This all started back on September 11, 2012 at 10:07pm EST when, just after getting off of the phone with President Obama, then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton released a press brief stating that the attack on the US Consulate was spurred by an internet video. The attack was still underway at the time of this press brief release and intelligence was still being gathered however, word on the ground that the Secretary had received indicated that it was an organized attack. It is also important to note the phone call exchange between the President and the Secretary was originally buried but later revealed, on accident, through a slip of the tongue by then White House Press Secretary Jay Carney. The Secretary had previously been questioned as to if she had spoken with the President during that attack and her answer was no.
The story as to what happened that night in Benghazi has spiraled out of control from that point forward. Hillary’s blaming the attack on an internet video came under immediate attack and rightly so. Nobody could provide anyone with an explanation as to what lead the State Dept. to believe the video was the case and nobody was talking. The circumstances surrounding the press brief (the secret phone call shared with the president moments before) would not be learned until sometime later and again, only because of a slip of the tongue by Jay Carney.
The Sunday following the Benghazi tragedy was the definitive moment/day as Susan Rice made the rounds on all the Sunday morning news shows repeating a highly scripted set of talking points that backed the internet video claim. The story simply did not add up and left many scratching their heads and wondering what really happened.
As is always is the case with any such tragedy, congressional oversight automatically kicks in and does its part by investigating the actions and activities of the various agencies to which they are responsible for. Congressional oversight had their hands full on the Benghazi investigations however, as pieces were not fitting right from the beginning. There were conflicts in reporting, conflicts in statements and most of all the blaming of the internet video and subsequent Sunday morning news show rounds by Susan Rice doing so just did not fit.
Let the Feet Dragging and Obstructionism Began
Some of the very first documents requested by congressional oversight were the string of emails that were used to craft the talking points used by Susan Rice that Sunday morning. Oversight got the run around and in fact it took a letter directly to the President, and signed by a number of the oversight chairpersons to finally get this string of emails released.
The final release of these emails created more questions than answers which led to the eventual request for ANY AND ALL DOCUMENTS, from the State Department pertaining to Benghazi to be released to congressional oversight. This request took place while Hillary was still in office and was never complied with.
The failure of the State Department to release requested documents is well documented in several of the oversightcommittees final reports on Benghazi and it is this failure, on the part of the State Department, to turn over Benghazi related documents that prompted the formulation of the Select Committee on Benghazi, a committee that has more tools in its bag to force parties and departments to comply than the standard congressional oversight committees do. But even at that, this committee is at the mercy of the DOJ if legal action that would lead to some type of enforcement or criminal investigation were needed, such actions are outside the authority of the Select Committee. But I digress.
Hillary’s emails became an issue when, from the few documents they were able to pry from the State Department, congressional oversight discovered that there were no emails addressed to or from Hillary Clinton. Of course members of the committee were looking for a { .gov} email address at the time but her personal email address was not surfacing either. But eventually a few documents passed through the hands of the oversight committee and the discovery was made that Hillary was using a private email account. Now the State Department had no choice but to compel Hillary to turn over her email record, which up until that point she had sole custody of.
So here we are Today
While the talking point of “classified emails” on Hillary’s server is consuming all the news room discussions, the real reason we are here and digging into Hillary’s emails is because of Benghazi.
Hillary and her team have done an excellent job of hiding and obstruction anyone from getting their hands on her email record. I’m sorry, correction, “the peoples” email record. For two years after her departure from the State Department she held her email record in secrecy and only turned it over after being compelled to do so by the State Department which was facing legal action if it did not start producing documents requested through the FOIA and subpoena.
But Hillary did not turn over her record to the State Department, she turned over some 50,000 pages of emails to which she claims to be the full record but there is no way to verify this as she, at the time, refused to turn over the email server to which they resided. We have no way of knowing if in fact these 50,000 pages represents her full record and Hillary has given us every reason to believe they are not. She did conceal the record from the public for two full years before being forced to turn it over right? As well, email documents have surfaced that are clearly part of Hillary’s record yet were not provided in the 50,000 pages that were turned over to the State Department {or the State Department did not provide them to oversite}. So there is little confidence that Hillary is being forthcoming to her claim that she has turned over her record in full.
Hillary is without a doubt hiding something and that something may not even be related to Benghazi. Remember, the unique email arrangement she set up for herself took place right at the start of her tenure as Secretary of State. In regards to Benghazi, her email arrangement became a convenience which potentially has allowed her to hide troublesome documents. But the only way we will ever know this is if her email records can be recovered from the hard drive of the email server she deliberately had scrubbed of its contents, yet another action that points to an intentional cover-up.
This is why we are here people, this is why the Select Committee pushed so hard to have her email server put in the hands of an independent 3rd party and made available for forensic analysis so that an attempt cold be made to recover any documents that may not have been included in Hillary’s interpretation of the complete record.
As it turns out, other entities have now gotten involved and are attempting to restore the record as well, for other reasons mind you, but the end result will be the same. If the record is able to be restored and there are more documents related to Benghazi, they will be turned over to the Select Committee. These documents, if any, are the final step in the Benghazi investigation and will either conclude that there is no there there or that something very bad has been covered up by senior members of our government. We as Americans should want the answer either way.
Regarding the issue of classified information on Hillary’s email server, that’s a whole other issue and looks as though it is being dealt with accordingly.
And let us not forget, the record of all senior level government officials should be archived for a number or reasons but if for no other, so that we have a historical account of what has gone on in our government that we can always refer back to.
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