Readers Write: Benghazi hearing proved Clinton misdeeds

The Island Now

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houghtful readers must think we are living in an alternative universe when we compare last week’s actual Benghazi hearing transcript to the mainstream press’ view that Hillary aced it and nothing new came out of it.

What last week’s Benghazi hearing plainly revealed is that Secretary of State Clinton, President Obama and other high government officials knowingly lied by telling the American people that the Sept. 11 attack was a spontaneous demonstration due to an unrelated anti-Muslim YouTube video.

The same day as the attack Ms. Clinton emailed her daughter, 45 minutes before she spoke to the president and issued a statement blaming video-inflamed mobs.

Her email says, “Two of our officers were killed by an al Qaeda-like group.” (The other two were still alive at this point.) The next day she telephoned the Libyan president and the Egyptian prime minister that the attack was by an al Qaeda-affiliated group. After her conversation with President Obama, State issued the following announcement:

“Some have sought to justify this vicious behavior as a response to inflammatory material posted on the Internet. The United States deplores any intentional effort to denigrate the religious beliefs of others. Our commitment to religious tolerance goes back to the very beginning of our nation.”

Ms. Clinton emulated her husband by parsing what the meaning of “some” is. Her implication was that “some” excluded her. But it clearly refers to those who want to excuse the attack as justified by the anti-Islamic video which the US also deplores.

With President Obama at her side three days after the attack, on the occasion of the return of remains of the four victims and in the presence of their caskets, she said, “We’ve seen the heavy assault on our post in Benghazi that took the lives of those brave men. We’ve seen rage and violence directed at American embassies over an awful Internet video that we had nothing to do with.” 

On this occasion she consoled the father of the Benghazi victim, Tyrone Woods, “We are going to have the filmmaker arrested who was responsible for the death of your son.”

Ms. Clinton testified that she rejected the justification of the video as the cause of the murders. But the Administration was united in blaming the video for weeks after and even arrested its creator who was jailed for a year.

Ms. Clinton also provided excuses for not sending timely aid to the beleaguered embassy. While Sidney Blumenthal had her phone number and email address, the ill-fated diplomats did not and had to go to security which she delegated with the protection task. 

The Obama administration, insisted that nobody was ever told to stand down and that all available resources were utilized. 

But Ambassador Christopher Stevens’ deputy, Gregory Hicks, who had directly briefed then-secretary Clinton about the then-ongoing terrorist attack, told congressional investigators that a team of Special Forces prepared to fly from Tripoli to Benghazi during the Sept. 11, 2012 attacks was forbidden from doing so by U.S. Special Operations Command Africa. Hicks told congressional investigators that if the U.S. had quickly sent a military aircraft over Benghazi, it might have saved American lives. 

The U.S. Souda Bay Naval Base is an hour’s flight from Libya.

Gregory Hicks later testified that the video was a “non-event” in Benghazi.

The reason for the Administration’s deception is obvious. At the recent Democratic national convention that renominated President Obama Joe Biden has boasted that “Bin Ladin is dead, General Motors is alive and al Qaeda is on the run.” The 2012 election was weeks away and defeat was not an option.

What the hearing revealed, besides security mismanagement of the embassy, is the truth of the late William Safire’s N.Y. Times-published opinion that “Hillary Clinton is a congenital liar.” 

Of course every administration member that propagated the lie is equally guilty but Clinton is the one now running for president

Leonard Mansky

Roslyn

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