Top Secret Cow

Revelations that dozens of Clinton’s emails now include classified information has prompted an FBI inquiry into whether classified information was improperly stored on her private server and a thumb drive held by her attorney. The news has sparked fear among national security experts that the federal government’s secrets may have been exposed or even hacked. However, the two inspectors general said the material in Clinton’s email was not marked as classified at the time. The FBI declined to comment.

Clinton, who has repeatedly denied she ever sent or received classified information, has attempted to downplay the scrutiny as mere partisan attacks, but questions about her judgment and motive for setting up a private server in her Chappaqua house in 2009 continue to dog her. Her campaign declined to comment.

Quoting Allahpundit:  “Hillary’s perp walk will be the greatest moment of live TV since the moon landing. “

"ohhhhhh, you meant THESE emails." #whydidntyousayso

— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) August 11, 2015

Benghazi: Marie Harf Never Had An Unprogrammed Thought In Her Life

Ostensibly the pre-requisites for working at the State Department are an adroit inability to reason, being utterly devoid of common sense, possessing the ability to be a remorseless liar and a proclivity for being a front man for the failed foreign policy of The World’s Most Dangerous Community Organizer.

On Friday, September 5, 2014 State Department spokeshipster Marie Harf denied that the security team was told to stand down in Benghazi, but acknowledged that they were told not to enter the battle yet because they were under-equipped.  “I don’t see a big difference between these two accounts. In any event, the security team thought it had what it needed to make a difference in the fight without waiting.”

U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens and three others lost their lives in the brutal attack by Islamist terrorists who launched RPGs, mortars and heavy fire into both the consulate in Benghazi and its nearby annex for thirteen hours while the White House and State Department ignored their cries for help.  Harf dishonestly suggested the three CIA military contractors are lying.

From the transcript of the press briefing:

QUESTION:  Three security operators at the secret CIA annex in Benghazi claim that they were given an order from the CIA station chief to stand down and wait to save the lives of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans during the September 11, 2012 attacks on the U.S. consulate in Libya. What is your response to… 

MS. HARF:  Well, let’s be clear here. There was no stand-down order from anyone in Washington, in the military community, or in the intelligence community. I would point you to Congressman Ruppersberger who is the ranking member on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence who released a statement today that said, “Although some security officers voiced a greater urgency to depart for the compound, no evidence was ever found by the committee that CIA personnel were ever told to stand down. This finding is completely consistent with the Senate’s report as well.” Congressman Ruppersberger went on to say, “After interviewing these individuals, including those writing this book, and all of the others on the ground that night, both Republicans and Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee and the Senate Intelligence Committee concluded there was not, in fact, an order to stand down. No evidence was found to support such a claim.” 

I think that, again, this is one of those topics of conversation that keeps coming up. It’s a question that keeps coming up and every time it comes up it is repeatedly proven otherwise by multiple bipartisan investigations, by the independent Accountability Review Board here at the State Department as well. The Senate, the House, a number of people have looked at this and cannot find any evidence for this even after including interviewing the authors of this book. 

QUESTION:  Well, who at embassy in Tripoli was aware that there was a CIA annex in Benghazi? 

MS. HARF:  Well, it’s a different place. Benghazi is a different place than Tripoli. Obviously… 

QUESTION:  Yeah, but did—was anyone aware that this place existed, that these people were actually willing to help and that… 

MS. HARF:  Well, obviously there is a chief of mission authority under—for our embassy in Tripoli, which includes the entire country. They are aware of all of our facilities in any given country, State Department or otherwise. As I said, there—this has been looked into multiple times and found that there was no stand-down order, period. Multiple people have said that in multiple investigations. Obviously, these gentlemen wanted to go help, but it was the smart and prudent thing to do to take a short delay for very good security reasons to get additional backup and to get additional weapons. But again, there was no stand-down order, period. That has been debunked multiple times by multiple investigations. 

QUESTION:  So you’re saying that what they’re saying—their claims are false then? 

MS. HARF:  Their claims have been proven false not by me, but by the House Intelligence Committee, the Senate Intelligence Committee, the State Department’s independent Accountability Review Board and a number of other people as well, and including some of those committees who interviewed these same gentlemen. 

QUESTION:  Wait, Marie. There’s a difference, I think, between what you’re saying and what—are you saying that the CIA station chief on the ground did not tell them to hold off? 

MS. HARF:  There’s not a station chief in Benghazi because the station wouldn’t be there. 

QUESTION:  Well, the—whoever the—are you saying that they… 

MS. HARF:  Well, details matter. 

QUESTION:  Well, yeah, they do, which is… 

MS. HARF:  Correct, yes. 

QUESTION:  You’re saying that no one in Washington… 

MS. HARF:  No, I’m saying there. 

QUESTION:  No one—so you’re saying that their claim… 

MS. HARF:  They—wait—is wrong—is correct. 

QUESTION:  —that their boss—that their boss did not say… 

MS. HARF:  Correct. No evidence was ever found by the House Intelligence Committee that CIA personnel were ever told to stand down, period. They found no evidence to back that up. 

QUESTION:  So—and you would take issue with the—you just said, though, that they were told hold off a bit. You’re—so you’re making—you’re drawing a distinction between a stand down order and a delay. 

MS. HARF:  Correct. There was a short delay—there was a short delay so they could get backup and get additional weaponry before they went into a situation that they were unaware of what they were going to be encountering on the other side. But to be clear… 

QUESTION:  Okay. 

MS. HARF:  —there was no stand down order given from anyone. There has been no evidence to support that claim throughout this entire process. It keeps coming up, and every time it does, we will keep saying there’s no evidence. 

QUESTION:  There was a wait order. They said wait up to 30 minutes before they went in, though, so you’re not disputing that. 

MS. HARF:  To get backup and additional weapons so they—when they did engage, they had additional—again, weapons and backup and resources to fight back, because they did not know the full situation they were going into, and it would be irresponsible to send our security officers into an unknown security situation without additional weapons and additional backup. But the notion that the CIA and its team in Benghazi did anything less than act heroically in the middle of a crisis, I think, is really just totally at odds with reality.\ 

QUESTION:  So just to put a fine point on this, hopefully once and for all—so you’re not disputing that the guy on the ground in Benghazi said hold off. You’re just disputing that it was a stand down order, and… 

MS. HARF:  Those are two very different things. 

QUESTION:  I know. I understand that. 

MS. HARF:  Okay. 

QUESTION:  I just want to make sure that—and—but you’re also saying that this hold off or wait 30 minutes or whatever it was didn’t come from Washington at all; it came from the local person on the ground. 

MS. HARF:  Correct, who said let’s assess the situation, let’s get you guys more weapons and more backup. 

QUESTION:  But no one in D.C. said hold off for 30 minutes, or… 

MS. HARF:  Not that I’ve found any evidence of. And I think this is just an example of what I would call sort of this stand down story that is increasingly—every time it comes up, it’s—the story changed and it keeps shrinking and what you’re saying, right? It’s—first it was Washington; it was the President, it was the Secretary. Then it was Panetta, it was Secretary Panetta. Then it was the military, then it was the guy on the ground. It’s like you can’t find evidence for any of those, so you keep moving the ball and trying to find evidence. 

QUESTION:  I mean, these guys are coming out with a book. The three guys that were there—these special operatives—said this is what happened. So—and then… 

MS. HARF:  Well, these three men were also interviewed by the House Intelligence Committee in a bipartisan fashion, who found there is no evidence of any stand down order, period. So I think I’ll… 

QUESTION: No, I mean, you can’t—moving the ball forward, I mean, this is a new thing. This is a new claim that’s coming out, and that’s why… 

MS. HARF:  Well, it’s just this incredibly shrinking stand down story that it seems to be perpetrated by some parts of this country who want to keep this story going, but there’s no evidence to back it up. 

QUESTION:  I mean, the book, and then along—The New York Times had an article written up on that. Are you saying that they’re trying to move the ball forward and saying that—what are you… 

MS. HARF:  I’m saying that the notion that there was evidence of stand down order given by anybody, including the CIA chief on the ground in Benghazi, is false. There’s no evidence to back it up, and when we make claims, I think it behooves all of us to have evidence there. And the notion that people on the ground didn’t want to do everything to help, but do it in a responsible and safe way—that’s what happened that night, and trying to find evidence otherwise when there isn’t any is just irresponsible. 

QUESTION: Can we change topics? 

MS. HARF: Yes, we can.

Later that same evening, Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren said, “Since day one of Benghazi Fox News has been aggressively investigating.  It hasn’t been easy.  It’s been more like pulling teeth to get answers from the Obama administration.  The Obama administration’s behavior post-Benghazi has been weird.  Like they’re trying to hide something.  First that silly story about that video.  Remember Susan Rice on all the Sunday talk shows?  Even President Obama kept talking about the video for weeks.  So Fox continued to press for information.  A few weeks later when Fox News reporter Jennifer Griffin said she was told there was a stand-down order at Benghazi, I got a weird call from the Obama administration trying to pressure me to get Jennifer to back down on her report.  I thought the call from the Obama administration was dirty. Incidentally, I don’t control my colleagues and they don’t control me.”

Unfit To Be President

On September 14, 2012 The World’s Most Dangerous Community Organizer and “Her Royal Thighness” Secretary of State Hillary “Rotten” Clinton delivered remarks at the Transfer of Remains Ceremony at Andrews Air Force Base for Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, Sean Smith a U.S. Foreign Service Information Management Officer and two former Navy SEALs and embassy security personnel Glen Doherty and Tyrone S. Woods.  They were the four Americans who were killed in Benghazi, Libya on September 11, 2012.

During the ceremony, Clinton said:

“This has been a difficult week for the State Department and for our country. We've seen the heavy assault on our post in Benghazi that took the lives of those brave men. We've seen rage and violence directed at American embassies over an awful internet video [emphasis mine] that we had nothing to do with.” 

“It is hard for the American people to make sense of that because it is senseless. And it is totally unacceptable. The people of Egypt, Libya, Yemen and Tunisia did not trade the tyranny of a dictator for the tyranny of a mob [emphasis mine]. Reasonable people and responsible leaders in these countries need to do everything they can to restore security and hold accountable those behind these violent acts.”

The 85-page bipartisan Senate report on the Benghazi attack is damning to both TWMDCO and Her Royal Thighness.  The report placed blame for the attack and the subsequent murders on armed Islamist militants that have ties to al-Qaeda, the State Department and its miserably incompetent staff who “failed to heed incessant warnings that security was evaporating there.”

"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 committee said in a statement.

Jonah Goldberg, editor-at-large for National Review calls the report not quite a whitewash but a “very political document.”

"It is an amazing thing to have such a searing indictment of the State Department and the intelligence bureaucracy and, Hillary Clinton's name, I think appears in the entire document once," he said. “It says the State Department made all these mistakes, it made no independent intelligence investigation after this had happened, after people died.”

One must remember that the horror of Benghazi came less than two months before Election Day 2012.

For a while afterward, the West Wing and all the minions ensconced there peddled the farcical fairy tale that it wasn't planned terrorism but a spontaneous demonstration against an anti-Muhammad video.

Susan Rice, then-U.S Ambassador to the UN, obediently made appearances on all five Sunday talk shows to deliberately lie to the American people on the atrocities in order to prevent “members of Congress from beating up on the State Department for not paying attention to the warnings.”

On Tuesday, September 24, 2013 TWMDCO spoke before the UN General Assembly saying:

“That is what we saw play out in the last two weeks, as a crude and disgusting video sparked outrage throughout the Muslim world. Now, I have made it clear that the United States government had nothing to do with this video, and I believe its message must be rejected by all who respect our common humanity.”

“It is an insult not only to Muslims, but to America as well--for as the city outside these walls makes clear, we are a country that has welcomed people of every race and every faith. We are home to Muslims who worship across our country. We not only respect the freedom of religion, we have laws that protect individuals from being harmed because of how they look or what they believe. We understand why people take offense to this video because millions of our citizens are among them.”

In the second presidential debate, challenger Mitt Romney stated “for the record” that it took the president 14 days before he called the attack on Benghazi an act of terror.

Ed Morrissey offers this thought, “One does not need a name at the top of this report to know where responsibility rests for this massive failure. Hillary Clinton ran State, Leon Panetta ran Defense, and David Petraeus ran the CIA. But the distributed nature of the failure indicts the Obama administration and Barack Obama himself, too. The White House is responsible for interagency coordination, for one thing, especially when it comes to national security and diplomatic enterprises.”

When this president vanquished HRC in 2008 he nominated her for Secretary of State to create a “team of rivals”.  Remember that?  It was one of the most politicized choices in history.  The ulterior motive behind that nomination was to close ranks within the Democratic Party because everything in Washington is as calculated as the tri-dimensional chess game in Star Trek.  The scheming Left intended for this president to be reelected in 2012 and the way would be paved for Clinton for the 2016 presidential race.

Adam Parkhomenko worked for ‘ol Cankles from 2003 to 2008 on the Friends of Hillary, HILLPAC and Hillary Clinton for President Committees.  Now, he is the Executive Director of Ready for Hillary.  Its mission statement is to “build capacity across the country to put Hillary in the strongest position possible should she decide to run.”

The January 27, 2014 cover of Time Magazine features a pant-suit-clad leg ending with a high heeled shoe with a tiny little man hanging on for dear life to the heel.  It asks the question, “Can Anyone Stop Hillary?”

David Von Drehle postulates:

“Clinton has not decided whether to run for President because to do so would only slow her down. Indecision serves her well by preserving flexibility in her schedule, by shielding her from answering every Internet controversy and by allowing the Republican opposition to take shape and draw fire.  How long can this go on? Longer than you think.”

The operative word in that statement is “indecision”.  Indecision is what killed four Americans in Benghazi.

Hillary Rodham Clinton is unfit to be president. 

Pat Smith, the mother of Sean Smith who was killed during the attack on our Benghazi facilities declared, “I want the whole world to know it: she lied to my face, and you don’t want this person to be president.”

On the occasion of the first Mother’s Day she wouldn’t have Sean to talk to she wished the woman with her son’s blood on her hands a Happy Mother’s Day saying, “She’s got her child.  I don’t have mine because of her.”

The Insufferable Airhorn’s Plans To Become World Caliph An Epic Fail

Millions of Egyptians massed in Tahrir Square in Cairo to celebrate the ouster of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi.  Kori Schake of Foreign Policy noted The Insufferable Airhorn “achieved the impossible, getting all factions angry with the U.S.”

Schake continues, “U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration has achieved the hat trick of alienating all factions in Egypt. It neither defended nor pushed out Hosni Mubarak, thereby earning the embitterment of both the ‘deep state’ that had been America’s ally for 30 years and liberals who agitated against it; gave the military a pass during the 18 months of its ‘caretaking’ when policy choices and governance rules might have been established; waived congressional concerns limiting U.S. foreign aid; gave the elected government too little support to have influence; was largely silent during a crackdown on nongovernmental groups; and now condescendingly suggests Egyptians would do better to politically organize than protest.”

Protesters carrying signs that were clearly anti-Obama, anti-Clinton and anti-Ambassador Patterson indicted them all as shills of Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood.  Meanwhile, The Insufferable Airhorn was playing golf for the 19^th time this year.  If you’re keeping score, that’s the 130^th golf outing of his administration.

And John "Christmas-In-Cambodia-Is-Seared-In-My-Memory" Kerry, Hillary’s replacement at the State Department, was cavorting in Nantucket Sound on his 76-foot yacht, the Isabel.

CBS owned the story regarding “Lurch” being seen riding in a boat to get to another boat just to be able to board the yacht.  So it was little wonder that Sunday’s Face the Nation featured Reuters journalist David Rohde saying that the young people of Egypt would not be inspired by U.S leaders.

Rohde said, “The President has a tough statement and then, you, I don’t know how this happened, but it was terrible optics, the next day the President goes golfing and Secretary Kerry is out on his yacht.  What does that say to young people in Egypt and across the Middle East?”

If anything, they’re getting a taste of what we here in America have to deal with every day.  Welcome to our world kids.

Video H/T Blazing Cat Fur

The White House Disinformation Campaign On Libya

New evidence shows there were security threats in Libya in the months prior to the deadly September 11 attack that killed U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans. Despite these threats, the State Department left its personnel there to fend for themselves.

The Muslim Maelstrom: Rage Against America

Obama announces Letterman appearance on the same day he snubbed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Susan Rice, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations for the Obama regime, made the rounds this morning on ABC’s This Week, NBC’s Meet The Press. CBS’s Face The Nation, CNN’s State of the Union and Fox News Sunday.

She repeatedly lied to viewers insisting that the howling, bearded, bloodthirsty cutthroats responsible for the September 11 attack on the consulate in Benghazi that killed four Americans was in response to a 13-minute video trailer on YouTube™.  She described it as “spontaneous”.

On CNN’s State of the Union, Rice argued that the assassination of ambassador Christopher Stevens was not evidence Obama’s policies in the Muslim world have failed.

She said those responsible for the attack represented a tiny pocket of extremism fanned by an anti-Islamic film and that anti-American sentiment was not sweeping Libya nearly a year after it was liberated. “I’ve been to Libya and walked the streets of Benghazi myself,” she said. “The U.S. is extremely popular in Libya,” Rice said.  Yes, we are little Susie, as a target.

Curiously, Mohammed Yussef Magariaf, Libya’s president of the General National Congress flatly contradicted Rice’s assertion saying an investigation “leaves us with no doubt” the attack was not spontaneous.

“It was planned, definitely, it was planned by foreigners, by people who entered the country a few months ago, and they were planning this criminal act since their arrival,” Magariaf told CBS.

Let me state for the record that I am no foreign policy wonk, but I am fully capable of recognizing helplessness when I see it.

For months before the most recent attacks on U.S. embassies in North African states, Foreign Ministry and U.S. State Department officials had been arguing over developments in these countries. Senior figures in Jerusalem claimed that Washington was burying its head in the sand and ignoring the increasing radicalization in states such as Tunisia and Egypt.

CNN reports that a member of the February 17^th Brigade as well as a battalion commander met with American diplomats three days before the murderous attacks to warn them about “deteriorating security” saying, “The situation is frightening, it scares us.

Our State Department and the Defense Department had done nothing meaningful to protect the ambassador. When the killers attacked the US compound, they were heavily armed with anti-aircraft automatic cannon and RPG's. They were a recognizably violent group connected with al Qaeda.

And now the main building in the consulate stands in charred ruins and the remains of our fallen ambassador have come home in a box.  Shameful.  Simply shameful.

The dangerous ineptitude of U.S. foreign policy has been fully exposed.  The State Department told reporters Friday afternoon that it won't answer any more questions about the Sept. 11 attack on the consulate in Benghazi that killed four Americans until the investigation into the incident is complete.

The reluctance of US officials to give details about the Libya probe betrays their determination to track down those who killed Stevens, the first American envoy killed in the line of duty since 1979.

I will close this post by citing the thoughts of Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center and a New York writer focusing on radical Islam. He is completing a book on the international challenges America faces in the 21st century.

“The blood of free men goes on dripping into the sewers of Kabul or Baghdad and a hundred other places and the Jihad hums along. Slowly and deliberately we learn to censor ourselves, adopting the habits of the Dhimmi, kowtowing to our masters, praising their learning, their wisdom and above all their mercy. If they have gone a day without killing us, does it not show what a peaceful people they are?”

“Without going through the formalities of reciting the Shahada or donning the Burqa, we are becoming slaves. Our leaders have sold our rights to pay the blood price; our cultural elites are eagerly teaching us the habits and mindset of slavery. To always obey, to never question and to know that our Muslim masters are always right. If they kill us, then we have done something to deserve it. If they fly planes into our buildings, it is time for some soul searching. If they go mad and kill, that is an expression of the pain and suffering that we have made them feel.”

“We apologize not because we have done anything wrong, but because they are angry. And every time they are angry, we know that we have done something wrong. Like dogs, our leaders develop the moral reflex of a newspaper across the nose, accepting that they are guilty when Muslims carry out violence. The worse the violence, the more they apologize.”