 |
| And awaaaaaay we go! |
Summer is over, Congress is back in session, and tomorrow the new House Select Committee on Benghazi will pick up where we left off a couple months ago when it holds its first hearing. The hearing's topic is how the State Department has implemented the recommendations of the Benghazi Accountability Review Board, which seems like an easy one, a little warm-up before the really contentious stuff begins later on.
You can read the ARB report here, and view some additional documents here.
Tomorrow's witness panel will consist of Gregory Starr, Assistant Secretary for Diplomatic Security, and two members of the The Independent Panel on Best Practices, an outside panel of experts which critiqued Diplomatic Security operations in response to one of the ARB recommendations.
You can read the independent panel's report here.
The hearing will be on Wednesday, September 17, at 10:00am. You'll be able to view it live at the Committee's website. It will be Safe For Work, I think, although that might depend on where you work.
The Democratic side of the Select Committee has already put up a prebuttal website - Benghazi on the Record: Asked and Answered - to get its spin in place. It has a good collection of links to previous reports and public statements.
It's anybody's guess whether or not the Committee will resist the lure of this week's allegations of 'document scrubbing' by Hillary cronies and stick to its announced topic.
25 comments:
If only the hearing would be like....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6G3nuGSr4Bs
Now, that would be entertainment! I can see Gowdy doing "One of these days, Pow! To the moon!"
TSB: It is great to see the Hon. Elijah Cummings casting off the 'Din of Partisan Politics' and approving of the day's topic. "At this point, I think it makes a huge difference what happened on 9/11/11".
It seems to me that Diplomatic Security and Diplomacy generally
has been neglected to the extreme for 30 years to the point where we now have a 'coalition of 30' partners none of whom can be publically identified. GO GOWDY!! and YES SCOTS!
gwb
TSB: Gowdy is really nailing this Starr
guy to the wall! ... also
major Shiite militias of Iraq are denouncing Prime Minister Haydar al-Abadi for welcoming US air support in the fight against the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)...
and basically saying 'Yankee Go Home'! What was that story about Humpty Dumpty?? gwb
TSB: It was great to see Dana Rohrbacher on C-Span this morning as a 'reformed Iraq war hawk'. He now says attacking and occupying Iraq is exactly the cause of all the present chaos we see and any Republican who doesn't admit it is delusional.' (paraphrase)
Now we have the Dems using the same 'crock of bull' to spread democracy and religious freedom everywhere! gwb
TSB: As the lady said: "That was quick!" So the nation building adventure in Syria is launched and "AWAAAY THEY GO" (congress I mean)
gwb
TSB: I think this is the largest 'House Arrest' in history! (But every house gets a free bar of soap!) gwb
Sierra Leone /three-day nationwide shutdown, /country's 6 million people will be confined to their homes volunteers search house-to-house for Ebola victims hiding and hand out soap./ bid to slow the accelerating outbreak. (talk about CABIN FEVER!)
GWB: So many reformed hawks and doves! It's like Ghostbusters - "Human sacrifice, cats and dogs living together, mass hysteria!"
TSB: That old Jim Nabors song really inspired me! According to my favorite barometer, C-Span callers, the country is evenly divided between 'Bomb em all' and 'quit wasting all that money over there..fix our own country'.
None of them have the slightest idea that the country is broke while their idealogical heroes have gotten rich. (I mean 'worked hard and been very fortunate'.) I feel good today because I think 'HillaryHawk' is doomed in 16. The trufe is starting to 'Bubble Up'! gwb
GWB: I wouldn't count Hillary out let. The young voters have no idea who she is, and about half of the old geezers dislike her, but still, the other side can't beat somebody with nobody. Maybe that yoga trainer will get her in fighting shape!
TSB: About 70 Houthi rebels killed in Sanaa while they are shelling the national tv station and getting close to the Presidente's (?) residence. in the capital. Worst violence there in 2 years and residents are fleeing. I guess Yemen is the model for Kerry's new strategy? gwb
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVJiwuk75Ig
Opening Scene: The Party: Peter Sellers
US Sounds The Trumpet on ISIS...and everyone heads for the hills!
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/sep/18/pruden-obamas-coalition-of-the-unwilling/
TSB: US FP really needs some comic relief. gwb
GWB: The Turks got their hostages (diplomats from their consulate that ISIL captured) back, and simultaneously they decline to join the anti-ISIL coalition, and continue to fund ISIL by purchasing its oil exports. I would agree that there was some negotiating going on there.
Regarding Lebanon, yeah, it used to be part of Syria until the French and the League of Nations - Paris Peace conference after WWI - carved it out.
Along those lines, did you ever notice the weird shape of Jordon, which has this big western-jutting extension of it's original territory? The British added that to isolate the French in Syria from the British sphere of interest in Arabia.
TSB: Let me try to follow the logic here: Wikileaks was prompted by a soldier releasing a video of US soldiers slaughtering a reporter and a bunch of innocent Iraqi civilians. Now we are going to war over the slaughter of a couple of reporters in Syria by some Sunnis in Raqa. And nobody wants to 'put boots on the ground'??
I don't get it. gwb
TSB: And 'we don't discuss covert training' because ?? John McCain vetted those guys? or was it John Brennan? And remember all those efforts that were made to root out Iraqi corruption and build strong democratic institutions for a united Iraqi people? (me neither)
So much like the NFL doing everything to make sure the elevator video never got out... but they will get it right
from now on.. because they brought in some women 'EXPERTS'. (I would have loved to see this scandal hung on NFL
Commissioner Condi Rice of the 'mushroom cloud'. But kudos to her for finally apologizing. Wait, I'm being told....She didn't?) gwb
TSB: Ooopsi! Military Plant In East Ukraine Devastated By Massive Explosion; Kiev Accuses Russia Of Using Tactial Nuke.... Maybe the cease fire isn't going so smooth. gwb (We need to get Biden in there! He knows all these punks.)
GWB: I can't agree there is any equivalence between ISIL's hostage-taking and ritual murder of two reporters, and that 2007 incident in Baghdad. Apache gunships were supporting troops in a battle with Shite militia when they mistook two Iraqi reporters with camera gear for more militiamen. No one ever even alleged that the helo guys knew the two were reporters.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/06/world/middleeast/06baghdad.html?_r=0
Correction about a previous comment today: regarding the Jordanian border, that outward jutting part that the Brits added is jutting to the EAST not the west.
TSB: This is great! The Russkies are using tactical nukes against Luhansk airport. They are radiation free and nobody was killed! gwb
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-09-20/military-plant-east-ukraine-devastated-massive-explosion-kiev-blames-accuses-russia-
(talk about smart weapons!)
TSB: No,it wasn't equivalent at all. But 2006/7 was when all the US troops realized they were in the middle of a civil war with no strategy and no idea what the purpose was. I'd love to see a
good aerial view of that Luhansk Airport. Bet it was NATO stuff that blew up.
Oh wow! I never saw that big eastern extension on Jordan. gwb
TSB: Inspiring words from Pepe:
So what's more crucial for the Empire of Chaos; Russia, China or "Syraq"? They don't have a clue. They are just trying not to do "stupid stuff". \ and
The Caliph's goons have announced on the record they would go for beheading Putin. If only the Pentagon would subcontract the job. gwb
TSB: Now that congress has signed on to the new ISIS degredation strategy we can pretty much forget about it because no reporters will be allowed in the Caliphate. Also, the WH is thinking of starting a neighborhood watch for footloose ISIS
sympathizers based on our model. gwb
TSB: We should have been decisively helping the Turks deal with the Syrian refugee crisis 2 1/2 yrs ago and we should have listened to Amb. Ford re: Lebanon. 70,000 Kurdish villagers over the Turkish border in 2 days is a lot of people. gwb (training 'moderate' rebels my foot!) gwb
http://www.rt.com/news/189456-turkey-syria-border-refugees/
TSB: We know ISIS is selling to Turkey but who is selling those 2 tanker loads of oil that arrived in Houston from Turkey and unloaded in a secret transaction?? I thought maybe that was Kurdish oil put thru the turkish pipeline.? Selling incoherence is an Obama specialty. Reminds me of Tiger's PGA comeback swing.gwb
This ain't no "Hurt Locker". Defusing an IED in #Egypt pic.twitter.com/uYcAy18RC1
That 'low wage thing' reminded me. Couldn't you just take care of that IED
'Barney Fife style' from across the street with your Glock? gwb
TSB: This headline in Monrovia isn't going to help: Liberia’s Largest Newspaper Accuses US of Manufacturing Ebola Virus (Video): gwb
I didn't realize til yesterday that the CDC actually holds a patent on the Ebola virus. For my daughter's 40th birthday party last weekend I took her a roll of plastic sheeting and duct tape for the Ebola. (Young people! They laugh now but just wait.
Post a Comment