HotAir: The bombshell here isn’t the blame — it’s that the blame is bipartisan. Normally in these circumstances, a Congressional committee looking into the activities of a current administration will split into partisan conclusions, especially if it’s critical at all. Not this time:Related links: Senate report: Benghazi attackers tied to Al Qaeda groups
The conclusion that State ignored security warnings is a direct slap at the Secretary of State at the time, Hillary Clinton. The Accountability Review Board tried passing off the blame to lower-ranking careerists, but that effort has been thoroughly discredited by the knowledge of the string of earlier terrorist attacks in Benghazi and the Western flight from the city. The ARB didn’t bother to look into Hillary’s aide in charge of the security decisions, Patrick Kennedy, and it’s difficult now to claim that Kennedy or Hillary were ignorant of those concerns — especially now that State Department whistleblowers have made it clear that Kennedy knew, at the very least.A long-delayed Senate intelligence committee report released on Wednesday spreads blame among the State Department and intelligence agencies for not preventing attacks on two outposts in Libya that killed four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens.
The bipartisan report lays out more than a dozen findings regarding the assaults on Sept. 11 and 12, 2012 on the diplomatic compound and a CIA annex in the Libyan city of Benghazi. It says the State Department failed to increase security at the sites despite warnings, and faults intelligence agencies for not sharing information about the existence of the CIA outpost with the U.S. military.
The committee determined that the U.S. military command in Africa didn’t know about the CIA annex and didn’t have the resources to defend the diplomatic compound in an emergency.
“The attacks were preventable, based on extensive intelligence reporting on the terrorist activity in Libya—to include prior threats and attacks against Western targets—and given the known security shortfalls at the U.S. Mission,” the panel said in a statement.
The Benghazi Transcripts: Top Defense officials briefed Obama on ‘attack,’ not video or protest
Obama admin about to release Osama bin Laden’s bodyguard from GITMO
Of course, there's still no mention that Benghazi was basically an overseas version of our southern border's Fast & Furious gunrunning scandal, and don't count on there being. There does however seem to be a bipartisan agreement that lands Hilrod right in the midst of the coverup. Guess we'll see how that does or doesn't affect her 2016 run. I think you can predict the media's opinion...
ADDENDUM: Levin tonight implied that John Boehner is perhaps being blackmailed on Benghazi and the IRS scandal...
"He has the power to appoint a special or select committee and he will not do it. ... Read between the lines. Something’s not right."
Read more at MP.
