Wednesday's Benghazi hearing confirmed what many already knew, security in Benghazi, Libya, for our America diplomats was a joke, additional security was denied, those prepared to go help during the 9/11/12 attack were told to stand down, and at no time was the video that Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Susan Rice and other Obama administration officials blamed for the terrorist attack in the aftermath, even thought to be responsible for the attack.
(See- Q&A videos between Oversight Committee members and "whistle-blowers")
Headlines like the National Journal's "Benghazi: Incompetence, But No Cover-up," are inaccurate, there was indeed a cover-up..... a cover-up by the Obama administration regarding the complete incompetence shown by his officials before, during and after the 9/11/12 terrorist attack that killed four Americans.
Tom Bevan, via Real Clear Politics, lays out the facts as we now know them after the testimony on Wednesday:
Here is what we know:
- On Friday, Sept. 14, at a ceremony receiving the remains of the four slain Americans, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton mentioned the video as a proximate cause of the assault and suggested a “mob” was behind the “violent acts.”
- On Saturday, Sept. 15, talking points drafted by the intelligence community were heavily edited by officials in the White House and State Department, striking passages saying that the latter had been warned of threats in the region, references to other al-Qaeda-linked attacks in Benghazi, and the suggestion that al-Qaeda-linked extremists may have participated in the attack.
- On Sunday, Sept. 16, U.N Ambassador Susan Rice now famously went on all five Sunday news shows and claimed the attack stemmed from violent protests inspired by the video. More than a month later she acknowledged no such protests took place.
- In the two weeks following the incident, President Obama himself singled out the video as a contributing factor to the attack on four separate occasions (Sept. 18 on “Late Show With David Letterman”; Sept. 20 during a forum with Univision; and twice on Sept. 25, once on the daytime talk show “The View” and again that afternoon at his speech before the United Nations General Assembly).
We also know that members of the administration went to great lengths to avoid calling the Benghazi episode a terrorist act. Despite Obama’s claim during the second presidential debate that he had called the assault an “act of terror” in a Rose Garden statement the day after it happened (a claim famously supported by moderator Candy Crowley), the truth is that the president used the phrase that day in a generic sense.
It took eight days for White House Press Secretary Jay Carney and Clinton to label the attack an act of terror. Obama was given opportunities to do the same during his Sept. 20/25 television appearances, but he declined.
We did learn at least two new, relevant facts from yesterday's testimony. One is that Beth Jones, an official in the State Department, sent an email on September 12 bluntly acknowledging terrorists participated in the attacks (“The group that conducted the attacks, Ansar al-Sharia, is affiliated with Islamic terrorists.”) The other is that Hicks said his “jaw dropped” when he heard Rice make her claims about spontaneous protests. Hicks testified that he later confronted her about the comments, and shortly thereafter he was demoted.
So, while we may not have been treated to any “bombshell” revelations Wednesday, the testimony of Thompson, Hicks and Nordstrom and a fair reading of the record leads to an obvious conclusion: The president and his administration clearly misled the public about what happened on Sept. 11, 2012.
It was the incompetence on the part of the Obama administration that was being covered up when the state department ordered these whistle-blowers to not cooperate with Congressional investigators.
It was the incompetence on the part of the Obama administration that was being covered up when they blamed a video for the coordinated, terrorist attack on the anniversary of 9-11, because the Obama administration had refused additional security, multiple times when it was requested before the attack. Direct quote from Hicks "YouTube video was a non-event in Libya."
It was the incompetence on the part of the Obama administration that was being covered up when they attempted to gag these witnesses from testifying that there was a FEST team designed for a Benghazi type rescue mission and they were denied deployment and that special ops was furious after being ordered to "stand down."
It was the incompetence on the part of the Obama administration that was being covered up when they provided information to lawmakers about the administration’s response to the deadly attack, which had "glaring omissions."
The importance of the Benghazi hearings was so Americans could finally understand the scope of the Obama administration's incompetence, from before, during and after the attack on 9/11/12.
The incompetence is no longer covered up.
Related:
Gregory Hicks' 30 Minute Recount of Benghazi Attack
Embedded- Witness opening statements at May 8 hearing on #Benghazi attacks