Barack slept during the time his people were being murdered in Benghazi - a well known fact. He calls this a conspiracy theory and the man . . .

Barack slept during the time his people were being murdered in Benghazi  -  a well known fact.  He calls this a conspiracy theory but the man who rescured the survivors, brands Obama "scum"  and presents a challenge to this most cowardly President. 

Kris Paronto was in Benghazi when Islamic extremists overran a U.S. embassy and consulate, killing four Americans. Paronto, a former U.S. Army Ranger, was working as a CIA security contractor at the time.
Paronto called Obama a “cowardly ass” and “scum” for referencing Benghazi in the speech.
“Benghazi is a conspiracy @BarackObama ?!” Paronto tweeted, “How bout we do this, let’s put your cowardly ass on the top of a roof with 6 of your buddies & shoot rpg’s & Ak47’s at you while terrorists lob 81mm mortars killing 2 of your buddies all while waiting for U.S. support that you never sent.”

A comprehensive review of the Benghazi scandal from Judicial Watch.

Benghazi Lies Began With Obama and Hillary?

When the complete history is written of the 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, the dishonesty and duplicity of the Obama White House will be an inescapable fact. As we celebrate Independence Day, Americans ought to be disturbed about the ethical quality of the men and women in high office. The signers of the Declaration of Independence would surely be aghast at the unethical, lawless leadership in Washington, D.C.

However, I'd like to think the Founders would be happy with the vigilance and persistence of Judicial Watch in holding our government leaders accountable for their misdeeds.

To that end, this week we released new State Department documents showing that Hillary Clinton and the State Department's response to the Benghazi attack was immediately determined by top Obama White House officials, particularly Ben Rhodes, then-White House deputy strategic communications adviser, and Bernadette Meehan, a spokesperson for the National Security Council. The new documents were forced from the State Department under court order in a Judicial Watch Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit.

A September 11, 2012, email sent at 6:21 p.m. by State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland to Meehan, Under Secretary for Management Patrick F. Kennedy, and Clinton's personal aide Jacob Sullivan, shows that the State Department deferred to the White House on the official response to the Benghazi attack. Referencing pending press statements by Barack Obama and Clinton, Nuland wrote: "We are holding for Rhodes clearance. BMM, pls advise asap."

Meehan responded three minutes later, at 6:24 p.m.: "Ben is good with these and is on with Jake now too."

Rhodes sent an email at 9:48 p.m. to senior White House and State officials on the issue: "We should let the State Department statement be our comment for the night."

An email from Meehan, sent at 10:15 p.m. on September 11 to Rhodes, Nuland, Sullivan, Kennedy and Clinton aide Philippe Reines, further confirms the White House approval of Hillary Clinton's statement tying the Benghazi terrorist attack to an Internet video: "All, the Department of State just released the following statement. Per Ben [Rhodes'] email below, this should be the USG comment for the night."

The "USG comment" turned out to be Clinton's notorious public statement, made hours after the initial terrorist attack, falsely suggesting that the Benghazi assault was a "response to inflammatory material posted on the Internet."

Rhodes emailed Meehan, Sullivan and Reines at 11:45 p.m. on September 11, writing, "Fyi - we are considering releasing this tonight." The next line is redacted. The email also included a "Readout of President's Call to Secretary Clinton," the contents of which are also completely redacted.

On September 12, the day after the attack, Meehan sent an email to Obama administration officials announcing that "to ensure we are all in sync on messaging for the rest of the day, Ben Rhodes will host a conference call for USG communicators on this chain at 9:15AM ET today."

Think about this timeline. Obama and Hillary Clinton talk. The White House along with State then composes and issues Hillary Clinton's statement falsely tying the Internet video to the attack. We can't find any other government documents other than Hillary's statement that September 11, 2012, night tying the attack to the video. This all leads me to conclude that Hillary Clinton originated the video lie in partnership with the Obama White House. And I'm willing to bet that the phone call earlier between Clinton and Obama set the whole lie in motion. As I told Fox News this week, if the details of the call were helpful, the details would be released. As they're being kept secret, one can assume the details of the Obama-Clinton call are damning.

As if the new White House bombshells weren't enough, the new documents show that the Obama administration engaged domestic and foreign Islamist groups and foreign nationals to push the Internet video narrative.

The day after the attack, Rashad Hussain, the Obama administration's special envoy to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), sent an email to Ambassador Ufuk Gokcen, the OIC's ambassador to the United Nations, and Cenk Uraz, an official with the OIC, pushing the video as the cause of the Benghazi attack. The OIC is supported by 57 nations and purports to be "the collective voice of the Muslim world." The OIC is no friend of freedom and is an apologist for terrorism, to put it charitably. So this pernicious international body is, of course, a key ally for the Obama Benghazi disinformation campaign. The Obama envoy's email has the subject line: "Urgent: Anti-Islamic Film and Violence" and reads in part:

I am sure you are considering putting a statement on the film and the related violence.  In addition to the condemnation of the disgusting depictions, it will be important to emphasize the need to respond in a way that is consistent with Islamic principles, i.e. not engaging in violence and taking innocent life ...

The resulting OIC statement, sent to Hussain by the OIC's Uraz, linked the film, as requested by the Obama administration, to the Benghazi attack and suggested that the United States restrict free speech in response. The official OIC statement called the film "incitement" and stated that the attack in Benghazi and a demonstration in Cairo "emanated from emotions aroused by a production of a film had hurt [sic] the religious sentiments of Muslims.  The two incidents demonstrated serious repercussions of abuse of freedom of expression." The OIC's statement referenced its own efforts to criminalize criticism of Islam. Hussain sent the OIC statement immediately to other Obama administration officials, including then-Clinton chief of staff Cheryl Mills, who thanks Hussain for the email.

The State Department withheld communications on September 12, 2012, between Hillary Clinton's senior aide Huma Abedin and Rashad Hussain about an article passed by him about how "American Muslim leaders" were tying the video to the Benghazi attack. At the time of the Benghazi attack, Abedin had been double-dipping, working as a consultant to outside clients while continuing as a top adviser at State. Abedin's outside clients included Teneo, a strategic consulting firm co-founded by former Bill Clinton counselor Doug Band. According to Fox News, Abedin earned $355,000 as a consultant for Teneo, in addition to her $135,000 "special government employee" compensation.

There's more:

The State Department also disclosed a document, dated September 13, 2012, entitled "USG Outreach and Engagement Post Benghazi Attack." This record details how the Obama administration reached out to domestic groups, foreign groups and governments in a full-court press to tie the video to the Benghazi attack. The document "captures USG efforts to engage outside voices to encourage public statements that denounce the attack make it clear that the anti-Muslim film does not reflect American [sic]." The document highlights the use of Hillary Clinton's statement tying the terrorist attack to an Internet video. The "outreach" document also highlights "Special Envoy's engagement" with the OIC and the "Saudi Ambassador."

The documents show that the Internet video was raised in a September 15 discussion between Hillary Clinton and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. The "eyes only" "secret" document was partially declassified. Davutoglu "called the controversial anti-Islam video a 'clear provocation,' but added that wise people should not be provoked by it." The next line is blacked out and the markings show that it will not be declassified until 2027, more than 12 years from now.

Another email, evidently from the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), sent to Meehan and other top White House and administration officials, shows that the administration took no action to deploy military assets almost five hours after the attack begun:

OSD has received queries asking if military assets are being sent to either location [Libya and Egypt].  Have responded "not to our knowledge."

The State Department referred Judicial Watch to documents in the batch of 55,000 emails allegedly turned over by Hillary Clinton and searched in response to the court order in this lawsuit. These emails were published on the State Department's web site, but are also available here. In addition, the State Department produced new documents containing Hillary Clinton emails. In one such email (September 11, 2012, at 11:40 p.m.) from Clinton to Nuland, Sullivan and top Clinton aide Cheryl Mills, with the subject line "Chris Smith," Clinton writes: "Cheryl told me the Libyans confirmed his death. Should we announce tonight or wait until morning?"

Nuland responds: "We need to ck family's druthers. If they are OK, we should put something out from you tonight." Mills then replies to Nuland, "Taking S [Secretary of State Hillary Clinton] off." (Sean Smith, not "Chris Smith" was one of four Americans killed at Benghazi.)

On September 13, 2012, Politico's Mike Allen sent then-National Security Council Spokesman Tommy Vietor an Independent.co.uk news article entitled "America was warned of embassy attack but did nothing." The story reported that "senior officials are increasingly convinced" the Benghazi attack was "not the result of spontaneous anger." Vietor forwarded the story to other top White House and State Department officials, but Vietor's accompanying comments and the comments of other top Obama appointees are completely redacted. The administration also redacted several emails of top State officials discussing a statement by a Romney campaign spokesman criticizing the "security situation in Libya."

In April 2014, Judicial Watch first obtained smoking-gun documents showing that it was the Obama White House's public relations effort that falsely portray the Benghazi consulate terrorist attack as being "rooted in an Internet video, and not a failure of policy."

The documents include an email by White House operative Ben Rhodes sent on Friday, September 14, 2012, with the subject line: "RE: PREP CALL with Susan, Saturday at 4:00 pm ET." This "prep" was for Ambassador Susan Rice in advance of her appearances on Sunday news shows to discuss the Benghazi attack and deflect criticism of the administration's security failures by blaming the attack on spontaneous protests linked to the video.

The email listed as one of the administration's key talking points:

"Goal": "To underscore that these protests are rooted in an Internet video, and not a broader failure or policy."

So the goal is not to tell the truth. Just so we're clear on that much.

What we have uncovered in just the past few days is part of a larger continuum.

Documents released by our team last month further confirm that the Obama administration, including Hillary Clinton, Rice and Obama immediately knew the attack was an al-Qaeda terrorist attack.

These latest documents show the Obama White House was behind the big lie, first promoted by Hillary Clinton, that an Internet video caused the Benghazi terrorist attack. Top White House aide Ben Rhodes, Hillary Clinton and many key Obama officials pushed others, including Islamist terror allies, to tie the Internet video to the attacks. How disturbing it is that the Obama administration would use Islamist radicals to push the false Benghazi story in a way that would abridge free speech. It is little wonder that Mrs. Clinton and the entire Obama administration have fought so hard to keep these documents from the American people. All evidence now points to Hillary Clinton, with the approval of the White House, as being the source of the Internet video lie.

Obama and Hillary Clinton failed the nation, and most terribly, U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and U.S. Foreign Service Information Management Officer Sean Smith, who were both killed in the Benghazi terrorist attack on September 11, 2012.  Several hours after the initial assault, a second terrorist attack took place targeting a different compound located just one mile away. Two CIA contractors, Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty, were killed in this second attack and 10 others were injured. The Obama gang failed those two heroes, as well.

We aim to vindicate them and that's why we are happy to do the work of an AWOL Congress, media and federal bureaucracy in ferreting out the truth about this continuing scandal. 

You can bet the following documents will be a part of the House Committee's report on Benghazi, just in time for the next election cycle. Hillary can run, but she cannot hide.

Editor's notes: all highlights (bold red or black) and paragraph highlights (i.e. "Email No. 1," etc) are mine.   

New Documents Blow Lid off Obama/Clinton Benghazi Scandal

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.  

 

The desperation by Obama, Clinton, and their political teams must have been potent.  It was so potent that they - rather than admitting to the Islamist conflagration they caused in Libya by ousting and killing Gadhafi - preferred to ignore pleas for increased security from Ambassador Stevens; to abandon him and his colleagues to rampaging terrorists; refuse to follow up with force against those who attacked us; and to lie to the American people about the nature of the attack.

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

Fox News/Benghazi Report #1 - Fox responds to pressure from the WH with a hard hitting special on Benghazi and its interview of three CIA agents who were on the ground during the Benghazi murders.

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<<<  The full, first-hand account of what really happened in Benghazi can be seen when Fox News airs 13 hours at Benghazi: The Inside Story Friday night 10 p.m. (EDT), Saturday at 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. (EDT), and Sunday at 8 p.m. (EDT)

A U.S. security team in Benghazi was held back from immediately responding to the attack on the American diplomatic mission on orders of the top CIA officer there, three of those involved told Fox News’ Bret Baier.

Their account gives a dramatic new turn to what the Obama administration and its allies would like to dismiss as an “old story” – the September 11, 2012 Benghazi attacks that killed U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans.

Based on the new book "13 Hours: The Inside Account of What Really Happened in Benghazi" by Mitchell Zuckoff with the Annex Security Team, the special sets aside the political spin that has freighted the Benghazi issue for the last two years, presenting a vivid, compelling narrative of events from the perspective of the men who wore the “boots on the ground.” Speaking out publicly for the first time, the three were security operators at the secret CIA annex in Benghazi – in effect, the first-responders to any attack on the diplomatic compound. Their first-hand account will be told in a Fox News special, airing Friday night at 10 p.m. (EDT).

The security contractors -- Kris (“Tanto”) Paronto,  Mark (“Oz”) Geist, and John (“Tig”) Tiegen -- spoke exclusively, and at length, to Fox News about what they saw and did that night. Baier, Fox News’ Chief Political Anchor, asked them about one of the most controversial questions arising from the events in Benghazi: Was help delayed?

Word of the attack on the diplomatic compound reached the CIA annex just after 9:30 p.m. Within five minutes, the security team at the annex was geared up for battle, and ready to move to the compound, a mile away.

“Five minutes, we're ready,” said Paronto, a former Army Ranger. “It was thumbs up, thumbs up, we're ready to go.”

But the team was held back. According to the security operators, they were delayed from responding to the attack by the top CIA officer in Benghazi, whom they refer to only as “Bob.”

“It had probably been 15 minutes I think, and … I just said, ‘Hey, you know, we gotta-- we need to get over there, we're losing the initiative,’” said Tiegen. “And Bob just looks straight at me and said, ‘Stand down, you need to wait.’”

“We're starting to get calls from the State Department guys saying, ‘Hey, we're taking fire, we need you guys here, we need help,’” said Paronto.

After a delay of nearly 30 minutes, the security team headed to the besieged consulate without orders. They asked their CIA superiors to call for armed air support, which never came.

Now, looking back, the security team said they believed that if they had not been delayed for nearly half an hour, or if the air support had come, things might have turned out differently.

“Ambassador Stevens and Sean [Smith], yeah, they would still be alive, my gut is yes,” Paronto said. Tiegen concurred.

“I strongly believe if we'd left immediately, they'd still be alive today,” he added.

In a statement to Fox News, a senior intelligence official insisted that,  “There were no orders to anybody to stand down in providing support.”

Baier put that assertion directly to the operators.

“You use the words ‘stand down,’” Baier noted. “A number of people now, including the House Intelligence Committee  insist no one was hindered from responding to the situation at the compound…so what do you say to that?”

“No, it happened,” said Tiegen.

“It happened on the ground-- all I can talk about is what happened on that ground that night,” added Paronto. “To us. To myself, twice, and to-- to Tig, once. It happened that night. We were told to wait, stand-- and stand down.  We were delayed three times.”

In a statement to Fox News, a senior intelligence official did allow that the security team was delayed from responding while the CIA’s top officer in Benghazi tried to rally local support.

In the special, Baier also asks about the infamous YouTube video that was blamed for the violence in Benghazi.

Paronto laughed at the suggestion that the video played any role in the events of that night, saying he did not even know of the video until he was out of Libya and on his way home. “I didn't know about the video ‘till I got to Germany,” he said. “(I had) no idea about any video, no. No, sir.”

The full, first-hand account of what really happened in Benghazi can be seen when Fox News airs 13 hours at Benghazi: The Inside Story Friday night 10 p.m. (EDT), Saturday at 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. (EDT), and Sunday at 8 p.m. (EDT)

Fox News/Benghazi Report #2 - Fox News reveals pressure from the White House to control the Benghazi reporting from Fox. Obviously, someone in tghe WH is afraid of the truth.

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strong concern

Trey Gowdy gets it right on Benghazi and indicts the Administration in so doing (see the May 2014 video) Anyone think that Obama and Hillary are not worried about the coming House investigation, chaired by Gowdy?

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News lede's you may not see anywhere but at Midknight Review.

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Late afternoon breaking news includes 

(#1) the admission,  after two freaking years,  that the alQaeda group responsible for the Benghazi attack and murders,  made off with all the computers and a suit case.  It is believed that items contained extremely critical information,  perhaps classified information.  We also know that the FBI did not secure the scene for two weeks,  if,  in fact,  it ever secured the scene.

(#2):  Lawsuits for FOIA requested information is up 28% in the first year of Obama,  compared to any other presidency.  "FOIA" is Freedom of Information Act; actionable requests resisted on every turn,  by this secretive Administration.  More than this,  Obama has demanded said FOI request docs,  with a view to redacting those documents before they were/are released to the public.  

Watch for updates to come.  

Why did it take nearly two years to arrest this moron? For starters, he was only a member of the murdering crew, not in terror leadership at all. In other words, "they" are going to get away with the Benghazi murders !! Thanks Mr. President for your leadership on this ????? (no article).

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This arrest is nothing but more of the Obama/Benghazi cover-up.  This moron/killer has nothing to do with alQaeda leadership.  Time will tell the truth,  but my "truth" comes from early military reports.  Just more smoke and mirrors coming from this Word Smith we have for a "president."  

After 9/11/2012 and Benghazi, Obama finally decides to "capture" a key figure in the deaths of our four embassy aids and the ambassador. A convenient headline??

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His name is Ahmed Abu Khattala.  Obama has known his where-abouts since the weeks immediately following the tragedy of Benghazi.  Not hard to find,  since he has given dozens of interviews, over the past year and a half,  to the likes of the NY Times,  CNN,  Al Jazeera,  the UK Telegraph,  and Fox News.

Why now and not a year ago, since Obama knew where he was,  for more than yeasr ?  Clearly Obama was waiting for the best time to make use of the headlined arrest.  Now is that time.  And,  make no mistake,  there will be a presser, as he takes a victory lap for this much delayed arrest.  

More than this,  the arrest,  with all the predictable BS that will ensue,  is an implicit admission that the phony video story,  told by Obama,  Hillary,  Susan Rice,  horse head John Kerry and others,  an account put out there by this Administration up until a month ago,  was never honestly considered the cause of the embassy attack.  

You should know that as late at May 30, 2014,  Hillary was defending the "video" versions of the Benghazi event in a Politico interview.  Today's arrest,  strikes at Hillary's credibility - perhaps intentionally,  since she has been busy distancing herself from the Obama presidency,  of late.  

No doubt,  this Administration has no clue as to what it has done  -  arrested a man whose whereabouts have been known by all intel agencies in this world for a year and a half,  not to mention various media organizations,   put a cap on the moronic lie about the anti-Muhammad video and left Hillary holding the bag for her comments defending that phony video account.    

Judicial Watch Lawsuit Success Forces Congress to Act on Benghazi (from my mail box).

32 share Updated for Editor's Notes: I publish these emailed updates from Judicial Watch,  as often as possible.  At the bottom of this post is a live link (I hope) that allows you to make a donation.  "Money walks while BS only talks" - as some say  (or, maybe that is only my personal  colloquialism) .  I have highlighted (in red) the real meat of this review.   Understand that JW is able to "get things done" when others, including congress,  cannot or will not.  In the case of the Benghazi cover-up and the multitude of political "stunts" associated with the cover-up,  it is JW that was able to secure  unredacted (read "harshly edited") copies of emails that take this cover-up into the White House, and,  makes Hillary look all the worse,  as Secretary of State,  along the way.  We finally have a Select House Committee because of the work Judicial Watch has done.  5, 10, 15, 20 dollars would help, I'm sure.    There is no more critical effort, politically speaking,  than the recover of our nation from the hands of the Marxist collectivists who are, now,  our Overlords.    Judicial Watch Lawsuit Success Forces Congress to Act on Benghazi  Last week in the Weekly Update we reported to you that in our continuing efforts to pierce the Obama Benghazi cover-up we had finally found the smoking gun - and started an uproar. On Tuesday, April 29, we released 41 new Benghazi-related State Department documents, and the major media immediately began wall-to-wall coverage that put the Obama administration on the defensive and led to a special House Select Committee that promises to do a better job of exposing the full story of what happened before, during, and after the deadly attack on the U.S. Mission in Benghazi.

We released to the public a newly declassified email showing then-White House Deputy Strategic Communications Adviser Ben Rhodes and other Obama administration public relations officials attempting to orchestrate a campaign to portray the Benghazi consulate terrorist attack as being "rooted in an Internet video, and not a failure of policy."

They also colluded to try to convince the public of Obama's "strength and steadiness in dealing with difficult challenges." Other documents show that State Department officials initially described the incident as an "attack" and a possible kidnap attempt. If you watched the ongoing, remarkable coverage of the Judicial Watch expose, you will recall that the Obama administration's first response was to trot out White House press secretary Jay Carney to tell reporters not to believe their own eyes. Yes, he intoned, of course there was a memo from Rhodes - but it was not about Benghazi:  "This document was explicitly not about Benghazi, but about the general dynamic in the Muslim world at the time," said White House Press Secretary Jay Carney. One blogger over at The Washington Post called the Obama response to the Judicial Watch material, "the worst excuse ever" And Fox News' Brett Bair termed it "surreal": This was a surreal answer from Jay Carney. Now, this is a prep session with Susan Rice, getting ready for five Sunday talk shows. This is three days after 9/11 when four Americans, including the American ambassador to Libya, are killed. Everybody in the chain has said it's a terrorist attack, everyone in the chain is saying there's no protest. And yet this email, if we're to believe Jay Carney at the White House, had nothing to do with Benghazi ... Now, that really strains credulity, I mean it is really out there. In an explosive op-ed in the Washington Times, Judge Andrew Napolitano gave Judicial Watch full credit for getting hold of critical material that the House of Representatives had been denied by a battened-down Obama White House: The White House responded to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by the fearless private watchdog group Judicial Watch and turned over an email about constructing the appropriate narrative response to the tragedy at Benghazi written by Ben Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser to President Obama. When investigators from the House of Representatives realized that they had subpoenaed that email and not received it, they knew that there was far more to learn about the affair than met the eye. After we broke the story, House Speaker John Boehner reacted by calling for a House vote on forming a Select Committee on Benghazi. And I issued the following statement in support of his move: I applaud Speaker Boehner's decision today to finally move toward a Select Committee on Benghazi in response to revelations from Judicial Watch. This is long overdue. Judicial Watch is pleased that its work uncovered the "smoking gun" Rhodes email that led to this important step. Five House Committees have failed for nearly two years to get to the bottom of the Benghazi mess and have been trifled with by a stonewalling administration. We stand ready to assist Congress in any investigation of this important issue. Now, this is a long time coming. Judicial Watch had been part of a broad coalition calling for Boehner to appoint a select committee for some time.  It finally took our startling disclosure, tying the White House to Benghazi lies, to push Boehner over the edge.  Congress had been denied this document, and its investigation and subpoenas had been thwarted by the Obama gang. To his credit, the Speaker of the House had had enough. But, even with all of that, we still aren't finished.  We are pleased that there is now a Select Committee but if you know Judicial Watch, you also know that we aren't going to shut down our investigations and lawsuits just because a new congressional committee has been formed. And so our battle to expose the truth on Benghazi is only heating up.  Obama Administration Benghazi Cover Up Continues Once again, taking the lead in investigating Benghazi, Judicial Watch released a 17-page draft Vaughn Index document obtained from the U.S. Department of State on May 1, which reveals how the Obama administration is still refusing to provide the full details of how top officials arrived at the now-discredited talking points released to the public following the deadly assault on the U.S. Mission in Benghazi, Libya. The new documents, containing more than 50 paragraphs of justifications to withhold information, were obtained in response our June 2013 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit (Judicial Watch, Inc., v. U.S. Department of State, (Civil Action No. 13-cv-00951 (EGS)) that uncovered the Benghazi White House talking points stunner. A Vaughn Index is a document prepared by a federal agency to justify and detail the withholding of material from public disclosure.  The State Department sent the Benghazi draft Vaughn Index to Judicial Watch on May 1, 2014, in accordance with a court order of October 1, 2013. The new document seeks to justify withholding internal Obama administration exchanges about the Benghazi attack dating back to a September 11, 2013, interagency email exchange containing redactions of an opinion offered on how to respond Benghazi attack updates. Though the State Department document repeatedly describes the material as "Unclassified" or "Sensitive But Unclassified," it nonetheless justifies scores of extensive redactions and exemptions. I'm going to go through this material in detail for you because much of the media will do its best provide cover for a White House already under attack because of Judicial Watch's revelations. The majority of material in the draft Vaughn Index document pertains to "various drafts, and comments related to the drafts, of a proposed letter from United States Mission to the United Nations (USUN) Ambassador Susan Rice in response to various Congressional inquiries regarding the September 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. Mission in Benghazi, Libya." The internal debate about the Rice response apparently continued until October 30, 2012. The material obtained by Judicial Watch included the following descriptions related to redacted or exempted material: [The Vaughan Index includes the following critical docs ~ blog editor]: •    Document C05415305 is a seven-page inter-agency e-mail exchange consisting of sixteen messages between State Department and other U.S. Government officials [Rhodes, Brennan, McDonough . . .] on September 27 and September 28, 2012, with an original subject line "FOX News: US officials knew Libya attack was terrorism within 24 hours, sources confirm." Subsequent e-mail subject lines were redacted. The document was originally designated SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED. The Department withheld comments, opinions and assessments related to the formulation of a media strategy with respect to an ongoing sensitive matter under Exemption 5 pursuant to the deliberative process privilege...The information withheld under Exemption 5 is pre-decisional and deliberative in nature. The release of this information could reasonably be expected to chill the frank deliberations that occur when State Department and other U.S. Government officials are formulating public responses to address sensitive issues. The material is therefore exempt under FOIA Exemption 5, 5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(5), pursuant to the deliberative process privilege." •    Document C05415752 is a one-page intra-agency e-mail exchange, consisting of three messages, that is dated September 11, 2012, and bears the subject line "UPDATE: Clashes at U.S. consulate in eastern Libyan city (Reuters)." The Department withheld an opinion offered in response to an update regarding the Benghazi attack under FOIA Exemption 5 pursuant to the deliberative process privilege. •    Document C05415756 is a four-page intra-agency e-mail exchange consisting of ten messages between State Department officials, dated September 11, 2012, with the subject line "Libya update from Beth Jones." [Jones was Assistant Secretary of State to Hillary Clinton at the time of the Benghazi attack.] •    Document C05415286 is a three-page intra-agency e-mail exchange, consisting of three messages, dated September 15, 2012, between various State Department personnel. This document ... gives a readout and comments on an internal video conference held by U.S. Government officials on September 15, which discussed the security situation in parts of the Islamic world in the wake of a controversial film on the Prophet Mohammed. •    Document C05415951 is a three-page intra-agency e-mail exchange, consisting of six messages, between State Department and other U.S. Government officials, dated September 28, 2012 and originally designated UNCLASSIFIED. The subject line of the first five messages is "Statement by the Director of Public Affairs for National Intelligence Shawn Turner on the intelligence related to the terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya." •    Document C05415969 is a three-page intra-agency e-mail exchange, consisting of six messages, dated September 29-30, 2012. The subject line of the messages is "Benghazi Draft Response Letter- v14." The Department withheld candid comments, opinions and assessments made during internal strategy discussions related to the drafting of an official response letter under FOIA Exemption 5 pursuant to the deliberative process privilege. •    Documents C05416026 is a two-page intra-agency e-mail exchange, consisting of three messages, dated September 30, 2012. The subject lines of the three messages are, beginning with the earliest in time, "Press Recommendation on Libya," "Draft Response - Vl 7," and "[Redacted] version of the response letter." The State Department's withholdings make President Obama's transparency pledges seem like a joke. In one of his first official acts (on January 21, 2009, President Obama issued a memorandum on FOIA that includes the following: Freedom of Information Act should be administered with a clear presumption: In the face of doubt, openness prevails. The Government should not keep information confidential merely because public officials might be embarrassed by disclosure, because errors and failures might be revealed, or because of speculative or abstract fears. Nondisclosure should never be based on an effort to protect the personal interests of Government officials at the expense of those they are supposed to serve. In responding to requests under the FOIA, executive branch agencies (agencies) should act promptly and in a spirit of cooperation, recognizing that such agencies are servants of the public. All agencies should adopt a presumption in favor of disclosure, in order to renew their commitment to the principles embodied in FOIA, and to usher in a new era of open Government. The presumption of disclosure should be applied to all decisions involving FOIA. This document is a guide to the Obama administration's Benghazi cover up.  While Congress finally tries to get its act together, while the liberal media attacks, Judicial Watch will keep plugging away in court to get at the truth about Benghazi  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Until next week... Tom Fitton President