Saturday Steyn

Will The Real Hillary Diane Rodham Please Stand Up?

 

A F Branco

 

 

 

” Yesterday I kept my regular Thursday date with Hugh Hewitt. Wracked by laryngitis, Hugh’s voice had been relocated to a private server and he was reduced to a husky whisper as he brought me up to speed on the news of the day:

  HUGH HEWITT: I want to begin by telling you that ISIS attacked the archaeological site at Nimrod today, and Libya says their oil fields are in the hands of the militants, and ISIS is believed to have 46,000 Twitter accounts. These are all front page stories. But we’re going to talk about email instead, if you don’t mind, because that is the biggest story of the day. And I want to know what you make first from 30,000 feet of Hillary’s intentionality from the beginning of her tenure at State of avoiding scrutiny.

  MARK STEYN: Yes, I think there’s no doubt that it was deliberate. This is why the usual spin isn’t going to work – because she essentially set up a shadow operation to supplant the normal exchange of information within a cabinet department. At midnight last night, I posted a story that a friend of mine, a diplomat, tipped me off – not an American diplomat, interestingly enough, but a non-U.S. diplomat – about how the American ambassador to Kenya was fired just three years ago during Hillary’s term for precisely this, for using commercial email systems instead of secure government ones for official business. Hillary Clinton’s State Department fired the U.S. ambassador for Kenya for doing that in 2012. The story’s now been picked up by the Weekly Standard and Drudge and people, and I’m glad, I’m very glad of that, because I think it actually gets to the heart of the matter here – that this country is decaying from a republic into a banana republic, where if you’re an inconsequential person the rules apply to you, but if you’re a select few, at the Hillary Clinton level, then the laws and the rules don’t apply. This should be a disqualifier. She essentially freelanced – and presumably with the knowledge of the President and other people – she essentially, in defiance of the law, she essentially freelanced an entire cabinet department to Clinton HQ for four years.”

 

Saturday’s must read

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Hillary Warned State Employees Against Using Private Email & Even Fired One Ambassador

Internal Cable From Clinton State Department Office Barred Use Of Personal Email

 

 

 

View this document on Scribd

 

 

 

 

” An internal 2011 State Department cable, obtained by Fox News, shows that then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s office told employees not to use personal email for security reasons — while at the same time, Clinton conducted all government business on a private account.

  Sent to diplomatic and consular staff in June 2011, the unclassified cable, bearing Clinton’s electronic signature,  made clear to employees they were expected to “avoid conducting official Department business from your personal e-mail accounts.” The message also said employees should not “auto-forward Department email to personal email accounts which is prohibited by Department policy.” “

 

 

   Not only did Hillary send out a warning to staff against using private email accounts for State Department business but in 2012 the US ambassador to Kenya , Scott Gration , was fired for doing exactly that :

 

 

” The following year, Scott Gration, then U.S. ambassador to Kenya, was forced out of office. One of the offenses cited was his continued use of a private email account in violation of State Department policy as set forth in Clinton’s cable, according to The Daily Caller. “

 

Read more

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Report: Obama Admin Knew James Foley’s Location For Months And Dithered

Hostage Family: White House Had Information On Location For Almost Four Months

 

 

 

 

” Just how long did the White House sit on intelligence on where ISIS held American hostages? Allahpundit asked that question yesterday, when the difference in sources put it between four and seven weeks. The mother of James Foley tells the Daily Beast’s Jamie Dettmer and Shane Harris that it may have been closer to four months:

  But Diane Foley, the mother of James Foley, who was the first American to be shown murdered on camera, also raised questions about the timing of the rescue effort, telling The Daily Beast that French officials had developed information about the hostages’ location as early as March, but that the U.S. government didn’t act on it.

“ That was part of our frustration,” she said. “The State Department said they were connecting with the French and everybody at the highest levels.” And yet, there was no movement on the U.S. side. “Very specific information was available as early as mid-March. And that’s what’s been so tough for us as families, because apparently they were held in the same place all those months,” Foley said.”

 

 

Hot Air has more

 

 

    Does anyone find it peculiar that the only ones that seem to benefit from Obama’s vaunted “smart diplomacy” are the “non-existent” radical muslim extremists ?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Obama State Department Fetes Muslim Brotherhood Members

Muslim Brotherhood-Aligned Leaders Hosted At State Department

 

 

 

” The State Department hosted a delegation of Muslim Brotherhood-aligned leaders this week for a meeting about their ongoing efforts to oppose the current government of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of Egypt, who rose to power following the overthrow of Mohamed Morsi, an ally of the Brotherhood, in 2013.

  One member of the delegation, a Brotherhood-aligned judge in Egypt, posed for a picture while at Foggy Bottom in which he held up the Islamic group’s notorious four-finger Rabia symbol, according to his Facebook page.”

 

Free Beacon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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State Department Cannot Account For $6 Billion Over Past 6 Years

$6 Billion Goes Missing At State Department

 

 

 

 

 

” The State Department has no idea what happened to $6 billion used to pay its contractors.

  In a special “management alert” made public Thursday, the State Department’s Inspector General Steve Linick warned “significant financial risk and a lack of internal control at the department has led to billions of unaccounted dollars over the last six years.”

 

 

    The Washington Post points out that the post of Inspector General had been vacant for Hillary and Barack’s entire tenure until September when Linick was appointed .

 

 

” The alert was just the latest example of the federal government’s continued struggle with oversight over its outside contractors.

  The lack of oversight “exposes the department to significant financial risk,” the auditor said. “It creates conditions conducive to fraud, as corrupt individuals may attempt to conceal evidence of illicit behavior by omitting key documents from the contract file. It impairs the ability of the Department to take effective and timely action to protect its interests, and, in turn , those of taxpayers.” “

 

   Funny how the timeframe more or less coincides with our current administration’s handling of things , isn’t it ? Hillary and Kerry on the ball as usual . Fiscal Times has the report .

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Contractor Testimony Contradicts State Dept Version Of Benghazi Events

Benghazi Witnesses Testify – CIA Contractors Contradict Official Story

 

 

” Contractors described the cries for help that night by the state department personnel as “almost frantic” as they were pleading for help to save their lives.

   Westmoreland reports that when the CIA team arrived, they found the state department personnel unarmed, not “kitted up,” and in hiding. He also said that the testimony revealed that up to the point when the CIA contractors arrived at the compound, no shots had been fired from the American side of the conflict.

   This contradicts previous statements by the State Department-sponsored Accountability Review Board that stated the Americans inside were armed and had their security kits in use.”

 

    The lies continue to make their way to the surface . Benghazi should be the end of Hillary’s political ambitions but given the best efforts of the media in sweeping her malfeasance in the Benghazi affair under the rug and their desperate desire to see her become our first woman president the public at large will remain blissfully occupied with the doings of the Kardashian tribe and the newest smart phones rather than the corruption of the Obama administration and the State department under Hillary’s shameful “leadership” . 

    The lies and coverup of the Benghazi attacks have always been about preserving political viability , firstly Barack’s for 2012 and secondly Hillary’s in 2016 . The water-carriers in the MSM are not about to abandon all that they have invested in the Democratic party because a few Americans lost their lives to Obama/Clinton incompetence and selfishness . After all , “what difference does it make” ?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Hillary Gets Benghazi Investigation Heads-up From Investigators

Benghazi investigators gave Hillary Clinton heads-up on findings

” The leaders of the State Department’s Benghazi probe defended their inquiry into the 2012 attack, but they acknowledged to Congress on Thursday that their mission was limited in scope and faced questions over why they gave Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton an advance look at their findings.

   Retired Adm. Mike Mullen, vice chairman of the accountability review board, also acknowledged that he had warned Mrs. Clinton’s chief of staff not to send a particular official to Congress because he thought “she would be a weak witness” who might have hurt the State Department’s stance.”

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State Department Willfully Obstructed Benghazi Investigation

House Oversight: State Dept Obstructed Benghazi Probe

 

 

 

 

”  A new report from Oversight accuses the State Department of willfully obstructing the Congressional investigation into the attack and the actions of the Obama administration before, during, and after the sacking of the consulate.  As The Hill notes, the report also accuses the Accountability Review Board of obstruction and participating in a softball attempt to sweep the scandal under the proverbial rug:

The State Department willfully obstructed a congressional investigation of the deadly attack on a U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi last year, according to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

State Department officials routinely refused requests for documents on its investigation into the September, 2012, attack, including interview transcripts and summaries of eyewitnesses to the attack, according to a committee report obtained by The Hill.

 

In a sadly-related note, TPM reports that State didn’t even bother to mark the anniversary with an official commemoration of the four Americans who died in the line of duty.  Instead, Foggy Bottom employees had to organize a memorial on their own:

 

Staffers at State Department headquarters in Washington, D.C. held their own private ceremony Wednesday to commemorate the first anniversary of the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya after finding out the agency would not be organizing a formal, official memorial service.

The Sept. 11, 2012 Benghazi attack left four people dead, including the American Ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, and Sean Smith, an information management officer in the department’s foreign service.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Hillary’s State Dept : Where Disgraced Cops Go For Employment

State Department Has Hired Agents With Criminal Records, Memo Reveals

 

 

 

 

” The State Department has hired an alarming number of law-enforcement agents with criminal or checkered backgrounds because of a flawed hiring process, a stunning memo obtained by The Post reveals.

The background problems are severe enough that many of the roughly 2,000 agents in State’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security can play only limited roles in agency efforts to police bad conduct and prosecute wrongdoers.

“Too many people entering the [Diplomatic Security and Information Management] communities end up as subjects of [Special Investigation Division] investigations and HR adjudications, become Giglio-impaired and can play only limited roles thereafter,” according to the memo.”

 

     Remember this when Hillary starts her run for the presidency in 2016 . If she can’t even competently handle one department how can we trust her to run the entire government ? This entire administration is run like some kind of private club .

    There is never any accountability , nor any consequences for wrong doing , and the MSM is in large part an enabler of this shameful behavior . The fact that they are now trying to play catch-up and are finally bringing some of the dirt to light in no way absolves them of their culpability in fostering this culture of corruption . 

  We see now the costs of the overwhelming partisan blindness of the media in their rush to elect and support the worst run presidential administration in the history of America .

 

 

Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes?

 

 

HT/IOTW

 

 

 

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State Dept Mess Gets Messier , Dead Bodies , Shootings , Pregnant Victims … But WDDIM ?

More State Department Cover-up: Shooting Of Two Pregnant Women And Two Men

 

 

 ” Things for the State Department just keep getting worse. First we learned from CBS News that Department official covered up and interfered with inspector general investigations of sexual misconduct, including the soliciation of prostitutes by an ambassador. Then we learned those sexual solicitations involved minors. Now, we’re learning State Department officials covered up the shooting of four Hondurans. More from the New York Post: 

A top State Department official stymied investigators trying to get to the bottom of four killings in Honduras involving DEA agents and local police — yet another revelation from internal memos leaked by a whistleblower claiming a pattern of coverups.

The incident ended in the deaths of two pregnant women and two men last year, after Honduran national police opened fire from a State Department-owned helicopter on a small boat.”

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Scandal Of The Day – State Department 1.2

State Department Memo Reveals Possible Cover-Ups, Halted Investigations

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

” CBS News has uncovered documents that show the State Department may have covered up allegations of illegal and inappropriate behavior within their ranks.

The Diplomatic Security Service, or the DSS, is the State Department’s security force, charged with protecting the secretary of state and U.S. ambassadors overseas and with investigating any cases of misconduct on the part of the 70,000 State Department employees worldwide.

CBS News’ John Miller reports that according to an internal State Department Inspector General’s memo, several recent investigations were influenced, manipulated, or simply called off. The memo obtained by CBS News cited eight specific examples.”

 

 

     We find it absolutely amazing just how much scandalous behavior on the part of the Obama administration  has come to light in such a short period of time . All of a sudden , as the scales of blind obeisance have fallen from the eyes of our “gatekeepers” in the MSM , all manner of shameful , embarrassing and criminal behavior has been brought to light .

     Just imagine , if the partisanship and bias had been absent from the start the American people could have been spared the past five years of misery , deception and lies. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Follow The Emails To Benghazi Lies

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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Five Burning Benghazi Questions

5 Benghazi Mysteries That Must Be Solved

 

 

 

 

” On Wednesday, at least three State Department employees will testify before the House Government Oversight and Reform Committee on Benghazi. They are expected to say that yes, there was a stand-down order during the battle. They may also testify that the State Department itself has tried to bully them into silence. What else they may say is not yet known.

As the Benghazi story has unfolded, many mysteries have persisted. Why wasn’t the Benghazi mission’s security enhanced? Where was President Obama? What role, if any, did Obama campaign officials play in crafting the government’s communications after the attack? Perhaps Wednesday’s witnesses can help shed some light on them.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The House Oversight Hearings This Week Are Going To Be ” Explosive ”

BENGHAZI WHISTLEBLOWER HICKS: ‘TERRORIST ATTACK FROM THE GET-GO’

 

 

” Greg Hicks, former deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli, told congressional investigators that the State Department’s internal review of the Benghazi attack “let people off the hook.” Hicks also contradicted the administration’s talking points that were making the Sunday news show rounds immediately following the attack.

Thus far, the State Department has placed blame on low-level staffers, despite evidence that the responsibility lies further up the ladder. Hicks told investigators that people are on administrative leave, pending disciplinary action, but that they are “below Senate confirmation level.” He went on to say that the Diplomatic Security assistant resigned but that “the paper trail is pretty clear that decisions were being made above his level.”

Hicks said that “for there to have been a demonstration on Chris Stevens’ front door and him not to have reported it is unbelievable. And secondly, if he had reported it, he would have been out the back door within minutes of any demonstration appearing anywhere near that facility. And there was a back gate to the facility, and, you know, it worked.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Three Benghazi Witnesses Identified

BENGHAZI: Names Of ‘Whistleblower’ Witnesses Revealed

 

 

 

 

 

” Their identities have been a well-guarded secret, known only to their high-powered lawyers and a handful of House lawmakers and staff. But now Fox News has learned the names of the self-described Benghazi “whistleblowers” who are set to testify before a widely anticipated congressional hearing on Wednesday.

 

 

     Gregory N. Hicks

 

 

 

” Their identities have been a well-guarded secret, known only to their high-powered lawyers and a handful of House lawmakers and staff. But now Fox News has learned the names of the self-described Benghazi “whistleblowers” who are set to testify before a widely anticipated congressional hearing on Wednesday.

Appearing before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will be three career State Department officials: Gregory N. Hicks, the deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Libya at the time of the Benghazi terrorist attacks; Mark I. Thompson, a former Marine and now the deputy coordinator for Operations in the agency’s Counterterrorism Bureau; and Eric Nordstrom, a diplomatic security officer who was the regional security officer in Libya, the top security officer in the country in the months leading up to the attacks.”

 

 

 

Eric Nordstrom

 

 

 

 

 

 

Biographies via State Dept Website

 

Mark I. Thompson

 

” Mark Thompson is the Deputy Coordinator for Operations in the Bureau of Counterterrorism at the U.S. Department of State. He joined the State Department as a U.S. Marine in 1996, transitioned to the Civil Service in 1998, and assumed this position in 2006.

In this position, Mr. Thompson advises senior leadership on operational counterterrorism matters, and ensures that the United States can rapidly respond to global terrorism crises. Specifically, Ops coordinates policy and operational proposals; plans for crisis response during significant international events; collaborates with USG and international partners to develop technologies for countering terrorism; develops and conducts overseas counterterrorism exercises; and leads the Foreign Emergency Support Team (FEST).

The FEST is the U.S. Government’s only interagency, on-call team poised to rapidly respond to terrorist incidents worldwide. The FEST assists and advises the U.S. Ambassador in assessing the situation and coordinating USG crisis response activities. Mr. Thompson has led numerous FEST deployments in support of U.S. Ambassadors, including deployments to Latin America (2001), Southeast Asia (2002), and Africa (2006). Previously, he deployed as a FEST Operations Officer in response to the 1998 East Africa U.S. Embassy bombings and the 2000 attack on the USS Cole in Aden, Yemen.

Mr. Thompson leads Department of State participation in counterterrorism training events. Every year Ops works with both its U.S. government and international partners to plan and conduct numerous counterterrorism crisis response exercises around the world. For example, Ops leads the planning efforts to conduct exercises that prepare the USG for major international events such as the Olympics and Pan American Games.

From 1978 to 1998 Mr. Thompson served in multiple positions as an infantry officer in all four U.S. Marine Divisions, and with embarked amphibious forces. Upon his retirement from the U.S. Marine Corps, he assumed a civil service position in the (then) Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism. In 2004 and 2005, he served with the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad, Iraq, where he coordinated interagency responses to hostage takings. Mr. Thompson was promoted to the Senior Executive Service in 2008. “

 

 

 

 

   No picture found . Neither Hicks nor Nordstrom appear in the State Dept biography listings here or here . 

    Under ” Chiefs of Mission Listed by Country or Organization ” there is no listing for Libya at all and the website doesn’t offer any information on Deputy Chiefs.

 

 

 

” Joe diGenova, a former U.S. attorney, and wife Victoria Toensing, a former chief counsel to the Senate Intelligence Committee — Republicans — disclosed this week that in their private practice in the nation’s capital, they now represent pro bono two career State Department employees who regard themselves as “whistleblowers” and would be testifying before Issa’s committee at its next Benghazi hearing, on May 8. 

The lawyers said their clients believe their accounts of Benghazi were spurned by the Accountability Review board (ARB), the official investigative body convened by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to review the terrorist attacks, and that the two employees have faced threats and intimidation from as-yet-unnamed superiors.

“The people that we are representing are career civil servants…people who have served the country overseas…in dangerous positions all over the world, have risked their lives and only want to tell the truth.”

 

   It isn’t clear to us here whether the two “career civil servants” that diGenova and Toensing are representing are two of the three mentioned above or two entirely different witnesses and what of the other thirty-odd people who were actually in Benghazi that night and lived to tell not tell of it ?

 

 

 

 

 

 

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White House Threatens Benghazi Witnesses … Someone Is Getting Nervous

 

Obama Administration Officials Threatened Whistle-Blowers On Benghazi, Lawyer Says

 

 

 

” At least four career officials at the State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency have retained lawyers or are in the process of doing so, as they prepare to provide sensitive information about the Benghazi attacks to Congress, Fox News has learned.

Victoria Toensing, a former Justice Department official and Republican counsel to the Senate Intelligence Committee, is now representing one of the State Department employees. She told Fox News her client and some of the others, who consider themselves whistle-blowers, have been threatened by unnamed Obama administration officials.

“I’m not talking generally, I’m talking specifically about Benghazi – that people have been threatened,” Toensing said in an interview Monday. “And not just the State Department. People have been threatened at the CIA.”

 

 

 

 

 

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Hillary Lied , Four Good Men Died

House GOP Report Says Clinton Rejected Plea For More Security In Libya

” House Republicans charged Tuesday that then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton rejected a direct plea for additional security for U.S. diplomats in Libya before the fatal attack in Benghazi last year, which Republicans say contradicts her claim in congressional testimony that such requests did not come to her.

Five committees of the Republican-led House concluded in a new report on the attack that cuts in security measures in Libya were approved “at the highest levels of the State Department,” including in at least one instance by Clinton. The report cites an April 2012 internal State Department message, called a cable, bearing Clinton’s signature. The message acknowledged a formal request for the extension of a Marine Corps security detail in the country, but ordered that a planned withdrawal go ahead as planned, the Republican report says.”

 

 

 

 

 

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State Department Deaths … A New Day , A New Story … First Stevens , Now Smedinghoff

 

Story of American Diplomat’s Death in Afghanistan Changes

 

 

 

 

” State Department employee Anne Smedinghoff was killed in Afghanistan last weekend. At first reports suggested the young diplomat was part of an armed convoy that was bombed, but new reports say that she was actually on foot. And that the group she was with got lost on its way to deliver books.

ABC reported earlier in the week:

Afghan security officials told ABC News that the State Department convoy had just left its headquarters in Qalat and joined the convoy of the local provincial governor who was also headed to the school book giveaway.

That’s when two suicide attackers attacked the convoy. The security officials said there was an initial car bomb detonated by a remote device. Then a suicide bomber wearing a suicide vest appeared and caused more casualties.

Officials said Smedinghoff and her group were on foot and not in an armored vehicle when they were killed last weekend, according to witnesses and U.S. officials interviewed by McClatchy newspapers. One of the witnesses is an Afghan TV reporter who says they were lost while walking from a book-donation event.

 

The McClatchy report cited by ABC reads:

 

A promising young U.S. Foreign Service officer, three American soldiers and a civilian government contractor who were killed Saturday in a suicide bombing in Afghanistan probably wouldn’t have been close to the blast if they hadn’t gotten lost while walking to the school where they were to participate in a book-donation ceremony, according to an Afghan television reporter who was with them and was wounded in the attack.” 

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Related articles

• KABUL, Afghanistan: Witness: Anne Smedinghoff, other Americans killed in Afghan bombing were on foot, lost (beowulfjournal.wordpress.com)
• Story of American Diplomat’s Death in Afghanistan Changes (righttruth.typepad.com)
• Young diplomat had left Kabul for book donation event (stripes.com)
• Witness: Americans killed in Afghan bombing were on foot, lost (stripes.com)
• Witness: Anne Smedinghoff, other Americans killed in Afghan bombing were on foot, lost (sacbee.com)
• Witness: Anne Smedinghoff, other Americans killed in Afghan bombing were on foot, lost (miamiherald.com)
• 6 Americans killed in separate Afghan attacks (foxnews.com)
• US diplomat among six killed in Afghan suicide bombing (guardian.co.uk)

 

 

 

 

 

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State Dept : Keystone No Threat To Environment

Oops, Narrative Fail: State Dept Concludes Keystone XL Pipeline Will Not Harm Environment

 

 

” TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline will not harm the environment, the State Department — in a blow to environmentalists who want to block the project — wrote in a newly-drafted report on the latest proposed route.

The report comes to the dismay of environmental activists. “We’re mystified as to how the State Department can acknowledge the negative effects of the Earth’s dirtiest oil on our climate, but at the same time claim that the proposed pipeline will ‘not likely result in significant adverse environmental effects,’” Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune said in a statement. “

Related articles

• Rut Roh’ Treehugger Fail – State Dept Concludes Keystone XL Pipeline Will Not Harm Environment (theconservativetreehouse.com)
• State Department has no major objections to Keystone XL pipeline (csmonitor.com)
• Obvious: State Department finds Keystone Pipeline will not harm environment… (bluegrasspundit.com)
• Pipeline won’t cause major harm: study (news.yahoo.com)
• State Dept. Releases Keystone XL Environmental Impact Statement (commondreams.org)
• Obama Closer to Approving Keystone Pipeline… (abcnews.go.com)

 

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The Buck Stops … eh … Somewhere Else

Senate Report on Benghazi: Plenty of Blame to Go Around Since No One’s Being Held Responsible Anyway

 

 

 

 

 

” As noted on Reason 24/7 earlier today, the Senate Homeland Security Committee has released a report on failures surrounding the terrorist attack in Benghazi on September 11^th.  The committee concluded that although there may not have been specific warnings about the 9/11 attack in Benghazi, there were plenty of warning signs. Intelligence reports available to the committee (but classified, of course) “provide a clear and vivid picture of a rapidly deteriorating threat environment in eastern Libya–one that we believe should have been sufficient to inform policymakers of the growing danger to U.S. facilities and personnel in that part of the country and the urgency of them doing something about it.” ”

 

 

Nobody’s At Fault … Surprise , Surprise … If There Is One Certainty In DC It’s That Our “Betters” Will Always Engage In CYA , And CYA Policy Seems To Be The One True Bipartisan Sentiment In Washington . 

 

Then We Have The Old Stand-By Excuse Of Government Policy Failure … Ta Dah … NOT ENOUGH MONEY !!!

 

” The committee veers into questions of funding, pointing out that Congress did not give the President what he wanted for the diplomatic security budget. (Or, as the committee found, “Congress’ inability to appropriate funds in a timely manner has also had consequences for the implementation of security upgrades”)

 

Not Enough Funding , Yet …

 

” The funding would have been irrelevant anyway, as the committee’s very next finding was that “[t]he Department of State did not adequately support security requests from its own security personnel in Benghazi.” Further, the committee finds that the Benghazi facility’s “temporary status also made it difficult to procure funds for security upgrades” from within the State Department itself. The State Department, in fact, relied on the February 17 Brigades (a local militia) and “unarmed Libyan guards” from a private security contractor in Benghazi, as officials were aware of the Libyan government’s inability to meet its treaty obligations of securing diplomatic facilities.”

 

So Goes Yet Another Meaningless Attempt At Self-Policing , At God Knows What Cost To The Taxpayer That , As Usual Amounts To A Public Snowjob . We’re So Thankful For This ” Most , Honest , Open and Transparent ” Administration . Just Imagine How Sordid DC Would Be If A Republican Were In The White House .

 

 

 

Related articles

• Senate report faults State Department, intelligence on Benghazi (scooprocket.com)
• Senate report hits State Department on Benghazi attack (washingtontimes.com)
• Report blames poor security, inadequate response in Benghazi attack (cnn.com)
• Latest Senate committee report on Benghazi terrorist attack faults State Department (foxnews.com)
• Report blames poor security, inadequate response in Benghazi attack (security.blogs.cnn.com)
• The Buck Stops With No One: Cover-Up: Benghazi Review Board Says Nobody Should Be Held Responsible (tarpon.wordpress.com)
• reuters: The State Department made a “grievous mistake” in… (shortformblog.com)
• New Senate report faults State Department, widens blame over Benghazi (tv.msnbc.com)

Benghazi BS …

… Four State Dept. Officials Keep Jobs After Phony Resignations

 

 

 

Remember These Men: Christopher Stevens,Sean Smith,Glen Doherty & Tyrone Woods 

They Died At The Behest Of A Corrupt And Dishonest Administration That Continues To Stonewall And Play These Obscene Parlor Games With The Active Collusion Of The Mainstream Media .

 

 

” Not only was the security situation at Benghazi a failure of the State Department, as a report to Congress detailed, the public show ofsupposed accountability that resulted in the ‘resignation‘ of four diplomatic officials was a farce.

As Josh Margolin at the NY Post uncovered:

The four officials supposedly out of jobs because of their blunders in the run-up to the deadly Benghazi terror attack remain on the State Department payroll — and will all be back to work soon, The Post has learned.

The highest-ranking official caught up in the scandal, Assistant Secretary of State Eric Boswell, has not “resigned” from government service, as officials said last week. He is just switching desks. And the other three are simply on administrative leave and are expected back. ”

 

 

 

Related articles

• More lies: Benghazi-related penalties for State Department officials reportedly bogus (twitchy.com)
• Benghazi penalties “bogus,” officials returning to work? (hotair.com)
• All Four State Dept Officials Who ‘Resigned’ After Benghazi Report Expected to Return to Work (pjmedia.com)
• BENGHAZI BACKPEDAL? Official Who ‘Resigned’ Reportedly on State Payroll (foxnews.com)
• #BENGHAZI: Just Kidding. No Real Resignations. (wizbangblog.com)
• State Department Will Fire Four For Deadly Blunders That Led To Benghazi (minx.cc)
• State Department Official Who “Resigned” After Benghazi Report Will Stay on Payroll (thegatewaypundit.com)
• State Deparment’s Benghazi penalties are bogus (wnd.com)

Should We Have Expected Otherwise ?

Obama, Clinton Escape Blame In Benghazi Report

 

 

” “Systemic failures and leadership and management deficiencies at senior levels within two bureaus of the State Department resulted in a Special Mission security posture that was inadequate for Benghazi and grossly inadequate to deal with the attack that took place,” says the report, which was written by the “Accountability Review Board for Benghazi.”

“However, the Board did not find reasonable cause to determine that any individual U.S. government employee breached his or her duty,” state the report’s authors, all picked by the administration. “

 

 

Related articles

• Benghazi verdict: grossly inadequate security and systemic failures of leadership (powerlineblog.com)
• The Fix is in: Hillary’s Benghazi cover-up – like Vince Foster death investigation (canadafreepress.com)
• Clinton won’t testify before Senate on Benghazi attack..Her head hurts.. (seeker401.wordpress.com)
• Benghazi Review Puts Blame Squarely on State Department for Systemic Failures (thegatewaypundit.com)
• Report: Clinton to miss testifying on Benghazi attack (itv.com)
• Megyn Kelly Revives Benghazi ‘Controversy’ As Respite From Newtown Shootings (newshounds.us)

The Dishonor Continues

CHAFFETZ: STATE DEPT HIDING BENGHAZI SURVIVORS

 

 

” Congressman Jason Chaffetz (R- UT) told Breitbart News on Wednesday that he has been “thwarted” by the State Department from seeing any Americans who survived the deadly attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in  Benghazi.”

NO SHOTS FIRED …

 …STATE DEPT BENGHAZI SECURITY FORCE

UNARMED

 

 

 

” A source with personal knowledge of the security situation in Benghazi told Breitbart News that Senators who listened to closed door testimony about the Benghazi attack were shocked to learn State Department security personnel agents were not immediately armed.

Additionally, agents separated from Ambassador Chris Stevens left to retrieve their M4 weapons in a separate building. Only one returned to protect the Ambassador, while the other two hunkered down in the barracks, the source relayed.

“From the accounts I read, those guys were not ready. When the attack came that night, they had to go back to the other room and grab their weapons. Then the worse part about it was they never even returned to be with the Ambassador. One returned to be with the Ambassador with his rifle. The other two went back to where there were [sic] barracks. And two stayed in that same building where there were radios and other weapons and the safe and other stuff was there.

There were no shots fired in return. On the embassy property, just the embassy property, none of those security agents blasted a single bullet from a single pistol or rifle at all in defense of the Ambassador—nothing.” “

Related articles

• A Harrowing Firsthand Account Of The Attack In Libya (buzzfeed.com)
• The Other 9/11: Libyan Guards Recount What Happened in Benghazi (world.time.com)
• Biden lies: ‘We weren’t told they wanted more security’ in Benghazi (twitchy.com)
• CBS’ Benghazi Timeline Gives the Word “Deceitful” New Meaning (independentsentinel.com)