Save Our State  

Go Back   Save Our State > General Forum (non official Save Our State business) > United States Federal government

United States Federal government Topics and information relating to the federal government of interest to SOS associates

WELCOME BACK!.............NEW EFFORTS AHEAD..........CHECK BACK SOON.........UPDATE YOUR EMAIL FOR NEW NOTIFICATIONS.........
Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old 10-18-2012, 10:53 AM
Jeanfromfillmore's Avatar
Jeanfromfillmore Jeanfromfillmore is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2009
Posts: 4,287
Default Did the Buck Stop at Hillary or Did the Buck Just Stop?

The stink of a coverup is so thick, at times it's hard not to gag. This is by far worse than Watergate, yet the media still insists on sleeping with Obama and kisses him goodnight. How both this administration and the media could take the public as such fools is beyond me. But, on Tuesday I covered the school board meeting and there were so few there that had any idea of what had happened and to make matters worse, they didn't care. That's what is running our schools!!!


Did the Buck Stop at Hillary or Did the Buck Just Stop?

Diana West — October 17, 2012

First, late last night in Peru, SecState Hillary Clinton phones it in that she has “taken responsibility” for the Benghazi — almost literally, what with a CNN correspondent doing a post-modern “Hello, sweetheart, get me rewrite” routine on the line into the NY bureau with a breathless report of what her SecStateness had just intoned:

“I take responsibility,” Clinton said during a visit to Peru. “I’m in charge of the State Department’s 60,000-plus people all over the world, 275 posts. The president and the vice president wouldn’t be knowledgeable about specific decisions that are made by security professionals. They’re the ones who weigh all of the threats and the risks and the needs and make a considered decision.”

But she said an investigation now under way will ultimately determine what happened at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, where Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed on September 11.
Then Hill went off about “fog of war” confusion, etc. (maybe not quite so “responsible”?) and then:

She added, “What I want to avoid is some kind of political gotcha or blame game.”

Aha.
“I know that we’re very close to an election,” Clinton said. ”I want to just take a step back here and say from my own experience, we are at our best as Americans when we pull together. I’ve done that with Democratic presidents and Republican presidents.”

Translation: I’ve “taken responsibility” — empty phrase unless she were to resign (and Clintons never resign) — so shut up already as good Americans. Let the 2nd presidential debate begin!

That was yesterday. In the clear light of Having Taken Responsibility, how’s Hillary doing today?

CBS News:
For the first time, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is speaking in depth about the killing of U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens and the questions surrounding how the attacks were characterized by administration officials in the days after the consulate attack.

Just five days after the Benghazi attack in which four Americans were killed, U.S. Ambassasdor to the United Nations Susan Rice appeared on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” She blamed the violence on spontaneous protests over an anti-Muslim film, saying “we do not have information at present that leads us to conclude that this was premeditated or preplanned.”

It was one of several TV appearances Rice made that day.

CBS News correspondent Margaret Brennan asked Clinton if she approved Rice’s speaking points that she delivered on the TV shows that day.

“I think she very clearly said, ‘Here’s what we know now, but this is going to change,’” Clinton said. “This is what we have at present but it will evolve – and the intelligence community has said the same thing.”

Um, that’s not at all what Rice said. But never mind for now. Here’s Responsible Hill’s money quote:

Clinton said she did not speak to Rice prior to her Sunday talk show appearances, but added that, “Everyone had the same information. …
I guess the deal was, we all survive or go down together with the “same information.” But now for an instant Clinton classic:

I have to say I know there’s been a lot of attention paid to who said what but I think what happened is more important.

One more time: “I have to say I know there’s been a lot of attention paid to who said what” – who said what LIES, to be specific – but I think what happened is more important.”

No doubt Bill’s hat is off to the little woman — unless he is the phrasecrafter himelf!

We were attacked and four brave Americans were killed. Everyone in the administration has tried to say what we knew at the time with the caveat that we would learn more and that’s what happened. So I think that I’ve seen it before not just in respect to this. I think it’s part of what the ‘fog of war’ causes.”

…Clinton cautioned against making premature assumptions about the security situation at Benghazi as the investigation continues.

“I don’t want us to reach any conclusions about what we did or didn’t do without the full context.


Wait, I thought she “took responsibility”…!

I understand why people want to ask questions, but I just caution that we need to look at everything, and everything needs to be explained at the same time,” Clinton said. …


Translation: After the election.

Clinton has said the responsibility for diplomatic security ends with the Stat Department.

“I’m not going to get into the blame game,” she told Brennan.
Always a preface to getting into the blame game:

“I think intelligence is very hard to do and what we’re going to find out as we do this accountability review and we get what will be the best possible chronology, that will be attached to what we knew when, which takes time. I understand the, you know, the anxiety and the desire to try to get answers. Nobody wants to get answers more than I do.”

And we thought Hillary went noble on us.



Clinton Leaves U.S. for Peru, Skips Criticism of Libya Attacks

AIM Newswire — October 17, 2012

LIMA, Peru — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton left the U.S. for a day to go overseas amid heavy criticism of her handling of the deadly attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya. She went to Peru to attend a conference for women’s empowerment as President Obama’s administration and campaign scrambles to react to the Libyan attack’s fallout.

The assassination of the U.S. ambassador, Chris Stevens, and three other American personnel has been the focal point of the presidential campaign as GOP challenger Mitt Romney and his vice presidential running mate Paul Ryan voice their doubts of Obama’s leadership. Obama described his leadership previously as “lead from behind”, which has not resulted in many positive foreign policy outcomes as he had hoped at the start of his presidency.
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the chair from the House Foreign Affairs Committee, called for Clinton to answer more questions about the security concerns in Libya leading up to the devastating attacks, as well as her State Department’s priorities on providing for and paying for security abroad for diplomatic mission.

Ros-Lehtinen was at odds with State Department officials who had called the consulate assault “unprecedented”, especially after previous attacks on U.S. diplomatic missions have occurred in the years since 9/11.

“How can anyone consider such an attack to be unprecedented?” Ros-Lehtinen asked Clinton in a letter released by the congresswoman’s office in the nation’s capital.

Hillary Clinton vowed a full and open investigation on the incident, which is too little and too late for the late Ambassador Stevens and three Americans. The Obama administration called the attack “spontaneous” in nature and was due to outrage over an amateur film mocking Islam’s Prophet Muhammed. However, as time has passed, it is obvious that the attacks were coordinated long before the release of the video on YouTube. The State Department and the Obama administration quickly backtracked after more they had received more hard intelligence on the origins of the attack.
Reply With Quote
  #2  
Old 10-20-2012, 02:58 PM
Jeanfromfillmore's Avatar
Jeanfromfillmore Jeanfromfillmore is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2009
Posts: 4,287
Default

The coverup just gets thicker!!!



CIA Report: "Within 24 hours" Benghazi was Terror Attack
The multiple different narratives from the Obama Administration about the assassination of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans on Sept. 11, 2012 in Benghazi, Libya was already certain to be a central issue in the foreign policy presidential debate on Oct. 22 as it was in the Oct. 16 debate in New York. But, an Associated Press report published today confirming revelations made last Sunday by Sen. Lindsay Graham raises further questions that demand answers from President Obama.

Following are excerpts from the AP story as published by The Washington Post:

WASHINGTON — The CIA station chief in Libya reported to Washington within 24 hours of last month’s deadly attack on the U.S. Consulate that there was evidence it was carried out by militants, not a spontaneous mob upset about an American-made video ridiculing Islam’s Prophet Muhammad, U.S. officials have told The Associated Press.

It is unclear who, if anyone, saw the cable outside the CIA at that point and how high up in the agency the information went. The Obama administration maintained publicly for a week that the attack on the diplomatic mission in Benghazi that killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans was a result of the mobs that staged less-deadly protests across the Muslim world around the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks on the U.S.

The two U.S. officials said the CIA station chief in Libya compiled intelligence reports from eyewitnesses within 24 hours of the assault on the consulate that indicated militants launched the violence, using the pretext of demonstrations against U.S. facilities in Egypt against the film to cover their intent. The report from the station chief was written late Wednesday, Sept. 12, and reached intelligence agencies in Washington the next day, intelligence officials said.

Yet, on Saturday of that week, briefing points sent by the CIA to Congress said “demonstrations in Benghazi were spontaneously inspired by the protests at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo and evolved into a direct assault.”

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) cited the same 24 hour conclusion about the Benghazi attack in an interview with Bob Schieffer of CBS News on Face the Nation Sunday, October 14, 2012. Below is a crucial part of that interview:

GRAHAM: "My belief is that that was known by the administration within 24 hours. And, quite frankly, [U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations] Susan Rice, on your show on September 16, the president on the 18th, and the 25th, kept talking about an attack inspired by a video. They`re trying to sell a narrative, quite frankly, that the Mid-East, the wars are receding and al Qaeda's been dismantled, and to admit that our embassy was attacked by al Qaeda operatives and Libya leading from behind didn't work. I think undercuts that narrative. They never believed the media would investigate. Congress was out of session, and this caught up with them.

"I think they have been misleading us, but it finally caught up with them."

SCHIEFFER: "Well, that is a very serious charge you just leveled, Senator Graham. Are you saying the administration deliberately misled the American people to make it look as if terrorism is not as much of a threat as apparently it is?"

GRAHAM: "Either they are misleading the American people or incredibly incompetent. There was no way with anybody looking at all that you could believe five days after the attack it was based on a riot that never occurred. There was no riot at all. So, to say that, you`re either very incompetent or misleading."

....
SCHIEFFER: "Where did you get this information that led you to this conclusion? Did you talk to officials there? Did you talk to people in the CIA? Did you talk to people in the administration? How are you so convinced of what you have just stated?"

GRAHAM: "The intelligence community on the ground in Libya has told Senators Corker and myself that within 24 hours, they communicated up to Washington that this was a terrorist attack."



Clinton Sidesteps Blame Even As She Accepts It
Diana West

Honestly, did the buck really stop with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Benghazi-gate, or did the buck just stop?
Here's what Clinton said: "I take responsibility. I'm in charge of the State Department's 60,000-plus people all over the world, 275 posts. The president and the vice president wouldn't be knowledgeable about specific decisions that are made by security professionals. They're the ones who weigh all of the threats and the risks and the needs and make a considered decision."
Stop. Clinton's taken responsibility, she's in charge -- and then she declares that "security professionals" make the decisions? Not only is this a non sequitur, it's nonsense. One thing Americans learned from recent House hearings about the Sept. 11 orchestrated terrorist attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya -- which killed four Americans and which President Barack Obama insisted for two weeks was sparked by a YouTube video -- is that the security professional in question, Eric Nordstrom, asked Clinton's State Department for more security and was denied.
Clinton went on to say an internal investigation was under way. And who is leading the investigation? Former Ambassador Thomas Pickering, a noted career diplomat. Part of what he's noted for, however, is sitting on boards of two pro-Tehran groups, the American Iranian Council and the National Iranian American Council, and for meeting with Hamas and promoting negotiations with the Taliban. Perhaps not the most "responsible" choice.
Then again, is "responsibility" Clinton's goal? "What I want to avoid is some kind of political 'gotcha' or blame game," she said. Translation: Taking "responsibility" -- an empty phrase without resigning -- avoids the "blame game" and eliminates the need to air the facts. She continued: "I know that we're very close to an election. I want to just take a step back here and say from my own experience, we are at our best as Americans when we pull together." Translation: I know we're very close to an election, so, as good Americans, shut up already about Benghazi.
The secretary of state took to the airwaves, where CBS brought up U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice's five appearances on Sunday talk shows on Sept. 16 to beat the drum that the Benghazi assault began as a "spontaneous protest" over a YouTube video that "spun from there into something much, much more violent." It is now part of the established record that there was no protest outside the consulate in Benghazi, and the U.S. government knew it from the start.
CBS News correspondent Margaret Brennan asked Clinton if she approved the message Rice
"I think she very clearly said, 'Here's what we know now, but this is going to change,'" Clinton said, which is not at all what Rice said. "This is what we have at present, but it will evolve -- and the intelligence community has said the same thing." Is that taking responsibility? CBS reported: "Clinton said she did not speak to Rice prior to her Sunday talk show appearances, but added that 'everyone had the same information.'"
Not everyone. The State Department knew right away that 9/11/12 was a quiet day and night in Benghazi until the attack began at 9:40 p.m. But there was another point to make. The secretary of state said: "I have to say I know there's been a lot of attention paid to who said what, but I think what happened is more important."
What was that again? "I have to say I know there's been a lot of attention paid to who said what" -- who said what lies, to be specific -- "but I think what happened is more important." No doubt Bill's hat is off to the little woman -- unless he is the phrase crafter himself!
Clinton also cautioned against making premature assumptions about the security situation at Benghazi as the investigation continues. "I don't want us to reach any conclusions about what we did or didn't do without the full context."
Wait, I thought she already took "responsibility"!
"I understand why people want to ask questions, but I just caution that we need to look at everything, and everything needs to be explained at the same time," Clinton said.
Translation: after the election.
Meanwhile, Clinton said: "I'm not going to get into the blame game."
Such a declaration is always a preface to getting into the blame game. She continued: "I think intelligence is very hard to do, and what we're going to find out as we do this accountability review and we get what will be the best possible chronology, that will be attached to what we knew when, which takes time. I understand the, you know, the anxiety and the desire to try to get answers. Nobody wants to get answers more than I do."
What was that again? "I think intelligence is very hard to do ..."
Intelligence. It's their fault.
And we thought Hillary went noble on us.
(Diana West is the author of "The Death of the Grown-up: How America's Arrested Development Is Bringing Down Western Civilization," and blogs at dianawest.net. She can be contacted via dianawest@verizon.net. Follow her on Twitter @diana_west_.)
Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -8. The time now is 07:34 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright SaveOurState ©2009 - 2016 All Rights Reserved