Sources: DOD memo sent after Benghazi attack listed suspects with Al Qaeda ties

Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com A targeting memo sent to the State Department by the Defense Department’s Africa Command two days after the Benghazi attack listed 11 suspects with ties to Al Qaeda and other groups, counter-terrorism and congressional sources confirmed to Fox News. This is significant because it arrived two days before then-UN … Read more

The Real Benghazi Scandal

The illogic of the Republicans’ obsession with Benghazi—and with Hillary Clinton’s role in the tragedy—has been documented ad nauseam, and suffice to say that five investigations, 50 briefings, and 25,000 pages of documents have found absolutely no intentional wrongdoing by anyone in the Obama administration, including former Secretary Clinton. In fact, the only involvement Clinton … Read more

Chris Matthews’ Benghazi defense for Hillary Clinton: ‘Sometimes you get killed’

NBC’s “Hardball” host Chris Matthews used Thursday night’s airing to give Hillary Clinton a new defense for what happened during the Sept. 11, 2012, terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya: “Sometimes you get killed.”

Speaking to a panel of guests, the host said that the former Secretary of State has to “face reality today.” He then cited a poll that found 52 percent of independent voters are in favor of further investigations into the terrorist attack that killed U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans.

Mr. Matthews said he wasn’t sure if Mrs. Clinton could “dismiss” or “belittle” those who ask questions about the incident, but that he wished someone would say in her defense: “Damn it, it’s the real dangerous world out there,” NewsBusters reported Wednesday.

He then said that someone needs to make the case in her defense that “you got to get out there and take risks and sometimes you get killed. And that’s part of the business. And just be tough and talking to people about the real world.”

Rep. Trey Gowdy, South Carolina Republican, has been tapped by House Speaker John Boehner to chair a special select committee to investigate the attack on the U.S. diplomatic outpost.

Oops! Hillary lets the cat out of the bag on Benghazi paper trail

The interviews promoting Hillary Clinton’s new book are serving as a test drive for a presidential run, and she has just encountered a serious bump in the road. Despite obvious effort put into crafting careful rationalizations of her miserable record as secretary of state, she managed to blurt out a key fact in an interview … Read more

Fact Check: Hillary came up with Benghazi video explanation

Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com Hillary Clinton’s newly released memoir leaves little doubt she was the first member of the Obama administration to publicly link an anti-Islam video to the 2012 Benghazi terror attack – though she does not explain what intelligence she relied on to make the faulty connection. The former secretary of … Read more

No Apology for Benghazi in ‘Hard Choices‘

In “Hard Choices,” Hillary Clinton’s new memoir, the former secretary of state attempts to answer the critics of her handling of the Benghazi scandal. Yet she completely fails to do the one thing that might have help lay the controversy to rest: express personal remorse and a sense of responsibility. Clinton’s account of the fateful … Read more

Hillary Clinton Opens Up: Could She Have Done More in Benghazi?

In an exclusive interview with ABC’s Diane Sawyer, Hillary Clinton said her role in securing the American mission in Benghazi, Libya, which came under attack on Sept. 11, 2012, was to give “very direct instructions” to security experts and said she was right to defer to their judgment. Ahead of the release of her new … Read more

Still plenty of questions for Hillary Clinton on Benghazi

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton knows her presidential campaign is threatened before it begins by the mountain of wreckage left along her trail of tears tenure at State. Her failed and embarrassing “reset” with Russia, her mismanagement of Egypt so that all parties now hate the U.S. and President-elect Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is accepting Vladimir Putin‘s embrace, the horrors ofSyria escalating, Iran poised … Read more

Trey Gowdy brings ‘zeal for the truth’ as head of House’s Benghazi panel

Rep. Trey Gowdy‘s rise from obscure South Carolina backbencher to chairman of the House‘s new special Benghazi committee took a quantum leap last October, when he stole the show at an otherwise mundane Republican news conference about the terrorist attacks.

While only in his second term, the conservative Gowdy rushed to the podium and — with the conviction of a preacher and the erudition of a prosecutor — launched into a passionate yet disciplined plea for “justice” that mesmerized those watching, including his GOP colleagues on the dais.

“No one has been arrested, no one has been prosecuted, no one has been brought to justice,” he said soberly. “I am not surprised the president of the United States called this a phony scandal, I’m not surprised [former Secretary of State Hillary] Clinton asked what difference does it make?… I’m just surprised a lot of people bought it.”

His three-minute address skillfully summarized Republican frustration over the Obama administration’s response to the attacks like no one had before, and was a seminal moment in the party’s push to raise public awareness about the scandal. And it instantly transformed Gowdy into a cult hero in conservative America (a clip of his remarks has generated 3.4 million views on YouTube).

Also impressed was House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, who in May tabbed Gowdy to lead the new House select committee to investigate the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks in Benghazi, Libya, which claimed the lives of four American diplomats, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens.

Gowdy, with less than four years in the House, lacks seniority. But his appointment came as little surprise to those who know and work with the 49-year-old lawyer.

“He is cerebral, deeply studied and actually one of the most intelligent members I’ve served with. And I don’t say that lightly — this is not an empty compliment,” said Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C.

“If he can’t get to the bottom of [Benghazi] then this will be lost to history, because he has a great capacity to work through an investigation and come to a fair conclusion.”

Gowdy’s direct, no-nonsense and at times confrontational approach to politics is the hallmark of the South Carolina native.

He challenged incumbent Rep. Bob Inglis in the 2010 Republican primary for South Carolina’s 4th Congressional District, which includes Greenville and Spartanburg. During the campaign Gowdy ignored President Ronald Reagan’s “11th Commandment” — thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican — accusing Inglis, who had a 91 percent rating from the American Conservative Union, of not being conservative enough.

Gowdy’s decision to run frustrated some in the GOP Establishment but endeared him to the state’s burgeoning conservative Tea Party faction, which pushed the challenger to a 40-point runoff victory over Inglis.

Once in Congress, Gowdy continued his independent spirit, occasionally bucking the party leadership.

Only months into his first term in summer 2011, he opposed the Boehner-brokered debt limit bill, a measure that eventually passed and allowed the federal government to keep paying its bills by raising the nation’s borrowing limit.

The South Carolinian was accused of stubbornly holding to Tea Party principles at the risk of damaging the national and global economies. But Gowdy bristled at the notion, saying at the time that he and other backers of the movement are “not a bunch of knuckle-dragging, mouth-breathing Neanderthals.”

“We’re interested in answering what we perceive to be the mandate, which is to stop the spending and change the way Washington handles money,” he said.

The pragmatic Boehner apparently hasn’t held a grudge, calling Gowdy “as dogged, focused and serious-minded as they come.”

Boehner added that Gowdy’s background as a federal prosecutor fuels “his zeal for the truth” and makes him a good fit to head the latest in a series of Republican-led Benghazi probes.

After earning an undergraduate history degree from Baylor University and a law degree from the University of South Carolina, Gowdy briefly worked as a lawyer before becoming a federal prosecutor in 1994. He prosecuted a range of high-profile crimes, including narcotics traffickingrings, bank robberies, child pornography cases and murder — never losing a case.

In 2000 he ran for South Carolina’a 7th Circuit Solicitor, the equivalent of a district attorney. He defeated the incumbent in the GOP primary and was re-elected twice. During his eight-year tenure he was interviewed on TV shows such as “Forensic Files” and “Dateline NBC,” giving him vital experience in dealing with the national media.

His time as a prosecutor was so important that the three dogs he and his wife Terri own are named Judge, Jury and Bailiff. They also have a son in college and a daughter in high school.

“If you ask him [Gowdy will say] the best job he’s ever had was to be a local prosecutor,” McHenry said. “So he’s got a different approach.”

Not everyone is convinced a prosecutorial approach to the special committee is a good idea.

Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the senior Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, repeatedly has accused Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., of treating the panel’s Benghazi investigation as a kangaroo court — not an impartial, neutral effort. And with Gowdy serving as a chief Issa acolyte on the panel, Cummings says he is concerned the select committee will evolve in similar fashion.

“I do consider [Gowdy] a great prosecutor, I’ve seen him in a prosecutorial mode in our committee … but as far as this committee is concerned, I think we have to go in and be finders of the fact,” said Cummings, one of five Democrats appointed to the 12-member special panel.

“I don’t think we need to be making accusations before we even get in the room to hear the facts.”

To read the original article, visit http://washingtonexaminer.com/trey-gowdy-brings-zeal-for-the-truth-as-head-of-houses-benghazi-panel/article/2549042

Hillary Clinton Still Blames ‘Hateful’ Youtube Video For Benghazi Attack

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Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has released the chapter of her new memoir Tough Choices dealing with the terrorist attacks in Benghazi.
In an exclusive preview to Politico’s Maggie Haberman, a defensive Clinton challenged her critics but offered very little new information about where she was and what she did during the attacks.
“[T]here will never be perfect clarity on everything that happened,” she wrote, “…But that should not be confused with a lack of effort to discover the truth or to share it with the American people.”
Clinton still insisted that the anti-Islamic YouTube video did have some role in motivating the attacks, pointing to a report in the New York Times.
“There were scores of attackers that night, almost certainly with differing motives,” she wrote. “It is inaccurate to state that every single one of them was influenced by this hateful video. It is equally inaccurate to state that none of them were. Both assertions defy not only the evidence but logic as well.”
She also defended President Obama, who she insisted gave the order to do “whatever was necessary” to support the Americans under attack.
“When Americans are under fire, that is not an order the Commander in Chief has to give twice,” she wrote. “Our military does everything humanly possible to save American lives — and would do more if they could. That anyone has ever suggested otherwise is something I will never understand.”
Clinton defended Susan Rice’s appearance on Sunday talk shows, pointing out that she did “the best she or anyone could do” with the current information from the intelligence community.
She also expressed contempt for the Sunday shows, deriding her critics for not appearing on the programs herself.
“I don’t see appearing on Sunday-morning television as any more of a responsibility than appearing on late-night TV,” she writes. “Only in Washington is the definition of talking to Americans confined to 9 A.M. on Sunday mornings.”
Clinton also addressed her controversial “what difference does it make” line, explaining that her words have been misinterpreted to appear that she was trying to minimize the tragedy.
“Of course that’s not what I said,” she wrote. “Nothing could be further from the truth. And many of those trying to make hay of it know that, but don’t care.”