AP FACT CHECK: Clinton and critics on Benghazi, emails

[mmckee1952]

AP FACT CHECK: Clinton and critics on Benghazi, emails

By CONNIE CASS and CALVIN WOODWARD

WASHINGTON — Congressional investigations, by definition, are about finding facts. But some facts were twisted Thursday in a showdown between Hillary Rodham Clinton and her Republican questioners over how history — and voters — will remember the deadly 2012 attack on a diplomatic compound and CIA quarters in Benghazi, Libya.

A look at some of the claims in a House hearing where lawmakers quizzed Clinton, secretary of state during the Benghazi episode and now a 2016 Democratic presidential candidate:

CLINTON: "There was a good back and forth about security." — On communications between U.S. personnel in Libya and the State Department in Washington, about security needs at the Benghazi compound before the attack that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

THE FACTS: The independent review Clinton convened after the attacks deeply faulted State Department officials in Washington for poor communication and cooperation as diplomats in Libya pressed for more security and Benghazi grew more dangerous.

The Accountability Review Board cited a "lack of transparency, responsiveness, and leadership at senior bureau levels" and "shortfalls in Washington coordination" contributing to a "woefully insufficient" security force at the compound.

The fewer than half-dozen armed diplomatic security personnel at the compound "were not well served by their leadership in Washington," the board said.

Clinton furthermore asserted that personnel in Benghazi were granted many of their requests for security equipment upgrades.

The review board, however, said "Washington showed a tendency to overemphasize the positive impact of physical security upgrades" to a "profoundly weak" system.

At the same time, Washington officials were "generally failing to meet Benghazi's repeated requests" to augment security personnel.

REP. TREY GOWDY: The Republican committee chairman ridiculed the idea of Stevens "having to stop and provide public messaging advice to your press shop" a week after a bomb blew a hole in the compound's wall, without injuring anyone.

Gowdy referred to a request from the State Department's spokeswoman at the time, Victoria Nuland, who wrote, according to the chairman, "We'd like your advice about public messaging about the spate of violence in Libya over the last 10 days."

THE FACTS: An important part of any ambassador's job is to be the public face of U.S. policy in the host country and to help decide what the U.S. government should say publicly about that country.

State Department spokespeople receive guidance every day from ambassadors, assistant secretaries and other top officials about their areas of expertise, so that they can most accurately present U.S. policy to the public.

CLINTON: Asked about the dozens of emails she received from longtime political confidant Sidney Blumenthal, many with reports about developments in Libya, Clinton said his advice was "unsolicited."

THE FACTS: Clinton was mischaracterizing some of those exchanges with Blumenthal.

Gowdy asked what she meant by saying his advice was unsolicited.

"I did not ask him to send me the information that he sent me," Clinton said.

Noting that Blumenthal had no expertise about Libya, Gowdy read Clinton's emailed responses to some of his reports: "Thanks and please keep them coming," ''Anything else to convey?" and "What are you hearing now?"

At that, Clinton revised her description of how their email exchanges unfolded to "originally unsolicited," saying, "They started out unsolicited, and as I said, some were of interest."

GOWDY: The chairman defended his lengthy probe by arguing that seven previous congressional investigations "were narrow in scope and either incapable or unwilling to access the facts and evidence necessary to answer all relevant questions."

THE FACTS: What Gowdy didn't mention: Five of those seven investigations were led and controlled by his fellow House Republicans, who were no pushovers. The other two congressional investigations, led by Senate Democrats, produced bipartisan reports.

While each panel investigated matters under its particular jurisdiction, the mandate was still broad, and underlying facts behind the attack were explored repeatedly.

That's not to say information that emerged after these investigations has been comprehensively explored. Gowdy noted his panel demanded additional documents and was the first to get Clinton's email — kept on her personal server.

Read More: http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ ... spartandhp

My Thoughts:
What I thought was really damning was the Ambassador E-mailed the Stated Dept. over 600 times requesting additional security and didn’t get squat and Hillary is saying she never heard of these E-mails, that her security people were the ones who took care of that stuff. Come on, this is such a load of BS. It tells you of one of two things either she was laying her head off or she was so incompetent, it’s beyond the pale.

Also What’s your opinion of what came out yesterday at the Benghazi hearing, that records show that Hillary sent an E-mail the Egyptian prime minister the next day after the attack telling him she knew it was an Al-Qaeda preplanned attack and also sent her daughter the same info the night of the attack and then for the next week she promoted a lie not only to the American people that the attack that killed four people was a direct result of a anti Mohammad video and also to the parents and loved one’s when they brought the bodies home from over there.

[wittmeba]

It would not matter whether it is just before election time (Dems claim the intent is to discredit HRC) or any other time. There will be some lame excuse to blame the Republicans for the investigation.

After HRC's comment about gun confication, I sure hope she isn't even close in the elections.

She cannot stop lying!


Edit:
Wife just found this - thought it was appropriate.