08 mayo, 2013

Live Updates: Benghazi Hearing--'The YouTube Video Was a Non-Event in Libya'



Breitbart News will provide live updates and analysis of today's hearings before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on the Benghazi terror attack of September 11, 2012. Todays testimony will feature whistleblowers who are expected to provide information supporting claims that the Obama administration failed to provide adequate security to U.S. diplomates in Libya, declined to intervene once the attacks began, and attempted to cover up what happened by concocting a story about an anti-Islam video.

 

5:02 p.m. EDT: Debate now revolves around the decision to open a mission in Benghazi, and stay there after the British left. Rep. Gowdy makes clear, through questioning, that Clinton was responsible for those decisions. He adds that Cheryl Mills was responsible in part for the talking points debacle. Nordstrom adds that she prepared State Department staff for testimony about Benghazi in October. At the very least, the Committee now has a new key witness to call. Gowdy: "We're going to find out what happened."
4:56 p.m. EDT: As the hearing winds down, one question that remains unanswered is who ordered U.S. forces not to intervene--or to "stand down." Hicks could not say who gave those instructions, or why.
Breitbart News' Kerry Picket reported Tuesday that only President Obama could have given such an order. Joel Pollak reported yesterday that some on the left seem to believe the president did order such an intervention, even though the evidence indicates that he had no further contact with the military after an initial briefing.
The question remains: what did President Obama do when he learned of the Benghazi attacks, and why?
4:54: p.m. EDT: Chairman Issa counters Rep. Maloney's claim that Republicans on the committee did not provide equal access to the witnesses to both sides of the aisle. Cummings weighs in, saying that while Democrats want to protect whistleblowers, they would have liked to interview all the witnesses. Issa asks Thompson, Hicks, and Nordstrom whether Issa had asked them not to speak with the Democrats; all say no.
4:53 p.m. EDT: Rep. Jason Chaffetz breaks down and weeps as he remembers the dead in Benghazi.
4:44 p.m. EDT: Rep. Cummings is back again, sweeping up some loose ends in an effort to trip up the witnesses again and establish some basis for a pushback or a plausible administration counter-narrative. It all seems rather small, pulling at the edges of the testimony instead of any of the fundamental contentions.
4:36 p.m. EDT: Rep. Jordan asks Hicks about Cheryl Mills, Clinton's Chief of Staff, who told Hicks not to speak with Rep. Chaffetz without a State Department lawyer being present. Jordan asked whether Mills is generally taken to be speaking for the Secretary of State herself. Hicks says "No. Not necessarily." But her intervention would have been regarded as important. Hicks adds, in response to further questions, that Mills wanted to know about a classified briefing Hicks had given to members of the Committee from which the lawyer had been excluded, and that her tone had been somewhat angry. Jordan says, "This is the equivalent of Rahm Emanuel calling...representing the White House." Emanuel is now Mayor of Chicago.
4:25 p.m. EDT: As the major networks focus on the Jodi Arias verdict sideshow, all but ignoring the Benghazi hearings, Breitbart News' Ben Shapiro sums up the situation as perhaps only he can:

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