and unable to testify before now. Photograph: Gary Cameron/Reuters

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34m ago
Good morning and welcome to our live blog coverage of secretary of state Hillary Clinton's testimony before Congress about the attack in Benghazi, Libya on 11 September last year. Here's a summary of where things stand:
• For Republicans on the Hill, Clinton's appearance has been painfully long in the coming. The secretary of state missed a December appointment to testify on the attack when she suffered a concussion and blood clot in a fall. Former UN ambassador John Bolton and others on the right suggested she was faking an illness to avoid testifying, causing the state department to memorably state: "These are people that don't know what they are talking about."
• Clinton is likely to face questions about the overall direction and wisdom of the state department's anti-terror policy in North Africa. Three American oil company employees were killed out of 10 taken hostage in last week's attack on a gas facility in Algeria. This week the United States began moving troops and supplies for the French invasion of Mali.
• In fact Clinton already has briefed Congress about the Benghazi attack – which killed ambassador J Christopher Stevens, an IT technician and two security staff employed by the CIA – in a closed-door session on 20 September last year. Not long afterward, however, "Benghazi" became a political football in the presidential election, producing a solid month of hyperventilating on Fox News and a memorable debate exchange. A clamor for Clinton to testify has grown ever since, despite the fact that there have been "more than 30 hearings and closed door briefings on Benghazi with State Department officials present," according to CNN's Jake Tapper.
• Who will go after Clinton? While the overall tone of the hearings is expected to be civil, certain members may take the opportunity to display their foreign policy chops, possibly including 2016 presidential prospects Marco Rubio (R-Fla) or Rand Paul (R-Ky).
• Clinton is scheduled to appear for 90 minutes before Senate foreign relations committee, starting at 9am ET, and for equal time before the House foreign affairs committee starting at 2pm.

[Phil Fiord]

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[Phil Fiord]

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