Benghazigate  Unanswered Questions  Letter to House

Sunday, April 7, 2013

 

 

Editor’s Note – MG Paul E. Vallely has signed on to the letter due to be distributed early this week urging law makers not to let Benghazi get swept under the rug.

As Hillary Clinton finally produces written responses and more testimony, Congress must press her hard, as well as thoroughly pressing the rest of the Obama administration on Benghazi – we shall not rest until we know the full story.

Those who died must be granted no less – we never leave our fellow citizens unprotected, and we shall always come to their aid in time of need – no American is ever left in the field forever – despite the political environment that is in power.

This week, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will be making her swan song appearance on Capitol Hill, providing at last to Senate and House panels her testimony about the Benghazigate scandal. Under the circumstances, legislators may feel pressured to be deferential and to keep their questions more limited in scope and superficial rather than probing. For the good of the country, it is imperative that they resist going soft. (Read the rest here.)

Mystery persists six months after killings

By Frank Gaffney, Jr. – Washington Times

After Iraq was liberated from Saddam Hussein’s despotic misrule, critics denounced the then-incumbent president with the charge that “Bush lied, people died.” It never ceases to amaze that among the most prominent of those making this slanderous accusation were past and current Democratic legislators who had publicly pronounced exactly what George W. Bush did: Saddam possessed — and used — weapons of mass destruction (WMD). They, like Mr. Bush, had every reason to think and did think that such weapons, or worse, might be used again unless his regime were overthrown.

Put simply, there never had been any conscious or deliberate effort to deceive the American people. Neither did Mr. Bush seek to deflect responsibility for his actions. To the contrary, his top political adviser, Karl Rove, subsequently acknowledged that his greatest mistake — at least, until he made a centi-million-dollar hash-up of campaign 2012 — was preventing any official effort from being mounted to counter the calumny that Mr. Bush lied about Iraqi WMD, with the predictable effect of allowing the credibility of the Bush-43 presidency to be destroyed.

By contrast, people did die in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11, 2012, owing to President Obama’s policies, and he lied about it, repeatedly and knowingly. This scandalous reality has come to be popularly known as “Benghazigate.”

If we don’t find out what led up to, occurred during and happened afterward — and the role played by the president and his senior subordinates throughout — there will certainly be more lies and may be more American deaths.

Despite several hearings held by assorted congressional committees, we are today no closer than before to knowing the answers to myriad questions that require urgent and authoritative answers. Among them are the following:

What role did the Obama administration’s assiduous cultivation of relations with Islamists play in the creation of the State Department’s so-called special mission facility in Benghazi? What was the true purpose of that facility, and who was assigned to staff it, with what roles?

Where are those people now and why have they not been made available to congressional investigators of the Benghazigate affair? How many of them were injured in the Benghazi attack, and what is their current status?

What caused U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens to consider it necessary to be at that facility, which he had formally complained was dangerously insecure, especially on Sept. 11, a day that al Qaeda has long sought to make open-season on Americans?

Specifically, what was the urgency of Stevens‘ last official act — an evening meeting with the Turkish consul general?

Were the special mission facility and the nearby  CIA annex involved in a covert operation to collect small arms, surface-to-air missiles or other weapons? Were any of those weapons being secretly made available — directly or indirectly — to the Syrian opposition, a group known to include  al Qaeda elements?

      If weapons secured in Libya for this purpose were transferred to the so-called Syrian rebels, was there a presidential finding authorizing such activities? In that case, had any congressional leaders been duly notified?

The public record suggests that Mr. Obama and then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton were inexplicably disengaged from the time they learned of the attack until their joint appearance the next morning in the Rose Garden. Where were they, and what were they doing during that period?

What orders were given and by whom with respect to the organization and execution of a rescue operation or other assistance to the Americans under attack? If no such orders were issued, was there direction to do nothing, and on whose authority?

Precisely who was involved in the so-called “Deputies Committee” efforts to rework the CIA talking points that were used to brief lawmakers and give the public a false narrative that an offensive video, rather than an act of terroristic jihad, was the catalyst for the attack? In particular, what role did John O. Brennan play in that disinformation?

Why did the president insist for as long as two weeks after the episode that the video was involved, prompting him to declare — among other troubling statements — at the United Nations on Sept. 25, “The future must not belong to those who slander the Prophet of Islam”?

Is such presidential guidance the reason why the Obama administration appears to have followed through on the stated intention of Mrs. Clinton to prosecute and jail the maker of that video — with ominous implications for freedom of expression in America?

Unfortunately, even now — six months after the murderous attack in Benghazi — these and many other aspects of this scandal so redolent of the Obama administration’s penchant for putting politics before public safety still cry out for proper investigation.

The current congressional committee structure has proved unable to undertake the necessary accounting, which cuts across various command structures, operational responsibilities and the conduct of numerous agencies, both civilian and military. If anything, the multiple standing House and Senate committees, with their stove-piped jurisdictions, have actually impeded the required, comprehensive determination of the facts.

Consequently, 15 prominent conservatives — many with long experience in national security policymaking and practice — recently called for the creation of a new select committee — at a minimum in the House, but ideally a bicameral one — to get to the bottom of the Benghazigate scandal. It is the only hope for establishing why we were lied to and minimizing the chances that it will happen again, possibly at the cost of far greater loss of American lives.

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Frank J. Gaffney Jr. formerly acted as an assistant secretary of defense under President Reagan. He is president of the Center for Security Policy (SecureFreedom.org), a columnist for The Washington Times and host of the syndicated program Secure Freedom Radio.

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Here is the letter to be sent, signatures will be made available as the letter is sent – Paul E. Vallely (MG US Army Ret.) has signed on.

To: The US House of Representatives

Subject: The Benghazi attacks on 9/11/ 2012

The undersigned are a representative group of 700 retired Military Special Operations professionals who spent the majority of their careers preparing for and executing myriad operations to  rescue or recover detained or threatened fellow Americans. In fact, many of us participated in both the  Vietnam era POW rescue effort, The Son Tay Raid, as well as Operation Eagle Claw, the failed rescue  attempt in April of 1980 in Iran, so we have been at this for many years and have a deep passion for  seeking the truth about what happened during the national tragedy in Benghazi.

The purpose of this letter is to encourage all members of the US House of Representatives to support H.Res. 36, which will create a House Select Committee on the Terrorist Attack in Benghazi. It is  essential that a full accounting of the events of September 11, 2012, be provided and that the American  public be fully informed regarding this egregious terrorist attack on US diplomatic personnel and  facilities. We owe that truth to the American people and the families of the fallen.

It appears that many of the facts and details surrounding the terrorist attack which resulted in four American deaths and an undetermined number of American casualties have not yet been ascertained by  previous hearings and inquiries. Additional information is now slowly surfacing in the media, which  makes a comprehensive bipartisan inquiry an imperative. Many questions have not been answered thus  far. The House Select Committee should address, at a minimum, the following questions:

• Why was there no military response to the events in Benghazi
  • Were military assets in the region available? If not, why not?
  • If so, were they alerted?
  • Were assets deployed to any location in preparation for a rescue or recovery attempt?
  • Was military assistance requested by DOS? If so, what type?
  • Were any US Army/Naval/USMC assets available to support the US diplomats in  Benghazi during the attack?
  • What. If any, recommendations for military action were made by DOD and the US Africa  Command?
• What, if any, non-military assistance was provided during the attack?
• How many US personnel were injured in Benghazi?
• Why have the survivors of the attack not been questioned?
• Where are the survivors?
• Who was in the White House Situation Room (WHSR) during the entire 8-hour period of the  attacks and was a senior US military officer present?
• Where were Leon Panetta and General Martin Dempsey during the crisis and what inputs and  recommendations did they make?
•  Where were the National Security Advisor, Tom Donilon, his Deputy, Denis McDonough,  Valerie Jarrett and John Brennan during the attacks and what (if any) recommendations or  decisions did any of them make?
• Why were F-16 fighter aircraft based in Aviano, Italy (less than two hours away) never  considered a viable option for disruption if not dispersion of the attackers, until “boots on the  ground” (General Dempsey’s words) arrived?
• Were any strike aircraft (such as an AC-130 gunship) in the area or possibly overhead that would  cause former SEAL Tyrone Woods to laser his attacker’s position and call for gunship fire  support, thereby revealing his own location that lead to his death?
• Who gave the order to “STAND DOWN” that was heard repeatedly during the attacks?
• What threat warnings existed before the attack, and what were the DOD and DOS responses to  those warnings? What data (which will reveal exact timelines and command decisions) is  contained within the various SITREPS, records, logs, videos and recordings maintained by the  myriad of DOD, Intelligence Community and State Department Command Centers that were  monitoring the events in Benghazi as they unfolded?
• Why did the Commander-in Chief and Secretary of State never once check in during the night to  find out the status of the crisis situation in Benghazi?
• What was the nature of Ambassador Stevens’ business in Benghazi at the time of the attack?
•  What guidance has been provided to survivors and family members since the time of the attack,  and who issued that guidance?

This was the most severe attack on American diplomatic facilities and personnel since the attacks on the US Embassies in Tanzania and Kenya in 1998. Thus far it appears that there has been no serious  effort to determine critical details of this attack. This is inexcusable and demands immediate attention by  the Congress. Congress must show some leadership and provide answers to the public as to what actually  occurred in Benghazi. Americans have a right to demand a full accounting on this issue.

A longstanding American ethos was breached during the terrorist attack in Benghazi. America failed to provide adequate security to personnel deployed into harm’s way and then failed to respond when they  were viciously attacked. Clearly, this is unacceptable and requires accountability. America has always  held to the notion that no American will be left behind and that every effort will be made to respond when  US personnel are threatened. Given our backgrounds, we are concerned that this sends a very negative  message to future military and diplomatic personnel who may be deployed into dangerous environments.

That message is that they will be left to their own devices when attacked. That is an unacceptable message.

The House Select Committee should focus on getting a detailed account of the events in Benghazi as soon as possible. H. Res. 36 will provide a structure for the conduct of a thorough inquiry of Benghazi  and should be convened immediately.

We ask that you fulfill your responsibilities to the American people and take appropriate action regarding Benghazi. With over sixty members of the US House of Representatives calling for  this Select  Committee already, it seems that the time is right to take appropriate action on Benghazi.

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NOTE - List of signatures is not complete but will be available when the letter is received by each addressee.

 

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