SPECIAL - BENGHAZI 091013

 

BENGHAZI Anniversary

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Benghazi Blackout: How the Big Three Networks Have Censored or Spun Obama's Deadly Foreign Policy Failure

Wednesday marks the one year anniversary of the attack on the U.S. embassy in Benghazi that left Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans dead and sent the Obama administration scrambling for a cover story that the Big Three broadcast networks initially bought and were slow to unravel.
A similar pattern has emerged in 2013. As new information about the administration’s actions before and after the attacks have been revealed through congressional testimony, whistleblowers, and eyewitnesses, the Big Three have responded by censoring, breezing past or spinning politically damaging bombshells. (full special report after the jump)

  From praising Hillary Clinton’s January testimony on Benghazi as a “fiery” “valedictory” to ignoring accusations of witness intimidation, the networks have, for the most part, operated as an arm of the White House PR machine. The only events that drew truly critical coverage were Gregory Hicks’ compelling testimony of the events of that tragic day and the release of e-mails that proved the administration had engaged in scrubbing CIA talking points. However these stories came in the midst of the intense but relatively brief period in May that the networks were forced to cover the myriad of scandals (IRS, AP, NSA) breaking all at once.
But when it was revealed, in July, that Benghazi survivors, State Department and CIA employees were being forced to sign non-disclosure agreements the Big Three networks responded with a yawn, offering not one single story.
The following is a chronological list of key developments in the Benghazi scandal and how they were covered or not covered on ABC’s World News, Good Morning America, CBS’s Evening News, This Morning, and NBC’s Nightly News and Today show.

Hillary’s ‘What Difference at This Point Does It Make?’ Hearing Performance Praised
On January 23 Hillary Clinton came before Congress to testify about her State Department’s bungling of Benghazi, and when pressed about how the administration misled about the causes of the raid coldly pronounced: “The fact is we have four dead Americans. Was it because of a protest or was it because of guys out for a walk one night who decided they’d go kill some Americans. What difference, at this point, does it make?” The reaction of network anchors and reporters wasn’t to condemn the chilling dodge, but to herald it as a moment of righteous indignation.   

 US consulate attack in Benghazi: a challenge to official version of events

A year after the first US ambassador in 33 years was killed on duty, Chris Stephen, one of the first western reporters on the scene in Benghazi, pieces together what really happened from witness accounts, official reports, and the ruins of the compound

The attack on the US consulate in Benghazi was striking for a number of reasons: the date, 11 September, the toll – four diplomats killed, including an ambassador – and the knock-on effects on the careers of senior American politicians.
But what is perhaps most striking is the inconsistencies: the US version of events compared with those of witnesses and the facts on the ground. The two do not tally. And so, a year later, there remain pressing questions about what happened that night – and what the Americans say happened.
see chronology of events here

How the Obama administration commemorates the anniversaries of 9/11 and Benghazi terrorist attack

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush has zero respect for the four courageous Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, who lost their lives in a terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, one year ago tomorrow.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t be the one to honor former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with this year’s Liberty Medal from the National Constitution Center, today, on the eve of the first anniversary of the Benghazi terrorist attack.

What’s with the Philadelphia-based National Constitution Center allowing the Liberty
Medal to be awarded to Clinton on the very eve of the day before she allowed Stevens, Tyrone Woods, Glen Doherty and Sean Smith to die with no help from the administration she was serving?

Where is the National Constitution Center’s on-the-books protocol?

Obama Still Lives in the Shadow of Benghazi 

A Reluctant Commander-in-Chief Addresses the Nation on the Eve of 9/11

As President Obama tries desperately to extricate himself from his incoherent Syrian policy, his address to the nation Tuesday night is heavy with irony.
The annual commemoration of 9/11 marks the worst attack on U.S. soil, when nearly 3,000 people were killed in the terrorist strikes in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania. Since last year, we have added another terrorist attack on Americans on 9/11, the terrorist attacks in Benghazi that killed four Americans.

The president will address the nation on the eve of 9/11. Despite his bellicose rhetoric, he is the same reluctant Commander-in-Chief who abandoned Americans in Benghazi last year.
Last September, in the heat of a presidential campaign, Obama and his advisors devised a preposterous explanation to avoid action in Benghazi. It was a stunning example of the president’s unwillingness to use American power, even to save our own ambassador and fighting men.
Now he is up to his neck in a foreign-policy crisis of his own making. Events are moving quickly, but it is likely that the president will grasp at any straw that will get him out of this mess. Most of all, he will leap at any suggestion that prevents a possible defeat in Congress or the exercise of his most dreaded option – the use of American military power to enforce his ultimatums.

Susan Rice Will Brief Congress On Syria On Anniversary Of Benghazi

Susan Rice, who falsely told the nation that the terrorist attacks in Benghazi on Sept. 11, 2012 had developed out of a spontaneous demonstration against a YouTube video, will mark the one year anniversary of those attacks by briefing Congress to make the administration’s case for authorizing President Barack Obama to use military force in Syria.

Speaking on CBS’s “Face the Nation” today, House Intelligence Chairman Mike Rogers (R.-Mich.) pointed to the administration’s decision to have Rice brief members of Congress about this issue on the anniversary of the Benghazi attacks as emblematic of the administration’s bumbling approach to making its case for intervening in Syria.

On Monday, Rice will give a speech about Syria to the New America Foundation, then speak to the Congressional Black Caucus and participate in a classified briefing that the administration will provide to members of Congress, the Associated Press has reported. She will then participate in another classified briefing for Congress on Wednesday–which will be the twelfth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the U.S. homeland and the one year anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the State Department and CIA facilities in Benghazi, Libya.

It's time for a Select Committee to investigate

It’s been a full year since the Benghazi attack that killed four Americans, including a U.S. Ambassador, yet we still do not know the details of what transpired that day and no one has been held accountable. There are those in the administration and the U.S. Congress that want this issue to go away. We pledge to do all we can to make sure that doesn’t happen -- but we need your help. It’s time for ANSWERS. It’s time for ACCOUNTABILITY. The U.S. Congress must form a special, short-term committee with subpoena power to focus solely on the Benghazi attack. Right now, over 2/3rd of the House Republican Conference agree and have cosponsored H. Res. 36. Please check below to see if your Representative is a cosponsor of this important proposal. If not, please call or e-mail the office to ask that he she do so immediately.

Call your representative and ask them to co-sponsor H. Res. 36.

(Make sure you say H. Res. 36 because H. R. is an entirely different bill.)

Report: Kerry tells Congress he will not honor request to make Benghazi survivors available

 Secretary of State John Kerry has said he will not make the Benghazi survivors available for questioning, according to a tweet by CBS News’ Sharyl Attkisson.

As a result, House Republicans say they intend to issue subpoenas if Kerry, who, by the way, served in Vietnam, does not change his mind.
Attkisson tweeted:
Sharyl Attkisson        ✔ @SharylAttkisson

Secy Kerry tells congress he will not honor the request to make Benghazi survivors available for questioning.

1:22 PM - 10 Sep 2013

“Somehow, despite the best efforts of Obama administration obfuscation, the memories of the four brave men brutally slaughtered in Benghazi will get the justice they deserve,” Twitchy said.
According to issa, the State Department has either ignored or denied earlier requests for access.
At least some in the GOP House leadership want answers.
Examiner reported:
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, the fourth-highest ranking GOP House leader, said Monday in an email to Examiner.com that oversight investigations into the terror attack on a U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi last year are ongoing.
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US consulate attack in Benghazi: a challenge to official version of events - See more at: http://specialoperationsspeaks.com/articles/us-consulate-attack-in-benghazi-a-challenge-to-official-version-of-events#sthash.whG522Bg.jbDAEcVX.dpuf