November 22, 2014

"A two-year investigation by the Republican-controlled House Intelligence Committee has found that the CIA and the military acted properly..."

"... in responding to the 2012 attack on a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, and asserted no wrongdoing by Obama administration appointees."
Debunking a series of persistent allegations hinting at dark conspiracies, the investigation of the politically charged incident determined that there was no intelligence failure, no delay in sending a CIA rescue team, no missed opportunity for a military rescue, and no evidence the CIA was covertly shipping arms from Libya to Syria.

64 comments:

Tank said...

A fisking of the report here.

SteveR said...

So it was just a regular failure not a conspiracy. Good to know. Why was Stevens in Benghazi? And we know why the video story was put out?

Joe said...

Two important points from the aforementioned fisking:

• Both Mike Rogers and Dutch Ruppersberger are members of the Congressional Gang of Eight. They are the ONLY authors.

• This is not a House Intelligence "Committee" report on Benghazi. This is only two committee members writing a report based on prior information.

Curious George said...

Gowdy has 'em sweating.

I'm Full of Soup said...

And Rogers is retiring to go into the talk radio business I think.

Achilles said...

Hahahahaha. Of course not.

But the real crime wasn't arms dealing. The real crime was Hillary's incompetence. The administrations lies about he cause. Arresting an American citizen to buttress the lie.

Yeah they hung a bunch of Americans out to dry because they didn't want to kill a bunch of muslim extremists and/or they couldn't get barry out of bed. But those are tough things to know because the administration is stonewalling so I assume the worst. But what we know as fact is bad enough.

Achilles said...

Don't forget about the military purge that is going on also. A lot of senior officers are getting run out of the army now especially in the North African Command.

chillblaine said...

The report states that the info Susan Rice peddled on the talk shows it "was intelligence analysts, not political appointees, who made the wrong call."

However, Judicial Watch uncovered emails showing it was Ben Rhodes. Well, which was it?

garage mahal said...

After the 8th inquiry you would think that conservatives would discover they were conned and demand an apology from conservative media. Nope. Don't retire those Pray4Benghazi Twibbons just yet!

Bob Ellison said...

But, but, but, the video lie was a lie, lie, lie, obvious on the face, to all, all, all who observed it.

Susan Rice lied, lied, lied. Hillary lied, lied, lied. Barry lied, lied, lied.

Skeptical Voter said...

Ah another opinion--the Gowdy shoe will ultimately drop and we'll have dueling reports.

OTOH Obozo and his minions lied their way past the 2012 elections, and the Benghazi mess was not the sole predicate of their 2014 disaster. If Gowdy doesn't speed up 2016 will have come and gone.

You have to catch the villains before they are retired and drooling in their oatmeal in an assisted living facility.

Anonymous said...

"...there was no intelligence failure, no delay in sending a CIA rescue team, no missed opportunity for a military rescue"

Must be that video. Have to haul that video making monster to jail again.

Anonymous said...

Skeptical Voter said...
Ah another opinion--the Gowdy shoe will ultimately drop and we'll have dueling reports.

Not if the NSA could leak to the MSM formerly non-existent emails to compromise Gowdy first ...

Mid-Life Lawyer said...

I predict that this will be reported by the MSM more than all other Benzhazi reporting put together in the last 6 months.

RecChief said...

Looks to me that it exonerates the CIA and Military.I don't remember anyone blaming CIA or the Army.

So, I didn't see anything exonerating political appointees at the State Department. And nothing about throwing a guy in jail because of a video, that wasn't the cause. Nor lying to the public about it. Which is where the real criticism lay. 3 AM phone call Madame Secretary? Oh, it was a spontaneous demonstration, complete with RPGs and we're going to get the guy who made that video? do tell

But this gives MSNBC something to yammer about, and provides people like garage mahal with a talking point that he can be obtuse about.

LYNNDH said...

I am reading a book titled "13 Hours" about Benghazi. I call this report BS of the highest order. Go read this book. It is factual account of what was going on. No real finger pointing, but lets you decide if there were failures by Admin, CIA and/or military.

Drago said...

From the report: "...there was no intelligence failure, no delay in sending a CIA rescue team, no missed opportunity for a military rescue"

Huh?

One paragraph later: "In the immediate aftermath of the attack, intelligence about who carried it out and why was contradictory, the report found. That led Susan Rice, then U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, to inaccurately assert that the attack had evolved from a protest, when in fact there had been no protest. But it was intelligence analysts, not political appointees, who made the wrong call, the committee found."

So, intelligence analysts made the wrong call, but there were no intelligence failures.

I see.

Does contradicting yourself within 1 paragraph add or subtract credibility from your analysis?

Michael K said...

Interesting to speculate about Rogers' motive. The Army is definitely getting rid of independent thinkers among the brass.

RecChief said...

garage mahal said...
After the 8th inquiry you would think that conservatives would discover they were conned and demand an apology from conservative media. Nope. Don't retire those Pray4Benghazi Twibbons just yet!


Hey dumbshit, 4 of your fellow americans are dead. try to remember that you insignificant pos.

bbkingfish said...

troll bait

RecChief said...

Drago said...
From the report: "...there was no intelligence failure, no delay in sending a CIA rescue team, no missed opportunity for a military rescue"

Huh?

One paragraph later: "In the immediate aftermath of the attack, intelligence about who carried it out and why was contradictory, the report found. That led Susan Rice, then U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, to inaccurately assert that the attack had evolved from a protest, when in fact there had been no protest. But it was intelligence analysts, not political appointees, who made the wrong call, the committee found."

So, intelligence analysts made the wrong call, but there were no intelligence failures.

I see.

Does contradicting yourself within 1 paragraph add or subtract credibility from your analysis?


Not to mention, as Candy Crowley and POTUS himself repeatedly told us in the campaign, POTUS knew it was a terrorist attack the next day (revisionist history but that is the claim) so why did they send out Rice to claim it was a spontaneous demonstration based on a video? Why did Clinton tell the parents they would "get the guy who made the video"? Looks to me like Ruppersberger wrote it and Rogers signed off on it. Judging by the headline, you'd think the whole GOP congress wrote it, but there sure are a lot of democrats quoted in the AP fairy tale.

mccullough said...

Why are two guys issuing a report instead of the committee?

Rogers is leaving Congress and is trying to cover his incompetence as House Intel Chair.

garage mahal said...

Hey dumbshit, 4 of your fellow americans are dead. try to remember that you insignificant pos.

Yes. Those families asked you kindly to stop dragging their corpses around for political gain. Remember that?

steve uhr said...

The 37-page report says it provides "as much information as possible for public consideration." The various footnoted documents -- intelligence cables, interview transcripts, etc. -- were they made public in whole or in part along with the report? I would like to review the underlying evidence and draw my own conclusions

Tarrou said...

SO nothing bad happened? Outstanding! I mean, other than that dead ambassador and a few other guys. I mean, standard operating procedure, mirite?

Who cares if our ambassadors get murdered and dragged through the streets? It's not as if they have some sort of immunity or status that should make us want to defend them!

Birkel said...

A search for the truth would result in a political gain for Republicans, "garage mahal"?

That does mean lies benefit Democrats, right?

Unknown said...

And those 4 people didn't really die.
Nope.

You imagined that.

Also - IT WAS THE VIDEO!

Unknown said...

It wasn't a conspiracy - it was a failure. (and lies - "Heinous video" bogus blameage)

& yeah - MSM will report this with robust enthusiasm.

Gruber? total ignore.

PB said...

The military acted properly, but the civilian authorities failed miserably and lied to cover it up.

hombre said...

Funny, if you read "13 hours," based on interviews with contractors who were on the ground doing most of the searching and fighting, you really don't reach positive conclusions about the conduct of the CIA and the military.

Also, the lack of preparation to protect the Ambassador and other personnel was unbelievable.

Of course several of the Feds who were there were decorated for some reason or another and that may be consistent with the story told to the committee regardless of what actually happened.

David said...

Lightly defended mission is attacked and American ambassador is killed. No government authority is responsible. Sounds like a Washington conclusion.

steve uhr said...

The rescue effort from Tripoli was a failure in about every respect. Keystone Cops. Sad.

n.n said...

Loose weapons. Disgruntled terrorists.

Perhaps Obama is not responsible for the failure, but he is responsible for the coverup. You can't Gruber people all of the time.

Obama is like Nixon.

averagejoe said...

"At this point, what difference does it make?" -Madame Secretary of State.

So many still unanswered questions such as 1. Who was responsible for refusing requests for extra security at the embassy? 2. Who was responsible for initiating the lie about the video? 3. Where was President Snooze-button Hussein during the 3 AM phone call? And more, as well as the fact already pointed out in posts upthread that show contradcitions in the assertion that "there was no intelligence failure"... So, they meant to do that? They knew the embassy would be attacked by the "moderate rebels" that Hillary and McCain wanted armed?... This Benghazi debacle has been and continues to be an indictment of the CIA, of the Washington politicos, of the Obama administration, of Hillary Clinton, and of the democrat party media who lie, hide and obfuscate fact and truth for partisan political purposes.

Drago said...

garage mahal: "Yes. Those families asked you kindly to stop dragging their corpses around for political gain. Remember that?"

Not surprisingly, garage is lying again: http://www.judicialwatch.org/press-room/press-releases/boehnerletter/

You will find shortly that this latest "investigation" will fall far short of satisfying the families of those slain.

For obvious reasons.

Reasons so obvious in fact that garage and his pals will have to start bleating again about "secret routers", the "coming Walker full dicatatorship" and certainly something about "blacky's".

Once written, twice... said...

And of course Republicans waited until after the election to fess up that they were just exploiting this for political gain. Disgusting.

pm317 said...

for what it is worth from a man who knows a thing or two more about Benghazi

Once written, twice... said...

Disgusting but not surprising. Conservatives lap these lies from Fox News up like gravy.

Once written, twice... said...

How many posts did Ann write to get her Althouse Hillbillies foaming at the mouth and clicking her Amazon button?

pm317 said...

@Once written, twice... said...

----------

not so fast. What do you know about Mike Rogers? They are all corrupt.

pm317 said...

They are all corrupt
and that does not mean that the truth is any cleaner
and nobody including Obama nd Hillary are off the hook.
Something bad did really happen and why did it happen? We will never know.

Browndog said...

Mike Rogers. Yea. Republican. Local boy. Ever hear of his wife?

It's kinda wierd.Apparently, she's like the CEO of some British security firm. Yea, same one that won the contract to provide security in Benghazi. Wierder, though they had a very, very lucrative State Dept. contract, they chose to outsource the security to a local militia--February 17th--made millions on the dollar.

Kinda wierd.

SteveR said...

Once written, twice... said.."look at me I've changed my identity but I'm still stooopid!"

Hagar said...

And I still want to know why Benghazi was attacked and on whose behalf.

Drago said...

Hagar said...
And I still want to know why Benghazi was attacked and on whose behalf.

The obama-ites have already told us.

It was a spontaneous protest followed by a spontaneous riot precipitated by a video some horrible non-muslim created.

Except that it all wasn't.

But there were no mistakes.

Except for the mistakes that were made.

But it's no big deal.

Just a dead Ambassador and few military-types.

Whose families were told point-blank by Hillary Clinton that our gov't was going to get that horrible non-muslim video creator for what he did!

Except, the Ambassador and the military-types weren't killed because of the video.

But no mistakes.

Also, if you like your health plan, you can keep your health plan.

Period.

I hope that clears it up.

pm317 said...

Where was Obama?

garage mahal said...

You will find shortly that this latest "investigation" will fall far short of satisfying the families of those slain.

You get 'em Tiger. Be the difference.

Drago said...

garage: "You get 'em Tiger. Be the difference."

Again, not me, the families of those slain.

You know, the ones you were pretending to care about just a few hours ago.

But in garages defense, his "defense" of the slain and their families was several hours ago and thus expunged from the garage "memory bank".

But go ahead Tiger, you keep pretending to speak for the families of those military types who were slain. Your "concern" for them is duly noted.

Paul said...

No they didn't 'act properly.

PEOPLE DIED FOLKS and how can that be 'proper'?

Browndog said...

Hillary will clear up all the gray area when she's vetted during her run for Commander in Chief....

paminwi said...

Browndog: that contract Kristi Clemens Rogers had with the State Dept. was a $10 BILLION contract to provide security to State Dept. employees worldwide. The company was named Aegis and she was the CEO of the American branch.

Might there be some reason Mike Rogers wants the focus off of a Benghazi? Maybe Trey Goudy is finding something Rogers does not want known and this is trying to sell one side of the story first. (Doesn't surprise me that garage fell for this, hook, line and sinker!)

Browndog said...

Anyone know why Stevens was in Benghazi that day? Under well documented security threats on 9/11, meeting with a "diplomat" from Turkey?

Just curious--let me know. Thanks.

pm317 said...

@Browndog, this blog may have some answers ..

Yep, Mike Rogers wants no sunlight and he is also leaving but for something more lucrative -- he does not want to jeopardize. These are all corrupt bastards on both sides.

pm317 said...

Mike Rogers

khesanh0802 said...

I posted the following with Ann's "dawn patrol" entry but it really belongs here:
"The, just issued, House report is about intelligence being confusing and mis-interpreted. "Intelligence" is always confusing. The House report only focuses on how the intelligence was interpreted for public consumption after the attack. The report gives a pass to the WH for attempting a "flawed" deception. In other words, they misinterpreted the intelligence that they did have because they were incompetent, lazy, confused, deceitful, or all of the above. If the intelligence was unclear then they could have said so.

The Senate report (here) deals with the actions before and after the attack and is quite damning. The House report only deals with intelligence failure. The real problem was that the death of Ambassador Stevens, et. al. was caused by a COMMAND failure at the state department and WH."

khesanh0802 said...

@pm317 Great piece. Thanks for the reference.

richard mcenroe said...

The majority report from the committee dealt solely with the military and CIA responses. There is NO opinion offered in the text on the WH and SecState involvement.

The "there was no scandal" noise is coming from partisans cherry-picking the minority report, which is not even included with the majority report .pdf.

In short, no answers as to the absent Obama and Hillary, no answers as to the State department's lack of preparation, no answers as to what the hell the Benghazi annex was actually for, no answers as to why an innocent filmmaker went to jail to cover to Democrats' asses.

In short, no answers.

Unknown said...

Hillyar was responsible for the DECREASED security before the attack. any chance Gowdy will call her up again ??

Achilles said...

garage mahal said...
"After the 8th inquiry you would think that conservatives would discover they were conned and demand an apology from conservative media. Nope. Don't retire those Pray4Benghazi Twibbons just yet!"

Don't worry Garage. We see people like you. We know politics is more important to you than the people who have protected you.

And we despise you. People like you are so worthless.

Achilles said...

Hagar said...
"And I still want to know why Benghazi was attacked and on whose behalf."

You progressives do everything you can to ignore what is slapping you in the face.

Achilles said...

garage mahal said...

"Yes. Those families asked you kindly to stop dragging their corpses around for political gain. Remember that?"

Wow. You are truly amoral.

Vet66 said...

This report is as bad as the initial cover-up blaming the video. The narrative was, and will continue to be, the lack of forward thinking, pre-planning, and proactive decisions based on the time-honored military doctrine; be prepared! Also described as; plan for the worst and hope for the best. This administration continues to violate rules of conduct that many of us were taught in Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts: BE PREPARED! and on the infamous day of 9/11 for GOD's sake. No excuses!

Curious George said...

They're just four eggs in the ole omelette, right garage?

Unknown said...

"All the elation on the left over the House Intelligence Committee’s report which largely exonerates the conduct of Barack Obama’s administration’s handling of the Benghazi attack is sure to dissipate when they realize that this same report was not flattering to former Sec. Hillary Clinton’s State Department.

The report found that State failed to provide its personnel in Benghazi with adequate security, in spite of numerous warnings in writing submitted to Washington by the late Amb. Chris Stevens about the deteriorating security situation and the need for a more robust defense of the diplomatic outpost in that turbulent city."