Tag Archives: Benghazi

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Video: Bill Clinton Confronted at Campaign Rally Over Benghazi

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During a campaign rally for presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in South Carolina on Friday, former President Bill Clinton engaged in a heated argument with a man, claiming to be a Marine, who confronted Clinton over the 2012 Benghazi attacks which occurred while Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State.

A video shows a man, identifying himself as a Marine, asking Clinton at first to address the VA. “I’m anxious to get to the VA, you covering that, I’m not sure so hopefully you can get to it.”

“I am,” Clinton interjected.

The man went on, “We have loved ones that we want to hear about and we care about, and I’ve met with many of these Gold Star parents and families so I’ve seen them-“

“What do you think should be done with the VA?” Clinton interrupted.

The man then suddenly shifted the topic to Benghazi: “The thing is, we had four lives in Benghazi killed and your wife tried to cover it up,” he said, which drew a negative response from the crowd.

The man continued to speak for several more seconds before Clinton asked to respond. “Can I answer? Are you going to let me answer?” Clinton asked. “This is America, I get to answer. I heard your speech. They heard your speech. You listen to me now,” Clinton said.

The man continued to speak, his voice growing louder, as Clinton told the man, “I’m not your commander in chief anymore but if I were, I’d tell you to be more polite. Sit down.”

“And I wouldn’t listen,” the man shot back. “I would just raise my voice.”

The video then shows deputies approaching the man to remove him from the building. As the man was taken out of the building, Clinton said, “Do you have the courage to listen to my answer? Don’t throw him out. If you’ll shut up to listen to my answer, I’ll answer.”

Clinton then addressed the crowd: “Can I just say something? That’s what’s wrong. his mind has been poisoned by lies and he won’t listen.”

A woman can be heard in the video shouting, “Hillary lied over four coffins! Four coffins! She lied! And she lied to those families! So all those families are liars? All those families are liars? I want to know, I want to know. Did she lie?”

The video shows the crowd becoming increasingly noisy and unsettled as Clinton and the woman continued to argue before the woman was also removed from the building by deputies.

According to local news station WSAV3, Clinton’s response was that his wife was not responsible for the attacks in Benghazi. Clinton later spoke to the crowd to address the issue. “The ambassador of Libya was a personal friend of Hillary’s. You can imagine how she feels when people make these charges,” said Clinton. “And she, believe me, lost a lot of sleep over it.”

According to The State newspaper of Columbia, South Carolina, Clinton said that Republicans have attempted to “politicize the deaths of brave Americans because (they) want to win this next election.”

Clinton also reportedly claimed that his wife “has never once played politics with the lives of the men and women in uniform.”

The man who confronted Clinton did not identify himself to The State beyond being a “Marine Sergeant,” and told the paper that he “wanted answers, and I wanted to make my point.”

“The deputies started coming over, so obviously my point wasn’t able to be made,” he noted.

Entertainment, Foreign Policy, International

CIA Concern Over Benghazi Film Prompts Meeting with Director Michael Bay

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Hollywood, CA – The Central Intelligence Agency cited national security concerns as the reason for a meeting with Hollywood filmmaker Michael Bay earlier this year.

The upcoming 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi, to be released in January by Paramount Pictures, is cited as the subject of the meeting.

The film is a dramatization of the attack on the U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya in 2012, centering around the six security team members who defended the compound and attached CIA annex.

The attack has since been the subject of numerous congressional investigations resulting from the death of four Americans including U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens.

“I show both sides of the story,” said Bay at a French film festival. “I met with the CIA on this movie and I show the whole situation.”

CIA spokespeople acknowledged a meeting with Bay, and they claimed the purpose of the meeting was not to influence the production of the film.

Agency interaction with Hollywood is not a new phenomena. In 1996, the CIA opened an Entertainment Liaison Office for the specific purpose of advising high-profile projects within the entertainment industry. One such film, Zero Dark Thirty, a film about the hunt for and subsequent killing of Osama Bin Laden, was heavily influenced by the CIA and its press office.

The consultation with Michael Bay on 13 Hours is said to be less in the interest of doing service to the agency’s image, and more an effort to verify the movie would not compromise their officers abroad or national security in a larger sense.

“When Michael Bay reached out to CIA regarding his 13 Hours film, we agreed to meet him for the purpose of protecting against the potential release of classified information,” CIA spokesperson Kali Caldwell told The Daily Beast. “As with other Hollywood projects and in line with agency regulations, CIA does not endorse this film or any other film.”

While the film is an adaptation of the Mitchell Zuckoff book 13 Hours: The Inside Account of What Really Happened in Benghazi, intelligence officials were concerned about the portrayal of certain aspect of the book for film. The dissemination of protocol and procedures that the organization uses to protect its assets appeared to be the main concern.

The intelligence community at large regularly reviews books and articles written by past and current employees to verify such details are not divulged, however the same control is not directly available when it comes to Hollywood movies.

Knowledge of specific concerns with the film are unknown and any potentially “classified” information has been in the public sphere for over a year now following the release of the Zuckoff book.

The CIA has publicly disputed a specific sequence of events related to a “stand down” order described to have been handed down by the CIA base chief in the book as “simply inaccurate.” The book was co-written by security contracts present at the compound during the attack.

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Featured, Foreign Policy, Politics

Rep. Adam Smith Claims Congress Put More Effort into Probing Benghazi Than 9/11 Attacks

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As Hillary Clinton testified before the House Select Committee on Benghazi last Thursday, Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) claimed that Congress has spent more time and effort investigating the security failures that led to the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi, Libya than it did investigating the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City.

Referring to the questioning of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) as “prosecution” and a “partisan exercise,” Rep. Smith said:

[pull_quote_center]”We didn’t investigate 9/11—you know, 9/11/2001, just to specify—with the length and depth that we have chose to investigate this.“[/pull_quote_center]

Smith’s statement can be seen in context in the above-embedded CNN video.

[RELATED: Massie on the 28 Pages: Documents Will Challenge Americans to Rethink 9/11]

Rep. Smith added, “And, again, we are now the math here, five hours into [another hearing], count the break, maybe four hours into it. We have learned nothing substantively new about what happened in Benghazi. Very serious things happened. They were investigated. They were reported. Mistakes were made. They were reported. But this committee and all that time and effort has unearthed nothing.”

Truth in Media spoke with Rep. Smith’s office and asked for a citation to his claim. Smith’s press secretary Rebecca Bryant referred the question to the organization of the Democratic members of the Select Committee on Benghazi, who provided this fact sheet comparing the time and money spent on Benghazi versus various congressional investigations. The fact sheet fell short of proving his claim and only includes the time and money specifically spent on the Select Committee on the Events Surrounding the 2012 Terrorist Attack in Benghazi, Libya, citing the length of time at “1 year, 4 months and counting” as of the time of the Sept. 28, 2015 report versus the “1 year, 7 months, and 25 days” that it claims the 9/11 Commission spent on its probe.

Talking Points Memo notes that official investigations of the 9/11 attacks were carried out by the 9/11 Commission and a joint congressional panel, whereas the Benghazi attack has been probed by the State Department’s Accountability Review Board and eight congressional committees. Congress reportedly held 22 hearings on 9/11 and has so far held 21 on Benghazi, according to The Atlantic. USA Today contradicted that report and cited a different number of congressional investigations into Benghazi — 32.

The Benghazi Research Center claims that at least $20 million has been spent so far on congressional investigations into the attack in Libya. BRC also cited the total running time of congressional Benghazi hearings so far at 54 hours.

The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States reported that the 9/11 Commission had a budget of $15 million.

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FBI Upgrades 60 Hillary Clinton Emails To ‘Classified’ Status

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As the FBI and the State Department conduct an investigation into the 30,000 emails released from the private server used by Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton during her tenure as Secretary of State, 60 emails have been upgraded to “classified” status.

According to a report from the Washington Times, officials involved in the investigation have said that there are nearly 60 emails that “contained classified secrets at the lowest level of ‘confidential'” with one email containing “information at the intermediate level of ‘secret.'” The 60 emails are in addition to two emails recently flagged as “top-secret” by Intelligence Community Inspector General I. Charles McCullough III.

Officials also told the Times that the number of classified emails is expected to grow as the FBI continues its investigation, and that sorting through the 30,000 emails Clinton deemed “work-related” is a process that is “expected to take months.”

[RELATED: Federal Judge Orders Access To 32,000 Personal Emails After Hillary Turns In Blank Server]

After the revelation that two of the emails Clinton released contained “top-secret” information, federal judge Emmet G. Sullivan ordered the FBI to gain access to the trove of “personal” emails Clinton claimed she deleted.

Clinton claimed she deleted around 32,000 emails that she deemed “personal,” even though Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC), chairman of the House Select Committee on Benghazi, said that Clinton deleted the messages after she was made aware that they had been subpoenaed by the Committee.

[RELATED: Hillary Clinton Deletes All Emails, Wipes Server Clean]

Gowdy criticized Clinton on Sunday for using a “nonexistent right-wing conspiracy” to justify the federal investigation into her practice of using a personal email address on a private server to conduct government business.

“She need not blame House Republicans for having her own personal server, for exclusively using private e-mail for telling us the Sydney Blumenthal e-mails were unsolicited and then we later find out they were not,” Gowdy said. “For telling us there was no classified information, then we later find out that there was. For telling us the public rec was complete and then we found 15 e-mails she never turned over to the State Department.”

The New York Times noted that while “nearly all investigations are assigned to one of the bureau’s 56 field offices,” the investigation into Clinton’s email is being conducted at the FBI’s headquarters in Washington D.C. in an “unusual move” motivated by the inquiry’s level of importance.

Despite the ongoing investigation, Clinton told reporters at the Iowa State Fair on Saturday that her voters aren’t concerned about the federal investigation into her email practices.

“I never sent classified material on my email and I never received any that was marked classified. I’m gonna let whatever this inquiry is go forward and we’ll await the outcome of it,” Clinton said. “It’s not anything people talk to me about as I travel around the country. It is never raised in my town halls, it is never raised in my other meetings with people.”

Clinton also joked about the smartphone app Snapchat’s feature that automatically deletes pictures and videos sent between users. “I love it, I love it,” she said. “Those messages disappear all by themselves.”

For more election coverage, click here.

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Criminal Investigation Requested In Hillary Clinton’s Use Of Personal Email

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The U.S. Department of Justice has been asked to open a criminal investigation into whether Hillary Clinton abused classified government information during her tenure as Secretary of State when she used her personal email to conduct government business.

The New York Times reported that two inspectors general asked for the investigation after a memo from June 29 to Patrick Kennedy, the under secretary of state for management, stated that Clinton’s private email account contained “hundreds of potentially classified emails.”

Clinton, who is currently a democratic presidential candidate, served as Secretary of State from 2009 to 2013. Her use of a personal email account on a private server for government business was revealed in March.

[RELATED: Breaking The Law? Hillary Clinton Used Private Email As Secretary of State]

As Truth In Media previously reported, Clinton insisted that she “opted for convenience” when choosing to use her personal email, and she has denied that the account contains any classified information.

“I fully complied with every rule I was governed by,” Clinton said. “I did not email any classified material to anyone on my email. There is no classified material.”

[RELATED: Fact Check: Holes In Hillary’s Email Story]

 The New York Times noted that the Justice Department has not announced whether it will open a criminal investigation into Clinton’s actions, and that her campaign is claiming that “any released emails deemed classified by the administration have been done so after the fact, and not at the time they were transmitted.”

The State Department is now reviewing 55,000 pages of emails, looking for classified information. The New York Times reported that in the 3,000 pages of emails released on June 30, two dozen emails were redacted and labeled as “classified,” after being reviewed by the State Department.

[RELATED: Benghazi Chairman: There Are “Huge Gaps” In Hillary Clinton’s Email Records]

In a statement from Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), the chairman of the House Select Committee on Benghazi, he said that the State Department has “used every excuse to avoid complying with fundamental requests for documents.”

“Our Committee has tried asking personally. Our Committee has tried letter requests. Our Committee has tried public hearings with other agency employees. Our Committee has tried subpoenas,” Gowdy said. “While the tactics tried have varied, the results have not. Our Committee is not in possession of all documents needed to do the work assigned to us.”

In response, some State Department officials have said they “do not have the resources or infrastructure to properly comply with all the requests,” while others have said that they “believe that many senior officials did not initially take the House committee seriously, which slowed document production and created an appearance of stonewalling.”

[RELATED: Hillary Clinton Deletes All Emails, Wipes Server Clean]

Clinton was criticized in April when, after Gowdy claimed that she had been issued several subpoenas related to releasing her emails to the Benghazi Committee, she deleted all emails and wiped her server clean.

During an interview with CNN on July 7, Clinton accused Brianna Keilar of “making assumptions” regarding the subpoenas. “I’ve never had a subpoena, there’s nothing,” Clinton said.

Gowdy responded by releasing a copy of a subpoena sent to Clinton in March, and a statement where he claimed that while the Committee has “issued several subpoenas,” he had not intended to make them public.

“I would not make this one public now, but after Secretary Clinton falsely claimed the committee did not subpoena her, I have no choice in order to correct the inaccuracy,” Gowdy said.

Election, Politics, US

Jeb Awarded Hillary With ‘Liberty Medal’ In 2013, Now Says She Failed As Secretary Of State

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After a long-awaited announcement from former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, in which he confirmed that he is running for President in 2016, he began campaigning in New Hampshire, and took the time to criticize Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton, calling her tenure as Secretary of State a “complete failure.”

Bush told Fox News’ Sean Hannity that while he sees Clinton as tough and smart, he doesn’t think she accomplished much as a New York Senator, and he sees her tenure as Secretary of State as a “complete failure.”

“She’s smart. I think she’s smart, I think she loves the country,” Bush said. “I don’t ascribe bad motives for people that I don’t agree with. But as a senator, I think she passed – she has her name on three laws in eight years. And as Secretary of State, in all honesty, the things she’s known for, the reset, the pulling back of our commitments, Libya, to put aside Benghazi, Libya in general. It turns out there was a complete failure.”

Bush also said that he thinks Clinton “needs to answer questions,” about the controversy related to the private email account she used for government business during her tenure as Secretary of State. “She needs to do the exact same thing that candidates running for President do,” Bush said.

While Bush is criticizing Clinton now, he has commended her tenure as Secretary of State in the past. On September 10, 2013, one day before the first anniversary of the terrorist attack on a US Embassy in Benghazi, Libya, Bush presented Clinton was with the prestigious Liberty Medal, on behalf of the National Constitution Center.

The medal was given to Clinton, “in recognition of her lifelong career in public service and for her ongoing advocacy efforts on behalf of women and girls around the globe.”

“Former Secretary Clinton has dedicated her life to serving and engaging people across the world in democracy,” Bush said. “These efforts as a citizen, an activist, and a leader have earned Secretary Clinton this year’s Liberty Medal.”

Bush is one of 12 Republican candidates, and Clinton is one of four Democratic candidates who have announced they are running for President. While some have suggested that the 2016 election will come down to Clinton vs. Bush, other candidates such as Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) have said that the country is ready for something new.

Paul told Breitbart News that he believes the American public is ready for new leadership in 2016, rather than electing another Bush or another Clinton.

“I think there is some Bush-Clinton fatigue and I really sense that people are looking for something new—something this century kind of stuff. I think there’s a hunger for something new out there,” Paul said. “I would be surprised really if we end up with a Bush or a Clinton. I will be shocked to tell you the truth.”

For more news related to the 2016 Presidential election, click here.

Election, Government Accountability, Government Corruption, Politics, Technology, US

Trey Gowdy: Benghazi Committee Lacks Authority To Subpoena Hillary’s Private Server

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On Wednesday, Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC), chairman of the House Select Committee on Benghazi, said that while the House has the authority to subpoena Hillary Clinton’s private server, his committee has a “more limited jurisdiction.”

In an interview with conservative radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt, Gowdy explained that although the Benghazi Committee lacks the authority under House rules, “most experts believe” that the House as an entity could issue a subpoena for the server.

“I would think if you’re interested in national security breaches, and also the completeness of the public record, that you would want a neutral, detached arbiter as opposed to her own lawyer,” Gowdy said. “The lawyer’s obligation is to the client. I want someone with an obligation to my fellow citizens to say the public record is complete. I can’t just take her lawyer’s word for it.”

Clinton’s personal email on a private server, which she used to conduct government business during her tenure as Secretary of State from 2009 to 2013, was revealed in a report from the New York Times on March 2.

The Committee issued subpoenas on March 4, for all emails related to the 2012 terrorist attacks in Benghazi, Libya, from both Clinton and her staff members’ personal accounts.

On March 27, Gowdy released a statement revealing that Clinton deleted all of her emails, and wiped her server clean. Gowdy explained that while it is not clear exactly when Clinton chose to delete the emails, he believes it was after the State Department first requested that she make her emails public in October 2014.

On March 31, the Benghazi Committee formally requested a transcribed interview with Clinton. The interview would include questions over Clinton’s use of private email for government business, along with questions on why Clinton chose to delete all of the emails on her server, after she was aware that they had been subpoenaed by the Committee.

While Gowdy’s request said that the Committee was willing to schedule the interview at a time that was convenient for Clinton, it gave a deadline of May 1.

Politico reported that a spokesperson for the Committee said that Clinton has yet to answer the request for either the interview about the emails, or a public hearing on the 2012 attack in Benghazi.

Gowdy told Hewitt that including Clinton, he plans to interview several others, regarding the Benghazi attack, such as former  CIA deputy director Michael Morell, Clinton’s chief-of-staff Cheryl Mills and Clinton’s aide Huma Abedin. The interview list will also include Sidney Blumenthal, who according to Politico, is a “longtime confidant of the Clintons whose hacked emails to Hillary Clinton first revealed the existence of her private account.”

On Tuesday, the New York Times reported that it obtained letters, which revealed that congressional investigators wrote to Clinton in Dec. 2012, asking about her use of private email for government business.

The Times noted that it was not until March 2013, two months after Clinton left office, that Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the Republican chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and the author of the letter, received an answer from the State Department, which “ignored the question and provided no response.”

Politics, US

Benghazi Chairman: There are “Huge Gaps” in Hillary Clinton’s Email Records

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Last week, it was revealed that rumored 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton used her private email for government business during her four years as Secretary of State. The House Committee investigating the September 11, 2012, terrorist attacks on U.S. facilities in Benghazi, Libya, issued subpoenas on Wednesday for all of Clinton’s emails related to Libya.

On Sunday, the chairman of the Benghazi Committee, Republican Representative Trey Gowdy, said that although Clinton provided 50,000 pages of emails, documentation from her trip to Libya following the terrorist attacks was not included.

Gowdy appeared on CBS’s Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer on Sunday, and he confirmed that there were “huge gaps” in the email records that were given to the Benghazi Committee.

Gowdy said that while Clinton’s emails are still under investigation, there would be no “selective releases” of the messages. “If she wants to release all of them, with the emphasis being on the word all, she’s welcome to do that. I can’t stop her from doing it,” Gowdy said. “But serious investigations don’t make selective releases.”

When asked about any significant gaps in the emails Clinton turned over to the Committee, Gowdy said that there were several “huge gaps” that raise questions about Clinton’s credibility.

“There are gaps of months and months and months,” Gowdy said. “And if you think to that iconic picture of her on a C-17 flying to Libya, she has sunglasses on and she has her handheld device in her hand, we have no e-mails from that day. In fact, we have no e-mails from that trip.”

Gowdy said that it shouldn’t be up to Clinton to decide “what is a public record and what’s not.” He explained that he ultimately blames the State Department for allowing the arrangement, and for not doing anything about it until they received a request from the House Committee on Benghazi.

In an interview with CBS News on Saturday, President Obama said he learned of Clinton’s use of private email at “the same time everybody else learned it through news reports.”

On Monday, the Associated Press reported that while Obama was aware that Clinton conducted business using a private email account, he was not aware that she was using a private server to send those emails.

Josh Earnest, a spokesman for the White House, confirmed that Obama exchanged emails with Clinton using her private email address. “The president — as I think many people expected — did over the course of his first several years in office trade emails with the secretary of state,” Earnest said.

March 12, 2015: UPDATE: Fact Check: Holes in Hillary’s Email Story

Politics, US

Benghazi Committee Subpoenas Hillary Clinton’s Private Emails for Investigation

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On Wednesday, the House Select Committee investigating the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya, issued subpoenas for the emails of Hillary Clinton, who used her private email account for government business, during her four years as U.S. Secretary of State.

The Washington Post reported that the Committee is asking for all e-mails related to the Benghazi attack “from all Clintonemail.com accounts and any other staff members’ personal accounts.”

The Associated Press reported that Clinton had a personal email server, which could be traced back to her home in Chappaqua, New York, and that the “unusual practice of a Cabinet-level official running her own email server” would have given Clinton “significant control over limiting access to her message archives.”

Jamal Ware, the Committee’s communications director, released a statement on Wednesday, announcing the Committee’s decision:

“The Select Committee on Benghazi today issued subpoenas for all communications of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton related to Libya and to the State Department for other individuals who have information pertinent to the investigation. The Committee also has issued preservation letters to internet firms informing them of their legal obligation to protect all relevant documents.”

According to the Washington Post, after finding evidence that Clinton was using her personal email address to conduct government business, the Committee also found evidence suggesting that “at least a small group of Clinton staffers” used personal emails to “conduct government work and correspond with the secretary.”

Rep. Elijah Cummings, the ranking member of the House Select Committee on Benghazi, defended Clinton, saying that her use of private email has been public knowledge for several years. He said he sees this as “an effort to go after Hillary Clinton, period.”

Patrick Peterson, chief executive of the Cybersecurity company Agari, told the Los Angeles Times that Clinton’s use of her private email raised several red flags, in terms of security and vulnerability.

“We pay taxes to guarantee entire staffs monitoring this stuff, and here they are running off and doing it on their own,” Peterson said. “The real irony is she might have made it harder for us as a populace and citizens to legally discover her email contents, but this potentially increases the chances that China and Russia can get in.”

Clinton’s use of her private email for government business during her time as Secretary of State was first revealed by the New York Times on Monday. According to the Times, it wasn’t until two months ago that Clinton’s advisors “reviewed tens of thousands of pages of her personal emails and decided which ones to turn over to the State Department.”

The Associated Press noted that the questions surrounding Clinton’s decision “left the Obama administration in an awkward position,” and that the White House has said it is Clinton’s responsibility to “make sure any emails about official business weren’t deleted from her private server.”

 

March 9, 2015: UPDATE: Hillary Clinton’s Chief of Staff Fired Ambassador for Using Private Email

March 10, 2015: UPDATE: Benghazi Chairman: There are “Huge Gaps” in Hillary Clinton’s Email Records

March 12, 2015: UPDATE: Fact Check: Holes in Hillary’s Email Story

Politics, US

Breaking the Law? Hillary Clinton Used Private Email as Secretary of State

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On Monday, the New York Times revealed that during her four years as U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton did not have a government email address, and used her private email account to conduct government business, possibly violating the Federal Records Act.

Vox reported that while Clinton’s use of her personal email looks bad now, it looked even worse in 2009, when she “initially refused to use a governmental account,” due to the fact that she was entering just as a Congressional oversight committee was investigating allegations that the Bush Administration fired several U.S. Attorneys for political reasons, and denied access to “millions of internal messages that might have incriminated the White House.”

The New York Times reported that it wasn’t until two months ago, when the State Department made a new effort to observe the Federal Records Act, that Clinton’s advisors “reviewed tens of thousands of pages of her personal emails and decided which ones to turn over to the State Department.”

On Tuesday, Clinton’s spokesperson Nick Merrill released a statement, claiming that Clinton’s behavior was not out of the ordinary, and that previous Secretaries of State had also used their personal emails:

“Like Secretaries of State before her, she used her own email account when engaging with any Department officials. For government business, she emailed them on their Department accounts, with every expectation they would be retained. When the Department asked former Secretaries last year for help ensuring their emails were in fact retained, we immediately said yes.”

The statement went on to say that Clinton’s practice of using her personal email was a way of updating old policies:

“Both the letter and spirit of the rules permitted State Department officials to use non-government email, as long as appropriate records were preserved. As a result of State’s request for our help to make sure they in fact were, that is what happened here. As the Department stated, it is in the process of updating its record preservation policies to bring them in line with its retention responsibilities.”

In a statement from Rep. Elijah Cummings, the ranking member of the House Select Committee on Benghazi, he defended Clinton and said that her use of private email has been public knowledge for several years.

“It has been public for several years that Secretary Clinton used her personal account, apparently following the pattern of previous Secretaries of States,” said Cummings. “Although Secretary Clinton has produced her emails to the State Department, it is unclear from press reports whether previous Secretaries have done the same.”

According to Vox, the fact that Clinton chose to use her private email for conducting government business shows a “stunning disregard for governmental transparency requirements.”

Jason Baron, a lawyer at Drinker Biddle & Reath and former director of litigation at the National Archives and Records Administration told the New York Times that Clinton’s use her private email is not a common practice and should not have been allowed.

“It is very difficult to conceive of a scenario – short of nuclear winter – where an agency would be justified in allowing its cabinet-level head officer to solely use a private email communications channel for the conduct of government business,” Baron said.

March 5, 2015: UPDATE: Benghazi Committee Subpoenas Hillary Clinton’s Private Emails for Investigation

March 9, 2015: UPDATE: Hillary Clinton’s Chief of Staff Fired Ambassador for Using Private Email

March 10, 2015: UPDATE: Benghazi Chairman: There are “Huge Gaps” in Hillary Clinton’s Email Records

March 12, 2015: UPDATE: Fact Check: Holes in Hillary’s Email Story

International, Politics, US

Republican-Led Committee Finds No Interference from Obama Administration in Benghazi Attacks

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On Friday, the United States House of Representatives’ Intelligence Committee released a report, regarding its investigation of the terrorist attacks that occurred on U.S. facilities in Benghazi, Libya, on September 11, 2012.

The report stated that it was meant to “serve as the definitive House statement on the Intelligence Community’s activities before, during and after the tragic events” that led to the death of four Americans: U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens, Foreign Service Officer Sean Smith, and CIA Contractors: Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty.

According to the report, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence “conducted a comprehensive and exhaustive investigation into the tragic attacks against two U.S. facilities on Benghazi, Libya, on September 11-12, 2012.”

The report, which came as a result of a nearly two-year investigation, found that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) “ensured sufficient security for CIA facilities in Benghazi,” and that there was “no intelligence failure prior to the attacks.”

It also claimed that after the attacks, the “early intelligence assessments and the Administration’s initial public narrative on the causes and motivations for the attacks were not fully accurate,” and that the attackers seemed to come from a range of backgrounds:

“The Committee finds that a mixed group of individuals, including those affiliated with Al-Qa’ida, participated in the attacks on U.S. facilities in Benghazi, although the Committee finds that the intelligence was and remains conflicting about the identities, affiliations, and motivations of the attackers.”

The report concluded that the Committee found no evidence that the CIA “conducted unauthorized activities in Benghazi,” that the Intelligence Community “shipped arms to Syria,” or that any of the officers were intimidated to destroy information or change their accounts of the events:

“The Committee found no evidence that any officer was intimidated, wrongly forced to sign a nondisclosure agreement or otherwise kept from speaking to Congress, or polygraphed because of their presence in Benghazi.”

While this report states that there was no interference, Benswann.com reported claims from former Deputy Assistant Secretary Raymond Maxwell, in September 2014, which stated, “Allies of Hillary Clinton removed potentially damaging documents before handing over files to the Accountability Review Board.“

Disclosure, International, Interviews, Politics, US

Former State Department official: Clinton camp destroyed Benghazi documents

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WASHINGTON D.C., September 15, 2014 – Today, former Deputy Assistant Secretary Raymond Maxwell dropped a Benghazi bombshell in a statement.

“What they were looking for is anything that made them look bad. That’s the way it was described to us,” said Chaffetz. 

In his account, Maxwell claims that allies of Hillary Clinton removed potentially damaging documents before handing over files to the Accountability Review Board investigating the September 11, 2012 terrorist attack on the U.S. Embassy in Benghazi.

Maxwell, the former head of the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, told lawmakers an after hours session to separate documents took place over a weekend in a operations-type center at the State Department in Washington D.C. 

Representative Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) confirmed Maxwell’s story. Chaffetz stated that Maxwell told him and other lawmakers his sum of events last year when he was privately interviewed in the aftermath of the attacks. At that time, according to Chaffetz, Maxwell claimed that Clinton’s chief of staff and deputy chief of staff oversaw the alleged weekend.

Maxwell claims that he was not invited to the after hours session, but walked in on the Sunday afternoon after hearing about it. He reportedly saw stacks of documents and a office director who worked for him. According to Maxwell, the director told him they had been instructed to go through files and pull out items that could put anybody in the NEA in a bad light.

These new allegations come two days before the House Select Committee on Benghazi is scheduled to open its first hearing. This is the first time Maxwell has gone public with his account. Chaffetz described Maxwell’s account as “consistent” throughout the whole time.

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Featured, US

Bill Clinton Tries To Dismiss Rand Paul’s “Disqualified for President” Comment About Hillary

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On NBC’s Meet the Press this morning, the host David Gregory held a town hall where he asked former United States President Bill Clinton questions that covered a number of political topics. When David Gregory asked Bill Clinton about Rand Paul’s recent comment regarding his reasoning for why Hillary Clinton is disqualified to be President, Bill Clinton defended his wife by telling the audience that Rand Paul’s comment shouldn’t be taken seriously because Republicans were never outraged when American personnel were killed during George W. Bush’s time as President.

Is Bill Clinton correct or should Rand Paul’s comment be taken seriously? Please tell us your thoughts in the comments section below.

David Gregory: One of the issues about America’s role in the world is if we pursue a lighter footprint going into places intervening then that which we leave behind can become chaotic and so it becomes a question of what responsibility does the United States have to be part of that future of a country. This goes to Iraq, I’ve always believed that is the larger question about Benghazi, but you understand the political question about Bengahazi in many ways some have tried to make it about Secretary Clinton and her tenure. Rand Paul on the program, he may run for President in 2016, called it disqualifying for Secretary Clinton. Do you have a response for that?

Clinton: Well, let’s go back to the first question because it’s serious. That’s not a serious comment and that isn’t a sort of serious question. Rand Paul, when ten different instances occurred when President Bush was in office where American diplomatic personnel were killed around the world, how many outraged Republican members of Congress were there? Zero.

Politics, US

Marco Rubio: “I’m Ready To Be President”

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Manchester, NH- In an interview Sunday with Jonathan Karl for ABC’s “This Week”, Senator Marco Rubio (R- FL) said that that he’s ready to be President, although there are “multiple other people” who are also ready to do the same.

He has not made an official bid, but he’s been using most of the strategies that a potential candidate would: fundraising, appearing in New Hampshire, hiring national staff, and campaigning for fellow Republicans.

Rubio told Karl that if he does run, he will not seek re-election for Senate. “If I decide to run for President, I will not have some sort of exit strategy to run for the Senate,” Rubio said.  “I believe that if you want to be President of The United States, you run for President. You don’t run for President with some eject button in the cockpit that allows you to go on an exit ramp if it doesn’t work out.”

“Do you think you’re ready to be President?” Karl asked. Rubio replied, “I do, but I think that’s true for multiple other people that would want to run.” Rubio explained that he’s been in office long enough to gain the necessary experience to be President. “I mean, I’ll be 43 this month, but the other thing that perhaps people don’t realize, I’ve served now in public office for the better part of 14 years. Most importantly, I think a president has to have a clear vision of where the country needs to go and clear ideas about how to get it there, and I think we’re very blessed in our party to have a number of people that fit that criteria.”

“The question is, whose vision is the one that our party wants to follow,” Rubio told Karl.

In an April 2014 New Hampshire poll, Rubio was polling at 2%, only ahead of Rick Perry in last place at 1% and far behind Rand Paul with 15% and Paul Ryan with 13%. Just over a year ago, Rubio was tied with Rand Paul at 15%.

Regarding the recent poll, Rubio laughed, saying that “it’s probably the Time cover jinx, just like Sports Illustrated. Polls are everywhere all the time. I don’t really pay a lot of attention to them.”

Rubio went on to discuss immigration reform and the investigation of the Benghazi scandal. He quickly criticized the current administration, saying that “no one’s been held accountable”. When Karl asked how much of the Benghazi scandal will be problematic for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s potential run for President, Rubio said, “I’m sure she’s going to go out bragging about her time in the State Department. She’s also going to have to be held accountable for its failings.” 

The interview concluded with discussion of recent scientific findings about climate change, with Rubio dismissing much of it. “I do not believe that human activity is causing these dramatic changes to our climate the way these scientists are portraying it.  That’s what I do not.  And I do not believe that the laws that they propose we pass will do anything about it, except it will destroy our economy.”

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US

Gowdy Picked For Benghazi Special Committee, Receives Death Threats

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South Carolina Representative Trey Gowdy will lead a special committee to investigate the White House’s response to the Sept. 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Speaker John Boehner announced.

Republican Gowdy, a member of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, is a former federal prosecutor and is known as a sharp, effective communicator. According to Roll Call, he is well respected by House conservatives.

“Trey Gowdy is as dogged, focused, and serious-minded as they come. His background as a federal prosecutor and his zeal for the truth make him the ideal person to lead this panel. I know he shares my commitment to get to the bottom of this tragedy and will not tolerate any stonewalling from the Obama administration,” Boehner said in a statement.

He added, “I plan to ensure he and his committee have the strongest authority possible to root out all the facts. This is a big job, but Rep. Gowdy has the confidence of this conference, and I know his professionalism and grit will earn him the respect of the American people.”

Gowdy, appearing on Fox News, said his first task to get all of the information available.

“I want to see every single solitary relevant material document. In fact I want to see everything for which there can be any argument it is relevant and then we can judge whether it is material,” Gowdy said in an interview with Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren Monday night.

“I’m not interested in summaries, I’m not interested in synopses, I’m interested in access to the documents and the witnesses and I’m not interested in whether the appropriate questions were asked in the past,” he said.

According to FoxNews, Gowdy has received death threats.

International, Politics, US

Breaking: CNN reports CIA Cover Up on Benghazi

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A bombshell from CNN today regarding Benghazi.  According to the cable news network there is in fact a massive cover-up by the CIA to hide what “dozens” of CIA agents were doing on the ground in Benghazi on September 11, 2012.  It was the night of the 11th when Al Qaeda backed militants raided the U.S. compound in Benghazi, killing 4 Americans including Ambassador Chris Stevens.

According to the report from CNN’s The Lead with Jake Tapper:

“Sources now tell CNN dozens of people working for the CIA were on the ground that night, and that the agency is going to great lengths to make sure whatever it was doing, remains a secret. CNN has learned the CIA is involved in what one source calls an unprecedented attempt to keep the spy agency’s Benghazi secrets from ever leaking out.”


There are many questions we still do not have answered but this latest revelation continues to expose the attempted cover up by State Department officials who repeatedly claimed that a YouTube video was the reason for a spontaneous “uprising”.    That was clearly not the case, so what was really taking place in Benghazi?

The secret is being held so closely that CIA agents are reportedly being subjected to repeated polygraph tests to determine if they are talking to members of the media.  In addition, agents are having their careers threatened and say they are under intense pressure to protect not just themselves but their families.

So here we are.  Another government agency demanding secrecy from agents, secrecy that likely has nothing to do with national security and everything to do with a lack of accountability to the American people.