State Dept Slamned For Playing Dumb On Benghazi Whistleblowers

The State Department spinning. In full force. It is interesting that the usual State Department spokesperson, Victoria Nuland has disappeared from the scene as her implication in the coverup is slowly unfolding.  It is going to be hard for the MSM to keep looking the other way. Just take a look at the timeline and ask how did they get so far with this?

Damning, the complete Timeline in Spreadsheet form  can be found at Doug Ross  … no one should have to die like this. While Obama slept H/T:Adrienne’s Corner

CNN Foreign Affairs Correspondent Elise Labott slammed Deputy Spokesman Patrick Ventrell for saying that the State  Department hasn’t had access to transcripts of interviews with upcoming witnesses in the Benghazi hearing scheduled for Wednesday. “Come on, Patrick,” Labott said. “You know the gist of what they’re saying and what their arguments are.” “Let the record reflect that that was CNN was asking that question and not Fox News,”

Transcript:

MR. VENTRELL: I mean, it’s a little bit hard for us to – given that we don’t have a lot of information about how the hearing was scheduled and the various sort of formation of the majority’s decision to have this hearing, it’s a little bit hard to comment on the witnesses. Let me do – let me say one thing here, though, at the very top. We have always encouraged any State Department employee who wants to share their personal story, whether it be to the ARB or the Congress to tell the truth, period, full stop, end of story. That’s long been our position. We’ve made that clear from the start. In terms of these particular individuals, the committee didn’t come to us asking witnesses. We found out through the media and through the announcement the same way you all did. In terms of these potential transcripts out there, we haven’t seen the transcripts. So it’s –
QUESTION: Yeah, you have.
QUESTION: Oh, yes, you have. Come on, Patrick.
MR. VENTRELL: We have seen excerpts of these transcripts, but we do not have them, and they have not been provided to us.
QUESTION: Well, you’ve seen them – I mean, you’ve seen – you know the gist of what they’re saying and what their arguments are. First of all, Greg Hicks makes charges that he thought that there were assets in Libya that could have been able to be sent from Tripoli to Benghazi that night, and they were rejected. I mean, there are numerous charges that he makes.
MR. VENTRELL: There have been —
QUESTION: Let the record reflect that that was CNN was asking that question and not Fox News. Please continue.
MR. VENTRELL: Right. Well, let me just say that this has been made – these statements have been made to the media. They haven’t been made to us. Now, we understand this testimony is going to go forward and we want people to go and tell the truth. But in terms of the full context of these remarks or these sort of accusations, we don’t have the full context so it’s hard for us to respond.
QUESTION: Well, what about – okay. So – but just what do you make of the idea that more could have been done that night, sending assets from Tripoli to Benghazi, and that they weren’t?
MR. VENTRELL: Well, again, it’s hard for me to respond to specific allegations, not having the full context. Let me say this, though. And I said this last week. I can’t remember if you were here, Elise, on Friday. But these issues have been addressed and reviewed in great detail by the Accountability Review Board. There were eight hearings, 30 briefings, 25,000 documents; the ARB interviewed over a hundred witnesses, including people on the ground. And the ARB’s credible, comprehensive process was led by Ambassador Thomas Pickering and Admiral Michael Mullen.
QUESTION: I know —
MR. VENTRELL: But let me finish because not everybody does, and it’s worth saying this, that these are two of the most respected, nonpartisan leaders in Washington, each highly praised by both sides of the aisle for their long, distinguished careers. They put out a statement today saying that from the beginning of the ARB process, they had unfettered access to everyone and everything, including all the documentation they needed.

Breitbart

Reporter slams State Dept on silence over Israel

A “Spirited exchange between an Associated Press reporter and spokesperson Victoria Nuland marked the U.S. State Department’s daily briefing Monday on the continued violence between Israel and Hamas”, so the tag reads. If only we had a similar exchange at WH briefings. Fast and Furious, Benghazi to name a couple. Maybe this can be an example of what the press can do to regain some respect, self-respect as well. While some diplomacy always goes on behind the scene, it is the man/woman on the street that it has to made clear to, we will support Israel. Now we hear that Hilary is heading over the Middle East to cast her spell. The same woman who with Susan Rice, and Samantha Power were behind this whole nasty destabilization of the region – Here

 

Obama’s war in Yemen decends into hell without comment

Does the name Qassem Aqlani ring any bells? Bet not. No House hearings for the death of this man. He was murdered in Yemen, not Libya. An employee of a U.S. Embassy. No Issa hearing for this poor fellow. Little news coverage on this man. Then we have “our man Hadi” our latest Arab Spring nominee to lead Yemen. The only thing is he doesn’t like us too much. So here is a bit of what is going down lately so we can get ready for the next Libya coming our way. Video included.

A drive-by shooting Thursday that killed a top Yemeni security official who worked at the U.S. Embassy in Sanaa has raised concern that al Qaeda militants here are bouncing back and getting bolder after suffering defeats this year in a U.S.-Yemeni military offensive. (We have Al Qaeda back on their heels, I know, Obama just told us).

Al Qaeda in Yemen has carried out a string of assassinations of top security and military officials and deadly suicide bombings in recent months. Security officials said they believe it has a hit list to kill more in an attempt to paralyze Yemen’s new leadership installed this year and throw the anti-al Qaeda assaults into turmoil. ABC News

BONUS UPDATE: State Department Spokesdrone Victoria Nuland confirmed her lack of connection with reality by saying “We determined that the security at Benghazi was appropriate for what we knew.”

What the Video of the Attack on Our Embassy in Yemen Reveals

Video is afloat on the internet showing the attack on America’s Embassy in Sanaa, Yemen. Any casual look tells you this is not a good thing, but there is more on display than first meets the eye.

 

But what don’t you see? Any Yemeni cops around? Any host country forces trying to restore order? Nope. Let’s look at another clip; watch towards the end, around 0:54:

 Next video:There’s the Yemeni security guy, a soldier or a cop. He’d been watching the whole time. He only fired his 20mm cannon– into the air– when the mob seemed to get too close to him. He and whatever colleagues of his were around did not intercede to stop the riot. 

The video shows that the Yemeni security forces either can’t, or more likely, wouldn’t, defend the US Embassy from the mob. This is bad, really bad. It could mean the Yemeni government is on the side of the mob, or, more likely, that the Yemeni government is more afraid of the mob than the US. That as far as we can tell from these videos the Yemenis stood by and let the mob ransack the Embassy is a very, very ominous sign for the future. H/T: We meant well blog

Yemen demands US Marines leave

The day after Qassem Aqlani was murdered, the Marines were scheduled to leave Yemen anyway according to several news reports I heard, but can find no confirmation if they did. Maybe a reporter or two could track this info down, just saying.

Now the good news: The Yemeni parliament has demanded the removal of US Marines sent to boost security efforts in the capital Sanaa. According to the state-run Saba news agency the parliament strongly opposes the presence of any foreign military under any pretext. Video H/T: CNTV

Now for our part in this nasty business:

“It’s portrayed as picking off the bad guys from a plane,” she said. “But it’s actually surveilling entire communities, locating behavior that might be suspicious and striking groups of unknown individuals based on video data that may or may not be corroborated by eyeballing it on the ground.” New York Times : Oct 13, 2012

Who is held to account for deaths by drone in Yemen?

There is a history of Yemeni officials lying to protect the US, and the Pentagon and CIA greeting queries with obfuscation.

When news flashed of an air strike on a vehicle in the Yemeni city of Radaa on Sunday afternoon, (Reported Thursday September 6, 2012), early claims that al-Qaida militants had died soon gave way to a more grisly reality.

At least 10 civilians had been killed, among them women and children. It was the worst loss of civilian life in Yemen’s brutal internal war since May 2012. Somebody had messed up badly. But was the United States or Yemen responsible?

Local officials and eyewitnesses were clear enough. The Radaa attack was the work of a US drone – a common enough event. Since May 2011, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism has recorded up to 116 US drone strikes in Yemen, part of a broader covert war aimed at crushing Islamist militants. But of those attacks, only 39 have been confirmed by officials as the work of the US.

The attribution of dozens of further possible drone attacks – and others reportedly involving US ships and conventional aircraft – remains unclear. Both the CIA and Pentagon are fighting dirty wars in Yemen, each with a separate arsenal and kill list. Little wonder that hundreds of deaths remain in a limbo of accountability. Guardian U.K.

Full story October 13 at New York Times :

How many people have been killed by these unmanned aircraft in the Central Intelligence Agency’s strikes in Yemen and Pakistan? How many of the dead identified as “militants” are really civilians? How many are children?

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism in Britain has estimated that, in the first three years after President Obama took office, between 282 and 535 civilians were credibly reported killed by drone strikes — including more than 60 children.