Monday Catch-Up: The Truth Is Coming Out About Benghazi

Breitbart’s The Conversation: Benghazi Eye Witness: Requests for Help Refused:

Sharyl Attkisson at CBS News reports that an eyewitness on the ground at Benghazi was refused repeated requests for help.

“We relied on Washington for dispassionate assessment,” one eyewitness told CBS News. “Instead, they [Washington officials] were asking us what help we needed. We answered: ‘Send reinforcements!’ ”

But they were told immediate help wasn’t available.

The Conversation: Benghazi Witness: ‘You Should Have Seen What (Clinton) Tried to Do to Us That Night’:

Mark I. Thompson  will make the allegation that Hillary Clinton “tried to cut the department’s own counter-terrorism bureau out of the chain of reporting and decision-making” as they responded to the Benghazi attacks.

Thompson is a former Marine and the current deputy coordinator for operations in the agency’s counter terrorism bureau. He will appear before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday to testify about the Benghazi attacks.

The Conversation: Benghazi Witness: Special Forces Told to Not to Provide Backup in Benghazi:

CBS News is reporting that Benghazi witness Greg Hicks told congressional investigators that  “a team of Special Forces prepared to fly from Tripoli to Benghazi during the Sept. 11, 2012 attacks was forbidden from doing so by U.S. Special Operations Command South Africa.”

Hicks also reported that SOCAFRICA commander Lt. Col. Gibson and his team were prepared to board a C130 from Tripoli before the attack on the Benghazi annex. Gibson received a call saying “you can’t go now, you don’t have the authority to go now.’ And so they missed the flight … They were told not to board the flight, so they missed it.”

Ace of Spades HQ: Then-Acting Ambassador to Libya: “My Jaw Hit the Floor” When I Saw the Government Blaming the Attack on a YouTube Video:

Whistleblowing.

Hicks, who did not appear on the show but whose reactions were featured based on transcripts of interviews with Issa’s committee, said he was stunned by what UN Ambassador Susan Rice claimed on five different news shows on Sep. 16. When she appeared on Face the Nation, she followed an interview with the President of Libya who claimed he had “no doubt” it was a terror attack. Moments later, Amb. Rice contradicted him and claimed a spontaneous protest was more likely.Acting Ambassador Hicks watched the Sunday shows and said he found this contradiction shocking. “The net impact of what has transpired is the spokesperson of the most powerful country in the world has basically said that the President of Libya is either a liar or doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” he accused. Hicks added, “My jaw hit the floor as I watched this…I’ve never been as embarrassed in my life, in my career as on that day.”

Hicks believes the stunning failure of diplomacy on the Sunday news shows explains why it took the FBI three weeks to gain access to the Benghazi site. The U.S. had effectively humiliated the Libyan President on national TV. That decision, he believed, probably compromised our ability to investigate and track down those responsible.

Joel Pollak: DEMOCRATS’ AGENDA FOR BENGHAZI HEARING: PROTECT HILLARY AT ALL COSTS:

Since the day after the attacks, Democrats and the media have treated Benghazi as an unfair political attack by Republicans, rather than a legitimate national security crisis in its own right.

Media coverage in the fall focused on Republican Mitt Romney’s response to the attacks, rather than Obama’s actions as commander-in-chief. When questions were raised about whether Obama had lied to the public about the attacks, the media covered Obama’s tracks, with CNN’s Candy Crowley intervening in the second presidential debate to defend the president, and CBS News suppressing damning footage of the president until shortly before the election.

With Obama safely re-elected, the goal is now to protect Hillary Clinton. Last week, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) called upon Speaker of the House John Boehner not only to retract, but to apologize publicly for, an inter-committee report that suggested Clinton had ignored requests for additional security in Libya.

On MSNBC, a channel that serves as the mouthpiece for the Democratic Party, Rev. Al Sharpton–who also serves as an informal White House adviser–described the Benghazi investigation as the “new vast right-wing conspiracy,” a reference to Clinton’s claim, as First Lady, that Republicans were merely out to target her husband and that he had not committed any wrongdoing in the Monica Lewinsky affair that led to his impeachment.

Though there are undoubtedly some political motives present, Democrats’ claims are largely a projection of their own political agenda in Benghazi, which has remained consistent from the start: to shield the party and its leaders from responsibility for a major terrorist attack on American sovereign territory.

And right on cue, the WH does it’s best to discredit the whistleblowers:

Via WFB, this is so lame. Especially the un-freaking-believably stale talking points he throws in at the end. Good God almighty, enough already.

Reason: Salon: It’s Conservatives’ Fault if Benghazi Scandal Doesn’t Have Legs. Er … What?

Well, here’s an interesting way to respond to the Benghazi scandal, back in the spotlight again this week as whistle-blowers prepare to testify before Congress that the government always knew the assault on the consulate in Libya was a planned terror attack and not a spontaneous protest in response to an anti-Muslim video posted on YouTube. Alex Seitz-Wald at Salon is pre-blaming conservativesshould the scandal fail to take off:

The charges seem potentially damaging and the accusers credible, but those trying to fan flames of scandal have so embarrassed and discredited themselves by pushing bogus story lines on Benghazi that it may be hard for the media and American people to take any new allegations seriously. For instance, the last time we saw a “Benghazi whistle-blower,” it was an anonymous Fox News source, but he seemed to know so little about basic special operations that military analysts called him a clown and an embarrassment.

Okay, that’s one. Any others? It appears not.

Washington Free Beacon: Redacting the Truth: WaPo factcheck ignores State Department Benghazi stonewall:

The U.S. Department of State is withholding information from congressional committees about who saw an April 2012 cable denying additional security at the diplomatic compound in Benghazi, according to the House Oversight Committee.

The compound was later overrun in a terrorist attack on Sept. 11 that claimed the lives of four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens.

The office of Rep. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton knew that the State Department denied an official request from a U.S. official in Libya for more security at the compound, citing her signature on a cable denying the request.

“The cable itself states ‘signature’ next to Clinton’s name and some of the names of those who participated in the process of clearing and approving the cable viewed by Congressional investigators were inexplicably redacted by the State Department. On multiple occasions, Congressional investigators objected to these redactions and requested un-redacted documents, including this cable. State Department has still not complied with these requests,” wrote Issa spokesman Frederick Hill in an email.

Washington Post fact checker Glenn Kessler ignored the State Department’s stonewalling in an article that appeared in Monday’s print edition titled, “Issa claim about Clinton’s name on Benghazi cable is absurd.”

Nice try, but Hillary’s 2016 prospects grow dimmer by the minute.

***

Newsbusters: Carville: ‘Ted Cruz Is the Most Talented and Fearless Republican Politician I’ve Seen in 30 Years’

JAMES CARVILLE: I think he is the most talented and fearless Republican politician I’ve seen in the last 30 years. I further think that he’s going to run for president and he is going to create something. I’m not sitting here saying he’s going to win, and I think Senator DeMint is right. I’ve listened to excerpts of his speech in South Carolina. He touches every button, and this guy has no fear. He just keeps plowing ahead. And he is going to be something to watch.

And a lot of Republicans feel this way, George, and you hear this a lot: “If we only got someone who was articulate and was for what we were for, we would win elections. And we get these John McCains and these Mitt Romneys and these squishy guys that can’t do anything.” Well, there’s one thing this guy is not – he ain’t squishy, not in the least.

As the conversation continued and others on the panel said that other conservatives such as Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fl.) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) will likely also run in 2016, Carville added:

CARVILLE: Ted Cruz is going to eat their lunch. That guy, I’m telling you, he will out debate. I am just saying, he is a talent. I’m not rooting. I’m really sincere here. We watch him, he does things, I mean when he started talking about William Travis in South Carolina and the Alamo, this is a guy, and you go, “This guy is something.” Now I don’t agree with him. I think he’s out there. But I’m telling you, he’s more talented than all of these other guys.

Legendary Republican operative Chip Gerdes died of a heart attack, this morning. He was 43 years old – the same age Andrew Breitbart was when he died, a little over a year ago. I’d only met him a few times, but what a character!  I had the good fortune to have lunch with him and a few others at CPAC, a couple months ago. He was a  “behind the scenes” Republican operative who was very effective at what he did and his absence will be deeply felt in Republican circles…

Left to right: Chip Gerdes, Dana Loesch, Andrew Breitbart

The Other McCain: Chip Gerdes, Remembered:

The first rule of Chip Gerdes was, nobody talked about Chip Gerdes. In a world of political fame-junkies, nobody was so deliberately anonymous as the man whose Twitter handle was @TookieW.

That handle was, of course, an inside joke about Tookie Williams, one of the Left’s cop-killer heroes, and Chip Gerdes was in a sense a sort of inside joke: A shadowy behind-the-scenes operative who was well-known to all the people who really knew what was going on, but who made a point of being completely unknown to the larger world.

Today Chip is being fondly remembered by his friends who would never have dared to write his name in public while he was alive, lest they accidentally let slip the closely-guarded secret of his existence.

Chip was a “black ops” guy, a disciple of the legendary Republican operative Roger Stone. He was adept at research and organizing, but his specialty was the kind of no-fingerprints political trickery that some people have termed “ratf*cking.” Knowing how Chip worked, you never trusted that any “coincidence” in politics was actually coincidental, because you realized that whatever mischief Chip did on the GOP side, there were professional ratf*ckers doing the same kind of thing (and probably worse) on the Democrat side.

When the WeinerGate scandal broke, one of the first phone calls I made was to Chip Gerdes: “Did you do this?”

“No, swear to God, man — this is legit,” Chip said. “I mean, yeah, we all knew Anthony had this problem weeks ago, but it’s the real deal. Dude hit the wrong button trying to DM a meat-Tweet to this girl. I’d love to tell you it was us, but it wasn’t.”

Senator Ted Cruz:  Why I Oppose the Internet Tax Bill:

Basic tenets of economics dictate that when you tax something, you get less of it. That’s why it’s incomprehensible that the U.S. Senate is moving to raise taxes on one of the brightest sectors of our struggling economy.

The Internet is a thriving ecosystem of entrepreneurial freedom that should be protected and nourished. It has allowed new businesses to compete in the national marketplace in ways that would have been impossible 15 years ago, and it empowers consumer choice. But tax-hungry politicians view the Internet as yet another source of revenue to bail out their big-spending governments.

The misleadingly titled Marketplace Fairness Act is a job-killing tax hike, plain and simple. It is, in effect, a national Internet sales tax, which would hammer the little guy and benefit giant corporations.

Senators who vote for it are voting to impose audits, compliance costs, lost wages, and inefficiency on small businesses in every state. And they are potentially crippling an engine of new job creation at a time of economic struggle. This bill will not create jobs; it will not create new opportunities; and it will not create the economic growth our country needs and our people deserve.

The Other McCain: Like Many Other Liberal Activists, @Political_Bill Doesn’t Like Police:

Of course, if you had gotten busted for possession of drugs and child pornography, maybe you’d hate cops, too:

William “Bill” Talley aka @Political_Bill on Twitter … is a convicted sex offender who has managed to delay going to prison through evidentiary appeals. During that time, he has emerged as a progressive voice on Twitterand even briefly enjoyed board status in a prominent netroots startup. …
Talley was arrested for possession of drugs and hundreds of sexual images of children in August 2005. …
Questioned directly, Talley has denied the charges are true, even though he actually pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography. …

So, @Political_Billdenies being a pedophile dopehead, kind of the wayBrett Kimberlindenies being a terrorist bomber — and really, why would anyone mention that little girl whose grandmother got shot to death? — in an effort to evade responsibility and reputation damage.

Also, like Kimberlin’s associate Neal Rauhauser, William “Bill” Talley reportedly has used multiple online identities:

@Political_Bill
@Strategic_Bill
@Healthcare_Bill
@Sleeping_Bill
@Politaire
@7serf7

Sooper Mexican: Patriotic Porn Star Exposes Boston Bomber Advocate’s Phone Number on Twitter:

Adult film actress Grace Evangeline was angered by online advocates of accused Boston bomber Dzhokhar, so she used her womanly wiles to get the founder’s phone number and posted it on the internet.

There are always those degenerate elements of society that swarm to commiserate and sympathize with the worst criminals out of some perverse sense of self-importance animated by a savior complex. But it takes a special kind of moron to come to the defense of Dzhokhar Tzarnaev, the suspected terrorist bomber who killed 2 Americans and maimed dozens in Boston.

That special moron has a name, and it’s Troy Crossley.

Gateway Pundit: Senator Inhofe: DHS Ammo Grab Is Obama’s Attempt to “Dry Up” Supply:

Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) weighed in on the DHS ammo controversy this weekend.
Inhofe told Aaron Klein that he believes the Obama administration is attempting to “dry up” the ammo market from gun-owning citizens.
World Net Daily reported:

U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., says he believes open purchase orders from the Department of Homeland Security to buy over 1 billion rounds of ammunition are part of an “intentional” effort by the Obama administration to “dry up the market” for gun-owning citizens.

“We have in this country the Second Amendment that preserves the right to keep and bear arms,” Inhofe told radio host Aaron Klein, “and the president doesn’t believe in that.”

Weasel Zippers: Hollywood Lib Robert Redford’s Sympathetic Movie On Left-Wing Terrorist Group Weather Underground Bombs At The Box Office…

Via Hot Air:

You have to feel a little sorry for Robert Redford, don’t you?  He just released a feature film asking audiences to reconsider their harsh feelings about the Weather Underground, which set off bombs, killed police officers, and robbed banks for more than a decade of domestic terrorism, but who were just misunderstood people acting on their deeply-held beliefs about justice. Unfortunately for Redford, a couple of misunderstood kids did the same thing at the Boston Marathon ten days after the film opened.  So far, Redford’s paean to leftist terrorists and murders has grossed only $3.5 million since its limited April 5th opening, and in the last two weeks, its wide distribution has only made  $1.9 million:

All American Blogger: What Liberal Media: Gay Jason Collins Story Gets 1,970% More Coverage Than Kermit Gosnell Horror Trial:

The media, whether the grunts behind the on-the-scene camera know it or not, have an agenda.

It’s left of center and it’s stopped being subtle.

Case in point:

In the eight days since NBA player Jason Collins announced he was gay, the news media have covered the story in 2,381 places. But in the first eight days of the trial of Dr. Kermit Gosnell and his “House of Horrors” abortion business, the media covered the story in 115 places, meaning that Collins’ “gay” news received more than 1,970.4% more news coverage.

That’s not a coincidence. That’s a clear choice not to cover a story.