Benghazi Hearing-May 8, 2013

I learned about the hearing in which three high ranking officials were to testify about the attack on our Embassy. I checked C-Span and the other news channels. Only Fox considered it important. I caught it just as it began. I was complimentary that they would not interrupt the testimony until, lo and behold they did. The commentator even apologized stating they had to pay their bills. I then went to my computer where I found it being broadcast by Public Television and watched uninterrupted until it ended. I spent at least six hours of my day. Of the people I will be sending this to, I would be willing to bet that none of them did as I did. My long standing opinion on the subject did not change. What it did was confirm for me the outrageous conduct of the Obama government to not react in a prompt fashion to mobilize forces to come to the defense of our people and then when it was over to falsely claim that it wasn’t an attack by Islamists but only Muslims congregating to protest a video, implying that it was really our fault. Obama, Clinton, Rice and Petraeus apologized over and over including Obama’s speech to the United Nations a week later. These three (whistle blowers) were appalled and spoke out, effectively ending their careers. Eric Nordstrom had been the Regional Security Officer posted to Libya after the war. His testimony related to his repeated attempts to beef up security. As it turned out security forces were dramatically reduced instead. Gregory Hicks, the Deputy Chief-Tripoli was in Tripoli. He attempted to get reinforcements to Benghazi. The Colonel in charge received a “stand down” order. No knowledge of the name of the person who gave that order, or more importantly the person in the Pentagon or State Dept. The committee chair Representative Darrell Issa has pledged to continue searching for the truth. We can only hope he does. This outrage cannot be allowed to stand. Mr. Hicks clearly confirmed it was a terrorist attack by a group called Ansar el-Sharia. The Libyan President also confirmed who the attackers were. He was contradicted by Susan Rice’s appearance on five Sunday news programs when she stated that the attack was brought on by a mob angry at the video. Mark Thompson was the Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary in the State Department with responsibility for anti-terrorism teams called FEST (foreign emergency support teams). He tried many times to receive approval to deploy a team. He was denied. Statements were made that it was too dangerous or they couldn’t get there in time. How outrageous is that? What is the use of training military personnel to intercede when needed? They could have been called back at any time once sent. The fighting in Benghazi lasted over six hours. They might have arrived in time to save lives or at the very least exert deadly force against the perpetrators. It has been proven that the assessment of the intelligence memo was re-written to exclude all comments relating to terrorists, at the direction of the State Department, which to me means Hillary Clinton. She and the rest continued to blame the attack on the video. As an aside I doubt if any of you have ever seen it, I did. It was available as a trailer of a movie. There is no movie that anyone has ever been able to find. It is 14 minutes long and the dumbest thing I’ve ever watched. Comical, not something that should generate hatred just disgust. On the positive side, watching and listening to these three dedicated public servants was heartwarming to me. It rekindled my faith that there are great Americans working on our behalf all thru the government. They were very emotional as they recalled the events and at times showed anger at not being allowed to do their jobs as they were trained to do. I can only hope you are as interested as I am in finally learning the facts of who made those fateful decisions that night and who decided to keep the truth from the American people. I will continue to follow this process to the end. Jack B. Walters May 9, 2013