The Shameful Politicization of the Benghazi Consulate Attack

happy jack wrote:

My, my – someone’s certainly testy.
I probably shouldn’t have poked fun at your religion on the other thread.

happy jack wrote:

All of which, of course, has absolutely nothing to do with the Benghazi consulate attack.

...since it was apparently important enough you thought it was worth mentioning, I feel compelled to do the same.  

Do come back when you have an actual rebuttal to either article.

Center Ring at the Republican Circus

Quote :

The hottest competition in Washington this week is among House Republicans vying for a seat on the Benghazi kangaroo court, also known as the Select House Committee to Inflate a Tragedy Into a Scandal. Half the House has asked to “serve” on the committee, which is understandable since it’s the perfect opportunity to avoid any real work while waving frantically to right-wing voters stomping their feet in the grandstand.

They won’t pass a serious jobs bill, or raise the minimum wage, or reform immigration, but House Republicans think they can earn their pay for the rest of the year by exposing nonexistent malfeasance on the part of the Obama administration. On Thursday, they voted to create a committee to spend “such sums as may be necessary” to conduct an investigation of the 2012 attack on the consulate in Benghazi, Libya. The day before, they voted to hold in contempt Lois Lerner, the former Internal Revenue Service official whom they would love to blame for the administration’s crackdown on conservative groups, if only they could prove there was a crackdown, which they can’t, because there wasn’t.

Both actions stem from the same impulse: a need to rouse the most fervent anti-Obama wing of the party and keep it angry enough to deliver its donations and votes to Republicans in the November elections. For a while it seemed as if the Affordable Care Act would perform that role, but Republicans ran into a problem when the country began to realize that it was not destroying American civilization but in fact helping millions of people.

Party leaders needed something more reliable, so they went back and revived two dormant scandals from last year, the embers of which were faithfully tended by Republican adjuncts on Fox News and talk radio. Their hope is to show that the administration is corrupt and untrustworthy, and if Hillary Rodham Clinton also gets roughed up in the process, so much the better.

Four Americans, including the United States ambassador, died in Benghazi, and their deaths have been crassly used by Republicans as a political cudgel, wildly swung in the dark. They have failed to provide proof for any number of conspiracy theories about the administration’s failures, including the particularly ludicrous charge from Representative Darrell Issa that Mrs. Clinton, then the secretary of state, told the Pentagon to “stand down” and not help defend the American compound.

In fact, investigations by two congressional committees (including one run by Republicans) found that there was never any kind of “stand-down order” or request. But Mr. Issa and others keep repeating it because, for their purposes, the facts don’t matter.


Now Republicans are frothing about a newly released email message showing that the White House wanted Susan Rice, the American ambassador to the United Nations at the time, to go on television in 2012 and make the case that the attack was not a failure of administration policy. The message should have been turned over earlier because all it shows is a routine attempt to spin the news in the most favorable way to the White House. Though it is not the slightest evidence of a cover-up, it has become the foundation for the committee’s existence. Demonstrating the panel’s true purpose, Republican political operatives are already raising money by stoking donor anger on Benghazi.

Democrats who are now debating whether to participate in the committee shouldn’t hesitate to skip it. Their presence would only lend legitimacy to a farce.

Similarly, the Justice Department should not press Ms. Lerner’s contempt citation before a grand jury. She invoked her Fifth Amendment rights at a hearing last year and refused to testify, but Republicans claim, without foundation, that she waived those rights by first proclaiming her innocence. Her refusal, they said, was contemptuous of Congress. Little nuisances like constitutional rights or basic facts can’t be allowed to stand in the way when House Republicans need to whip up their party’s fury.

I am not in favor of Democrats boycotting this side show. I believe that Democrats should show up and point out what a ridiculous exercise this truly is. As soon as the wingnuts try to silence the Dems,which they will, or cut their mikes ala Darryl Issa they should all stand up and walk out in unison. This will eliminate any wingnut cries of "they're afraid of the truth".

Only in it for the gold.

Top 10 Reasons GOP Benghazi Witch Hunt is just a Campaign Fundraising Ploy

Quote :

Since Obamacare is increasingly a wildly popular success, the GOP is flailing around looking for an issue, any issue to help fundraising for the fall congressional campaigns. In a vote that will live in infamy, the House GOP has decided to create a select committee to investigate the 2012 Benghazi consular attack yet again. They may as well exhume poor Ambassador Chris Stevens’ body and steal the gold from his teeth fillings.

. . .

1. Republicans keep posturing that their questions about Benghazi are intended to bolster US security. In fact, they are harming it.

2. The GOP figures keep saying that it was obvious that there was no demonstration at the Benghazi consulate against the so-called “film,” the ‘Innocence of Muslims’ that attacked the Prophet Muhammad. But in fact Libyan security officials repeatedly told wire services on September 12 that there was such a demonstration, and that the attack issued from those quarters.

3. What the House should really investigate is who really funded and encouraged the production of that get-up ‘film’ attacking Islam, “The Innocence of Muslims.”

4. Benghazi, a city of over a million, is not dominated by “al-Qaeda,” contrary to what Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina has repeatedly said or implied.

5. Contrary to repeated assertions that it was obvious that terrorist groups were rampaging around in the city, members of the Benghazi municipal council told then US ambassador Chris Stevens that security in the city was improving in summer, 2012.

6. Contrary to the “Libya-is-riddled-with-al-Qaeda” meme of the GOP politicians, there is a strong civil society and tribal opposition to fundamentalist militias in Benghazi, of which Amb. Chris Stevens was well aware.

7. Al-Qaeda is not for the most part even a “thing” in Libya.

8. Ansar al-Sharia (Helpers of Islamic Law) is just an informal grouping of a few hundred hard line fundamentalists in Benghazi, and may be a code word to refer to several small organizations.

9. Leaders of Ansar al-Sharia have denied that they directed their organization to attack the US consulate and have condemned the attack.

10. Lindsey Graham and others point to instances of political violence summer 2012 in Benghazi as obvious harbingers of the September 11 consulate attack. But it was a tiny fringe group, the Omar Abdel Rahman Brigades, that claimed responsibility for setting off a small pipe bomb in front of the gate of the US consulate last June.

Those are just the bullet points.  Cole expands on each at the link.  The GOP is still just completely wrong on Benghazi and national security, and worse, they're doing it for the money.

Heretic wrote:

Only in it for the gold.

Top 10 Reasons GOP Benghazi Witch Hunt is just a Campaign Fundraising Ploy

Those are just the bullet points.  Cole expands on each at the link.  The GOP is still just completely wrong on Benghazi and national security, and worse, they're doing it for the money.

Yep. As I pointed out earlier in the thread,they didn't even wait for the select committee to be authorized by a vote before they started sending out emails to fund raise off of it.

Do they really think anyone outside of right wing crank Obama haters,Fake news and hate radio even care anymore? This happened 2 years ago way,way,past the attention span for most voters. I think I saw a recent poll of what the public was concerned about and Benghazi came in around 6%.

Obamacare bit them in the ass and this will too. What they really fear is the fact that the economy is looking much better now and this nonsense is the only thing they have left to try and distract from that

Anyone want to offer an opinion of how the Democrats should respond to the circus. Attend...Boycott...some other action?

Artie60438 wrote:

Anyone want to offer an opinion of how the Democrats should respond to the circus. Attend...Boycott...some other action?

I'd show up with a sign:
TREY, GO FUCK YOURSELF

Artie60438 wrote:

Anyone want to offer an opinion of how the Democrats should respond to the circus. Attend...Boycott...some other action?

I was leaning toward some kind of partial participation, but after hearing this today... Congressman King saying that the committee needs to wrap up before 2016?

http://thehill.com/video/international/205184-rep-king-benghazi-talk-should-finish-by-2016

The idea that this committee will be operating for more than a few months is just absurd.  

If the GOP really intends to stretch this out over the next couple of years, then IMHO, the Democrats should refuse to participate.

Uh oh  
Benghazi suspect captured, now in U.S. custody

Quote :

Wqashington Post
 

Quote :

U.S. Special Operations forces captured one of the suspected ringleaders of the terrorist attacks in Benghazi in a secret raid in Libya over the weekend, the first time one of the accused perpetrators of the 2012 assault has been apprehended, according to U.S. officials.

   The officials said Ahmed Abu Khattala was captured Sunday near Benghazi by American troops, working alongside the FBI, following months of planning, and was now in U.S. custody “in a secure location outside Libya.” The officials said there were no casualties in the operation, and that all U.S. personnel involved have safely left Libya.

The big story here is that a key suspect in the Benghazi attack is now in U.S. custody, showing that President Obama meant it when he pledged that the U.S. would find those responsible and bring them to justice and finally giving the GOP's Benghazi committee  something real to talk about. Of course, if they did that, they might have to take impeachment off the table, so I wouldn't hold your breath.

9:32 AM PT: President Obama releases a statement, calling the arrest part of our nation's "unwavering commitment to bring to justice those responsible for harming Americans" and including this line...

   I recently authorized an operation in Libya to detain an individual charged for his role in these attacks, Ahmed Abu Khatallah.

...which I'm sure will somehow serve as the basis of articles of impeachment to be drafted soon by Darrell Issa or Trey Gowdy. (The full statement is below the fold.)

Good news,right? Not so fast!  
From the Potted Plant News Channel:
Fox News Suggests Obama Captured Benghazi Suspect To Boost Hillary’s Book Tour

Quote :

A Fox News anchor suggested that President Obama captured one of the alleged architects of the September 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi to boost Hillary Clinton’s presidential prospects.

Speaking on Fox News’ Outnumbered just moments after news broke that the United States had captured Ahmed Abu Khattala, Kennedy mused, “you have a former Secretary of State who is in the middle of a high profile book tour, I think this is convenient for her to shift the talking points to some of the things she has been discussing.”

The sentiment — that Obama timed Khattala’s capture for political benefit — was quickly echoed by other conservatives. Rory Cooper, an aide to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, tweeted, “While it’s great to see they caught the Benghazi suspect, it’s important to remember, he wasn’t really hiding.”

Damn You Obama!

Stick this in your ear Darrell.....and STFU.


There Was No Stand Down Order: The Release of the Benghazi Transcripts Busts Republicans

http://www.politicususa.com/2014/07/09/there-stand-order-democrats-bust-republicans-completely-baseless-benghazi-conspiracy.html

Suspect in Benghazi attack found dead

Quote :

Tripoli, Libya (CNN) -- Faraj al-Shibli, who was suspected of involvement in the 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, has been found dead, a Libyan source and locals in the town of Marj said.

Al-Shibli, whose name is also spelled Chalabi, was last seen being detained by a local militia in Marj two days ago, a Libyan source said.

It is unclear what happened to al-Shibli since then, but his body was found Monday in the eastern Libyan town of Marj.

Locals in Marj also confirmed that al-Shibli's body was found Monday.

How long before the howling dogs on the right start claiming that the "timing is suspicious", that he was murdered by Obama so that he couldn't tell the real story of what happened in Benghazi,and that's it's all part of a conspiracy and cover-up devised by Hillary Clinton?

happy jack wrote:

Artie60438 wrote:

 
How long before the howling dogs on the right start claiming that the "timing is suspicious", that he was murdered by Obama so that he couldn't tell the real story of what happened in Benghazi,and that's it's all part of a conspiracy and cover-up devised by Hillary Clinton?

To the best of my knowledge, you are the only one claiming this.
Do you know something that we don't know?

All you have to do is look at the comments at the end of the story and you'll see the right wing loons ranting.

Report: Suspect in Benghazi Attack Has Been Found Dead
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/07/14/report-suspect-in-benghazi-attack-has-been-found-dead/

edge540 wrote:

happy jack wrote:

Artie60438 wrote:

 
How long before the howling dogs on the right start claiming that the "timing is suspicious", that he was murdered by Obama so that he couldn't tell the real story of what happened in Benghazi,and that's it's all part of a conspiracy and cover-up devised by Hillary Clinton?

To the best of my knowledge, you are the only one claiming this.
Do you know something that we don't know?

All you have to do is look at the comments at the end of the story and you'll see the right wing loons ranting.

Report: Suspect in Benghazi Attack Has Been Found Dead
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/07/14/report-suspect-in-benghazi-attack-has-been-found-dead/

Thanks Edge   I was looking earlier on some of the nutso sites but couldn't find anything,mainly due to the fact that since it's good news for Obama their trolls need not know.

Those comments touched on every single one of my predictions. They even went so far as mentioning Vince Foster   

happy jack wrote:

Do you know something that we don't know?

Yes! The end result of what always happens when you're too lazy to do any research.

House panel: No administration wrongdoing in Benghazi attack

Quote :

The House Intelligence Committee, led by Republicans, has concluded that there was no deliberate wrongdoing by the Obama administration in the 2012 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans, said Rep. Mike Thompson of St. Helena, the second-ranking Democrat on the committee.

The panel voted Thursday to declassify the report, the result of two years of investigation by the committee. U.S. intelligence agencies will have to approve making the report public.

Thompson said the report "confirms that no one was deliberately misled, no military assets were withheld and no stand-down order (to U.S. forces) was given."

News only to Fox News viewers.

Heretic wrote:

House panel: No administration wrongdoing in Benghazi attack

Quote :

The House Intelligence Committee, led by Republicans, has concluded that there was no deliberate wrongdoing by the Obama administration in the 2012 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans, said Rep. Mike Thompson of St. Helena, the second-ranking Democrat on the committee.

The panel voted Thursday to declassify the report, the result of two years of investigation by the committee. U.S. intelligence agencies will have to approve making the report public.

Thompson said the report "confirms that no one was deliberately misled, no military assets were withheld and no stand-down order (to U.S. forces) was given."

News only to Fox News viewers.

If they even mention it at all.

Artie60438 wrote:

Heretic wrote:

House panel: No administration wrongdoing in Benghazi attack
News only to Fox News viewers.

If they even mention it at all.

  
Fox News Quiet After Congressional Report Finds No Benghazi Scandal

Quote :

Fox News has gone silent on Benghazi amid reports that the House Intelligence Committee concluded that there was no intentional wrongdoing in the Obama administration's response to the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya.

It's a clinical, point-by-point refutation of the Benghazi hoax Fox has pushed for nearly 2 years.

Yet Fox News made no mention of the report on Monday.* In sharp contrast to its current silence, when House Speaker John Boehner announced the formation of a select committee to investigate Benghazi in June, Fox devoted at least 225 segments to the topic over just two weeks, an estimated publicity value of more than $124 million.

Fox's sudden lack of interest in congressional investigations into Benghazi comes less then one week after Rep. Trey Gowdy, head of the select committee, announced - in what Fox News billed as an "exclusive" interview - that he would hold more public hearings on the attacks in September.

Quote :

* Media Matters searched transcripts provided by TVEyes.com for the terms "Benghazi" and "House Intelligence Committee."

Damn the torpedoes!!!
Full speed ahead on Benghazi probe

Quote :

(CNN) —The GOP-led House Select Committee on the Benghazi terror attack shows no sign of backing down despite a report from another congressional panel that, according to a top Democrat, found no intelligence failures around the deadly 2012 assault.

"There is more work to be done and more to be investigated," a spokeswoman for House Select Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy told CNN on Wednesday.

Translation:We will not stop until we get the answers we want that will fit our wacked out conspiracy theories.
Overplay your hand much,righties?

Jesus Christ.  It's just fucking sad at this point.  Bunch of angry old men throwing a tantrum.

Fox News Laments Media Matters' Fact Filled Study For Exposing Its Benghazi Obsession


In case any house trolls want to revisit their nonsense talking points,may I suggest they take a peek at:

Quote :

You can read All Questions Answered at BenghaziHoax.com, a new Media Matters website featuring our latest research and curating nearly 1,000 pieces we have produced over the past two years chronicling and debunking the lies right-wing media have pushed about Benghazi.

THE BENGHAZI HOAX

Today's latest House fishing expedition did come with new item to report on......
Trey Goudy got a new 'do' and it ain't looking any better.

happy jack wrote:

[b]The staff of the embassy in Benghazi should have been considered to be "in harm's way" even before the events of September 11. The "planning and preparation" for such a contingency would have been already in place. The only thing seemingly missing is the administration's willingness to activate that contingency.

Another one of your dumbass fantasies goes down in flames...
GOP Intel Report Debunks Its Own Party's Nutty Benghazi Theories

Quote :

WASHINGTON (AP) — A two-year investigation by the Republican-controlled House Intelligence Committee has found that the CIA and the military acted properly in responding to the 2012 attack on a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, and asserted no wrongdoing by Obama administration appointees.

Debunking a series of persistent allegations hinting at dark conspiracies, the investigation determined that there was no intelligence failure, no delay in sending a CIA rescue team, no missed opportunity for a military rescue, and no evidence the CIA was covertly shipping arms from Libya to Syria.

In the immediate aftermath of the attack, intelligence about who carried it out and why was contradictory, the report found. That led Susan Rice, then U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, to inaccurately assert that the attack had evolved from a protest, when in fact there had been no protest. But it was intelligence analysts, not political appointees, who made the wrong call, the committee found. The report did not conclude that Rice or any other government official acted in bad faith or intentionally misled the American people.

The House Intelligence Committee report was released with little fanfare on the Friday before Thanksgiving week. Many of its findings echo those of six previous investigations by various congressional committees and a State Department panel. The eighth Benghazi investigation is being carried out by a House Select Committee appointed in May.

Just like last time, the GOP responds the only way they know how:

Ooops
GOP leader accidentally tells the truth about Benghazi committee

Quote :

Even die-hard GOP partisans sometimes find it difficult to justify the House Republicans’ Benghazi committee. The party struggled to explain why it was necessary in the first place – the deadly 2012 attack was already examined by seven other congressional committees – and the rationale is even more elusive now that the investigation is the longest in the history of the United States.

Making matters slightly worse, the GOP-led committee has conducted itself in such a way as to raise concerns that the entire endeavor is little more than a taxpayer-funded election scheme.

Keep that in mind when reading about House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) – the likely next Speaker of the House – and his interview on Fox News last night. Roll Call reported this morning on the Republican leader’s on-air comments:

   

Quote :

“What you’re going to see is a conservative Speaker, that takes a conservative Congress, that puts a strategy to fight and win. And let me give you one example. Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right?
   
   “But we put together a Benghazi special committee. A select committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping. Why? Because she’s untrustable. But no one would have known that any of that had happened had we not fought to make that happen.”

Michael Kinsley once said a political gaffe occurs when a politician accidentally tells the truth. By this measure, the man who’s likely to become Speaker of the House next month made an important mistake last night.

First, I’m reasonably sure “untrustable” isn’t a word.

Second, the ostensible point of the Select Committee on Benghazi was to examine a terrorist attack that left four Americans dead in Libya, not to create an election tool that can affect a presidential candidate’s poll numbers.

Note, McCarthy sees the committee as a legitimate accomplishment of the Republican Congress, not because it’s uncovered relevant details about an act of terrorism, but because Hillary Clinton’s “numbers are dropping.” This, in his mind, is evidence of the GOP majority using its power effectively – by using a supposedly non-partisan investigatory vehicle to embarrass a Democrat with dubious allegations.

It’s almost as if the House Majority Leader assumed he was among friends, dropped his guard momentarily, and admitted out loud what Republicans are only supposed to say in private.

There was no real reason to create this committee, and the panel itself no longer serves any legitimate purpose. McCarthy’s unexpected candor was welcome – it was, to be sure, surprising to see him make such a concession on national television – but it served as a timely reminder that the Benghazi investigation that no longer focuses on Benghazi is now little more than a taxpayer-financed farce.

So there you have it. Straight from the horse's asses mouth who is the favorite to succeed Boehner as Speaker of the House.. It was all bullshit just to try and get Hillary's numbers down.