Paul' Web Logs: Dick Cheney wants Hillary Clinton held "accountable" for Benghazi

Dick Cheney
wants Hillary Clinton

held "accountable"

for Benghazi

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Sun May 18, 2014

Well, here's one from the complete lack of irony and self-awareness column.

After the Pheonix FBI memo that noted a group of guys trying to learn to fly planes but not how to land them,
- after the August 6 PDB which named potential targets in New York and Washington and indicated that hijacked planes might be used as weapons,
- after taking information that was gained either by torture (ibn Sheik al-Libi) or bribery (Curveball) which falsely claimed inspectors couldn't find Iraq's WMD because it was being carted around in mobile labs and that Mohammad Atta had been trained by Iraqi intelligence on the use of chemical weapons,
- after warnings from CIA European Chief Tyler Drumheller that Curveball couldn't be trusted were ignored,
- after both the State Dept and CIA said that the yellowcake documents were forgeries, which was further proven after Joe Wilson went to Niger to check it out,
- after CIA told the White House repeatedly that the Niger/Yellowcake claim wasn't solid - but still the 16 words were uttered
- after the Energy Dept in the Iraq NIE said that the anodized coating on the aluminum tubes made them unsuitable for use in a centrifuge,
- after Cheney's own Chief of Staff fed classified and false information on Iraqi WMD to the New York Times using Judith Miller and then revealed to her the ID of an undercover CIA operative (Wilson's Wife, Valerie Plame) as "political pay-back" for Wilson's criticism of the White House,
- after the Iraqi UN declaration which specifically said they had no more WMD's - which then Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice ignored because it didn't explain what happened to the yellowcake(!?) - but was soon confirmed by the defecting head of Iraqi Intelligence Habbush who told us Saddam had destroyed his own WMD stockpile in 1991, yet instead of listening to him they paid him $5 Million in hush money to keep quiet, then the WH - or someone whose perspective and goals were perfectly aligned with the WH - had him forge a letter which attempted to claim that all the lies about WMD, Nuclear Weapons and links between Atta/al Qeada to Saddam that were gained from the two people that couldn't and shouldn't be trusted, al-Libi and Curveball, were all "true"... and therefore the imminent invasion of Iraq was completely and totally "justified".

After all that Dick Cheney thinks that the person who needs to be held accountable for a deadly terrorist attack - is Hillary Clinton.

Yes, seriously.

During a Sunday interview on Fox News, host Chris Wallace asked Cheney if Clinton “did anything wrong,” and if she should be “held responsible for the events surrounding that attack.”
“She was secretary of state at the time that it happened,” Cheney opined. “She was one of the first in Washington to know about it. I think she clearly bears responsibility for whatever the State Department did or didn’t do with respect to that crisis.”
“I do think it’s a major issue,” he added. “I don’t think we’ve heard the last of it yet, and I expect that she will be held accountable during the course of the campaign.”

Really dude? Really?

Y'know who I think might also bear some responsibility for the the security situation in Benghazi? Congress.

For fiscal 2013, the GOP-controlled House proposed spending $1.934 billion for the State Department’s Worldwide Security Protection program – well below the $2.15 billion requested by the Obama administration. House Republicans cut the administration’s request for embassy security funding by $128 million in fiscal 2011 and $331 million in fiscal 2012. (Negotiations with the Democrat-controlled Senate restored about $88 million of the administration’s request.) Last year, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned that Republicans’ proposed cuts to her department would be “detrimental to America’s national security” – a charge Republicans rejected.

Ryan, Issa and other House Republicans voted for an amendment in 2009 to cut $1.2 billion from State operations, including funds for 300 more diplomatic security positions. Under Ryan’s budget, non-defense discretionary spending, which includes State Department funding, would be slashed nearly 20 percent in 2014, which would translate to more than $400 million in additional cuts to embassy security.

Oh look Secretary Clinton specifically warned Congress that these cuts could be detrimental to security - and guess what - they were.

And it's not like that outcome was necessarily difficult to predict. Nope.

Not after the 13 Different Attacks on our Embassies that occurred during the Vice Presidency of Richard Cheney.

January 22, 2002. Calcutta, India. Gunmen associated with Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami attack the U.S. Consulate. Five people are killed.
June 14, 2002. Karachi, Pakistan. Suicide bomber connected with al Qaeda attacks the U.S. Consulate, killing 12 and injuring 51.
October 12, 2002. Denpasar, Indonesia. U.S. diplomatic offices bombed as part of a string of "Bali Bombings." No fatalities.
February 28, 2003. Islamabad, Pakistan. Several gunmen fire upon the U.S. Embassy. Two people are killed.
May 12, 2003. Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Armed al Qaeda terrorists storm the diplomatic compound, killing 36 people including nine Americans. The assailants committed suicide by detonating a truck bomb.
July 30, 2004. Tashkent, Uzbekistan. A suicide bomber from the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan attacks the U.S. Embassy, killing two people.
December 6, 2004. Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Al Qaeda terrorists storm the U.S. Consulate and occupy the perimeter wall. Nine people are killed.
March 2, 2006. Karachi, Pakistan again. Suicide bomber attacks the U.S. Consulate killing four people, including U.S. diplomat David Foy who was directly targeted by the attackers. (I wonder if Lindsey Graham or Fox News would even recognize the name "David Foy." This is the third Karachi terrorist attack in four years on what's considered American soil.)
September 12, 2006. Damascus, Syria. Four armed gunmen shouting "Allahu akbar" storm the U.S. Embassy using grenades, automatic weapons, a car bomb and a truck bomb. Four people are killed, 13 are wounded.
January 12, 2007. Athens, Greece. Members of a Greek terrorist group called the Revolutionary Struggle fire a rocket-propelled grenade at the U.S. Embassy. No fatalities.
March 18, 2008. Sana'a, Yemen. Members of the al-Qaeda-linked Islamic Jihad of Yemen fire a mortar at the U.S. Embassy. The shot misses the embassy, but hits nearby school killing two.
July 9, 2008. Istanbul, Turkey. Four armed terrorists attack the U.S. Consulate. Six people are killed.
September 17, 2008. Sana'a, Yemen. Terrorists dressed as military officials attack the U.S. Embassy with an arsenal of weapons including RPGs and detonate two car bombs. Sixteen people are killed, including an American student and her husband (they had been married for three weeks when the attack occurred). This is the second attack on this embassy in seven months.

It's a fair criticism to point out that initially the CIA didn't get the facts right with Benghazi. They thought that there had been a protest in Benghazi just as there had been protests in 40 Countries that same day, which was a logical assumption.
They made a mistake. Not an Anodyne Coating, Yellowcake Forgery, Fake Mobile Labs Level of mistake, but still a mistake.
Contrasting with the previous administration this White House actually listened to the CIA and used their talking points as they were - flaws and all. The CIA didn't actually have a chance to review video from the event and see there was no protest, only an attack, because that video wasn't released by the Libyan government until 2 Days After then Ambassador Rice had made her rounds on the Sunday talk Show circuit.

To draw up those talking points, the CIA relied on at least six early press reports that said the Benghazi attacks grew out of protests against an anti-Muslim film that had appeared on the Internet, according to the SSCI report. The source of the mistake looks clear in retrospect. For starters, violence targeting U.S. diplomatic facilities did take place in Egypt, Yemen and Tunisia in reaction to the video. Protests against the film occurred in over 40 countries around the world.
...
Last month the CIA’s former deputy director, Michael Morrell, testified in front of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence that it was only after the Libyan government said on Sept. 18 that video footage showed no protests that the CIA concluded they had got it wrong.

So the argument that Secretary Clinton knew something ahead of time or knowingly didn't do something ahead of time that would have significantly changed the outcome in Benghazi is pretty much like saying that Dick Cheney, Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice really should be held accountable for all of their failings, particularly when those failures contributed not just to the death of 4 Americans.. but over 4,000 Americans.

Twice.

But then again, we all know that would only be a partisan witchhunt now wouldn't it?

Vyan

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/05/18/1300205/-Dick-Cheney-wants-Hillary-Clinton-held-accountable-for-Benghazi?detail=facebook#

If his intent is to make her responsible for Benghazi, then that same logic should have made Condi responsible for the 13 SIMILAR attacks on US embassies under HIS watch, where 60 people died! So, he shouldn't be saying a blasted thing!

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He must have dementia. 9/11, Iraq, torture.

The Chicken Hawk draft dodger should shut up.

Yeah, right after he and Bush are held accountable for the deaths of over 4,000 Americans and over 100,000 civilians on the lies that brought us into Iraq.

So will the republicans hold Condoleezza Rice accountable for the death of US diplomat David Foy. Killed during the 3rd attack on US consulate in Karachi, Pakistan on March 2nd 2006. I would like to ask Dick Cheney, sir where was the heightened security in that consulate, after the 1st attack, after the second attack. Where was the Fox news outrage against the Bush administration? Where was the republican outrage? How many congressional investigations were there? How many times did the republicans demand that Condoleezza come and testify before their investigative committees?

The Ultimate ‘Dick’ Move: Cheney Blames Hillary Clinton for Benghazi
By: Jason Easley
In a mind-blowing display of arrogance, war criminal Dick Cheney said that Hillary Clinton should be held responsible for Benghazi.
http://www.politicususa.com/2014/05/18/ultimate-dick-move-cheney-blames-hillary-clinton-benghazi.html