Clinton accused of faking illness to avoid Benghazi testimony

[George Gervin's Afro]

Clinton accused of faking illness to avoid Benghazi testimony

Republicans may use Benghazi to spearhead attacks on outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.


December 19, 2012, 3:01 p.m.
The State Department slammed former United Nations envoy John Bolton over his suggestion that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton falsely claimed a concussion to avoid a potentially embarrassing appearance before Congress to explain the deadly terrorist attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya.

In an appearance on Fox News, Bolton said that Clinton’s claim that she had fainted because of the flu, hitting her head and suffering a concussion, was what foreign service officers call a “diplomatic illness,” intended to free a diplomat from an unpleasant duty. Clinton was supposed to appear before congressional foreign affairs committees on Thursday to respond to questions about whether security failures opened the way for the Sept. 11 attack.

“This is a diplomatic illness to beat the band,” said Bolton, who served during the George W. Bush administration. “I mean, I hope it’s nothing serious. But this was revealed in a way that I think was not transparent and I think there is an obligation here.”
Nuland, a State Department spokeswoman, insisted to reporters Tuesday that suggestions Clinton faked her illness are “completely untrue.”

She said that Bolton and others who have questioned the concussion “are people who don’t know what they’re talking about.”

“It’s unfortunate that in times like this people make wild speculation based on no information,” she said.

Clinton’s withdrawal from the hearing has prompted speculation that she is trying to finish her term as chief diplomat without suffering any criticism for the attack. Clinton has said she does not intend to serve in President Obama’s second term.

The secretary, considered a top Democratic presidential contender in 2016, declined to appear on Sunday talk shows five days after the attack, which killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, and three other Americans. Instead, the job went to U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice.

PHOTOS: Notable moments of the 2012 presidential election

Republicans have attacked Rice’s comments on those shows, saying that she was trying to avoid political fallout by saying that the attack was a “spontaneous” crowd reaction rather than a calculated terrorist attack.

The announcement that Clinton will not testify has been received skeptically by conservative bloggers and commentators. Fox News described the injury as a “purported concussion.”

Clinton said Monday in a letter to the committee that she would respond to the committee’s questions in January.

I think Bolton needs to keep singing

[boutons_deux]

The Why Behind the Benghazi Attack

The Benghazi failure is one more reminder of the unfortunate militarization of the intelligence community, particularly the CIA, in the wake of 9/11 that finds our major civilian intelligence service becoming a paramilitary center in support of the war-fighter.
Last year’s appointment of Gen. David Petraeus as CIA director; the CIA’s increased role in drone attacks in Southwest Asia, the Persian Gulf and the Horn of Africa; and the insufficient attention to providing strategic intelligence for the policymaker have weakened the Agency’s central missions.

The success of the Bush and Obama administrations in compromising the CIA’s Office of the Inspector General has ensured that the Agency’s flaws have gone uncorrected. The politicization of intelligence in the run-up to the Iraq War in 2003 was the worst intelligence scandal in the CIA’s history, but there were no penalties for those who shared CIA Director George Tenet’s willingness to make phony intelligence a “slam dunk.”
If more attention is not given to the biblical inscription at the entrance to the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, that only “the truth will set you free,” the decline of the intelligence community will continue.

http://consortiumnews.com/2012/12/20...hazi-attack-2/

[Th'Pusher]

Hillary Clinton is hospitalized with a blood clot related to a concussion earlier this month, her spokesman said.

[Agloco]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-20873318

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been admitted to hospital in New York with a blood clot, officials say.

Mrs Clinton suffered a concussion earlier this month after fainting and falling down.

At the time, she was reported to have had a stomach virus and to have passed out after becoming dehydrated.

Mrs Clinton is due to stand down as secretary of state before US President Barack Obama officially begins his second term in January.

Doctors discovered the clot during a follow-up examination on Sunday, her spokesman Philippe Reines said.

Mrs Clinton is being treated with anti-coagulants. She was admitted to New York-Presbyterian Hospital, where she will remain for the next 48 hours so that doctors can monitor her medication.

She is expected back at her desk on Monday, Mr Reines said.

[DMC]

Too bad the clot hasn't ruptured.

[boutons_deux]

it's a clot, not an aneurysm

breaking up clots is what you want, want drugs try to do.

[DMC]

it's a clot, not an aneurysm

breaking up clots is what you want, want drugs try to do.

I know. Why would I want her to have an aneurysm?

[boutons_deux]

I know. Why would I want her to have an aneurysm?

GFY

[DMC]

GFY

Good For You

[Winehole23]

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2013/0...y-on-benghazi/

[cheguevara]

John Bolton

dude has more blood on his hands than a butcher

why this scoundrel is still allowed to speak is beyond me

[SA210]

[cheguevara]

[SA210]

Pretty much

[cheguevara]

yup

but Hilary stupid and inept as she might be has not blood in her hands the way Lucifer Bolton has.

it's like comparing Hitler to Bush tbh

[SA210]

yup

but Hilary stupid and inept as she might be has not blood in her hands the way Lucifer Bolton has.

it's like comparing Hitler to Bush tbh

But it was supposed to be hope and change. Transparency.

[DUNCANownsKOBE]

Bush & Bolton allowed the largest modern day domestic attack on America to happen. Obama and Clinton allowed some embassy attack in Africa that killed 4 people to happen. That's change.

[spursncowboys]

@DOK you're an idiot. lmao.
allowed...
I feel sorry for the people you are going to meet once you get tired of WOW

[cheguevara]

Bolton could possibly have american 911 blood on his hands.

He's the one who publicly admitted children living in terrorist areas are worth less than Jew children. Also doubled down on purposely stalling cease fire in Lebanon that resulted in many dead civilians and children. I am pretty sure Bolton's actions partly caused 911.

[SA210]

Ben Swann with the goods, yet again.

Wednesday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton went before members of Congress to answer questions.What questions did the Secretary of State answer? What was one question the Senators failed to ask?Ben has the Reality Check you won't see anywhere else. For more background on the U.S. support of Al Qaeda, click here.

Reality Check: One question Sec. of State Clinton was not asked about Benghazi


http://www.fox19.com/story/20664067/...about-benghazi


------------------------------

Segment referenced in the above story..

Reality Check: 1-on-1 with President Obama, why is the U.S. supporting Al Qaeda in Syria?

http://www.fox19.com/story/19518328/...qaeda-in-syria

[boutons_deux]

Fox Analyst Says GOP ‘Looked Like Weenies’ During Clinton’s Benghazi Hearings

Fox News military analyst Lt. Col. Ralph Peters (ret.) — who has certainly not been known for his affection for progressives and liberalism — praised Clinton’s performance. “I came away with deeper respect for Hillary Clinton’s bureaucratic lawyerly brilliance,” Peters said. “I mean she was just tough and good and the Republicans looked like weenies:”

PETERS:

Hillary mops floor with congressmen and senators.

She was as James Rosen pointed out, she was prepared.

She had it down.

She had answers — anticipatory answers ready.

And the congressmen and senators didn’t do their homework.

They made speeches again as James Rosen pointed out.

They — their questions were ill focused.

They went down the red herring road with Susan Rice as you pointed out.

http://thinkprogress.org/security/20...n-gop-weenies/

Repugs get -slapped by the neo-con war monger/world policeman

[boutons_deux]

Murdoch dirty toilet paper:

[boutons_deux]

Top Ten Republican Myths on Benghazi that Justify Hillary Clinton’s Anger

1. Republican senators keep saying that it should have been “easy” to find out what happened on September 11, 2012, by simply debriefing US personnel who had been there. John McCain, Ron Johnson and the others who make this charge are the most cynical and manipulative people in the world. The Benghazi US mission was very clearly an operation of the Central Intelligence Agency, and that is the reason that the Obama administration officials have never been able to speak frankly and publicly about it. McCain and the others know this very well, and they know that their public carping cannot be “simply” answered because the answers would endanger sources and methods. The consulate was amazingly well-guarded by some 40 CIA operatives, many of them ex-special forces, in a nearby safe house. These were viewed by consular officials as “the cavalry.” It is still not clear what Ambassador Chris Stevens and the CIA were doing in Benghazi, and unless we know that we can’t know why they were attacked. (They were not overseeing the shipping of weapons to Syria; the Syrian revolutionaries complain bitterly that the US *prevents* them from getting medium and heavy weapons).

2. Republicans keep posturing that their questions about Benghazi are intended to bolster US security. In fact, they are harming it. Republican hearings in the House of Representative have disgracefully revealed the names of Libyans talking to the US consulate [3], thus endangering their lives and harming US efforts to understand the situation in the country, since who would risk talking to the embassy if they know about Darrell Issa’s big mouth?

3. The GOP figures keep saying that it was obvious that there was no demonstration at the Benghazi consulate against the so-called “film,” the ‘Innocence of Muslims’ that attacked the Prophet Muhammad. But in fact Libyan security officials repeatedly told wire services on September 12 that there was such a demonstration [4], and that the attack issued from those quarters. An American resident in Benghazi at that time confirms that there were such demonstrations that day [5]. The secular-minded revolutionary militia that guarded the US consulate for the Libyan government kept the demonstrations far enough away from the consulate gates that they would not have shown up in security videos.

4. Benghazi, a city of over a million, is not dominated by “al-Qaeda,” contrary to what Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina has repeatedly said or implied. The city had successful municipal elections in May, just before I got there.The number one vote-getter was a woman professor of statistics at the university [6]. While political Islam is a force in Benghazi, only some relatively small groups are militant, and it has to compete with nationalist, tribal and regional ideological currents. In Libya’s parliamentary elections of July, 2012, the Muslim Brotherhood did very poorly and nationalists came to power. Women won 20% of the seats! The elected Speaker of Parliament, Muhammad Magarief, called for a secular cons ution for Libya and a separation of religion and state [7].

5. Contrary to repeated assertions that it was obvious that terrorist groups were rampaging around in the city, members of the Benghazi municipal council [8] told then US ambassador Chris Stevens that security in the city was improving in summer, 2012.

In fact, one Senator John McCain said during a visit [9] to Libya last February, ““We are very happy to be back here in Libya and to note the enormous progress and changes made in the past few months… We know that many challenges lie ahead… but we are encouraged by what we have seen.” Doesn’t sound to me like McCain was running around like Chicken Little warning that the sky was about to fall on US diplomats there. Want to know who else came along on that trip? Lindsey Graham, who likewise didn’t issue any dire warnings in its aftermath.

6. Contrary to the “Libya-is-riddled-with-al-Qaeda” meme of the GOP politicians, there is a strong civil society and tribal opposition to fundamentalist militias in Benghazi, of which Amb. Chris Stevens was well aware. Tripoli-based journalist Abd-al-Sattar Ha ah explained in the pages of the pan-Arab London daily al-Sharq al-Awsat [Sept. 30, 2012, trans. USG Open Source Center]:

“It appears that the simple rule Benghazi’s people thought of applying was based on other experiences in which the radical Islamists or militants in general managed to grow, prosper, and expand by seeking protection from the tribes, as happened in Afghanistan, Somalia, and Yemen. But the civil movements which became very active [in Benghazi] after the fall of Al-Qadhafi’s regime were the ones that formed alliances this time with the tribes, the notables, wise men councils, and civil society figures against the militants. This is akin to the “Sahwat” in Iraq. The alliance managed to expel the brigades from the town and encouraged the nascent Libyan authorities to tighten their restrictions on all armed manifestations…

He adds that [a meeting by secular notables with the tribes] was also attended by representatives from the army chiefs-of-staff and the Interior Ministry as well as a number of members from the National Congress (parliament). “All civil society organizations also took part with us. Everybody consented to issuing the statement against the presence of the [fundamentalist] brigades and we distributed 3,000 copies. “
This was around September 3. After the attack on the US consulate, tens of thousands of people in Benghazi demonstrated against the violence and in favor of the US and Stevens. Then they attempted to sweep the fundamentalist militias from the city [10].

7. Al-Qaeda is not for the most part even a “thing” in Libya. The only formal al-Qaeda affiliate in the region is al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), which is not a Libyan but an Algerian organization. Just calling all Salafi groups “al-Qaeda” is propaganda. They have to swear fealty to Ayman al-Zawahiri (or in the past, Usama Bin Laden) to be al-Qaeda. The main al-Qaeda connection in Benghazi is to Abu Yahya al-Libi, who was killed in northern Pakistan by a US drone strike in June. Some of his close relatives in Benghazi may have been angry about this (depending on how well they liked him), but they are not known to form a formal al-Qaeda cell. There are also young men from Dirna in the Benghazi area, some of whom fought against the US in Iraq. Their numbers are not large and, again, they don’t have al-Zawahiri’s phone number on auto-dial. Sen. McCain was a big supporter of the US intervention in Libya and seems to have been all right with Abdul Hakim Belhadj being his ally, even though in the zeroes Belhadj would have been labeled ‘al-Qaeda.’

8. Ansar al-Sharia (Helpers of Islamic Law) is just an informal grouping of a few hundred hard line fundamentalists in Benghazi, and may be a code word to refer to several small organizations. There are no known operational links between Ansar al-Sharia and al-Qaeda. It is a local thing in Benghazi.

9. Leaders of Ansar al-Sharia have denied that they directed their organization to attack the US consulate [11] and have condemned the attack.

10. Lindsey Graham and others point to instances of political violence this past summer in Benghazi as obvious harbingers of the September 11 consulate attack. But it was a tiny fringe group, the Omar Abdel Rahman Brigades, that claimed responsibility for setting off a small pipe bomb in front of the gate of the US consulate last June. This is what the US statement [12] said last June:

“There was an attack late last night on the United States office in Benghazi,” a US embassy official said, adding that only the gate was damaged and no one was hurt. The diplomat said a homemade bomb had been used in the attack on the office, set up after the 2011 uprising against Muammar Qadhafi and kept open to support the democratic transition “

You’d have to be a real scaredy cat to pack up and leave because of a thing like that, which is what Sen. Graham keeps saying should have been the response. Likewise the same small cell was responsible for attacks on the office of the Red Cross and on a convoy of the British consulate, which injured a consular employ. Security isn’t all that great in Benghazi, though actually I suspect the criminal murder rate is much lower than in any major American city. I walked around freely in Benghazi in early June, and couldn’t have disguised my being a Westerner if I had wanted to, and nobody looked at me sideways. A pipe bomb and a shooting, neither of them fatal, did not stand out as dire in a city full of armed militias, most of them grateful to the US and Britain for their help in the revolution. You can understand why the Red Cross packed it in after a couple of attacks, but the US government is not the Red Cross.


http://www.alternet.org/world/top-te...clintons-anger

[SA210]

[ChumpDumper]

Well, what difference does it make?