Op-ed:

And the Benghazi circus continues

By: Diane Sori

 

On the advise of committee chairman,   Senator 'Swiftboat' John Kerry (and most likely future Secretary of State),  Hillary sits home with a 'con'cussion as her designated mouthpieces are bloviating rehearsed lies and cover-up statements at the Benghazi hearings. 

And while the independent Accountability Review Board report, released this past Tuesday, blamed "systemic failures, and leadership and management deficiencies at senior levels" plus "grossly inadequate security," along with a "breakdown in communication between Libya and Washington" as some of the causes leading up to the deaths of the four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens, we now have seen a report that is very damning and damaging to both Obama and Hillary...and rightly so.

At yesterday's hearings, via her mouthpieces Deputies Secretary of State William Burns and Thomas Nides, Hillary has promised that she will put in place 29 recommendations made by the special review board, including improving intelligence gathering in known high-threat (terrorist) areas, and will also be creating a new position to focus specifically on diplomatic security in those areas.

Guess what...too little, too late, and anyway 'We the People' don't what to know what Hillary or the State Department will do in the future...we want to know what they're covering up now. 

Saying what she called a “systematic failure” of security, and that she had no “confidence in the State Department’s assessment of what went wrong and what actions are needed to prevent a repeat,” Chairwoman Ilena Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) continued pressing mouthpiece Burns as to “why did it take the intelligence community some days to determine what was inaccurate." 

"I’m sure our colleagues in the intelligence community wish they could have cleared up those inaccuracies sooner,” said Ros-Lehtinen as to why both Hillary and Obama sent Susan Rice on the Sunday news/talk show circuit with false information about a YouTube video causing the attack.

And how did Burns reply...he used the usual Obama tactic of blame everybody but the actual people involved, saying the talking points used by Rice were approved by the CIA.  But he LIES, especially in light of the fact that all reports clearly showed that Obama and Hillary knew within 24 hours that this was a calculated terror attack by islamic jihadists.  Yet, the Obama administration, Hillary included, continued to lie to the American people and to the families of the victims for weeks, choosing instead to blame the deadly attack on a 'spontaneous protest' caused by a ridiculous anti-muslim video. 
 

But even with what little he did say regarding the administration's claimed cause of the attack, Burns did NOT address the more important issue as to why were the warning signs of a deteriorating security situation ignored, and why didn't the State Department ask Congress for money to boost security at the mission in Benghazi, especially in light of the fact that Libya itself was basically a free for all since the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi.

And now after the fact, the State Department is asking that $1.4 billion be placed in next year's budget for increased security.*  What I want to know is why they didn't ask for it before...like when Ambassador Stevens sent communique after communique begging for help and was told the situation didn't warrant it, and even if it did there was NO money for additional security.  Oh but there was...there was lots of money from the funds that hadn't been spent in Iraq that could have been used.

Gee, now I wonder where that money went and to who it went to...did Obama funnel it to the Muslim Brotherhood perhaps...I think I know the answer to that one.

But the bottom line remains as it has been since day one...Hillary knew about terrorist threats in Libya yet her office did NOTHING to protect the U.S. missions in Benghazi.  And while the report tried to shift some of the blame onto the middle-management levels (which is BS because all levels answer to Hillary), it in NO way answered the critical questions regarding the early intelligence findings and the morphing of lies told by the Obama administration as to their explanation for the consulate attack.  Also, the report did not address the continuing cover-up nor did it bring closure to the families of the four MURDERED Americans.

And Hillary's mouthpieces did none of that either with their trumped up testimony.

As Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) says, "She (Hillary) is ultimately responsible for the department and U.S. posts around the world. Her testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is indispensable to any effort to address this failure and put in place a process to ensure this never happens again."

And so it remains that Hillary must make herself available for direct and detailed questioning as soon as she 'recovers' from her 'con'cussion because no one is buying the subterfuge told by her deputies at yesterday's hearings.  Is Hillary trying to run down the clock until she's NO longer Secretary of State...possibly...but she will eventually be forced to testify for if she thinks Benghazi will fade away she is very wrong.  And while we all know that some things in DC are always swept under the rug, for the families of the four MURDERED Americans that’s not possible and 'We the People' will NOT let Obama, his suck-up media, or the gutless wonders in Congress do so.

* Funding breakdown: $553 million for 35 additional Marine Security Guard detachments, $130 million for 155 diplomatic security personnel, and $376 million for security upgrades and construction at new embassy compounds