LIVE BLOG Benghazi Hearing Fallout
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee conducts a hearing with Foreign Service officers focusing on information turned over to the committee by administration whistle-blowers on the Benghazi terrorist attacks. Video below.
5/10/13 White House Press Conference
Full video: http://foxnewsinsider.com/2013/05/10/watch-media-tears-jay-carney-over-revisions-benghazi-talking-points
Archived video:
http://www.c-span.org/Live-Video/C-SPAN3/
Here’s a good synopsis of how the MSM views this. Actual tweet:
Who’s tweeting about Benghazi? Rich, middle-aged men and Chick-fil-A lovers wapo.st/18YFgKP
— Washington Post (@washingtonpost) May 8, 2013
BACKGROUND:
(Brenner Brief) Since the announcement of Benghazi update by Chairman of the Oversight Committee, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), several news agencies have reported witness testimonies in recent days. Rep. Issa appeared on CBS Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer last Sunday to discuss the upcoming hearing.
Fox News reported Mark I Thompson, former Marine and current deputy coordinator for operations in the counterterrorism bureau, will testify that Hillary Clinton, then Secretary of State, and Patrick Kennedy, Under Secretary for Management, tried to cut out the counterterrorism bureau out of the loop of reporting and decision-making. A second official in the same counterterrorism bureau, corroborates Thompson’s testimony, and said, “You should have seen what (Clinton) tried to do to us that night.”
CBS News reported Gregory Hicks, deputy to U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and second highest-ranking U.S. official in Libya before the Benghazi attack, told committee investigators that “he knew it was a terrorist attack from the get go”, and a Special Forces team was prepared to fly from Tripoli to Benghazi during the September 11, 2012 attacks. They were told at the last-minute to stand down by SOCAFRICA. As no assistance arrived from U.S. military outside of Libya, Americans trapped in compounds were attacked with rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and AK-47 rifles. Hicks said he believes if they were allowed to go they could have saved American lives since the U.S. Souda Bay Naval Base is only an hour’s flight from Libya.
Fox News also reported Eric Nordstrom, a diplomatic security officer who was the regional security officer in Libya and top security officer in the country in the months leading up to the attacks, said in the October hearing that he, Amb. Stevens and others made requests for enhanced security, but were denied those requests by the State Department. He testified he was “angry over inadequate staffing at a time when the threat environment in Benghazi was deteriorating.”