Editor's notes: all highlights (bold red or black) and paragraph highlights (i.e. "Email No. 1," etc) are mine.
I've
always believed that the Benghazi cover-up was about two presidential
campaigns: Barack Obama's reelection campaign and Hillary Clinton's
nascent [or "just coming into existence" - blog editor] presidential campaign.
Why
else would Hillary Clinton personally send out lies about Benghazi
within hours, and then keep on pushing these lies until the truth could
no longer be ignored. The truth about an attack by an al Qaeda group
that killed our ambassador and three other brave Americans in the days
before Obama's reelection would not only have put Obama at risk of
losing, but also would have potentially dashed the hopes of his
successor-in-waiting, Hillary Rodham Clinton.
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Rather
than admit that it was a planned attack by a terrorist group in league
with al Qaeda, the Obama/Clinton machine knowingly put out the lie that
the killings were the result of a spontaneous demonstration in response
to an obscure Internet video supposedly offensive to radical
Islamists. The message: don't blame us - blame those who offend
Islamists (conservatives, Republicans, etc.). Indeed, rather than
sending our military to eliminate the enemy in Libya, the Obama
administration arrested the poor sap who made the offending video.
Strong
stuff you might think. But the most recent documents forced out of the
State Department will make you think I'm being too kind to the Benghazi
betrayers controlling the Executive Branch.
On February 11, 2015, JW struck smoking-gun gold in another cache of documents we
forced out of the State Department. The documents show that top aides
for then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, including her then-chief of
staff Cheryl Mills, knew from the outset that the Benghazi mission
compound was under attack by armed assailants tied to a terrorist
group. The documents we've extracted from the Obama administration only
through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the State
Department (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of State ((No. 1:14-cv-01511).
Unsurprisingly,
the documents make no reference to a spontaneous demonstration or
Internet video, except in an official statement issued by Hillary
Clinton.
The JW lawsuit that uncovered this material focused on Mrs. Clinton's involvement in the Benghazi scandal:
Any
and all records concerning, regarding, or related to notes, updates, or
reports created in response to the September 11, 2012 attack on the
U.S, Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. This request includes but is not
limited to, notes, taken by then Secretary of State Hillary Rodham
Clinton or employees of the Office of the Secretary of State during the
attack and its immediate aftermath.
Mrs.
Clinton had said she took notes on Benghazi for her recent book but
suggested no one could see them. She isn't above the law. Congress is asleep, the media is a cheerleader, so hence, our lawsuit.
Email No. One
We
haven't yet gotten Hillary's notes, but the chain of internal emails we
did get [on Feb 11 of two weeks ago - blog editor] are extraordinary and track the events surrounding the
terrorist attack in real time.
On
September 11, 2012, at 4:07 PM, Maria Sand (who was then a Special
Assistant to Mrs. Clinton) forwarded an email from the State
Department's Operations Center entitled "U.S. Diplomatic Mission in Benghazi is Under Attack (SBU)
[Sensitive But Unclassified]" to Cheryl Mills (then-Chief of Staff),
Jacob Sullivan (then-Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy), Joseph McManus
(then-Hillary Clinton's Executive Assistant), and a list of other
Special Assistants in the Secretary's office:
The
Regional Security Officer reports the diplomatic mission is under
attack. Tripoli reports approximately 20 armed people fired shots;
explosions have been heard as well. Ambassador Stevens, who is currently
in Benghazi, and four COM [Chief of Mission] personnel are in the compound safe haven. The 17th of February militia is providing security support.
This email was sent about 30 minutes after the terrorist attack began! [and had to be the first announcement of the event. Instead of responding as if the Administration gave a damn, Obama and Hillary IMMEDIATELY began working on a statement that would effectively refute the facts, and, sadly, deny the Benghazi Embassy any assistance whatsoever - blog editor].
Email No. 2 (all times are EST)
On September 11, 2012, 4:38 PM, State Department Foreign Service Officer Lawrence Randolph forwarded Mills, Sullivan and McManus an email from Scott Bultrowicz, who was the former director of the Diplomatic Security Service (ousted following review of the attack), with the subject line, "Attack on Benghazi 09112012":
DSCC
received a phone call from [REDACTED] in Benghazi, Libya initially
stating that 15 armed individuals were attacking the compound and trying
to gain entrance. The Ambassador is present in Benghazi and currently
is barricaded within the compound. There are no injuries at this time
and it is unknown what the intent of the attackers is. At approximately
1600 DSCC received word from Benghazi that individuals had entered the
compound. At 1614 RSO advised the Libyans had set fire to various
buildings in the area, possibly the building that houses the Ambassador
[REDACTED] is responding and taking fire.
[And what is the "DSCC?" Well, it's not the State Department. Rather this memo was sent to Democrat political headquarters. "DSCC" is defined as the following: "The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC)
is the Democratic Hill committee for the United States Senate. It is
the only organization solely dedicated to electing Democrats to the
United States Senate," proving, of course, that this developing disaster was being viewed as a political matter, first, and not as the historical matter it would be. Understand that the politics of the matter almost immediately, became the central concern, and, much more so for Hillary than Barack Obama - blog editor]
Email No.3 in this report
Nearly
seven hours later, at 12:04 am, on September 12, Randolph sends an
email with the subject line "FW: Update 3: Benghazi Shelter Location Also Under Attack" to Mills, Sullivan, and McManus that has several updates about the Benghazi attack:
I
just called Ops and they said the DS command center is reporting that
the compound is under attack again. I am about to reach out to the DS
Command Center.
This email also contains a chain of other, earlier email updates:
September 11, 2012 11:57 PM email:
"(SBU) DS Command reports the current shelter location for COM
personnel in Benghazi is under mortar fire. There are reports of
injuries to COM staff."
September 11, 2012 6:06 PM (Subject: "Update 2: Ansar al-Sharia
Claims Responsibility for Benghazi Attack (SBU): "(SBU) Embassy
Tripoli reports the group claimed responsibility on Facebook and Twitter
and call for an attack on Embassy Tripoli"
September 11, 2012, 4:54 PM:
"Embassy Tripoli reports the firing at the U.S. Diplomatic Mission in
Benghazi has stopped and the compound has been cleared. A response team
is on site to locate COM personnel."
Email's No. 4, 11 hours after the first reports from the Embassy
Obama is in bed, sleeping, at this time, before leaving for
a political speech in Las Vegas the next morning. He is aasleep
because he is a) a cold blooded SOB and, b) because he and
Hillary believe they have their political futures protected [blog editor]
The DOS emails reveal the first official confirmation of the death of Ambassador Stevens. On September 12, 2012, 3:22 AM, Senior Watch Officer Andrew Veprek forwarded
an email to numerous State Department officials, which was later
forwarded to Cheryl Mills and Joseph McManus, with the subject line "Death of Ambassador Stevens in Benghazi":
Embassy
Tripoli confirms the death of Ambassador John C. (Chris) Stevens in
Benghazi. His body has been recovered and is at the airport in Benghazi.
Two hours later, Joseph McManus forwards the news about Ambassador Stevens' death to officials in the State Department Legislative Affairs office with instructions not to "forward to anyone at this point."
Hillary's 5:30ish statement and first official lie:
Despite
her three top staff members being informed that a terrorist group had
claimed credit for the attack, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton,
issued an official statement, also produced to Judicial Watch, claiming
the assault may have been in "a response to inflammatory material posted on the Internet."
Hillary's spokeswoman orders State Department not to talk to the press at mid-night, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 hours after the first attack.
Cheryl
Mills asks that the State Department stop answering press inquiries at
12:11 am on September 12, despite the ongoing questions about "Chris'
whereabouts." In an email to State Department spokesman Victoria
Nuland, Jacob Kennedy, and Phillipe Reines (then-Deputy Assistant
Secretary of State for Strategic Communications and Senior
Communications Advisor), Mills writes:
Can
we stop answering emails for the night Toria b/c now [that] the first one
[Hillary Clinton's "inflammatory material posted on the Internet"
statement] is hanging out there.
Earlier
in the chain of emails, Nuland told Mills, Sullivan, and Patrick
Kennedy (Under Secretary of State for Management) that she "ignored" a question about Ambassador Steven's status and whereabouts from a CBS News reporter.
Think
about this: Cheryl Mills, Hillary's top aide, would rather go to bed
and let hang out . . . . the lie that Hillary Clinton put out about the
attack than tell reporters the truth about the attack, which by that
time had escalated to include mortar fire.
________________________
[Note: the JW article goes on, but all of the following only supports the facts established in the above, emails. Obama went to bed hours before the deaths of the two surviving Navy Seals, even before the announced death of Ambassador Stevens. There is no greater display of presidential cowardice or State Department corruption than this incident. It is my hope that the Benghazi House Committee reported, will be ready by the end of the year. It needs to be an effective part of 2016 election cycle, in view of the fact that all Democrats supported this outrageous lie. - blog editor]
Back to the JW report:
Another
top State Department official is eager to promote a statement
from Rabbi David Saperstein, then-Director of the Religious Action
Center of Reform Judaism, a liberal group. The September 2012 statement
condemns "the video that apparently spurred these incidents. It was
clearly crafted to provoke, offend, and to evoke outrage." Michael Posner, then-Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, forwarded the statement on September 12, 2012, to Wendy Sherman, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, and Jacob Sherman with the note:
This
is an excellent statement - our goal should be to get the Conference of
Presidents, the ADL etc. to follow suit and use similar language.
(President Obama nominated the left-wing Rabbi Saperstein to
be Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom in July
2014. The U.S. Senate confirmed him in December 2014. Posner, by the
way, is another far left activist installed at State by Obama.)
Also included in the documents are foreign press reports establishing the cause of Ambassador Chris Steven's death as being from asphyxiation. According to the reports, doctors attending Stevens said he could have been saved had he arrived at the hospital earlier.
The Obama administration has blacked out reactions from White House and top State Department officials to news stories published on September 14, 2012. One of the stories quoted a visitor who criticized the lack of security at the Benghazi Special Mission Compound and another headlined, "America 'was warned of attack and did nothing.'" What
was the reaction of key Obama officials to this truth-telling about the
media. They don't want you to know. If it were helpful, it would have
been released to us!
Other emails list well over 20 invited participants in a "SVTC"
(secure video teleconference). The invited participants for the
September 14, 2012, early morning call include senior White House, CIA,
and State Department political appointees. Details about that call,
which likely documents the cover-up operation on Benghazi, haven't been
produced to Judicial Watch.
These
emails leave no doubt that Hillary Clinton's closest advisers knew the
truth about the Benghazi attack from almost the moment it happened. And
it is inescapable that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton knowingly
lied when she planted the false story about "inflammatory material being
posted on the Internet."
The
contempt for the public's right to know is evidenced not only in these
documents, but also in the fact that we had to file a lawsuit in federal
court to obtain them. The Obama gang's cover-up continues to unravel,
despite its unlawful secrecy and continued slow-rolling of information.
Congress,
if it ever decides to do its job, cannot act soon enough to put Hillary
Clinton, Cheryl Mills, and every other official in these emails under
oath.
Islamic
terrorists connected to al Qaeda attacked the U.S. diplomatic compound
in Benghazi on the evening of September 11, 2012. U.S. Ambassador J.
Christopher Stevens and U.S. Foreign Service Information Management
Officer Sean Smith were both killed. Just a few hours later, a second
terrorist strike targeted a different compound about one mile away. Two
CIA contractors, Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty, were killed and 10
others were injured in the second attack.
The
families of those four men deserve truth and accountability. So do
those who suffered injuries and others haunted by the attacks.
So as Congress is set to acquiesce in Obama's deadly nullification of our nation's immigration laws...
So as the mainstream media spends all of its time covering presidential wanna-be's with all the depth of entertainment media coverage of the Oscars...
So
as "Rome burns," your Judicial Watch will, alone it seems, continue
with the hard work of conducting government oversight in a city
otherwise bereft of it. The Benghazi Four deserve no less.
We expect more Benghazi documents over the next few months, so stayed tuned for more disclosures.
Until next week...
 Tom Fitton President |
