This was reported almost two weeks ago (when I was on vacation), but I didn’t run across it until today, in a Dana Milbank column in the WashPost. An excerpt:
Now there’s a bipartisan report, adopted unanimously by the GOP-controlled House Intelligence Committee on July 31, awaiting declassification by the administration. It throws yet another bucket of cold water on the conspiracy theories. In a statement, the top Democrat on the panel, Dutch Ruppersberger (Md.), said the report finds that:
“[T]here was no intelligence failure surrounding the Benghazi attacks.”
“[T]here was no ‘stand down order’ given to American personnel attempting to offer assistance that evening, and no American was left behind.”
“[T]he talking points reflected the conflicting intelligence assessments in the days immediately following the crisis.”
“[T]here was no illegal activity or illegal arms sales occurring at the U.S. facilities in Benghazi.”
“And there was absolutely no evidence, in documents or testimony, that the intelligence community’s assessments were politically motivated in any way.”
The report is not yet public, and Republican sources indicate that there is more disagreement in the report than Ruppersberger’s statement indicates and that the report is not as exculpatory as he implies. But there has been no challenge from the Republican side to the accuracy of the findings Ruppersberger detailed in his statement.
Now that the truth is catching up to them, House Republicans will need to stay one step ahead. Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), chairman of the select committee on Benghazi, told CNN’s Deirdre Walsh last week that, despite what the Intelligence Committee found, “there is more work to be done and more to be investigated.”…
Such as what, Rep. Gowdy? What’s left?
But forget Gowdy. What is Lindsey Graham going to talk about on the Sunday talk shows — the weather? I just looked back through my filed email, and our senior senator hasn’t mentioned Benghazi since June 17! He hasn’t put out a release with “Benghazi” in the headline since May 15!
He’s got to be feeling a terrible void by now…
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“But Benghazi Benghazi Benghazi” — Trey Gowdy
“What’s left?” -Brad W.
I bet those reports have every ‘t’ crossed and ‘i’ dotted. They all have one thing in common: a credible investigation process with supoena power and authority to compel testimony by grants of immunity.
A large portion of the public is very distrustful of this administration and the congress overall. If there is nothing irregular to hide, why are defenders so concerned? It is quite unlike those protesting to wail over investgatory costs that are far more distracting. How much $$$ was spent on lawyer George Mitchell’s “investigation” of baseballers’steroid use? Answer: $60 million
There is a once important concept in law known as “conflict of interest”. George Mitchell issued his report without naming a single Boston Red Sox player. Not surprising since Mitchell was a director of the Boston Red Sox at the same time.
Paraphrase and a little rewording of an old saying.
“How much do I “trust” thee, let me count the ways.”
When it comes to a politician, I can use one finger to express how much I trust them and you can guess which finger I am referring to. Whether it is a Democrat or Republican making a statement about a congressional investigation, trust is not high on the list when the report is made public.
What’s that I hear? It’s the air being slowly let out of the tires of Trey Gowdy, Lindsey Graham, and hyperpartisan Joe Wilson; Joe jumps on any bandwagon that he can tag along with.
R. Hightower, do you have some insider info? Your prediction of Gowdy’s deflation is very interseting.
you are a lawyer; he is alawyer, and your ilk gets to legally and secretly investigate (invade personal privacy) of whomever and whatever individual lawyers seem to arbitrarily and capriciously choose to be involved.
The legal profession is one of U.S. society’s worst, well-hidden perils.
If Gowdy does go down the drain over Behghazi as you suggest: a situation in which the the reality was U.S. inaction to repeated and credible pleas for security by a U.S. diplomat were denied by appointed lawyers Clinton and Panetta, there is no doubt that said lawyers were feckless and incompetent.
Make slight of Benghazi all you wish. Clinton, Panetta and Obam were incompetent!