Hillary Won’t Be Testifying at Thursday’s Benghazi Hearing – She’s Going To Australia For Some Wine Tasting

On November 9, the Herald Sun reported that the visit was expected to be confirmed by White House officials “as early as today.” Meaning November 9 – the day after the House Foreign Affairs Committee,  the House Intelligence Committee and the Senate Intelligence Committee scheduled hearings to be held this Thursday. The House Foreign Affairs Committee had invited Secretary Clinton to testify at their open hearing, Thursday.

No, but this sounds like it will be a very important trip…

Hillary Wine-tasting pic via JWF

The visit is expected to be confirmed by White House officials as early as today.

***

Few details of Ms Clinton’s visit on Wednesday and Thursday have been revealed, but it is understood she will visit close friends, one whom is connected to the Carnegie Mellon University. It also believed that:

THE 150-strong entourage is likely to visit Penfolds’ Magill Estate for either a wine tasting session or private function.
THE entourage has booked more than 100 rooms over several floors at the Intercontinental Hotel on North Tce.
HEAVY traffic restrictions are likely from late Wednesday ahead of her anticipated arrival that night.
HER entourage will leave Adelaide on Friday morning.

She (and her 150 strong entourage!?) will in Australia Wednesday and Thursday.

It almost looks like her trip abroad it was timed to avoid the hearings.

Hey, it worked for Kevin O’Reilly, right?

Meanwhile it appears that the House  Foreign Affairs Committee may issue subpoenas to force Clinton to testify  if she continues to make herself unavailable.

Appearing on Fox News’ “On the Record with Greta Van Susteren,” Ros-Lehtinen expressed frustration at what she described as the State Department’s “utter silence” on events leading up to the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. Consulate and Clinton’s apparent decision not to have anyone testify in her place this week on Capitol Hill.

Clinton is traveling in Australia and elsewhere abroad this week, a trip that was scheduled but that Ros-Lehtinen suggested is not important.

***

“We think that it is only fitting and fair . . . to bring up the secretary of state because this was a consulate. This was part of the State Department operations,” the Florida Republican said, adding that she wants to hear from Clinton in public “about what happened so that we can prevent another Benghazi from taking place again.”

“We want answers, and we’re going to see if we can cooperate with the State Department and have Hillary Clinton finally show up, perhaps by the end of this month, in an open public hearing,” the Congresswoman added. “We’re fine with the classified briefing, but that is no substitute for the answers that the public demands.”

Asked about the possible subpoena if an agreement on testimony can’t be worked out with Clinton, Ros-Lehtinen said, “Absolutely.”

That makes the Sec of State and the former Director of the CIA who won’t be able to testify at Thursday’s hearings, and may have to be subpoenaed. Are any other Regime Cabinet members gonna be sent out of the country or be too embroiled in personal scandals to testify?

(Update: Geo reminds me – Leon Panetta. Of course. He’s joining Hilary in Australia.)

CORRECTION!:

Clinton Arrived in Australia Tuesday for  “the annual Australia-United States Ministerial meetings set to focus on defence and foreign policies.”

Clinton will be joined later by U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta for the visit.

And she will continue on to Singapore.

Via The Dept of State website:

Secretary Clinton will travel to Singapore on November 16-17 to meet with senior government officials, including Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Foreign Minister Kasiviswanathan Shanmugam, on a wide range of issues.

On November 17, Secretary Clinton will travel to Bangkok, Thailand. She will join President Obama and his delegation on November 18 for meetings with Prime Minister Yingluck and other senior Thai officials to underscore our strong alliance and discuss shared priorities and regional issues in advance of the ASEAN East Asia Summit.

Secretary Clinton will accompany President Obama to Burma on November 19, and join his meetings with Burmese President Thein Sein and Chair of the National League for Democracy and Member of Parliament Aung San Suu Kyi.

Secretary Clinton will also accompany President Obama on his travel to Phnom Penh, Cambodia November 19-20 to attend the U.S.-ASEAN Leaders Meeting and the East Asia Summit.

No doubt she’ll be too busy to testify until after the holidays, and everyone will have forgotten about Benghazi by then. We’ll already be on to the next blood curdling scandal.

UPDATE:

CNS NEWS: Levin To House GOP: ‘Subpoena Petraeus…Subpoena Hillary Clinton’:

“Right now everybody’s chasing down emails.  Oh, really?  What did her emails say?  What did her emails say of the other woman?  Oh, what about her?  And I’m sitting here thinking, ‘Do you realize Barack Obama still has not told us where he was, what he did or didn’t do when our consulate was attacked in Benghazi?’ – and we’re chasing down these women and their emails.”

“I think this is a complete set up and a complete cover up and these women and Petraeus are just pawns in the whole process,” Levin said.

Levin then offered advice to the Republicans in the House of Representatives:

“Now let me give a little advice to the geniuses in the House of Representatives; that would be you Republicans:  Go ahead and subpoena Petraeus – he has to show up.

“He can plead the fifth if he wants.  But subpoena him.  There’s not a court in the land that won’t uphold it.  And subpoena Hillary Clinton; because she has no rational basis, no constitutional argument not to appear.  She has to appear.  Now issue your damn subpoenas and get on with it.