Issa: Obama Covered Up Benghazi Terrorism By Calling It An ‘Act Of Terror’

[Galraedia]

Source: ThinkProgress

House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) responded to President Obama’s forceful condemnation of the GOP’s effort to portray his administration’s response to the attacks on the American diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya as a cover-up on Monday, suggesting that the president sought to downplay the severity of the incident by describing the killings of four Americans as an “act of terror” rather than a “terrorist attack”

In the day following the Benghazi attacks, Obama appeared at the White House Rose Garden alongside then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. In his remarks, Obama referred to the incident as an “act of terror” and used the phrase again at a campaign rally the day after in Denver, CO. “I want people around the world to hear me: To all those who would do us harm, no act of terror will go unpunished,” he said.

But Issa claimed that Obama relied on the “act of terror” formulation to dissuade Americans from thinking it was a terror attack, thus improving his chances of re-election.

“The president sent a letter to the President of Libya where he didn’t call it a terrorist attack even when at the time the President of Libya was calling it pre-planned Sept. 11 terrorist attack,” Issa told Fox News’ Megyn Kelly. “The words that are being used carefully — like you just said, ‘act of terror’ — an ‘act of terror’ is different than a ‘terrorist attack.’ The truth is, this was a terrorist attack, this had Al Qaeda at it.”

Read more: http://thinkprogress.org/security/2013/05/13/2002871/issa-obama-covered-up-benghazi-terrorism-by-calling-it-an-act-of-terror/

[mac56]

1. Oh, FFS.

[Gregorian]

2. So transparent. Utterly shameful.

[stopbush]

3. Does any person with a scintilla of decency care what Darrel Issa thinks?

Issa is the one who needs to be investigated.

[HowHasItComeToThis]

25. HE JUST WANTS RUBLICITY

[DonViejo]

4. And Bush said...

During a visit to Washington Hospital Center on Sep. 13, 2001 — just two days after the attacks on the World Trade Center — President George W. Bush described the incident as an “unbelievable act of terror.”

http://thinkprogress.org/security/2013/05/13/2002871/issa-obama-covered-up-benghazi-terrorism-by-calling-it-an-act-of-terror/

[santamargarita]

5. That statement makes about as much sense as he does!

[pinto]

6. Oy. Grabbing at straws...

and he's just scrambling now.

[mike_c]

7. WTF?

Issa is a shit stain on the GOP's shorts.

[alsame]

8. You say to-may-to and I say ta-mah-to. nt

[Tommy_Carcetti]

9. Congress of the absurd.

I guess it depends on what the definition of the word "of" is.

[SoapBox]

10. Issa you filthy, crooked bastard...

STFU!

...you are rotten to your core.

[AtheistCrusader]

11. Has no one asked him what kind of person commits an Act Of Terror?

Could it be... a Terrorist?

Fuckin' douchebag. I mean, the gall of the president, not to hop up and down on the nearest pile of rubble screaming into a megaphone over this. Clearly an impeachable dereliction of executive power, not inflaming the situation and giving the terrorists that committed this act of terror what they wanted.


Next he'll want to impeach the president for wearing the wrong color tie at a staff function.

[Voice for Peace]

12. call the men in white coats to come take Issa away

pleeeeeeeeez

[Frustratedlady]

13. Someone must have spiked the Kool Aid...

These clowns don't even make sense anymore.

[dschoen]

14. Here's a clue for Issa.. .

Calling out someone who commits an act of arson is like calling him an arsonist. Issa's been, done that. He's lucky he isn't in jail.

[hrmjustin]

24. Welcome to DU my friend!

[monmouth3]

15. I thought the President referred to them as "extremists." Issa is nutz...n/t

[catchnrelease]

16. No words...

[link:|

[Blue Owl]

17. Snake Oil is not the same as Oil of Snake

n/t

[gordianot]

18. What ever happened to Issa's indictment for "Grand theft auto"?

He should stick to selling used cars and related criminal enterprise, however being a Republican chair on a committee in the House of Representatives makes sense.

[muriel_volestrangler]

23. I'd forgotten he was the one with 2 grand theft auto indictments, and a dodgy insurance claim

A fellow soldier, Jay Bergey, said that Issa stole his Dodge Charger in 1971, and that ""I confronted Issa. . .. . I got in his face and threatened to kill him, and magically my car reappeared the next day, abandoned on the turnpike." No charges were ever filed. Issa has denied any theft.

After receiving a hardship discharge in 1972, because his father had a heart attack, Issa earned a General Educational Development (GED) certificate. Twice that year, he was arrested. In the first incident he was indicted by a grand jury for an alleged theft of a Maserati, but prosecutors dropped the charge. In the second incident, he was stopped for driving the wrong way on a one-way street, and a police officer noticed a firearm in his glove compartment. Issa was charged with carrying a concealed weapon; he pled guilty to a charge of possession of an unregistered firearm, and was sentenced to six months' probation and a small fine. Issa has said he believes the record has since been expunged.
...
Shortly before his discharge, Issa was again indicted for grand theft auto, but Issa insisted he was innocent and by August, 1980, the prosecution dropped the case.
...
Issa soon turned Steal Stopper around, to the point that it was supplying Ford with thousands of car alarms and negotiating a similar deal with Toyota. But early in the morning of September 7, 1982, the offices and factory of Quantum and Steal Stopper in the Cleveland suburb of Maple Heights, caught fire. The fire took three hours to put out; the buildings and almost all inventory within were destroyed. An investigation of the cause of the fire noted "suspicious burn patterns" with fires starting in two places aided by an accelerant such as gasoline. Adkins said that Issa appeared to prepare for a fire by increasing the fire insurance policy 462% three weeks previously, and by removing computer equipment holding accounting and customer information. Adkins said that he thinks Issa set the fire on purpose. The insurance company was suspicious of arson and paid only about one-tenth the insured amount.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darrell_Issa

How the hell can a man like that be put in charge of a Committee on Oversight and Government Reform? I'd be counting the teaspoons after he came round for coffee. It's outrageous that someone like that can end up calling the use of 'act of terror' versus 'terrorist attack' a 'scandal'. It ought to be an Onion story.

[Rebl]

31. How in

The world did he ever get elected with his criminal history. I think that fire should be investigated again. Probably way past the time it can be investigated again though.

[Jack Rabbit]

19. I'd like to make sense out of what Issa is saying

Let's see, Issa has a problem with the President calling the embassy attack "terrorism" (or "an act of terror," but then Issa tries to tell us --or Megyn Kelly, at least -- that there is a distinction between the two terms) because it was terrorism and thus the President, by calling it terrorism in plain, simple language is covering up something (I'm not sure what) and ought to be impeached for not doing his job. How dare he do his job and cover the fact that he didn't do his job?

After the impeachment of Clinton, I didn't think the Republicans could look any sillier. But they do now. Hey, Darrell, at least Clinton really did have sex with that woman.

Man, it must be tough on people like Issa, when the (starts with N rhymes with trigger) is doing his job and they can't burn a cross on the White House lawn without looking like a bunch of racist idiots.

[Bandit]

20. Hey, Darrell, at least Clinton really did have sex with that woman.

Not according to the prosecuter that gave him their "legal definition" Oral sex was/is not considered sex by "legal definition.. Clinton did not lie if one goes by the LAW and it's definitions.

[Jack Rabbit]

27. That argument is just good enough to shoot down any one who argues

. . . that Clinton still committed a crime by lying. Of course, when Mr. Livingstone resigned from Congress after less than a week as Speaker of the House because he was caught in a sex scandal, that was another nail in the coffin that the GOP was being the least bit high minded that they could claim "this isn't about sex." Both claims, of President Clinton and of an endless stream of GOP Congressmen and their apologists, are equally ridiculous.

President Clinton's "I did not have sex with that woman" remarks were delivered at the end of a press conference voluntarily. He was not responding to any direct question and didn't need to say anything. Whatever he said under oath in court that may have been true given the law, under those circumstances Mr. Clinton should have, preferably, kept his mouth shut, but since that was too hard for him and he was speaking to me and a few million others, he should have used a less formal definition of sex, like the one most of use. Speaking only for myself, my definition of sex encompasses fellatio.

[bigdarryl]

21. I though Obama wasn't a target you STUPID FUCK

[adieu]

22. This from the people who belong to the party that

always say, "What's the difference? Colored people for people of color?"

[jberryhill]

26. An act of stupidity...

...of course one should not interpret that to mean that Issa is stupid. He just does stupid things.

[arcane1]

28. The Issa-hole reminds me of dramatic teenagers in their first relationship

Where every word gets twisted around, looking for something, anything, to be upset about.

He's supposed to be a grown man, but doesn't know how to act like one

[Thor_MN]

29. Issa, you are dumb of fuck...

[LostOne4Ever]

30. And now For Ollie William

Tom: And now for Ollie Williams with the proper response to Congressman Issa. Ollie.

Ollie: Hes full of Shit.

Tom: Thank you Ollie.

[DCBob]

32. I assumed this was the Onion..

but apparently not.

[and-justice-for-all]

33. He needs forced to resign...

mentally incompetent to hold office.

[marshall]

34. It's all about semantics?

I think "act of terror" has more of a contemporary sound that "terroristic act." It's like "person of color" and "colored person," one represents the past and the other represents the present.

[truthisfreedom]

35. I do not like green eggs and ham.

I do not like them Sam-I-am.