Politics eclipses Benghazi report

Campaigns cloud findings on terrorist attack that killed four Americans in 2012 in Libya

“Fifty- six days,” Rep. Mike Pompeo, R- Kan., intoned at a news conference Tuesday to unveil a House committee report on Benghazi. There is no way to understand the government’s immediate response to the attack Sept. 11, 2012, in Libya, Pompeo said, “without understanding this took place 56 days before a contested political election for president.”

Almost the same could be said of the report Pompeo and other Republicans released. It can be understood only in the context of being released 132 days before the 2016 presidential election.

Everything about the Select Committee on Benghazi’s twoyear investigation has been political. Then- House speaker John Boehner, R- Ohio, resisted creating such a committee until May 2015, when a conservative watchdog group uncovered a White House memo suggesting officials should stick to the story that the attack grew out of a protest, not planned terror activity. Boehner said the fact that the administration had not provided that memo to congressional investigators proved a new committee was needed. Seven Democrats voted in favor of creating the Benghazi committee, perhaps the last shred of bipartisanship the process would see.

By the time the Benghazi committee was up and running, there already had been seven congressional investigations, some of which had been both bipartisan and critical of the administration.

The Senate Intelligence Committee issued a bipartisan report in January 2014 that concluded

House Republicans say that despite stonewalling by the Obama administration they were able to conclude a twoyear investigation into the 2012 terror attacks in Benghazi with an 800- page report that blames politically motivated bureaucratic delays for failing to prevent or stop the deadly attacks that claimed four American lives.

The highly anticipated report adds new detail to the findings of seven previous congressional inquiries and is expected to be used by Republicans to question Hillary Clinton’s leadership as the fall presidential campaign heats up.

Clinton, who was secretary of State when Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three others were killed on Sept. 11, 2012, was planning to visit Libya later that year, which pressured diplomats to stay at the poorly guarded, temporary outpost despite deteriorating security in the region, according to the report.

The Republicans said “despite President Obama and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta’s clear orders to deploy military assets, nothing was sent to Benghazi, and nothing was en route to Libya at the time the last two Americans were killed almost 8 hours after the attacks began.”

Republicans highlighted a teleconference meeting a few hours after the attacks began as a turning point in the U. S. response. They say actions taken after that meeting, in which Clinton participated, only delayed the deployment of military forces. Communications afterward referenced the need to get clearance from various countries to deploy military resources for a rescue, according to the GOP report.

Rep. Trey Gowdy, R- S. C., a former prosecutor and chairman of the committee, urged Americans to “read this report for themselves, look at the evidence we have collected, and reach their own conclusions.”

“We expect our government to make every effort to save the lives of Americans who serve in harm’s way. That did not happen in Benghazi,” said Rep. Mike Pompeo, RKan., a member of the special committee. “Politics were put ahead of the lives of Americans, and while the administration had made excuses and blamed the challenges posed by time and distance, the truth is that they did not try.”

Democrats on the panel, led by Rep. Elijah Cummings, D- Md., have repeatedly accused the Republicans of using the investigation and numerous previous committee probes to try to embarrass Clinton and damage her chances of becoming president. They released their own minority report a day ahead of the Republicans, contending the report absolves Clinton of blame in the terror attacks.

In a statement, Clinton’s campaign spokesman Brian Fallon said the House investigation, after spending more than $ 7 million, did not find anything to contradict the conclusions reached by previous congressional committees.

“This report just confirms what Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and even one of Trey Gowdy’s own former staffers admitted months ago: This committee’s chief goal is to politicize the deaths of four brave Americans in order to try to attack the Obama administration and hurt Hillary Clinton’s campaign,” Fallon said.