Las Vegas Sun

March 16, 2014


Letter to the editor:

Benghazi scandal is manufactured

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I keep hearing Republican politicians saying, “The American people want to know what happened in Benghazi.”

Either everybody I know is no longer an American, including myself, or we’re missing something here.

I take pride in surrounding myself with all kinds of people, whether they think or look like me. However, when I ask people “What do you think about that Benghazi mess?” most of them say, “That’s old news” or “Who is Benghazi?”

These are Democrats and Republicans alike. Either the Republican talking heads are totally out of touch with the real American people or they’re out of touch with reality.

The only way this is still even in the news is as a propaganda piece against Hillary Clinton, and everybody knows it, including the news and cable stations.

Maybe they can make a real scandal out of the new IRS report. That way they can stop trying to manufacture a scandal out of nothing.

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Previous Discussion: 37 comments so far…



  1. This letter sums up the egregious postion of the left. Look the other way!Forget that this administration let down its fellows in arranging for security at the outpost the moment it was clear that Americans were in harms way in Benghazi. Forget that notwithstanding the danger known to exist at the outpost that this administration failed to deploy the military assets close enough to Benghazi to strike in case of a terrorist attack on the compound. Forget that when confronted with the fact that the outpost was under attack that this administration mislead the American people by trying for days to convince them that this attack was the spontaneous reaction to an anti Muslim video, when in fact the administration knew differently,but decided to cover up the truth for solely political reasons.Forget the fact that when the compound was under attack and the lives of Americans were in danger that this administration,including its Commander in Chief declined to do anything--not even lift a finger to protect the lives of its fellows who were under attack. This entire episode is a prime example of outrageous government conduct involving gross incompetence and intentional malfeasance by the leaders of this government.Never forget the ugly truth about what actually occured here and bring to justice those who were to blame. Continue to uncover the truth though rigorous investigation by the House oversight committees investigating the government's role in the massacre of innocent Americans,including its own Ambassador, Chis Stevens. This investigation must contine until all the facts come out, and those responsible are exposed and brought to justice. This includes a president in handcuffs being carted off to jail for his role in this fiasco.

  2. James Witherspoon is correct to say that the Benghazi story has failed to gain traction. This is partly because too many Americans are clueless, distracted or both, but mostly because the Republicans were more interested in politicizing the issue than in really investigating what happened.

    The talking points were changed to help the administration avoid criticism. That doesn't surprise me but it also isn't what is important. Here is what is.

    The security situation in Benghazi was deteriorating and our government knew it. There had been previous attacks on diplomats and Great Britain and others had removed their personnel. We didn't. Why and who made that call? We don't know. Ambassador Stevens asked for increased security. He didn't get it. Why and who made that decision? We don't know. When the attack happened it lasted many hours and using a drone we were able to see part of the attack, but we sent no assistance. Why and who made that decision? We don't know.

    The republicans have made this all about the changing talking points because that is 'easy' and 'political'. As I usually am, I am frustrated with both parties. It seems obvious that people in charge in this situation made some pretty poor decisions and that is being covered up. The families of those lost deserve better than that and so do the rest of us. The Republicans have taken a tragic situation and politicized it for political gain rather than doing their jobs, which are to get the information the families of those murdered and all Americans deserve to have.

    Now of course, we can all be assured that the next time a Republican administration makes some poor decisions, the Democrats will try to politicize the situation rather than really search for the truth. And of course, we will witness another coverup.

    Something to look forward to in our ever less great country.


  3. Six hours elapsed [10 PM, 9-11-12, to 4 AM 9-12-12 Benghazi time] from the State Dept.'s knowledge of the attack on the Consulate in Benghazi, Libya and the murders of Woods and Doherty. 3 hours elapsed from 10 PM until 1 AM when Ambassador Stevens was murdered. We'll never know if Woods and Doherty could have been saved if the "stand down order" was not given but it is inexcusable that we didn't try. And it is un-American. I want to know and many Americans too who gave that order.

    Carmine D

  4. PS: Unlike Hillary Clinton's testimony, "What difference does it make?" It makes a lot of difference. It's called the truth.

    Carmine D

  5. Witherspoon is plain wrong. 4 American's were left high and dry when needing help and, as a result, lost their lives. One of them a US Ambassador. The administration then proceeded to lie to the world about what happened by cleansing its "talking points" 12 times. And Witherspoon claims it's a "manufactured" story? No doubt in my mind that if it were a Republicrat in office, Witherspoon would be talking out of the other side of his mouth!

  6. Bob, Carmine, Jerry...are you quoting facts or are you quoting from the "facts" that Republican staffers of the committee used to alter the emails? The scandal here is the lengths to which Republicans will go to manufacture controversy. I guess that's to be expected when your lead inquisitor is a three time convicted car thief and one of the most corrupt members of Congress. Great choice fellas.....about as believable as Sara for Veep.

  7. So what is a consulate? It's like a branch office of an embassy and is headed by a Conul, a lower level official than an Ambassador. There are numerous foreign consulates in Las Vegas.

    The consulate in Benghazi may have served mostly the purpose of providing a cover for CIA activities in the area. There were seven State Department employees at the consulate. CIA personnel in Benghazi outnumbered State Department personnel by five to one.

    It's not clear to me why Ambassador Chris Stevens chose to be visiting Benghazi at this particular time (anniversary of 9/11) or if he thought or had information the security situation was as dire as hindsight now says it was.

  8. The letter writer is correct the Republicans are still trying to keep Banghazi in the limelight,and for what reason because they do not have a platform of any kind to present to us on how they would govern given the chance.

    How quick we Americans forget the lies we were told about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq by the Bush administration.Now that's a coverup. When the Iraq war is brought up to Republicans they say I was against that war and nothing more is said by them, and then they change the subject.

    When all this blows over and it will the midterm elections will be here and the voter's will remember who created the mess we are in in the middle east.The Republicans will be scratching their heads in another lost election.

  9. Sam,

    I really don't understand why so many people, who support the Obama administration, are so unwilling to admit the 'possibility' that poor decisions were made regarding Benghazi and that the administration 'might' be withholding information that 'might' shed light on what really happened.

    Have we, on both sides, descended so far that we cannot even admit that the side we support 'might' have made some bad calls and 'might' have tried to cover them up?


  10. Michael.....We are not going to give the Republicans, who have shown absolutely no inclination to do anything but demean the President, any quarter. You are often the most reasonable contributor to these pages, but I submit that you cannot always walk the middle of the road.

  11. Liberal democrats this morning are dodging, weaving, deflecting and demonizing to remove the long shadow of scandal engulfing Obama and his administration. Sorta like smokin' Joe Frazier bobbing and weaving until George Foreman clocked him knocking him out.

    Foreman KO of Frazier

  12. Admiral Michael Mullen (former Joints Chiefs chairman) stated we couldn't have saved the Americans killed because we had no military teams close enough.

    Ambassador Pickering, along with Admiral Mullen, stated "Systemic failures and leadership and management deficiencies resulted in a security posture that was inadequate for Benghazi and grossly inadequate to deal with the attack that took place."

    Gregory Hicks was in Tripoli at the time of the attacks, he said it was proposed that a small group of four special forces troops leave Tripoli to provide aid in Benghazi. They were not authorized to do so by Special Operations Command Africa.

    The House controlled by Republicans denied requested funds to beef up security to our embassies and consulates.

  13. Where was the outrage when these attackes occured?














  14. Pat and CreatedEQL,

    I submit that we can and should make our best efforts to be fair, regardless of what others do. I had to admit that Saddam had no WMD's and the war in Iraq was a mistake. I submit that one day, we will also have to admit that the Obama Administration made mistakes regarding Benghazi and then covered up the mistakes. This tit for tat stuff is destructive to the whole country. I will also submit to you that most Presidential elections are pretty close. President Obama, like most Presidents was elected by roughly half of those that voted. Such outcomes usually do not result in a bunch of cooperation from the side that lost.

    Lastly... many Americans forget or don't care to remember that in the months after former President Bush's election in 2000, but before 9/11, Democrats said he was an illegitimate President, and were doing everything in their power to fight everything he did. I suspect that would have continued and looked much like what we are seeing today if it were not for 9/11. On that day everyone on the Democrat side knew that not cooperating with the President or any President during that time, would be political suicide.

    I hear the outrage from the left about the non cooperation with President Obama and I think it is counter productive and bad for the country, but I also know that neither of these two poor excuses for a major political party put the country above what is in their best interests.


  15. CreatedEQL,

    I can appreciate your point of view. Here is mine. I find it highly questionable that the Democratic members in Congress are for Joe Sixpack, as you put it, and even if it is true, the whole country is headed for financial trouble down the road. After observing for some time, I have concluded that the Republicans in Congress do favor Wall Street and the wealthy over Joe Sixpack. However, due to the way elections are funded, no term limits, wealthy and powerful interests, lobbying and the like, neither party represents Joe Sixpack. The Democrats throw him a peanut or two so they can keep up appearances and the Republicans don't, but the bottom line is that powerful interests and lobbyists tell members of Congress what to do to advantage them and they do it.

    If 1/2 of us support Democrats and do nothing else and 1/2 of us support Republicans and do nothing else, I'm convinced and I am sure you agree that we continue to head down a road to ruin, at least for Joe Sixpack. The difference with me is that I feel if we go all Republican or all Democrat and do nothing else, we continue to head down a road to ruin, at least for Joe Sixpack.

    We HAVE to find a way to loosen the GRIP powerful interests have on our legislative branch.... and shuffling the chairs with more D's or R's in Congress does next to nothing to reduce that GRIP.

    I just quietly continue to say to both R and D believers that their party of choice (without major changes in the way legislative elections are funded, members become careerists and how lobbying by powerful interests corrupts the process, a subject never brought up by either party) cannot and will not bring about the fairer treatment of Joe Sixpack that they seek.


  16. There are very dangerous outposts the world over. Periodically they come under attack and people get killed. Diplomats and security personnel understand this when they take these jobs. If you don't like risk don't roll the dice.
    Theses guys were doomed when they came under heavy coordinated attack.
    I worked Clinton's security team when he came to Santa Monica. He was nearly hit by a car jogging one morning. Even with vast security expenditures people get injured and killed from time to time.

  17. Michael,

    As a life long registered Republican and voting for Pres.Obama a Democrat in this past year's Presidential election. This is the first time that I voted for a Democrat for President in 44 years. I don't trust today's Republicans or anything they say.The party that I always stood by is not the party they once were. Maybe one day when they wake up and realize the direction they have taken is not working.They may come to understand what made them the party that displayed leadership once.

    The Iraq war has changed the way I voted in this past years election.Nothing but lies about WMD by the Republicans.I care about the lost lives and severely wounded men and women who gave so much in this stupid Iraq war.

    To hear V.P. Cheney state in a interview that he would do the same thing again if presented with the same set of circumstances.Now tell me when should I start believing the Republicans?

  18. Benghazi is being covered up because papers at the consulate had hard core information concerning the assassination of JFK and Vince Foster. They also had documents proving American presidents knew of alien existence working within in our government, better know as lizard people. Did I forget the communists who controlled the city and was about to take control of the entire country?

    For better than five years we've heard nothing but doom and gloom from the far right while unemployment has gone down, the stock market hit new highs, housing prices and construction is recovering, health costs are down, we are pulling out of Afghanistan, already out of Iraq, Bin Laden is dead, the auto industry has recovered, and last week the CBO reported the deficit has dropped.

    Of course these facts must be part of a broader conspiracy so they are ignored by brain dead zombies from Planet Bizarro who are still fixated on Monica Lewinsky and the stain on her dress.

  19. Vernos,

    I agree also with your post today at 8;05am 5/19/13 along with El Lobo.

    The reason the Republicans don't want to talk about attacks on our Embassy's in past years is because they are looking for something they can keep in the news as close to the midterm elections as possible. Nothing they continue to do will help them in the midterm election.As the voters are tuned into what they are trying to accomplish.

  20. antigov - "By the year 2024 the angry old white men will all be dead and gone and politics may then return to what it was meant to be in the minds of our founding fathers."

    Very true, with a younger, lenient, progressive, tolerant, flexible, progressive society.

  21. Who could blame liberal democrats for wanting no congressional oversight of Obama and his administration. However, public trust is now the issue so we must investigate the A/P, IRS and Benghazi scandals. Although liberals are squirming, history will prove that the correct course of action was to investigate and report back to the American people what happened. Any reader should see right through to the goal of liberal deny the American people the truth. Post enough comments and it will cause reader confusion. Watch or tape C-Span's coverage of the hearings and draw your own conclusions.

  22. Hombre is totally correct in saying (at 9:38 a.m.) (of the list of Embassy raids listed at 8:05 a.m. by VernosB) that "None of the raids on Embassies ocurred during Obama's tenure."

    That is, of course, the point. ALL were under W. Bush. And ALL were greeted with silence by the Republican'ts. Just why is Benghazi different? Could it be that the outpost was actually a CIA facility operating under a State Department cover? And an Administration "scandal" would take the attention off the CIA?

    Why do we have a crisis quota in his country? We no sooner seem to be working our way out of one crisis (a major recession in this case) than half a dozen relatively routine incidents are raised to crisis level. Could it be that Republican'ts are teaching us what happens when we dare not to vote their way? That's an old stunt, people - especially popular among groups like the Mafia... ("Nice little country you have there, fella'. Be a pity if something happened to it. We can offer a guarantee that nothing will...")

  23. Comment removed by moderator. Name Calling

  24. Sam,

    You write as if you think that I think you should apologize for voting for Obama. No, I think it is fine that you voted for Obama. The Republicans said there were WMD's in Iraq and there were not. They got America involved in a costly war (in lives and money) that we should not have been involved in. They ask no sacrifices of common Americans during the wars and continued to spend money we did not have. Etc, etc. This wasn't all done with Democrats kicking and screaming every step (far from it) but the Republicans 'were' driving the car. It was hardly a shock when Obama won in 2008 and only a minor surprise when he won in 2012.

    That all said, almost nobody that writes engages me on the fact that our legislative branch (where all laws are made and taxes set) is corrupted by money, powerful interests with lobbyists and 'careerists' in Congress. Neither party is immune to that and it is destroying us and our country. It cannot be remedied with more D's or R's, but D supporters are sure things will be fine with more D's and R supporters are sure things will change for the better with more R's.

    A problem cannot be addressed and resolved without first identifying it. I went years without seeing it so I understand the difficulty in identifying the problem for many Americans, but the problem is there and it is serious and it can't be solved unless we recognize it and act to change the way we elect members of Congress and how long they can serve.


  25. Jeff,

    I can't say it would shut up the R's in Congress but I would shut up if President Obama did the following:

    Send Jay Carney up and have him show the communication where Steven's was offered more security and declined it.

    Have him read a statement from President Obama that explains why the security was as lax as it was given all the attacks in the area in recent times. Explain the rational used to decide to keep our mission there when others removed there mission.

    Have him read a statement that explains to the families of the dead why the decision to not mount a rescue effort was made.

    Hilary Clinton asked why does it matter? If my brother had died there, it would matter to me. If my family had been told by Hilary Clinton that a video was the cause of the death of my brother and then that turned out not to be true, that would matter to me.


  26. Future - "Liberal blogger VB says "Benghazi is being covered up because papers at the consulate had hard core information concerning the assassination of JFK and Vince Foster." "Wrong answer. VB IS LYING" "Benghazi was covered up before the 2012 election to support the false narrative that al-Qa'eda was on the run"

    If satire was a cold dead fish slapping you upside the head, would you recognize it?

    I rest my case about brain dead zombies from Planet Bizzaro.

  27. Border Agent MURDERED IN MEXICO with a gun from Holder's FAST N FURIOUS. Then, Obama and company RELEASE VIOLENT ILLEGALS instead of finalizing deportation orders. 4 of the best Americans murdered in Benghazi and Hillary is unconcerned and tries to convince us it doesn't matter. Obama and company blatantly lie to the American people right after and CONTINUING to blame a video--as if that would make it OK or make it the video-makers fault. Well, here's a clue. Islam insults Americans and all women worldwide. We are deeply offended with routine practices of denigrating women.

  28. @LastThroes,

    Your post 1:36PM proves a point. That slogan "Country First" is complete bull crap. They couldn't care less about the citizens of this country. Their "frothing at the mouth" desire is to bring down the Obama administration just like they tried with Clinton. What fallout occurs is ignored regardless of the effect is has on our allies. They are nothing more than lying-delusional-egotistic-self centered-grandstanding-clueless-arseholes who would destroy this great nation if the general populace allowed it to happen.

  29. VernosB,

    Regarding your 11:02am post, you realize by 2024 you'll be nearly 77 years old and getting ready for the bone yard yourself. LOL

  30. A Bengagagle of ultra-conservatives with Bengabble and Bengargle about Benghazi. It's so absurd that the Tea/Republican right wing news is desperately looking for someone named Ben they can get him on television and yell at him.

    It is a certified fact from the ultra-conservative Heritage Foundation that they have mandated the Tea/Republicans in power need to pay attention to supposed scandal(s) and put a lot less time on governing and conducting the peoples' business.

    We need to get angry, people. Because the Tea/Republican politicians are paying attention to this mandate.

    The Tea/Republicans are only concentrating on party politics. And not passing legislation. Not governing this nation.

    And how you get furious and show your anger is when election time comes in 2014 and 2016. We vote all them bums out of power. Because they blew it. They don't deserve to be in power. Time to crush the over reaching radical and extreme Tea/Republican Party.

  31. I've seen some irrelevant comments here, few are so bad as Chuck333's 4:05 p.m. post. He quotes from my prior post ""That is, of course, the point. ALL were under W. Bush. And ALL were greeted with silence by the Republican'ts. Just why is Benghazi different?" and then adds: "Because we were at war and with Benghazi we weren't."

    I referred to a list of Embassy attacks under W. Bush that drew NO Republican't response. NOT ONE of those embassies was in Iraq or Afghanistan, where we were engaged in wars of choice. When Benghazi was attacked we were still actually engaged in a war of choice: in Afghanistan BUT NOT IN LIBYA!

    I can only assume Chuck333 was using the old Republican't technique: If you can't blind 'em with brilliance, baffle 'em with BS! He certainly succeeded at the "baffle" part...

  32. I keep hearing Obummer and his band of thieves saying, "The American people want (Obamacare/more taxes/more spending/less control of their lives)"

    Either everybody I know is no longer an American, including myself, or we're missing something here.

  33. Michael,

    "Sam, you write as if you think that I think you should apologize for voting for Obama."

    Not even close. I was just letting you know how I after all these years of voting for Republicans as Presidents.I decided to switch and vote for a Democrat as President. I no longer will vote along party lines.I will continue to vote for a Republican or a Democrat in the future if I feel he or she is best for the country.

    I also voted for Gov. Sandoval a Republican, of our great state. I now vote for both parties for the candidate that I like.My sole is not for sale when I vote. You can label me as a old white man if you like,but not a angry one.

  34. Vernos ref your 8:05 Am post.

    Please tell us how many Americans died and how many U.S. Ambassadors died as a result of these attacks.

    Carmine D

  35. "CarmineD,

    Please tell us how many Americans were killed and disabled in the Bush-Cheney lie that sent us into a war with Iraq."

    Same old canard. Read the Silberman-Robb Commission Report from 2005.

    Carmine D

  36. CarmineD: the Silberman-Robb Commission Report from 2005 doesn't apply. When it was drafted, we were still in that war Bush/Cheney lied us into.

  37. S-R definitely applies. But you have to read and understand it to know why. Have you?

    Carmine D