It turns out that the Benghazi whistleblowers…
…have some pretty good credentials:
Appearing before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will be three career State Department officials: Gregory N. Hicks, the deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Libya at the time of the Benghazi terrorist attacks; Mark I. Thompson, a former Marine and now the deputy coordinator for Operations in the agency’s Counterterrorism Bureau; and Eric Nordstrom, a diplomatic security officer who was the regional security officer in Libya, the top security officer in the country in the months leading up to the attacks.
Of the three, only Nordstrom doesn’t consider himself a whistleblower. But he’s certainly acting as one. He is the only one of the three who has testified before (before the all-important 2012 election) [emphasis mine]:
“For me the Taliban is on the inside of the [State Department] building,” Nordstrom testified [on Oct 12, 2012], angry over inadequate staffing at a time when the threat environment in Benghazi was deteriorating…
The lawyers said their clients believe their accounts of Benghazi were spurned by the Accountability Review board (ARB), the official investigative body convened by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to review the terrorist attacks, and that the two employees have faced threats and intimidation from as-yet-unnamed superiors.
“I’m not talking generally, I’m talking specifically about Benghazi — that people have been threatened,” Toensing told Fox News on Wednesday. “And not just the State Department; people have been threatened at the CIA”¦.It’s frightening”¦.They’re taking career people and making them well aware that their careers will be over.”
That’s pretty chilling stuff, but should come as no surprise to anyone here who’s been following this from the start. The question I ask now is one I’ve been asking for many many months: what difference will it make?
The article linked here is from Fox. I can’t find anything about this story in any liberal news outlet. I wonder what will happen as the testimony goes forward; will the MSM refuse to cover the hearings at all? Or will it cover them minimally and just spin whatever is said there?
I also wonder what took so long for the whistleblowers to have their public say, but my guess is that the intimidation was pretty powerful. What’s more, I wonder why they are coming out now to speak. There are several untold stories here, and one of them is the many ways in which this information was suppressed in order to allow Barack Obama to be elected to a second term. Now, it really may not make a difference; he’s not going to be impeached, no matter what he did or didn’t do. The biggest effect (and here I’m being optimistic) may be to hurt Hillary Clinton’s changes of becoming president in 2016.
As a 1948 boomer with no intention of committing suicide, it does make a great deal of difference to me. I do agree that Obama will not be impeached no matter how damaging the information that may be uncovered; but perhaps it will set the tone of the rest of BHO’s term and render his unending campaign before the MSM meaningless. And then there is HRC and 2016.
I notice that there aren’t a lot of comments when Neo puts up a Benghazi post. Why is this? Has everyone — even the commenters on this blog — forgotten?
I think it’s a very big deal that the whistleblowers are such important figures.
I don’t hope for impeachment. I just want the truth to come out. The grossness of this lie makes me a little breathless.
mizpants: I don’t know, but I think people are just tired. We’ve been talking about this since last fall and so little has happened to bring it to general public awareness and concern. There’s cynicism, exhaustion, and bitterness that set in quite some time ago.
For me, the second debate (the Candy Crowley one) was a real turning point. It was then that I realized how determined the MSM was to cover this up, and how little traction Romney would ever get on it. He seemed to cave, because he too realized that the facts were never going to come out and instead it would be he who would be made to appear as though he were lying. I wrote a great deal about the Crowley incident when it happened.
But I agree that it’s a very very very big deal. It should be a huge scandal in the eyes of the public. But so far it is not. We’ll see what happens when these guys start testifying. My guess is: crickets.
There’s nothing to say by people who don’t need any more information to make up their minds or to feel outrage.
But the outrage, buried as it is, is there and speaks of a readiness one day for revenge.
Threatening careers is chilling, but abandoning 30 people under attack in Libya is much, much worse. I will never get over our President & SoS doing this, and the standing in front of the 4 victims’ caskets a few days later blatantly lying to the grieving families and the American public.
The power of the Left knows no bounds. People will have to suffer a lot more to get the will to start fighting for real.
Evil is a very abstract concept for most humans, because they have not seen its true nature. The Left, unbounded by the normal rules of social cooperation and civilization, will show you that true nature in time. Even if you were lucky enough to have lived in a time when the great past evils of totalitarian regimes have been defeated, humans are not lucky enough to live in a time where good always prevails.
Ymar – The hardest part is realizing that Obama is comfortable with death. He sent guns to drug cartels in Mexico, he selects targets for drone assassinations, he left his diplomats Libya poorly protected and then abandoned them, he relentlessly pushes abortion, and his Afghanistan policies have resulted in more soldiers’ deaths. And then there’s his choice to focus on domestic Christian and rightwing “terrorist threats” allowing the Ft. Hood & Boston attacks to happen. Who could forget that he was more angry about the failed gun bill than the marathon bombing? It’s unfathomable, but the pattern has become clear.
First things first about Obama is that he is a nothing like Tamerlan or Lanza. There’s no identity strong enough to resist the false identity whether it’s Islam or all rage/mental illness aka progressivism.
Obama does have a “false identity” issue between Islam and progressivism. For now that can safely stay hidden as the two fascisms are united in their war on the West.
The apathy that attends each Obama outrage was sanctioned and founded by the first outrage: his identity. That battle was lost and even as the truth become available, no-one seemed to care. We were told by our own wise people to move on. It was a failure of leadership.
Now there’s Ted Cruz.
What difference does it make? I’ll give you a slightly different perspective. I grew up the son of expatriate Americans, often living in the worst hotspots in the world: in Guatemala during the Arbenz regime, in Lebanon during both the Suez crisis and the Lebanese civil war, in Panama during the Panama Canal riots, etc. While other expatriates, our friends, panicked and fled back to the U.S., my dad was always steadfast, assured that if things got really bad the American government would never leave an American citizen behind. My dad has been dead a dozen years. I’m grateful that he did not live to see that the U.S. now has an administration comfortable with leaving citizens behind and unaided, even the very best of citizens. I would be more nervous if I were an expat under Obama.
A story that won’t go away!
New information!
Shit.
http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-TV/2013/05/05/Explosive-Rep-Issa-Reveals-details-From-Benghazi-whistle-blowers
Sharpie, good link. At least it’s on one of the alphabet stations. This will not hurt Obama much, but I think HRC may well be finished as a candidate for POTUS. It may even affect the 2014 elections.
I have stopped commenting about Benghazi b/c I am completely demoralized. I served with Chris Stephens in the early 90s in one Muslim hell hole, and was serving in another on 9/11. From the 1st WTC bombing on, I knew I was a target, but I continued on working like a dog b/c I believed we were fighting the good fight, just as I had grown up believing it during the Cold War. After the many embassy attacks and threats, and the complete gutting of our foreign policy under Obama, I left the State Dept. Benghazi was a kick in the gut that hit too close to home. And to have watched the cover-up from Day 1 and the collusion of the MSM — the sole purpose of which was to guarantee Obama re-election, was the last straw. I can’t even talk about it, I am so enraged. But I can’t live like that, so I have disengaged for self-preservation purposes. I also know Greg Hicks and am praying that he will tell the whole story and bring this decaying house down. I despair for my country, but I am all used up.
Delilah, thanks for sharing your story. I suspect you are not alone. Take care.
http://www.greatseal.com/committees/firstcomm/reverse.html
Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.–Benjamin Franklin
Kick this piece of shit POTUS in the butt and convict him of treason.
Given Greg Hick’s assessement is true, that the President of the United States and his administration wilfully lied when they claimed the attack was not an attack but a demonstration, and this lie undercut the Libyan President and thrawted efforts to find the terrorists, how can anyone NOT say the President of the United States is NOT guilty of helping our enemies?
There’s a way for us baby boomers to rectify the situation. We’re not helpless. And we could get kind of freebie at the same time: March on Washinton and do a starvation protest.
Now this has alot of good ideas. When was the last time you fasted? Fasting is good for you. And if you die, meh, it’s coming fast enough anyway with pain, lonliness and no care from the youngsters, that’s for sure.
How about one last one for the Gippur?
Samuel Rutherford, in his book titled Lex Rex suggested that when the State is deliberately committed to destruction of its ethical commitment to God, then resistance becomes appropriate. He goes on to suggest three appropriate levels of resistance. First, he must defend himself by protest, i.e., legal action. Second, he must flee if at all possible, and third, he may use force if necessary to defend himself.
Force should not be used if flight can save him. Nor should running away be the answer if he can save and defend himself by means of protest. He further cautioned the distinct difference between lawless civil disobedience and lawful resistance.
If possible, resistance should be under protection of duly constituted authorities such as local officials, bearing in mind that the local office is just as much delegated by God as the highest government official.
http://www.breitbart.com/InstaBlog/2013/05/06/Benghazi-Witness-You-Should-Have-Seen-What-Clinton-Tried-to-Do-to-Us-That-Night
Clinton isn’t an illegal alien; she’s an illegal American! Impeach her ass and drag her down the capital steps to the gallows. She’s directly responsible for American deaths only to protect Obama.
For those that call this Benghazi thing a witch hunt, remember that 1) four american lives were lost. 2) there were obvious problems with security and 3) the public was given inaccurate information. Do you not believe that it is the responsibility of our government to find some answers?