New details have surfaced which further put the lie to the idea that the Obama administration’s knowledge of the Benghazi attacks was “developing” at the time, and that the administration could reasonably have believed that the terrorist attacks perpetrated on September 11, 2012 had anything to do with the anti-Islam video “Innocence of Muslims.”
The scenario is rich in irony. Glenn Greenwald, the left-wing journalist who became the conduit for NSA contractor Edward Snowden to leak American classified secrets to the world about NSA surveillance, both at home and abroad, was on MSNBC on Thursday talking about the latest from Snowden.
Susan Rice is perhaps best known for her role in the Benghazi, Libya attacks, after which she went on five Sunday talk shows to explain to the American people that, indeed, these terrorist attacks were birthed out of spontaneous protests in reaction to a YouTube video that had inflamed the Islamic world at the time. Both assumptions were proven to be false, and Rice was accused of purposefully misleading the American people. Since then, some in the media have claimed that Rice received a “bad rap”—and that at issue was a rivalry between various departments within the government.
Last week the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs held its annual event honoring six young military heroes for their bravery in the war on terrorism. The six represent each of the five branches of the U.S. military and the U.S. Special Operations Command. These Grateful Nation awards have been held since 2003.
Spy scandals might be sexy, but does the Valerie Plame “scandal” really deserve to be ranked alongside the sex scandals of Larry Craig, Anthony Weiner, and John Edwards? Earlier this month, ABC News ranked the Top 10 Political Scandals of the 21st century in a primetime special. Eight of the ten were sex-related scandals; one was about Rod Blagojevich, the former Illinois governor now serving a prison term for corruption; and the other was what the Bush administration supposedly did to the career of “outed CIA agent” Valerie Plame.
What was behind Mitt Romney’s unwillingness to use Benghazi as an issue in the 2012 presidential race? The recent book, Double Down, by Mark Halperin and John Heilemann, which purports to give the most detailed account of the 2012 campaign to date, attempts to answer that question. Halperin appeared on The O’Reilly Factor on the Fox News Channel earlier this month to discuss the new book.
Much has been made over the past week about the false writings and “60 Minutes” appearance of one Dylan Davies, also known as “Morgan Jones,” co-author of The Embassy House. The book, which purports to give a Westerner’s eyewitness account of the dramatic events that happened last year on September 11 and 12, during the Benghazi attacks, was published by a CBS Corporation subsidiary, Simon & Schuster. On November 8, the publisher announced that all formats of the book are being “withdrawn from publication and sale,” and they are “recommending that booksellers do the same.”
While there was little news in last Sunday’s Benghazi story on CBS’s “60 Minutes,” it did make some key points that have rarely been heard from mainstream media outlets. The report proves, once again, just how culpable President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are for ignoring the deteriorating security situation in Libya last year, even though their names were never mentioned in the segment.
Much has been made of Healthcare.gov’s ignominious October 1st launch, and how it has cast a pall over the ObamaCare exchanges. But President Obama would like you to know that the “essence of the law is working just fine.” It’s just the website—the main public interface—that’s not working. In his speech yesterday in the White House Rose Garden, President Obama noted that the national website has been visited nearly 20 million times since its launch on October 1st. However, only about 2.5 percent of those visits have resulted in filled-out applications, just the first step toward indicating interest in the health care plans available—perhaps a barometer of the difficulties with the website.
The Democrats and their allies in the media are celebrating a successfully ended partial government shutdown, one where few to no concessions were required of President Obama. Meanwhile, Obamacare remains intact, despite the fact that private-sector estimates show that less than 1%—a total of 36,000 people so far—of those entering the registration area of Healthcare.gov actually enrolled. But should Democrats really be celebrating? After all, they fought for the right to own Obamacare, with all its flaws, and more national debt with no new spending restraints.
At the movies these days is a Hollywood tale of heroic stoicism, the actions of one Captain Richard Phillips who attempts to save his ship’s crew by offering $30,000 in cash from the safe to Somalian pirates to get them to leave the hostages alone. In the film, he cries out for them to shoot him instead of anyone else. But Phillips’ deal, as portrayed by Tom Hanks, wasn’t enough for the pirates, who proceeded to hold the Captain hostage in a lifeboat.
Despite a Friday afternoon meeting with GOP senators that has led to anticipation that a solution is near on both the partial government shutdown and the debt ceiling showdown, President Barack Obama remains in an intense public relations war with the Republican-led House of Representatives.
The Citizens' Commission on Benghazi (CCB) started off with a powerful message: "We are here and planning on staying until we get the answers we're seeking." But, some in the media just don't get it. Dana Milbank of The Washington Post delivered one of his Dennis the Menace, snarky rants about the view of "Benghazi, as seen from the grassy knoll." Yes, Dana Milbank is calling this group of patriotic Americans who have given so much for this country a bunch of lunatic conspiracy theorists.
Twelve years ago the bloodiest terrorist attack ever on U.S. soil occurred. But, last year, the American people received another mournful September 11th tragedy.
The Nidal Hasan trial is coming to a close. After the prosecution called 89 witnesses, Hasan, defending himself, called none, and on Wednesday, August 21st, stated three words: “The defense rests.” The judge said that if Hasan had taken the stand, she “would have ordered the jury to disregard any statements he would make to a religiously motivated attack.”
On the August 14 “Morning Joe” show on MSNBC, a commentator and a congressman perpetuated the myth that Republicans in the House of Representatives have voted more than 40 times to repeal Obamacare. In fact, the House has made 37 votes related to Obamacare, but only a fraction of those votes pushed for a full-scale repeal of the law. Others instead made substantive changes to various aspects of the law.
Two seemingly unrelated news stories this week raise far more questions than they answer, and demonstrate how the government should take a closer look at its own homeland security efforts.
Accuracy in Media (AIM), along with some of the country’s top retired military officers and national security officials, will hold a press conference on Tuesday, July 30, to launch the Citizens’ Commission on Benghazi. The press conference is at noon in The Zenger Room at the National Press Club.
An excellent new documentary, which examines evidence that makes the case that TWA Flight 800 was brought down by missiles, a crime or accident that has been covered up for 17 years, is set to premier Wednesday night. The film is titled, simply, “TWA Flight 800,” and it will air on EPIX, a cable network available on many cable systems, tonight, July 17th, at 8 p.m. ET. Today is the 17th anniversary of that tragic event.
Salon article, which argues that the IRS scandal really isn’t one and that the news media have been journalistically irresponsible, has precipitated a “cat fight” on the Left between Salon and MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell. “I said repeatedly that the fake IRS scandal was fueled by a compliant and lazy political media,” asserted O’Donnell on his July 8 show.
Roger Aronoff is a member of Citizens Commission on National Security. Roger is the writer/director of Confronting Iraq: Conflict and Hope