The Obama Administration may think the Benghazi controversy is settled, but for House Republicans, the fight for transparency has just begun.
House Speaker John Boehner announced today that Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) will continue to chair the Select Committee on the September 11, 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, during the next session of Congress.
From the Speaker’s Office:
“On September 11, 2012, four Americans were killed in a brutal terrorist attack in Libya. Two years later, the American people still have far too many questions about what happened that night – and why. That’s why I will reappoint Rep. Trey Gowdy and the Republican members of the House Select Committee to investigate the events in Benghazi in the 114th Congress. I look forward to the definitive report Chairman Gowdy and the Select Committee will present to the American people.”
This move comes in the wake of backlash suffered by the House Intelligence Committee, whose recently declassified report claims that Obama Administration officials were not directly responsible for the deaths of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. Although Democrats say that the Benghazi committee is redundant given the contents of the report, Republicans in both chambers are convinced there’s more to the story:
Full of crap it may very well be, considering new information that has surfaced regarding the legal authorization and nature of the CIA’s covert arms smuggling mission in Libya:
From page 3 of the main report: “The Committee also found no evidence that the CIA conducted unauthorized activities in Benghazi and no evidence that the IC [intelligence community] shipped arms to Syria.”What exactly does that mean?For the CIA to have conducted “unauthorized activities” in Benghazi would have been the height of insanity, as many former CIA executives explained to me when I was researching my book on the September 11, 2012 attacks.Ever since Iran-Contra, when Democrats in Congress teamed up with federal prosecutors to go after CIA officers and White House officials for operating beyond official guidelines, no sane CIA officer will engage in a covert operation – such as helping to arm the Syrian rebels – without explicit legal authority.It’s called “lawyering up.” Everyone does it. And nothing happens without it these days.The CIA was operating in Benghazi to train and equip the Libya rebels under the authority of a presidential finding. Therefore, anything they did in Benghazi, including liaising with militias now recognized as terrorist groups who were involved in the attacks that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens, Sean Smith, Glen Doherty, and Ty Woods, was authorized.Is that a scandal? Absolutely. But it gets passed over in the HPSCI report because it was “authorized.” Don’t look here, is the message.
Sorry to burst your bubble, Mr. President, but I have a feeling Rep. Gowdy is going to look in that exact spot.
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