End of the line?

Congress now has the Accountability Review Board report on the Benghazi terrorist attack that killed four Americans, including the first US Ambassador murdered in 33 years, and it’s easy to see why the State Department contemplated keeping it under wraps.  The ARB rips the State Department from the top down all the way to the [...]

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"In the debates and in sweeping rallies across the country, Romney captured the imagination of millions of Americans."

People are already tearing this up on Twitter and in the comments to the Headlines item. A few points. One: In which alternate universe was Romney not supported by “D.C.’s green-room crowd”? I appreciate that Mitt Romney was never a favorite of D.C.’s green-room crowd or, frankly, of many politicians. That’s why, a year ago, [...]

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Clarity.

Does this mean it’s no longer racist to oppose her nomination as Secretary of State? Or, since she’s now admitting her mistake, does this mean it’s really racist to oppose her nomination as Secretary of State? I’m sure the left will tell us when the time is right. Today, Acting CIA Director Michael Morell and [...]

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Firestorm.

Kerry, a prominent senator for 28 years, would sail through his Senate confirmation hearings. Rice would be pinned down not just by Benghazi but by some of her past statements, in particular these two: In 1994, when she served on President Bill Clinton’s National Security Council, she reportedly asked about the possibility of intervening in [...]

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Fog.

David H. Petraeus, the former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, told lawmakers on Friday that classified intelligence reports revealed that the deadly assault on the American diplomatic mission in Libya was a terrorist attack, but that the administration refrained from saying it suspected that the perpetrators of the attack were Al Qaeda affiliates and [...]

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"When they go after the UN ambassador ... then they’ve got a problem with me."

Via Greg Hengler, I don’t know where to begin here. At 2:05, he says he agrees that it’s important to find out what happened in Benghazi and that the administration’s provided every bit of information it has. Not true. He still hasn’t told us precisely what he instructed the military to do, or not do, [...]

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"This is an obscene lie!"

Via Mediaite, I won’t spoil the surprise of whether Geraldo is pro- or anti-O. Actually, the vid’s just candy to lure you into another post about the latest revelation of what State knew about security deteriorating in the city. Remember that meeting in mid-August where the consulate determined that there were Al Qaeda training camps [...]

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Bombshell.

If you follow only one link on the site today, make sure it’s this one. And don’t quit before the end or you’ll miss some vivid details, like the very special swastika graffiti left by looters. Threshold question: Why were these documents still lying on the floor of what’s left of the consulate on October [...]

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Smoking gun.

This is at least the third separate warning that State got from people in the field about security disintegrating in Benghazi in the last month or so before the assault. Fox News already reported that Stevens sent a cable on August 8 about a “security vacuum” in the city that freed jihadists to attack western [...]

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It's come to this.

Via Breitbart. If President Romney had said something this oblivious with the cloud of Benghazi over his head, it’d be the lead story in political media for the next 24 hours. As it is, it’s “president comments on storm” soundbite filler for the evening news. Democratic membership has its advantages. It’s catching up to him, [...]

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Heat.

“This tragedy turned into a debacle and massive coverup or massive incompetence in Libya is having an effect on the voters because of their view of the commander in chief,” McCain said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “And it is now the worst coverup or incompetence that I have ever observed in my life.”… “I [...]

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Plus: CIA throws Obama under the bus?

“We’re going to gather all the facts,” he says, echoing Hillary’s plea to let the investigation play out until, oh, say, mid-November at the earliest. Simple question: Why does he need “all the facts” about Benghazi to find out (a) whether anyone at the consulate called for help during the attack and (b) if so, [...]

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Blame.

Via Glenn Beck, the bit about Hillary comes at the start of the second clip but both are worth listening to as an insight into how O, Biden, and Clinton allegedly operate in semi-private circumstances. The awkward “cueballs” line from Biden rings especially true, although I think he meant it as a compliment in his [...]

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Rhetoric.

“Posting something on Facebook is not in and of itself evidence,” she says, responding to last night’s e-mail leak about Ansar al-Sharia taking credit for the attack. True enough, but that’s not the only link to AAS. As I reminded you yesterday, intercepts caught members of the group talking to members of Al Qaeda in [...]

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"[O]ne of the addresses to which the message was sent was the White House Situation Room..."

No Quotes of the Day tonight. Read this instead. We actually know most of this already, I think. Remember this Reuters story from October 2 describing multiple intelligence reports about a jihadi connection even in the first few hours afterward? How about the AP’s piece four days ago about the CIA’s station chief informing the [...]

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Abandoned.

Not just on the day he died, mind you. Multiple times before, too. I’m near the point now where I want to abandon the whole “pre-planned attack versus spontaneous protest” line of inquiry just because it’s steering us away from the more important topic of State’s negligence on his security. Besides, we already know, more [...]

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Plus: Founder of AQ-style militia led the attack?

As you read this, I want you to remember that what really annoyed President Spock last night and had him showing uncharacteristic flashes of anger wasn’t the fact that Chris Stevens was operating essentially without security in a jihadi playground. It was the fact that Romney put him on the spot by accusing him of [...]

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Security.

Time for your daily reminder that State didn’t merely stick Chris Stevens with “average” security despite him living and working in one of the jihadi-est places on earth. The security they provided him was actively, inexplicably, inexcusably bad. And before you read any further, let me remind you that the ominous chat-room message posted by [...]

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Questions.

Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio defended GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney this morning on “This Week” for his use of the deadly incident in Libya to criticize President Obama on the campaign trail. I asked Portman about this after the father of killed U.S. ambassador Christopher Stevens told Bloomberg it would be “abhorrent” to make [...]

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The buck stops here there.

There are two possibilities. Either the intelligence community had a detailed picture of what happened in Benghazi that night and failed to share it with other administration officials and the White House. Or the intelligence community provided that detailed intelligence picture to others in the administration, and Obama, Biden, Clinton, Susan Rice, and others ignored [...]

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Up in flames.

I can heartily recommend everything Eli Lake of Newsweek has written on the Benghazi attack. He’s been all over this story from day one and has great sources. Today, he reports that the FBI and administration are examining closed-circuit video from the Benghazi compound at the time of the attack along with video from an [...]

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No answers.

Face down on a roof inside the besieged American diplomatic compound, gunfire and flames crackling around them, the two young Libyan guards watched as several bearded men crept toward the ambassador’s residence with semiautomatic weapons and grenades strapped to their chests… They were the “quick reaction force” for a compound that was also protected by [...]

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Brutal.

The devastating soundbite du jour from today’s House Oversight hearings, courtesy of Eric Nordstrom. There’ll be some faux-trage aimed at him for his choice of metaphor here, if only in the interest of changing the subject politically, but don’t get bogged down in it. He’s not calling State an enemy, he’s saying that their persistent [...]

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Nope.

Three pitiful minutes from today’s House Oversight hearing, revolving around whether a cable that “requested” more security in Libya was enough of a clue to State that … more security was being requested. Eric Nordstrom, who was on the ground, didn’t think the number was “correct”; neither did Andy Wood, who told CBS the other [...]

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"[T]o decrease security in the face of that really is... it's just unbelievable."

Ed flagged ABC’s story on this earlier today but I want you to watch the clip, as you’ll be seeing this guy again soon in front of Darrell Issa’s House Oversight Committee. Meet Lt. Col. Andy Wood, who until August was stationed in Tripoli as leader of a Special Forces “Site Security Team” at the [...]

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