Benghazi Continues: Hillary de Medici.

The Benghazi scandal is not over.  You will be told that by a lot of people. There is no smoking gun, etc. (Actually, there are many.)

Some folks on the right, because they have been so accustomed to failure in the face of a monolithic media, will be ready to throw in the towel.

That group is particularly disturbing because they are the very people who should be pushing this forward. Without realizing it, their proclamations of pessimism are a self-fulfilling prophecy.
I urge them to overcome it for the sake of our country, because — trust me — Benghazi is not over. It has only just begun.
Anyone paying attention to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearings Wednesday would have plenty of reasons for optimism.  To begin with, the testimony underscored (and how!) what we already knew — that the events of September 11, 2012, were a terrorist attack and not a demonstration over a YouTube video.

Gregory Hicks, the former deputy chief of mission in Libya, told the committee that Ambassador Stevens said precisely that — that he was “under attack” — when he made his very first emergency phone call from Benghazi to Hicks on that fateful night.
But don’t take Hicks’ word for it.  Take the word of one of his superiors — Beth Jones, the State Department’s own acting assistant secretary for Near Eastern Affairs.

In the closest thing to a coup de théâtre at the hearing, Congressman Trey Gowdy (R-SC) revealed a September 12 email from Jones to Hicks, State Department officials Victoria Nuland and Patrick Kennedy, and Hillary Clinton’s personal counsel Cheryl Mills, stating that she (Jones) had informed Libyan leadership that the attack at Benghazi was the work of Ansar al Sharia – one of the world’s most well-known Islamic terror groups.

This was four days before Ambassador Rice appeared on five Sunday shows and lied to the American people by blaming the events on the YouTube video and long before Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton repeated that lie, he in front of the United Nations, and she in front of the very Chris Stevens’ coffin with family and friends in attendance.
Hillary de Medici, indeed.

Of course, a number of media will do their best to spin this email. People will come out to say they reconsidered the conclusion afterwards, it was the fog of war, etc.
But they will be lying and they will know it. They will allow themselves to lie, however, because it is for them to protect what they consider to be greater goods — at that time the reelection of Barack Obama and, later, the ascendancy of Hillary.

It’s all “the ends justify the (lying) means”  or, in Islamic terms, it’s taqiyya. (The odd similarity of the communist “the ends justify the means” and the Islamic concept of taqiyya – lying to the Infidel for the benefit of Islam is permissible — would be an interesting comparison study.)
So we are back in a Watergate-type situation and, as with those times, we are going to have to work our way up the food chain. Testimony at the hearing attested to the obvious — that the Accountability Review Board report (already itself under investigation) only held mid-level people responsible. How convenient and how predictable.

Fortunately, several Haldeman and Ehrlichman stand-ins suggest themselves, among them Jones and the recipients of her email.

Most prominent among those names is attorney Cheryl Mills, sometimes called Hillary’s “fixer.” People, we were told, pick up the phone when she calls.

Her name popped up several times during the hearings. She apparently turned cold on poor Gregory Hicks when he wandered off the reservation. Hicks was also warned that he and others were not to give one-on-one interviews to Jason Chaffetz when the Utah congressman went to Libya to investigate. (Hicks has apparently been demoted and has no real job. So much for the vaunted support for “whistle blowers.”)
Welcome to the Soviet Union, Mr. and Mrs. America.

So allow me to turn back to my second paragraph about those who would be cynical about what is transpiring. Sorry, but it’s too late for that. Playing Malvolio is a luxury we can no longer afford.
This is a time that private citizens can do a lot. They can inform themselves about the facts and issues of Benghazi as they come up and explain them to friends, family, and co-workers.  You might even change a mind or two. Teachable moments this dramatic come along extremely rarely.  The last one I can think of was September 11, 2001.  That changed the lives of a lot of us, some even permanently.

http://pjmedia.com/lifestyle/2012/12/10/everything-you-think-you-know-about-autism-is-wrong/

Will The Ghosts Of Benghazi Haunt Hillary?

NOTABLES

• EXCLUSIVE — BENGHAZI TALKING POINTS UNDERWENT 12 REVISIONS: When it became clear last fall that the CIA’s now discredited Benghazi talking points were flawed, the White House said repeatedly the documents were put together almost entirely by the intelligence community, but White House documents reviewed by Congress suggest a different story, ABC’s JONATHAN KARL has learned. ABC News has obtained 12 different versions of the talking points that show they were extensively edited as they evolved from the drafts first written entirely by the CIA to the final version distributed to Congress and to U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice before she appeared on five talk shows the Sunday after that attack. White House emails reviewed by ABC News suggest the edits were made with extensive input from the State Department.  The edits included requests from the State Department that references to the Al Qaeda-affiliated group Ansar al-Sharia be deleted as well references to CIA warnings about terrorist threats in Benghazi in the months preceding the attack. http://abcn.ws/ZTqV1C READ the full Benghazi talking point revisions with an hour-by-hour timeline: http://abcn.ws/11XEZoF

• WHITE HOUSE FLASHBACK: The fresh revelations that emerge from Jonathan Karl’s reporting would appear to directly contradict what White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said about the talking points last November. “Those talking points originated from the intelligence community. They reflect the IC’s best assessments of what they thought had happened,” Carney told reporters at the White House press briefing on November 28, 2012. ”The White House and the State Department have made clear that the single adjustment that was made to those talking points by either of those two institutions were changing the word ‘consulate’ to ‘diplomatic facility’ because ‘consulate’ was inaccurate.”

• PILING ON HILLARY: This morning the Karl Rove-backed super PAC, American Crossroads, is out with a new video that an adviser to the group says highlights the “massive contradictions between the statements of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and others in the Obama Administration on the Benghazi attack.” The American Crossroads spot asks: “Why did she blame a video? And was she part of a cover-up? … Americans deserve the truth.” WATCH: http://bit.ly/16ktVb8 It comes on the heels of another video released yesterday by America Rising, a new Republican PAC, which spliced some of Clinton’s January congressional testimony on Benghazi with the testimony from Capitol Hill this week. WATCH: http://bit.ly/11pggyK

• THIS WEEK ON ‘THIS WEEK’: As debates rage over Benghazi, Syria, and immigration, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., speak exclusively to ABC News Chief Global Affairs Correspondent MARTHA RADDATZ, Sunday on “This Week.” And the “This Week” powerhouse roundtable takes on all the week’s politics, with ABC News’ George Will, Donna Brazile, Matthew Dowd, and Jonathan Karl, plus former Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe, author of the new book, “Fighting for Common Ground.” Plus, in a special Mother’s Day Sunday Spotlight, Raddatz speaks with moms on Capitol Hill – Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., Rep. Linda Sanchez, D-Calif., and soon-to-be mother Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Wash. Tune in Sunday: http://abcnews.go.com/thisweek (h/t ABC’s IMTIYAZ  DELAWALA)

THE ROUNDTABLE
ABC’s RICK KLEIN: The Benghazi story entered a new phase this week, one that’s destined to keep the investigation and the accusations alive for a while longer — maybe a long while. Questioning on Wednesday, and new revelations about the editing of the now-infamous talking points, put scrutiny on Hillary Rodham Clinton’s leadership at the State Department. American Crossroads and America Rising, two GOP-aligned SuperPACs, have new Web videos putting spotlights on Clinton, not President Obama. Republicans now see Benghazi as way to get at the 2016 frontrunner, someone with a history of being targeted by political enemies. Clinton’s defiant testimony in January — “what difference at this point does it make?” — rather clearly won’t be the last word now.

ABC’s JONATHAN KARL:  It was the Benghazi attack ad the Republican National Committee created but never aired. The ad, obtained by ABC News, begins with a replay of Hillary Clinton’s famous “3 a.m. phone call” commercial from the 2008 campaign and then cuts to video of the burning U.S. consulate in Benghazi Libya. Over the images of the attack-in which four Americans were killed-words appear on the screen: “The Call Came … On September 12, 2012.”  As the screen goes black, the words continue: “Security Requests Denied. Four Americans Dead. And an Administration whose story is still changing. The Call Came.” A source familiar with the creation of the ad says the RNC leadership approved the ad, but it was scrapped at the last minute because of objections from the Romney campaign, which was concerned the ad would distract from Romney’s efforts to focus on the economy. http://abcn.ws/10ww5Ss

ABC’s DANA HUGHES: Secretary of State John Kerry briefly addressed this week’s Congressional testimony about Benghazi by State Department employees in Rome on Thursday, saying “the State Department will leave no stone unturned.” He told reporters that he would not get into any details about the Benghazi hearings because he had “been literally in 24-hour meetings, flying from Moscow,” so had only seen headlines from the testimony, but will deal with the situation when he returns to Washington. Once back he’ll receive a staff briefing on the hearings. Kerry reiterated that he’s put his chief of staff David Wade in charge of being the liaison with the relevant committee chairs in the House and Senate to answer any lingering questions. “I am absolutely determined that this issue will be answered, will be put to bed, and if there’s any culpability in any area that is appropriate to be handled in some way with some discipline, it will be appropriately handled.” http://abcn.ws/15vBhJi

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2013/05/will-the-ghosts-of-benghazi-haunt-hillary-the-note/



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Hillary Clinton Fired From Watergate Committee for Fraud, Ethics Violations:

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The former general counsel and chief of staff of the House Judiciary Committee, who supervised Hillary during the Watergate investigation, says her history of lies and unethical behavior goes back farther – and goes much deeper – than anyone realizes. 

Hillary Clinton has been taking a lot of heat lately over the Bosnia sniper misfire, for which she has been derided and ridiculed by all but the most staunch of her supporters. It has even inspired the above YouTube video, which recently surpassed 1,500,000 views. Now comes this bombshell from Jerry Zeifman, who supervised a much younger Hillary Clinton when she worked as a staffer for the Watergate committee: 'A lifelong Democrat, Mr. Zeifman supervised the work of 27-year-old Hillary Rodham on the committee. 

Hillary got a job working on the investigation at the behest of her former law professor, Burke Marshall, who was also Sen. Ted Kennedy’s chief counsel in the Chappaquiddick affair. When the investigation was over, Zeifman fired Hillary from the committee staff and refused to give her a letter of recommendation – one of only three people who earned that dubious distinction in Zeifman’s 17-year career.' Why? "Because she was a liar," Zeifman said in an interview last week. “She was an unethical, dishonest lawyer. 

She conspired to violate the Constitution, the rules of the House, the rules of the committee and the rules of confidentiality.' Mr. Zeifman also had this to say about a Hillary campaign rally in Connecticut in early February of this year: 'I have just seen Hillary Clinton and her former Yale law professor both in tears at a campaign rally here in my home state of Connecticut. Her tearful professor said how proud he was that his former student was likely to become our next President. Hillary responded in tears.' 'My own reaction was of regret that, when I terminated her employment on the Nixon impeachment staff, I had not reported her unethical practices to the appropriate bar associations.' This is no small potatoes, like the cattle futures dustoff. From Mr.Zeifman's account, Hillary and others on the Committee, including former senior associate special counsel (and future Clinton White House Counsel) Bernard Nussbaum – engaged in a seemingly implausible scheme to deny Richard Nixon the right to counsel during the investigation by stealing Judiciary Committee files on the only precedent case that could have stonewalled their plot and drafting a legal brief that, according to Mr. Ziefman, "was so fraudulent and ridiculous Hillary would have been disbarred if she had submitted it to a judge

." Things were already very tough for the former First Lady. Her ex-President husband has not exactly been helping her on the campaign trail recently, and she is no doubt wondering what kind of artillery the dreaded Vast Right Wing Conspiracy is waiting to fire at her in the general election, should she make it that far. This last torpedo, from a lifelong Democrat no less, may just be the one that sinks the Good Ship Hillary and her dreams of the presidency, which only a year ago looked like a cakewalk.  

Though a year can be an eternity in politics, Hillary knows probably better than anyone (except maybe her husband) that political fortunes can turn overnight. A catastrophic world event, or any more nuclear political bombs dropped onto Obama's head between now and the convention, such as even more devastating news vis-a-vis the volatile Jeremiah Wright, whom even former Democratic New York Mayor Ed Koch has roundly condemned, can make this and the Bosnia Sniper Misfire recede in the minds of the electorate, 

whose memories can be exceedingly short on such matters as events develop. It's going to be a lively one on the Democrat side. Perhaps even more so than the chaos and turmoil at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago. Perhaps more than any other in American political history. One can only wonder what is going through Senator John McCain's head during these cyclone-like twists and turns for both Democratic candidates. I can only imagine they are inspiring some very wide grins. Stay tuned, people. This one isn't over. Not by a long shot.

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/252624#ixzz2SugKdsOG