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DonViejo

(60,536 posts)
Thu May 9, 2013, 11:34 AM May 2013

Whistleblower’s yarn fails to tie Benghazi lapses to politics

By Dana Milbank, Published: May 8

They summoned a whistleblower to Capitol Hill, but instead they got a virtuoso storyteller.

Gregory Hicks, the No. 2 U.S. diplomat in Libya the night Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed, was to be the star witness for Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the man leading the probe of the Obama administration’s handling of the attack on the diplomatic outpost in Benghazi.

But despite Issa’s incautious promise that the hearing’s revelations would be “damaging” to Hillary Rodham Clinton, Hicks didn’t lay a glove on the former secretary of state Wednesday. Rather, he held lawmakers from both parties rapt as he recounted the events of that terrifying night — revealing a made-for-Hollywood plot with a slow, theatrical delivery and genuine emotion.

He spoke of watching TV at his residence in Tripoli when a security officer “ran into my villa yelling, ‘Greg! Greg! The consulate’s under attack.’?” He described his brief final phone conversation with Stevens, 600 miles away: “He said, ‘Greg, we’re under attack. .?.?. And I said, ‘Okay,’ and the line cut.”

He detailed the frantic effort to call in fighter jets from a U.S. base in Italy (“It would take two to three hours for them to get on-site” and there “were no tankers available for them to refuel”). He sipped water to regain his composure after recounting the “saddest phone call I have ever had in my life” — learning from the Libyan prime minister that Stevens had been killed. And he told of the hasty retreat from the United States’ diplomatic compound in Tripoli, where a similar attack was feared.

full article
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dana-milbank-whistleblowers-yarn-fails-to-tie-benghazi-lapses-to-politics/2013/05/08/fb436cd4-b82e-11e2-b94c-b684dda07add_story.html

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Whistleblower’s yarn fails to tie Benghazi lapses to politics (Original Post) DonViejo May 2013 OP
Meanwhile Mitt Romney was looking for ways to politicize the attack by the next morning. gordianot May 2013 #1
I will always remember JustAnotherGen May 2013 #2
What jlover70 May 2013 #5
Or, as Sec'y Clinton said, "At his point, what difference does it make?" CTyankee May 2013 #3
Made-for-Hollywood polynomial May 2013 #4
If they know something that everybody in WH, Pentagon, CIA, FBI, etc. don't know Proud Liberal Dem May 2013 #9
Still bothers me that the reference is always (almost) Chris Stevens question everything May 2013 #6
I would have John2 May 2013 #7
The sad truth is that tea bagger congresses Blue Idaho May 2013 #8

gordianot

(15,226 posts)
1. Meanwhile Mitt Romney was looking for ways to politicize the attack by the next morning.
Thu May 9, 2013, 11:55 AM
May 2013

Failing at that Romney abandoned this line after being publicly humiliated in his debate. Now it is left to GOP scum to whom humiliation means nothing.

JustAnotherGen

(31,681 posts)
2. I will always remember
Thu May 9, 2013, 12:13 PM
May 2013

The still shots of that EVIL smug tight smile on Romney's face after he made his little bitty speech.

CTyankee

(63,769 posts)
3. Or, as Sec'y Clinton said, "At his point, what difference does it make?"
Thu May 9, 2013, 12:27 PM
May 2013

We get right back to her testimony.

If Issa had any delusions that there was a "smoking gun" in this guys testimony he was sadly proven wrong.

polynomial

(750 posts)
4. Made-for-Hollywood
Thu May 9, 2013, 01:01 PM
May 2013

Likely a political Heist

They already made the movie!!!

The question is what mercenaries where implemented in the Benghazi assassinations or murders if preferred. Sometimes many could think that the Republicans know more than they appear to admit. What stands out in my mind is the Pakistan's former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto assassination very curiously done to a woman leading in elections.

Here in America the Republicans are in political television prosecution mode, in efforts to character assassinate Hilary Clinton, by Talebanisation methods.

Any of an Arab, Persian, or American mercenaries highly and likely would take money to assassinate anyone. It seems there are huge quantities of trustful allies that turn and murder at an instant. Reminds me of the famous movie with Humphrey Bogart Casablanca in Rick’s café the local gendarme asked; you mean there is gambling going on here?

Of course today it is the industrial and economic profiteering in war arms, a Bush specialty.

Proud Liberal Dem

(24,355 posts)
9. If they know something that everybody in WH, Pentagon, CIA, FBI, etc. don't know
Thu May 9, 2013, 04:58 PM
May 2013

why aren't they just coming out and saying it? I keep feeling like they are insinuating and hinting darkly at all kinds of "bad" stuff but never really coming out and just saying what it is they think the grand conspiracy is. It's getting more than a little tiresome.

question everything

(47,265 posts)
6. Still bothers me that the reference is always (almost) Chris Stevens
Thu May 9, 2013, 01:11 PM
May 2013

"and three others."

They had names, they had families.

Rarely do I hear all names mentioned: Sean Smith, Glen Doherty, Tyrone Woods.

I know they want to use short sentences but still...


 

John2

(2,730 posts)
7. I would have
Thu May 9, 2013, 01:12 PM
May 2013

challenged Mr Hicks with some questions. He indicated he was some 600 miles away in Tripoli. As I understood his testimony, his call from Stevens was very brief before he was cut off. So how did he know what was really going on in Benghazi from the brief comments from Stevens? When did he come to the conclusion it was not related to the other protests happening at other Embassies? It seems to me he knew more than everyone else in the State Department.

How many personnel worked at the Embassy besides Hicks and if there are any, what are their testimonies? Since he was on the ground some 600 miles away, how did he know this? Did he have a surveillance camera or something, that he was watching everything on the ground in Benghazi?

I also understand that he was the number two guy under Stevens. That makes him a subordinate in the State Department. He claims that he didn't like the way his superiors treated him. Did he have a quarrel with them? Was he overstepping the authority of his superiors because of what the State Department put out?

Usually, when you disagree or have an issue, you bring it up to your superiors first. The State Department is ultimately responsible for Foreign Policy Decisions directed by the President. Just like for a Republican Administration or a Democratic Administration, I would expect even career employees would carry out that directive. What I'm getting at, was he being political in his decision to not be a team player?

Is he accusing them of a cover up and did he indicate this up his chain of command instead of running to right wing Republican hacks like Isa and Chafetz. I would like to know what his political leanings are and who promoted him. And if he is alleging a coverup among his superiors, why didn't he report such coverup to the investigation that was conducted, instead of taking it to the Republican Party? He could have reported this information to both Democrats and Republicans, to make it seem like he doesn't have a political agenda himself instead of the secrecy.

Blue Idaho

(4,988 posts)
8. The sad truth is that tea bagger congresses
Thu May 9, 2013, 04:37 PM
May 2013

Has repeatedly refused to increase funding to protect our diplomats abroad. If its finger pointing time I suggest these republican traitors look in the mirror.

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