Hillary Clinton Forever Tied to Benghazi

Republican Senators charged Thursday that National Security Advisor Susan Rice’s public account of the Benghazi terrorist attack has now “absolutely collapsed,” citing inaccuracies in her statements not only on the origin of the attack but the level of security at the US compound. Senators Lindsey Graham and Kelly Ayotte told reporters : "She's frustrated this won't go away. She's frustrated that she appeared on national television and told a story about Benghazi that has absolutely collapsed." The lawmakers' comments came a day after Rice appeared to ridicule a question about whether a congressional select committee probe would reveal new evidence. “Danged if I know,” Rice answered. Rice has long been accused of wrongly linking an anti-Islam video to the Benghazi attack - when U.S. personnel were reporting a direct assault by Ansar al-Sharia within the first 24 hours after it occurred. Now, Rice's statements about US consulate security are also under scrutiny. On three network Sunday shows five days after the Benghazi attack in September 2012, Rice said security was "strong or "significant" at the consulate on the day of the attack. Her statement was incorrect. "Should US security have been tighter at that consulate given the history of terror activity in Benghazi?" Fox News Sunday’s Chris Wallace asked Rice in September 2012. "Well, we obviously did have a strong security presence. And, unfortunately, two of the four Americans who died in Benghazi were there to provide security," Rice responded, incorrectly linking the presence of former Navy Seals Ty Woods and Glen Doherty to consulate security. Both men were killed in a mortar attack on the CIA annex, eight hours after the consulate was overrun. Graham and Ayotte said the Obama administration - either the White House or State Department - should explain who briefed Rice on the consulate's security status, and that individual or individuals should be fired. And if nobody briefed her on security, Graham said she should resign. "They're completely incompetent, or they were misleading her about the level of security because we were six weeks before an election, or she made it up on her own. And if she just made this up and talked about the level of security without any information and just wanted to portray strong security, then she should resign," Graham added. A letter to Majority Leader Harry Reid on Thursday, signed by 37 Republican senators, also requested the formation of a Senate select committee ito work with the new House Select Committee in probing allegations that the administration has withheld documents. Repesentative Trey Gowdy, who chairs the House Select Committee on Benghazi, has said he wants to know why the US State Department remained in Benghazi when most other international entities had already left the dangerous city. Gowdy wants to bore in on why the United States was "the last flag flying" in the militant-infested Libyan city may reveal what the CIA was doing there and focus on Hillary Clinton's role in the lax security at the US facility where four Americans died. Ayotte and Graham said the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Affairs Democrat-led committees as yet have not issued findings from their Benghazi investigations. Ayotte also said presidential advisor Ben Rhodes should testify, after a September 14, 2012 email from him was released to Judicial Watch in April as the result of a federal lawsuit. Critics charge that Rhodes gave 'talking point' to Rice that advised linking Benghazi to spontaneous protests that were the result of an anti-Islam video and that the advice was given by Rhodes for political purposes. On a political affairs TV show last Sunday, Senator Ayotte asked : "Where did Ben Rhodes get these? Ben's not the intel officer, right?…One of the important reasons he needs to testify is [to explain] what's the source of all these talking points, what happened at that Saturday meeting and who came up with this?" said Ayotte, referencing a White House meeting where the talking points were finalized. Rice told NBC News in 2012 that she appeared on the Sunday talk shows because then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton "had had an incredibly grueling week dealing with the protests around the Middle East and North Africa." The Senators want to know if that was really true, and if it is, what it says about Clinton's fitness to be President : "So the reason, according to Susan Rice, that Secretary Clinton was not on television was because she had a grueling week. That to me is incredibly important and must be answered," Graham said. A press release on September 11, 2012, at 10:07 pm from Clinton - after foreign service officer Sean Smith's death at the consulate was confirmed - is believed to be the first public reference by the Obama administration linking Benghazi to the anti-Islam video. Ayotte and Graham are also asking whether the former secretary of state issued the release on her own or consulted with the President first, and what intelligence it was based on. ~~~~~ While the new House Select Committee on Benghazi is gearing up to begin its investigation, House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa has issued a new subpoena demanding that Secretary of State John Kerry testify on the 2012 Benghazi terrorist attacks before his committee this month. Issa accused the State Department of “backtrack[ing]” on agreements that Kerry would appear for questioning and said “slippery tactics” will not dampen the committee’s investigation into the State Department’s role in responding to the attacks : “Absent an assertion of executive privilege, the State Department has a legal obligation to fully and completely comply,” Issa said in a prepared statement. Issa's previously issued Kerry subpoena for Kerry testimony was May 21, a day the secretary planned to be in Mexico. The new subpoena compels Kerry to testify on May 29. “I lifted the subpoena requiring Secretary Kerry to testify on May 21 because the State Department made reasonable arguments for an accommodation....[b]ut soon after I lifted the subpoena, the State Department backtracked - stating publicly that we should accept ‘a more appropriate witness’ and refusing to commit to making Secretary Kerry available,” Issa said. Kerry was not confirmed as secretary until after the September 11, 2012 attacks. Hillary Clinton was serving as the State Department Secretary at the time. The State Department called Issa’s subpoena timing inappropriate because Kerry is currently traveling in London and was not given advanced warning. ~~~~~ Dear readers, we must now wait for the new House Select Committee on Benghazi to undertake its interviews, data collection and testimony. The probe is just as important for Hillary Clinton as it is for Barack Obama. While Mrs. Clinton has called the Select Committee "an unnecessary use of time and resources," it is clear that her presidential ambitions will rise or fall, based on what the Committee finds. Her husband rushed to her defense Wednesday : “In my opinion, Hillary did what she should have done” in response to the Benghazi assault, Bill Clinton said. The Benghazi issue has simmered for nearly two years, and Hillary Clinton's role is at the heart of it. And another ghost from Mrs. Clinton’s past at the State Department has emerged in the past few days - Mrs. Clinton declined to designate Boko Haram as a terrorist group during her time at the State Department. The organization has sparked worldwide outrage by kidnapping hundreds of Nigerian schoolgirls and bragging about plans to sell them into slavery. Hillary Clnton likes to talk about her 25 years of public service, although eight of those years as First Lady are not relevant because she had no direct political position. But since becoming a Senator in January 2001, Hillary Clinton has a record that she will have to defend. That record? -- no major initiatives as Senator, the failed Benghazi security actions that contributed to the death of Ambassador Stevens, the Benghazi cover-up, the failure to declare Boko Haram a terrorist organization, and negative health issues related to her cranial injury and to excuses made by Susan Rice about Clinton's excessive fatigue after one week of heavy activity related to Benghazi - which, in light of her age (she would be 70 if elected president in 2016), are serious matters. Benghazi - Clinton. Clinton - Benghazi. "What difference does it make?" A lot.