Introducing The Obama Scandal Bracket!
” With so many White House scandals—and new ones popping up every day—how are average citizens supposed to keep track? Wouldn’t it be nice if Obama went on ESPN and mapped them all on a bracket?”
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Tag Archive: Benghazi
THE LOSS OF TRUST
” Leaving aside the seriousness of lawlessness, and the corruption of our civic culture by the professionally pious, this past week has been amusing. There was the spectacle of advocates of an ever-larger regulatory government expressing shock about such government’s large capacity for misbehavior. And, entertainingly, the answer to the question “Will Barack Obama’s scandals derail his second-term agenda?” was a question: What agenda?
The scandals are interlocking and overlapping in ways that drain his authority. Everything he advocates requires Americans to lavish on government something his administration, and big government generally, undermines — trust.
Obama’s supposed “trifecta” of scandals — Benghazi, the IRS, and the seizure of Associated Press phone records — neglects some. A fourth scandal is power being wielded by executive branch officials (at the National Labor Relations Board and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau) illegally installed in office by presidential recess appointments made when the Senate was not in recess.
A fifth might be Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius soliciting, from corporations in industries HHS regulates, funds to replace some that Congress refused to appropriate. The money is to be spent by nonprofit — which does not mean nonpolitical — entities. The funds are to educate Americans about, which might mean (consider the administration’s Benghazi and IRS behaviors) propagandize in favor of, Obamacare and to enroll people in its provisions. The experienced (former governor, former secretary of education, 10 years in the Senate) and temperate Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., compares this to the Iran-contra scandal, wherein the Reagan administration raised private funds to do what Congress had refused to do — finance the insurgency against Nicaragua’s government.
Obama’s incredibly shrinking presidency is a reminder that politics is a transactional business, trust is the currency of the transactions, and the currency has been debased. For example:”
Read The Whole Sordid Thing
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When It Rains, It Pours: Ten Press Conference Take Aways
“ President Obama’s press conference in the rain was not a success, if by success, his supporters would mean an event which convinces anyone who doesn’t work for him that he’s getting ahead of the scandal deluge. The sight of a Marine holding an umbrella over his head only added to the weirdness of the event.
So what did we learn?
4. He wouldn’t say that the White House had no previous knowledge of IRS wrongdoing. Instead he said he didn’t have any knowledge of the Inspector General’s report before it was released.
5. He brought up funding for our embassies, referencing Benghazi, Libya. But of course we know that funding shortages had nothing to do with the fiasco that transpired. For claiming otherwise my colleague Glenn Kessler awarded Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) three Pinocchios.
10. Mainstream media reaction to the president’s handling of the scandals ranges from bad to terrible. Sure there are some very creative excuse-makers for the president, but they are now in the decided minority.”
Read It All
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White House Releases 100 Pages Of Benghazi E-mails
” The White House released more than 100 pages of e-mails on Wednesday in a bid to quell critics who say President Barack Obama and his aides played politics with national security following the deadly terror attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya.
The e-mails detail the complex back and forth between the CIA, State Department, and the White House in developing unclassified talking points that were used to underpin a controversial and slow-to-evolve explanation of events last September 11.”
You can read all the e-mails here.
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Related articles
- Did the White House selectively leak e-mail to distort Benghazi timeline story? Update: Axelrod: Release all the Libya e-mails (hotair.com)
- White House releases emails on Benghazi talking points (shortformblog.com)
- White House Releases Benghazi E-mails (nationalreview.com)
- WH releases 100 pages of Benghazi e-mails – Link to Docs (riehlworldview.com)
- Just Released: More than 100 pages of Benghazi e-mails (legalinsurrection.com)
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How Susan Rice Covered Up the Kenya Embassy
Bombings 14 Years Before Benghazigate
Reviewing Ms Rice’s track record should cause anyone to question her qualifications for dog catcher , let alone Secretary Of State . Feh !
Kenya 1998
” A matter of months later, on Aug. 7, 1998, the American embassies in Tanzania and Kenya were simultaneously attacked with car bombs. In Kenya, 12 American diplomats and more than 200 Africans were killed.
As in Benghazi, requests for more security were denied, warnings were issued, prior incidents were ignored and Susan Rice went on TV to explain it all.
Within 24 hours, Rice, then assistant secretary of state for African affairs, went on PBS as spokesperson for the administration — just as she was regarding Benghazi when she parroted the administration’s false narrative on five Sunday talk shows on Sept. 16, 2012, that Benghazi was caused by a flash mob enraged by an Internet video. Then, as now, she worked for a Clinton.
Also then, as now, she went on TV to claim, falsely, that we “maintain a high degree of security at all of our embassies at all times” and that we “had no telephone warning or call of any sort like that, that might have alerted either embassy just prior to the blast.” There were plenty of warnings and our East African diplomats were begging for help as Ambassador Chris Stevens was in Benghazi. “
Benghazi 2012
Quite a legacy Ms Rice , but that’s not all is it ? Oh no , You can boast of calamitous results in Rwanda as well , can’t you ? We’ll give you this , you are very consistent . One failure after another . You surely are a perfect fit for the Obama administration where all things considered are filtered though the lens of political expediency and have nothing to do with what is right , just or honorable .
Rwanda 1994
” Rice was part of Bill Clinton’s National Security Team that in 1994 refused any involvement whatsoever in the Rwanda genocide, leaving more than 800,000 men, women, and children to be hacked to death by machete in the fastest genocide ever recorded. The Clinton Administration had just been spooked by the Black Hawk down incident in Somalia and wanted no further foreign entanglements. But the lengths to which they went to deny assistance to the Tutsis, with Rice being central to the decision-making process, will forever live in infamy.
But not content to insist on American non-involvement, the Clinton administration went a step further by obstructing the efforts of other nations to stop the slaughter. On April 21, 1994, the Canadian UN commandeer in Rwanda, General Romeo Dallaire, declared that he required only 5000 troops to bring the genocide to a rapid halt. In addition, a single bombing run against the RTLM Hutu Power radio transmitting antenna would have made it impossible for the Hutus to coordinate their genocide. But on the very same day, as Phillip Gourevitch explains in his definitive account of the Rwandan genocide, We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We will Be Killed with Our Families, the Security Council, with the Clinton Administration’s blessing, ordered the UN force under Dallaire reduced by ninety percent to a skeleton staff of 270 troops who would powerlessly witness the slaughter to come. This, in turn, was influenced by Presidential Decision Directive 25, which “amounted to a checklist of reasons to avoid American involvement in UN peacekeeping missions,” even though Dallaire did not seek American troops and the mission was not peacekeeping but genocide prevention. Indeed, Madeleine Albright, the American Ambassador to the UN, opposed leaving even this tiny UN force. She also pressured other countries “to duck, as the death toll leapt from thousands to tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands… the absolute low point in her career as a stateswoman.”
In a 2001 article published in The Atlantic, Samantha Power, author of the Pulitzer-Prize winning A Problem of Hell and arguably the world’s foremost voice against genocide and who currently serves on the National Security Council as an aide to President Obama, referred to Ambassador Susan Rice and her colleagues in the Clinton Administration as Bystanders to Genocide. She quotes Rice in the 2002 book as saying, “If we use the word ‘genocide’ and are seen as doing nothing, what will be the effect on the November congressional election?” “
Ms Rice , we have to ask , ” What do you have against Brown people” ?
Related articles
- A Second Wave of Genocide Looms in Congo, with Susan Rice on Point (willyloman.wordpress.com)
- The Controversial Africa Policy of Susan Rice (theatlantic.com)
- New Rice controversy: business ties to Iran? (hotair.com)
- FOREIGN POLICY: Rwandan Ghosts: Benghazi isn’t the biggest blight on Susan Rice’s record. “Her ro… (pjmedia.com)
- For Susan Rice, Benghazi Was Kenya 1998 Deja Vu (patdollard.com)
- FAILING UPWARD: Investor’s Business Daily: For Susan Rice, Benghazi Was Kenya 1998 Deja Vu. A m… (pjmedia.com)
- Republican Senator Raises New Questions About Susan Rice – Bloomberg (bloomberg.com)
- U.N. Ambassador Rice helped thwart Bin Ladens capture (seeker401.wordpress.com)
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Will Benghazi Furor Keep Susan Rice Out Of The White House?
” Insiders with ties to the Obama administration tell The Cable that U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice has become the heir apparent to National Security Advisor Tom Donilon – a post at the epicenter of foreign-policy decision making and arguably more influential than secretary of state, a job for which she withdrew her candidacy last fall amid severe political pressure.
“It’s definitely happening,” a source who recently spoke with Rice told The Cable. “She is sure she is coming and so too her husband and closest friends.”
“Susan is a very likely candidate to replace him whenever he would choose to leave,” agreed Dennis Ross, a former special assistant to President Obama and counselor at the Washington Institute. “She is close to the president, has the credentials, and has a breadth of experience.” “
Read More
Now would seem to be a good time to bump our previous post , Susan Rice , Career Stooge … Or , Are You A Racist ? from December when Rice was up for consideration to replace Hillary as Secretary of State . About the only public figure on the American stage at present with less national security qualifications would be her boss BHO .
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From Independent Journal Review
” Sometimes it is better to show a scandal than to explain it. SHARE this exposure of the Benghazi cover-up!”
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D.C. Turns On Obama
” The town is turning on President Obama — and this is very bad news for this White House.
Republicans have waited five years for the moment to put the screws to Obama — and they have one-third of all congressional committees on the case now. Establishment Democrats, never big fans of this president to begin with, are starting to speak out. And reporters are tripping over themselves to condemn lies, bullying and shadiness in the Obama administration.
Obama’s aloof mien and holier-than-thou rhetoric have left him with little reservoir of good will, even among Democrats. And the press, after years of being accused of being soft on Obama while being berated by West Wing aides on matters big and small, now has every incentive to be as ruthless as can be.
This White House’s instinctive petulance, arrogance and defensiveness have all worked to isolate Obama at a time when he most needs a support system. “It feel like they don’t know what they’re here to do,” a former senior Obama administration official said. “When there’s no narrative, stuff like this consumes you.” “
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ISSA PLANS DEPOSITIONS FOR MULLEN, PICKERING
” Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, planned on Monday to seek depositions from retired Ambassador Thomas Pickering and retired Adm. Mike Mullen. Issa, who is leading Republicans’ investigations into the attacks on a State Department consulate last September, said he wants to know with whom the pair spoke to reach their conclusion that then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton did not direct the response to the pair of nighttime attacks in Libya.
“This is a failure, it needs to be investigated. Our committee can investigate. Now, Ambassador Pickering, his people and he refused to come before our committee,” Issa said Sunday.”
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Watch Out For Petraeus In Benghazi Scandal
” By their second term “inside the bubble,” presidents have completely lost touch with reality: Aides and confidants conspire to keep the chief executive insulated from the real world — the bad news, the worse press coverage. They think it’s their job, and lounging on the Oval Office couches, they nod along with the president’s every musing.
But this presidency has taken OOCS to new heights. Mr. Obama has only a few trusted aides, and occasional leaks from the West Wing show a paranoid president suspicious of nearly everyone around him. Supremely confident, convinced by the fawning minions at his feet that he is untouchable, the president dismisses all controversy as partisan attacks by an overzealous opposition. A pliant press corps of stenographers follows in lockstep.
Not surprisingly, every president in the past 60 years has had a major scandal in Term 2: Dwight Eisenhower had the U-2 “incident”; Richard Nixon had Watergate; Ronald Reagan had Iran-Contra; Bill Clinton had Monica (literally); George W. Bush had Katrina (and let’s not forget those WMDs that never turned up); and now, this president has Benghazi.
Make no mistake: Benghazi is a major scandal. Benghazi is a scandal before, during and after the terrorist attack that left four Americas dead, including an ambassador.”
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POTENTIAL WITNESSES WHO MAY FACE ISSA’S OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE IN NEAR FUTURE
” Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA), Chairman of the House Oversight Committee, ended the Benghazi attack hearing on Wednesday by stating, “This hearing is closed. But this investigation is not over,” indicating more whistle blower Benghazi hearings are likely due in the future.
Following the appearance of State Department employees Gregory Hicks, Eric Nordstrom, and Mark Thompson at his hearing, Issa told reporters he is encouraging more whistle blowers who know anything about last September’s deadly Benghazi attack to step forward and talk to his Committee.
Issa told Breitbart News on Wednesday that the committee “reserves the right” to subpoena witnesses for future hearings. Issa would not specify who the Committee is currently looking to bring before its members, but a number of names have been mentioned over past weeks. The following witnesses could provide unique perspectives into what happened in Benghazi on September 11, 2012 as well as the administration’s explanation of it immediately afterward.
Hillary Clinton
General Carter Ham
Cheryl Mills
Leon Panetta
Undersecretary Patrick Kennedy
Beth Jones
General David Petraeus
Victoria Nuland
Ben Rhodes
U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice
” Finally, below are individuals Hicks named in his testimony who are part of the U.S. Mission Libya staff. It will not be a surprise if someone on this list also appears before Congress to discuss what they know about the Benghazi attack and the administration’s attempt to explain itself afterward.
Regional Security Officer (Benghazi) – Alec Henderson
Regional Security Officer (Tripoli) – John Martinec
Ambassador Stevens’ Agent in Charge – Scott Wickland
Political Section Chief – David McFarland
Embassy Tripoli Nurse – Jackie Levesque
Management Officer – Allen Greenfield
Lieutenant Colonel Phillips
Lieutenant Colonel Arnt
Lieutenant Colonel Gibson
Mark Si (Team Tripoli)”
It seems to us that if the truth is to be found , all of the above-mentioned “civil-servants” , each of whom certainly has first-hand knowledge of value to the investigation , should be required to testify under oath .
The public deserves the truth from OUR employees . The families of Christopher Stevens , Sean Smith , Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods deserve nothing less from their government .
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BENGHAZI LEADS TO CLINTON CONFIDANT FROM INVESTIGATIONS PAST
” This week was not the first time Cheryl Mills’ name has come up in a controversial manner at a congressional oversight hearing. In fact, it’s not the first time Ms. Mills has been the subject of potential wrongdoing in the very same hearing room–Room 2154 in the Rayburn House Office Building to be exact.
While being questioned under oath by Congressman Jim Jordan (R-OH) on Wednesday, former Deputy Ambassador to Libya Gregory Hicks testified that then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s chief of staff, Cheryl Mills, was “very upset” when she called him about his cooperation with congressional investigators.
Throughout the 1990s, Mills was a big part of the Clinton White House counsel’s office “damage control” detail. Name a Clinton scandal, and Cheryl Mills was usually running interference for the Clintons with congressional investigators. In fact, in 1998, Mills allegedly crossed the line in her dealings with the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, who felt it was necessary to send a criminal referral to the Department of Justice regarding Mills’ activities and testimony on behalf of the Clinton White House. “
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CNN Gives 30 Times More Coverage To Tabloid Stories Than Benghazi Hearing
” On Wednesday evening, CNN barely covered the congressional hearing on the Benghazi attack from earlier that afternoon. Instead, the network provided wall-to-wall coverage of the Jodi Arias trial verdict and the Cleveland kidnappings.
From the hours of 5 p.m. until 11 p.m. ET, CNN gave a whopping 4 hours, 9 minutes of coverage to the two crime stories, but a measly eight minutes to Benghazi — over 30 times more coverage. And three of CNN’s prime-time shows didn’t even mention Benghazi.
The 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. ET hours of Anderson Cooper 360 featured over one hour and twenty minutes of material on Arias and the Cleveland abduction, but not a second on the hearing. The 9 p.m. ET hour of Piers Morgan Live aired over 40 minutes on the two stories, but completely ignored the Benghazi hearing.”
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US Forces On Alert In Response To Libya
” Marines and other U.S. forces in Europe are on a heightened state of alert in response to a deteriorating security situation in the Libyan capital of Tripoli, two U.S. officials said Friday.
The alert order applies to a U.S. special operations team based in Stuttgart, Germany, as well as a Marine group of air and ground forces based in Moron, Spain, according to the officials, who were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The forces alerted in Europe are under U.S. Africa Command, which acquired the special operations team in the fall. The command did not have a similar team – or the Marines in Spain – available last September for possible use in response to the deadly attack on the US diplomatic facilities in the Libyan city of Benghazi.”
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Presidents Of ABC and CBS News Have Siblings Working At White House With Ties To 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.
For the record, Ben Sherwood’s sister, Dr. Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, is the Special Assistant to Barack Obama.
Virginia Moseley’s husband, Tom Nides, is the Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources.”
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Her Fatal Mistakes Mirror The Disaster At Mogadishu
Delta Snipers Gary Gordon and Randy Shugart
” When I took Hillary Rodham Clinton to task in January for the mishandling of security in Benghazi, Libya, I told her that if I had been president at the time, I would have relieved her of her post. Some politicians and pundits took offense at my line of questioning.
During those hearings, I reminded Mrs. Clinton that multiple requests were sent to the State Department asking for increased security measures. I asked if she had read the cables from Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens asking for increased security. She replied that she was busy and had not read them. I find that inexcusable.
Four months later, we are hearing that Mrs. Clinton allegedly withheld information from a counterterrorism bureau during the response. We are hearing new allegations that Special Forces wanting to respond during the attacks were told, “You can’t go” by superiors.
The secretary of state’s responsibility is to protect our diplomats. Mrs. Clinton should have been relieved of her post for denying pleas for additional security. Almost 20 years ago, President Clinton’s secretary of defense was relieved of his post for a similarly bad decision.
In early October 1993, a battle between U.S. forces and Somali militia in Mogadishu left 18 Americans soldiers dead, 80 wounded and two American helicopters shot down. Today, this is remembered as the Battle of Mogadishu or more popularly, “Black Hawk Down,” thanks to a subsequent movie of the same name.”
State Dept "Contractors" Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods
While we are comparing politicians Clinton and Aspen’s actions and noting similar incompetence displayed during American foreign policy disasters there is another similarity between the two events . This parallelism however, instead of reflecting a common theme of political incompetence , involves America and American’s at our/their finest .
We refer to the ultimate sacrifice paid for the politician’s bungling in Mogadishu by Gary Gordon and Randy Shugart and in Benghazi by Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods .
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EMAIL TRAFFIC CONFIRMS HILLARY CLINTON’S LEADING ROLE IN SCRUBBING THE BENGHAZI TALKING POINTS
“ Steve Hayes takes a detailed look at the scenario that led to the scrubbing of the CIA’s Benghazi talking points to delete terrorism references and focus on the “non-event” video. Hayes’ rendition is consistent with what we’ve been saying for some time now — the State Department pushed for the talking points to be changed to cover up its pre-Benghazi malfeasance and the White House concurred, presumably to help re-elect Obama.
The CIA sent out the original, valid talking points on Friday evening to top Obama administration officials. Forty-five minutes after receiving them, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland expressed concerns about their contents, particularly the likelihood that members of Congress would criticize the State Department for “not paying attention to Agency warnings.”
The quick response by a Clinton functionary shows that Clinton and her top advisers had planned ahead and were prepared to push for a revisionist story.”
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The Benghazi Lie
” Shortly before last November’s election I took part in a Fox News documentary on Benghazi, whose other participants included the former governor of New Hampshire John Sununu. Making chit-chat while the camera crew were setting up, Governor Sununu said to me that in his view Benghazi mattered because it was “a question of character.” That’s correct. On a question of foreign policy or counterterrorism strategy, men of good faith can make the wrong decisions. But a failure of character corrodes the integrity of the state.
That’s why career diplomat Gregory Hicks’s testimony was so damning — not so much for the new facts as for what those facts revealed about the leaders of this republic. In this space in January, I noted that Hillary Clinton had denied ever seeing Ambassador Stevens’s warnings about deteriorating security in Libya on the grounds that “1.43 million cables come to my office” — and she can’t be expected to see all of them, or any. Once Ambassador Stevens was in his flag-draped coffin listening to her eulogy for him at Andrews Air Force Base, he was her bestest friend in the world — it was all “Chris this” and “Chris that,” as if they’d known each other since third grade. But up till that point he was just one of 1.43 million close personal friends of Hillary trying in vain to get her ear.”
Leave it to Mr Steyn to ask the important questions …
” What was Secretary Clinton doing that was more important? What was the president doing? Aside, that is, from resting up for his big Vegas campaign event. A real government would be scrambling furiously to see what it could do to rescue its people. It’s easy, afterwards, to say that nothing would have made any difference. But, at the time Deputy Chief Hicks was calling 9-1-1 and getting executive-branch voicemail, nobody in Washington knew how long it would last.”
Read the whole thing .
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Byron York: Benghazi Is All About Obama
” Benghazi is all about President Obama.
There are three issues in the Benghazi matter. The first is whether the administration reacted properly to the growing threat to American diplomats in Libya in the months leading up to Sept. 11. The second is whether the administration reacted properly during the attack itself. And the third is whether the administration covered up its actions in the days, weeks and months after the attack.
Many Republicans have been fixated on the cover-up, mostly because of the obvious falsehood of U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice’s statements in the days after the attack. But by far the most consequential issue in the Benghazi matter is what the administration did during the attack itself. In those hours, American lives were at risk, and there are real questions about whether the U.S. military did everything it could to save them. That is the issue that cuts to the heart of American concerns in the Benghazi matter.”
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