Friday, January 24, 2014

Boehner squeezed: It's time to investigate Benghazi



Boehner squeezed: It's time to investigate Benghazi
'We really do owe it to the families and the American people'
Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., has written a letter to House Speaker John Boehner asking him to appoint a special committee to review the disastrous terror attack on U.S. facilities in Benghazi, Libya, that cost the lives of four Americans, telling him the families of those lost, and the American people, are owed answers.

The letter, which was linked on a blog written by former Rep. Allen West, R-Fla., said Wolf has heard from family members of those lost, and an editorial published Thursday in the Wall Street Journal by Greg Hicks, the deputy chief of mission for Ambassador Chris Stevens, who was killed, brought the need for answers to a head.

“Mr. Speaker, there has literally been zero accountability for what happened in Benghazi. No terrorist has been detained or killed. No administration official has been held responsible for the security failures and poor response that night. Don’t the families of those killed deserve accountability and justice?” Wolf wrote.

Wolf questioned the message that is being sent about the terror attack that happened on the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks on New York and Washington.

“It’s hard not to conclude that there’s one set of rules for those who served their country and another for those who run it,” he said.

WND has reported extensively over the past year or more on the tragedy, including just recently when the U.S. Senate issued a report that concluded that the attack was preventable.

It also was revealed that the Islamic militia hired to protect the ill-fated U.S. special mission had “vandalized” and “attacked” the mission in the months prior to Sept. 11, 2012.

That raised the question of why the State Department, headed at the time by Hillary Clinton, would continue to employ the 17th of February Martyrs Brigade, an al-Qaida-linked organization, to provide external security to the U.S. facility.

Read the details on “Benghazi-gate,” in “Impeachable Offenses.”

The 88-page Senate report states the U.S. Benghazi mission “had been vandalized and attacked in the months prior to the September 11-12 attacks by some of the same guards who were there to protect it.”

West said Wolf’s plan, a resolution calling for a select committee with subpoena powers, already has 180 co-sponsors and is needed.

“I ask you, our faithful readers, to review the letter to Speaker Boehner, call his office lending your voice and support to the establishment of a select committee, and if your congressional representatives have not signed on to H. Res. 36,call their office and demand they do so.”

WND also has reported that members of the military may not have known about all of the U.S. operations in Benghazi.

Wolf raised that point with Boehner.

“Amazingly, the Senate report raised the critical point that while some in the Department of Defense may have known of the CIA facility, neither AFRICOM nor its commander ‘were aware of an annex in Benghazi, Libya.’ And more importantly, just what was the CIA doing in Benghazi that was so secret that AFRICOM was not made aware of its existence?”

Wolf said so far the legislative branch of government hasn’t “fulfilled this constitutional responsibility to regard to Benghazi.”

“We are never going to get to the bottom of what happened that night until there is a bipartisan House Select Committee that can reach across jurisdictional boundaries, compel public testimony and documents that the administration continues to withhold from the Congress and protect those who may want to testify publicly about the events of that evening,” Wolf wrote.

“Mr. Speaker, it’s past time for a select committee,” Wolf challenged.

The commentary from Hicks blasted those who were blaming the ambassador for his own death.

“Shifting blame to our dead ambassador is wrong on the facts. I know – I was there,” he wrote.

Hicks criticized the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence report on the terror attack – which for weeks was portrayed by the Obama administration as a crowd reaction to an obscure online video.

Chris Stevens was not responsible for the reduction in security personnel. His requests for additional security were denied or ignored. Officials at the State and Defense Departments in Washington made the decisions that resulted in reduced security,” Hicks wrote.

John Boehner
John A. Boehner is the speaker for the U.S. House of Representatives, and a member of the Burning Tree Club.

Note: Jack Valenti was a member of the Burning Tree Club, and a trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank).
Foundation to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Aspen Institute (think tank).
George Soros was the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society, and is a board member for the International Crisis Group.
Thomas R. Pickering is a co-chair for the International Crisis Group, was a lifetime trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank), and the chairman of review board that investigated the 2012 attack on U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya is 2013.
J. Christopher Stevens was killed in the 2012 attack on U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

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