Jake Tapper
The Lead
CNN.com
5/5/2013
Greg Hicks, former deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli, Libya, told congressional investigators that the State Department internal review of the catastrophe at the mission in Benghazi “let people off the hook,” CNN has learned.
The Accountability Review Board “report itself doesn’t really ascribe blame to any individual at all. The public report anyway,” Hicks told investigators, according to transcript excerpts obtained by CNN. “It does let people off the hook.”
The board’s report on the Benghazi attack, in which Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed in September, is being reviewed by the State Department’s Office of Inspector General…
…Hicks said he never had any indication that there had been a popular protest outside the mission in Benghazi.
“I never reported a demonstration; I reported an attack on the consulate,” Hicks said. Stevens’ “last report, if you want to say his final report, is, ‘Greg, we are under attack.'”
You know, it’s jaw‑dropping that ‑‑ to me that ‑‑ how that came to be,” Hicks recalled. “And, you know, I knew ‑‑ I was personally known to one of (U.S.) Ambassador (to the United Nations Susan) Rice’s staff members. And, you know, we’re six hours ahead of Washington. Even on Sunday morning, I could have been called, and, you know, the phone call could have been, ‘hey, Greg, Ambassador Rice is going to say blah, blah, blah, blah,’ and I could have said, ‘no, that’s not the right thing.’ That phone call was never made.”…
…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. The impact of that is immeasurable. Magariaf has just lost face in front of not only his own people but the world…
Read the complete article at CNN’s The Lead.
Related: BENGHAZI: Names of ‘whistle-blower’ witnesses revealed
…Hicks is a veteran Foreign Service officer whose overseas postings have also included Afghanistan, Syria, and Yemen.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz, a Utah Republican and committee member, said Hicks was in Tripoli at 9:40 p.m. local time when he received one of Stevens’ earliest phone calls amid the crisis.
“We’re under attack! We’re under attack!” the ambassador reportedly shouted into his cellphone at Hicks.
Chaffetz, who subsequently debriefed Hicks, also said the deputy “immediately called into Washington to trigger all the mechanisms” for an inter-agency response.
“The real-life trauma that [Hicks] went through,” Chaffetz recalled to Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren, “I mean, I really felt it in his voice. It was hard to listen to. He’s gone through a lot, but he did a great job.”…
Also, The man behind the Benghazi cover-up?
…Ben Rhodes should be called to account for trying to divert blame away from Islamic terrorists and the Obama team members whose feckless negligence led to the Benghazi massacre…
…Not long ago, Rhodes was one of the obscure guys who wrote Obama’s campaign speeches in Starbucks and played video games into the early morning hours. Now he attends national security meetings and takes writer’s refuge in a secret office on the third floor of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.…
Read the whole thing.
Issa: Administration Looks Guilty of Benghazi Cover-Up
Rep. Darrell Issa of California charged on Sunday that the Obama administration made a political decision to deny that terrorists were responsible for the Sept. 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya.
“We can’t find a classified reason for it. We can’t find a diplomatic reason for it,” said the Republican, appearing on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
Issa’s House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will begin hearings on Wednesday to find out whether there was a cover-up by the Obama administration of the attack that resulted in the death of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans…
Update: CBS News’ Bob Schieffer Blows the Lid Off the Benghazi Scandal with Darrell Issa on “Face the Nation” video at Freedom’s Lighthouse.
DEVASTATING!… CBS Publishes Benghazi Investigation – Pummels Administration at The Gateway Pundit.
…Counterterrorism sources and internal emails reviewed by CBS News express frustration that key responders were ready to deploy, but were not called upon to help in the attack. National Security Council Spokesman Tommy Vietor told CBS News the CSG was not needed.
via Instapundit:
MICHAEL WALSH: Benghazi Blues. “No matter what happens with Darrell Isaa’s congressional committee meetings this week, we are witnessing the beginning of the end of the Obama Administration, and the cause is Benghazi. It’s impossible to underestimate the blowback that has been gathering steam for the past seven months, now about to erupt with full force. Few reputations will emerge unscathed, Obama’s presidency will be crippled, Hillary Clinton’s 2016 candidacy will be destroyed — and perhaps some new heroes will be born.”
Update 2: Clinton sought end-run around counter-terrorism bureau on night of Benghazi attack, witness will say
…Sources close to the congressional investigation who have been briefed on what Thompson will testify tell Fox News the veteran counterterrorism official concluded on Sept. 11 that Clinton and Kennedy tried to cut the counterterrorism bureau out of the loop as they and other Obama administration officials weighed how to respond to — and characterize — the Benghazi attacks.
“You should have seen what (Clinton) tried to do to us that night,” the second official in State’s counterterrorism bureau told colleagues back in October. Those comments would appear to be corroborated by Thompson’s forthcoming testimony…
Also at FNC, Dems Now Slam Rice’s Benghazi Account, Amid New Damaging Details
Democrats distance themselves from the Obama administration’s explanation of the Libya terror attacks — in which US Ambassador Susan Rice initially said they were sparked by protests — amid evidence that suggests the information was revised to mislead Americans.
Update 3: John Bolton: “Stunned” at High Positions of Benghazi Whistleblowers; Testimony Could be”Dramatic”
