Select Committee on Benghazi

[Midtowner]

Wait, you meant we worked to build a coalition before the attack? I thought one of the criticisms is that we didn't. Which way do we want it?

Yeah, I don't get the shock here. The UK is in lock step with the U.S. on foreign policy and has been since WWIIish.

[BDP]

At that time, Congress had held 22 hearings on 9-11 and 21 (now more) on Benghazi. For anyone to suggest that this isn't political at this point would take either a heaping dose of intellectual dishonesty or a legendary level of cognitive dissonance.

Especially when you look at how frequent attacks on embassies and US diplomats actually are. Of course, it's a little different because a US Ambassador was killed, but this really seems to just be about the political capital Republicans felt they got when they criticized the Obama administration's reaction to the attacks and how it was the said it was framed immediately after. They really just want to keep that going and don't really seem interested in what actually comes out it or what it is actually shown to have been true. Like so many things in politics today, it never really seems to matter what the investigations find, what the videos actually show, or what anyone actually said. Many seem to only believe the explanation that was once given to them with which they felt most comfortable and nothing we learn after that will change it.

[kelroy55]

NATIONAL: AMERICA TIRED OF CLINTON EMAIL STORY

http://www.monmouth.edu/assets/0/322...a072e1853f.pdf

[Dubya61]

It looks like revealing the Hillary Emails has back fired on the committee.

Emails reveal Blair's 'deal in blood' with George Bush over Iraq war.

I don't get why this is a big deal. How did it back fire ... (on President Bush)?

[OkieBerto]

I don't get why this is a big deal. How did it back fire ... (on President Bush)?

On the Republican party. It is the trust they will loose if they chase something that isn't a big deal and then uncover something that has cost so many lives and so much money.

[OkieBerto]

I want to know why the Democratic leadership never had a WMD hearing and why the Bush administration isn't tried for war crimes.

[mugofbeer]

Because the intelligence from not just US sources but from multiple other countries said the WMDs existed. There were numerous bombs and artillary shells found that did contain outlawed gas but they were several years old. The Hussain military used huge amounts of gas against Kurds and the Iranians so it was no real stretch that they were still secretly producing. Hussain denied inspection after inspection so it appreared he was hiding the weapons. Suspicion at the time was Hussain moved them elsewhere such as Syria and it is now known the Syrian government has used gas on Kurds and insurgents. Bush and the US may have been wrong but evidence was definitely there.

[Chadanth]

Because the intelligence from not just US sources but from multiple other countries said the WMDs existed. There were numerous bombs and artillary shells found that did contain outlawed gas but they were several years old. The Hussain military used huge amounts of gas against Kurds and the Iranians so it was no real stretch that they were still secretly producing. Hussain denied inspection after inspection so it appreared he was hiding the weapons. Suspicion at the time was Hussain moved them elsewhere such as Syria and it is now known the Syrian government has used gas on Kurds and insurgents. Bush and the US may have been wrong but evidence was definitely there.

I'm not sure I agree with your first sentence. The Germans and Jordanians didn't believe the source we relied on; the Brits had highly placed sources in the Iraqi government who said there was no WMD program. There's not much out there that didn't originate from us on a current Iraqi WMD program. Syria had their own chemical weapons program, so their stuff didn't come from Iraq, plus that stuff has a shelf life and we're past the "good by" date on a lot of the more common types of chemical munitions. So to say that the "evidence was d then yeah, it was, in the context of it being in large part manufactured or produced as a result of flawed collection and analysis, by the US intelligence community.

[kelroy55]

Proof That The Benghazi Investigation Is Totally Unlike Any Other, In Two Charts | ThinkProgress

[jerrywall]

I want to know why the Democratic leadership never had a WMD hearing and why the Bush administration isn't tried for war crimes.

What war crimes?

[kelroy55]

What war crimes?

Not sure if invading a country under false pretenses count.

[BDP]

What war crimes?

Federal War Crimes Act prohibits torture.

[jerrywall]

Federal War Crimes Act prohibits torture.

"(A)Torture.—
The act of a person who commits, or conspires or attempts to commit, an act specifically intended to inflict severe physical or mental pain or suffering (other than pain or suffering incidental to lawful sanctions) upon another person within his custody or physical control for the purpose of obtaining information or a confession, punishment, intimidation, coercion, or any reason based on discrimination of any kind."

You'd have a hard time trying to convict the president of torturing anyone, except maybe during the state of the union speeches. And I'm not sure the english language counts as an enemy combatant.

[OkieBerto]

Can anyone explain today's questioning at all? Did it not help Hillary more than hurt her? Do any of these people on the committee actually know what they are saying?

[Chadanth]

Can anyone explain today's questioning at all? Did it not help Hillary more than hurt her? Do any of these people on the committee actually know what they are saying?

People who supported HRC will find things to justify their position. People who demonized her will find things to justify their position.

[Dustin]

I can't believe I watched 4 hours of that mess...

[OKCretro]

Did she ever explain why she emailed her daughter the night of the attack saying it was one thing, then the next few weeks say it was another?

[kelroy55]

Did she ever explain why she emailed her daughter the night of the attack saying it was one thing, then the next few weeks say it was another?

Republicans released a new email at the hearing written by Mrs. Clinton to her daughter, Chelsea, after 11 p.m. on the night of the attacks in Benghazi. In the email, Mrs. Clinton told her daughter, whose email pseudonym was “Diane Reynolds,” that the attacks were undertaken by an “Al Queda-like group.”

That private email, GOP Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio said, was at odds with the message in the official statement put out by the State Department under Mrs. Clinton’s name an hour before the email to her daughter. In that statement, Mrs. Clinton made reference to an American-made anti-Islam video that sparked violent protests elsewhere in the region.

.... I don't see how they are at odds. The ones who attacked were an “Al Queda-like group.” since they had many of the same weapons as Al Queda and they could have been mad about the anti-Islam video.

[stick47]

I agree. There's not going to be anything turned up until the FBI reveals their findings I guess. Clearly though, the video story was cover for Obamas narrative that "Osama is dead and Al Queda is on the run." No crime there but I'm thinking HRC was more concerned with making side deals to feather the Clintons nest in Libya than in doing her job as SoS.

[Edmond_Outsider]

Nothing happened yesterday. Nothing. Congress gets nothing done except staging these grandstanding photo ops and the public responds with a yawn.

Blah. Blah. Blah. Ad infinitum, ad naseaum.

When do the hearing start about why Hillary didn't do anything about the unicorn flatulence issue? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHAT DOES SHE HAVE TO HIDE?!?!

And people still think Trump or Carson would be the best choice for president. It is difficult to understand the thinking behind this but I think it goes something like:

Something happened therefore it must have been a planned event because an evil person like Hillary is always trying to cover her evil tracks because evil people always do evil things in the most evil ways possible.

Therefore its better to have somebody willing to insult everybody all the time because at least that is the truth!

Americans don't deserve America.

[Chadanth]

I agree. There's not going to be anything turned up until the FBI reveals their findings I guess. Clearly though, the video story was cover for Obamas narrative that "Osama is dead and Al Queda is on the run." No crime there but I'm thinking HRC was more concerned with making side deals to feather the Clintons nest in Libya than in doing her job as SoS.

Of course, you're neglecting the fact that there were protests through the Muslim world, on that day, because of the video.

[Edmond_Outsider]

I'd like to have seen hearings examining Cheney's statement:

(March 16, 2003):
VICE PRES. DICK CHENEY: My belief is we will, in fact, be greeted as liberators.

This didn't happen--or hasn't happened yet--and I'd like to know why. If Hillary should have known everything about Benghazi in advance and was merely "covering up" the "truth," Cheney must have known this statement was false.

[Edmond_Outsider]

Of course, you're neglecting the fact that there were protests through the Muslim world, on that day, because of the video.

Merely part of the cover put in place in advance so Hillary could get away with her evil deeds....

[kelroy55]

From everything I've heard yesterday was not a good day for the committee, at least the Republicans on the committee.

[stick47]

Of course, you're neglecting the fact that there were protests through the Muslim world, on that day, because of the video.

Well didn't somebody say "never let a crisis go to waste"?