The House Oversight Committee hearing on Benghazi that is scheduled for Wednesday promises to be the real deal, with bombshells and whistle blowers and all. Given the professional positions of the three named witnesses, and their essentially apolitical nature, this hearing looks like it will challenge the established narrative of the Benghazi Accountability Review Board report.
Chairman Issa previewed some of the expected testimony during an interview on Face the Nation yesterday. (See the embedded video, above.) From the tidbits that have been released so far, it does not look good for at least one particular senior official, one who avoided the consequences suffered by a few middle managers after the ARB report was issued.
At the 10:50 mark of yesterday's interview, in the context of a question about where blame should be placed, Issa dropped the name of Undersecretary for Management Patrick Kennedy, who was "at the center of knowing everything" about Benghazi. At the 11:17 mark, Issa said that Kennedy was "at the table during what we believe at this point is a misinformation campaign at best and a cover up at worst."
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| U/S Kennedy (right) at October 2012 hearing |
Undersecretary Kennedy, of course, testified at the Committee's first Benghazi hearing in October 2012.
I notice that he did not take the center of the table that day. Quite the contrary. In fact, he left a whole lot of room between himself and DS's Charlene Lamb.
14 comments:
Time for popcorn and some charges!gwb
Get ready for some lulus of statements from the Administration and their defenders. Oh yeah where's Kerry? A modern Diogenes wandering in search of botox and a believable past. I fear for Hillary, what new mishap or deadly disease could possible strike her now?
James: I heard Hillary was kidnapped by a camel in Africa and rescued by a black guy and Chelsea near Libya. Apparently she is fine but had no comment. She will be debriefed by the FBI as soon as they can get there. The camel then tried to kidnap a baby but was captured by the parents and taken to the Candy Shack.gwb
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efRPAWnGtPI
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/05/08/one-hospital-charges-8000-another-38000/?hpid=z1
TSB: This is amazing! That Steve Brill article a while back revealing 'THE CHARGEMASTER' and thus showing there is no competition at all in the medical system led to Medicare revealing for the first time the actual charges for everything. The national and local media will try to make this go away but this is big!! gwb
Anonymous:
"I heard Hillary was kidnapped by a camel in Africa". It was a bactrian camel which explains Clinton having her guard down. Reportedly when warned about the danger of two humps vs. one she replied "What difference does it make!" Alas, she has not been seen since!
TSB: Despite her experience isn't Toensing going to have to wait for Republican prez to get her old security clearance back? (for denouncing the Commdr in Chief)gwb
Officials have now provided a 42-page security clearance form, which Toensing filled out and returned, she told TheDC. But the form is only for a basic security clearance, not a “top secret” clearance, she said.
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2013/05/08/fourth-benghazi-witness-gagged-by-red-tape/#ixzz2SivteHLT
TSB: One thing I learned today is that diesel fuel burning at it's max temp releases lots of cyanide. One breath is enough to kill you. That's why it's smoke is more dangerous than petrol. gwb
GWB: An NYFD arson investigator told me that the fire conditions inside that Benghazi villa - a building 'contents' fire fueled by stuffed furniture accelerated with diesel - were the worst possible for the victims and would-be rescuers. The smoke would have been denser and darker and more toxic than in a typical building fire.
Toensign (spelling?) can get her clearances back regardless of who's in the White House, but of course it will depend on her reason for them, and will need an adjudication by whatever agency. She's had very high level clearances before, so they won't do a complete reinvestigation now, just an update.
Thanks TSB! I heard some 'innendo' during the hearing yesterday (Carolyn Maloney D-NY) like 'Don't you think Amb. Stevens knew the risk he was under?' I think she was referring to his main role in Benghazi which was to oversee a CIA operation to work with former foes of Ghaddafi to get arms to Syria. The attack was from the Al Quaeda guys who were being cut out of the deal. They were Czech weapons and the most important were the heavy machine guns the Syrian rebels have been using to shoot down planes. I saw a very good blog post on this yesterday but it has been removed. It's funny how these posts disappear! We are going to have to get beyond the innuendo level before people will understand that we seem to be repeating Libya in Syria. gwb
TSB: Tripoli trouble?? gwb
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-05-10/us-alerts-two-elite-military-units-be-standby-over-deteriorating-libyan-situation
I guess the WH and DOD don't want to be caught flat footed again in case we need an urgent evacuation from Tripoli. The embassy went to a partial drawdown the other day, due to the containing chaos that is Libyan government.
TSB: Any clue on where to find info on what's going on in Libya today? Thanks gwb
GWB: You could do a lot worse than al Jazeera.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2013/05/201351183324644424.html
The drama today involves government ministries in Tripoli that are under siege by militias and counter-sieges by 'the people' (exactly who 'the people' are, if they aren't aligned with one or another militia, I don't know), plus some bombings and attacks on police stations in Benghazi.
Democracy in the raw. The more I see of it, the more I appreciate the Federalist Papers.
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