Thursday, March 28, AD 2024 8:16am

Benghazi: Drip, Drip, Drip

The truth about the Benghazi debacle keeps coming out drip by drip:

1.  Paula Knows-At the beginning of the post we see the alleged mistress of David Petraeus telling an audience at a symposium in late October this bombshell:

 “A group of Delta Force operators are very…the most talented guys we have in the military. They could have come and reinforced the consulate and CIA annex that were under attack,” said Ms. Broadwell. “Now I don’t know if a lot of you have heard this, but the CIA annex had actually had taken a couple of Libyan militia members prisoner and they think that the attack on the consulate was an effort to get these prisoners back. It’s still being vetted.”

This is the first I have heard about this.  Was Petraeus sharing highly classified information with his paramour?

2.  Video Schmideo-The above detail from the mouth of Broadwell makes nonsense of the administration claim that the Mohammed video caused this.  That was a lie and the Administration knew it was a lie.

3.  Libyan Prisoners-Libyan prisoners?  What sort of involvement is the administration getting us into in Libya?  The CIA has denied this, but right now I will take the word of the alleged mistress of the former CIA Director over that of the CIA flack who issued the denial.

4.  Outraged G-Men-FBI agents investigating Petraeus and his mistress were apparently outraged that the White House was keeping Petraeus, a major security leak, on as CIA Director until after the election out of political considerations.  House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R. Va.) talked to an FBI whistleblower about this in late October.

5.  Fatal Attraction-Allegedly the FBI got involved with this mess when Paula Broadwell (Doesn’t that last name, in context, seem like something out of Mad magazine?)  sent threatening e-mails to another woman she suspected of also being a mistress of Petraeus.  If this story is true, we have the Administration keeping on for months a CIA Director who is leaking classified information to a psycho mistress.  Is this a government or a revival of  Monty Python’s Flying Circus?

Update:  The father of Paula Broadwell has chimed in, and his comments indicate we may be at the tip of a very big iceberg in regard to this story:

 

But Broadwell’s father, Paul Kranz, said that he is standing by his daughter ‘100 per cent’ – and expects more details into the affair will emerge, suggesting it was part of some cover up.

‘This is about something else entirely, and the truth will come out,’ Kranz told the New York Daily News outside his home in Bismarck, North Dakota.

‘There is a lot more that is going to come out. You wait and see. There’s a lot more here than meets the eye.’

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Paul W. Primavera
Monday, November 12, AD 2012 5:26am

The scandal deepens. And we have no Cicero.

WK Aiken
WK Aiken
Monday, November 12, AD 2012 7:03am

The timing of all this is beyond clumsy. Three days after the election, and a week before Petraeus is to testify? Please. And what did Holder know? The stench is repulsive.

trackback
Monday, November 12, AD 2012 7:36am

[…] Benghazi: Drip, Drip, Drip – Donald McClarey, The Imaginative Conservative […]

T. Shaw
T. Shaw
Monday, November 12, AD 2012 7:42am

1. Likely pillow-talk obtained classifed information.

2. This is distraction from the dastardly roles Obama, Clinton, et al played in refusing to save the ambassador and the others.

3. They Were Expendable.

4. “I will not lie, cheat or steal; nor tolerate those that do.” BARF

5. Four more years of apologies, appeasements, lies (“sworn to” by the academy and the media), and surrenders.

6. It don’t mean nothing.

G-Veg
G-Veg
Monday, November 12, AD 2012 10:28am

I’ll give you that the Administration orchestrated a delay in his resignation for purely political ends. However, I don’t see the benefit to the Administration, with regards to Benghazi, by his resignation. Doesn’t he still have to testify before Congress?

The Benghazi story is far from being told and I’m sure it will not reflect well on the Administration (they haven’t crowed about it so there is something disqueting that they’d rather not have revealed). However, I’m not willing to read into Petreaus’ resignation at this point. It looks like a conjunction of unrelated events.

G-Veg
G-Veg
Monday, November 12, AD 2012 10:57am

I think the answer lies in the exclusive focus on polls and campaigning throught his first term.

Perhaps none of this makes sense because we are looking at it through the lens of governance rather than campaigning. Without a pesky media presence, there was no risk that keeping corrupt figures would blow up before the election and that made Holder, Napolitano, and Petreaus known quantities and their mistakes fairly harmless… Unless they weren’t under thumb that is.

Rozin
Rozin
Monday, November 12, AD 2012 12:12pm

Do you think the Roman citizen on the dole cared about the shenanigans of the emperor and his cronies in far off places? The deaths of the four may be criminally negligent and grotesque but Obama voters don’t care in any meaningful way. They care about the dole or about bureaucratic jobs dispensing the dole.

In other words, this is not going to be a political game changer although Obama’s poll numbers may briefly go down a few points (46% vs 49%).

Paul W. Primavera
Monday, November 12, AD 2012 12:31pm

I hope that the revelation of scandals continues to the point where even a Democratic Senate cannot ignore the need for impeachment.

Paul W. Primavera
Monday, November 12, AD 2012 12:32pm

I forgot too add: “drip – drip – drip”. It there are enough drips, then the bucket will fill.

Kyle Miller
Kyle Miller
Monday, November 12, AD 2012 12:37pm

A lot of hand wringing leading to naught except maybe the loss of an underling job or two. The general public doesn’t care. The GOP doesn’t have the courage or fortitude to take it where it needs to go.

Net result: Noise and flashing lights to entertain conservatives.

G-Veg
G-Veg
Monday, November 12, AD 2012 1:03pm

I agree that the GOP lacks the intestinal fortitude for a fight and I’d add that even where thay have gone to battle, it feels inept…

Why is that? I wonder if part of the problem isn’t that the GOP doesn’t want to take really significant shots at this Imperial Presidency because they want to preserve those unconstitutional powers wrested from Congress for when they re-take the Executive Branch.

Let me state it differently:

The Constitution places the Legislative Branch in the steongest position, resting the most significant powers of government in its hands. The Executive Branch is made equal to the Legislative Branch through its power to appoint judges and Justices.

Over the last 20 years or so, we have seen Congress diminish and the Executive assume greater authority. Boehner said the pther day “we (meaning Congress) need to be led. And Congress after Congress has sat back and let the Executive direct them. In essence, Congress has turned the Balance of Powers on its head, treating the president like he is a Prime Minister and our system as though it was designed to be parliamentarian.

Why? I fear that the answer is because both parties have concluded that this is as it should be and that striking back and taking back Legislative authority would cut them off from those same unlawful tools when they assume the power of President. Thus, their concern between presidential elections is solely to set the groundwork for their party’s attempt to win the Presidential election, not to govern themselves.

Kyle Miller
Kyle Miller
Monday, November 12, AD 2012 1:18pm

I wish it was 1994.

Whatever become of the constitutional scandal, the Obama recess appointments? I see the GOP is right on top of it.

Go get’em GOP!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20GyC5ysyqU

Meanwhile, the top dog, Obama, and his mutts press on with ruining a people and a nation.

G-Veg
G-Veg
Monday, November 12, AD 2012 1:39pm

It is hard to claim the high ground with dirty hands. We need to get our house straight and reclaim a solid, constitutional basis for governance before we can articulate a constitutionally sound plan for reclaiming America.

As long as we are willing to say or do anything o get power, our party will lack the legitimacy and Providence to win. God does not empower the bad unless it is to correct the reclaimable. He will not restore His providence to us until we are behaving rightly.

Rozin
Rozin
Monday, November 12, AD 2012 2:05pm

Mr McClarey,

I didn’t want to clutter up a post with the factoids you added. You are making the point not disputing it. The Roman citizens in Rome on the dole played little part in the Roman empire. It was the provincials not on the dole who took over both militarily as emperors and bureaucratically as with the rapid expansion of the equestrian class in the 3rd and 4th centuries.

However, the dole is national in the US and Europe and rapidly growing. It started out in the inner cities but the Left realized that was a loser particularly after Reagan. So now we have the (unmentionable) percentage either on the dole or bureaucratically dispensing it. NV and CA have very high unemployment yet happily voted for Obama. CA even got rid of the few Repubs left in the state because they are so happy with the job the Dems are doing. Europe has had chronically high unemployment for decades but is staunchly socialist. (And why is it you salute the House post office scandal rather than Hillarycare and tax hikes as the reason for Repub majorities? Absent the post office scandal what difference would it have made?)

Nicholas Jagneaux
Monday, November 12, AD 2012 2:06pm

Here is an aspect of the e-mail investigation that I don’t understand: Why did the FBI continue looking into it at all?

Donald linked (in #5 above) to a Slate article, which had linked to a Washington Post article. The Washington Post article says, law enforcement officials interviewed “said the e-mails were ‘threatening and harassing’ but not specific enough to warrant criminal charges.”

So, the initial anonymous emails (from Broadwell to Kelley) that were brought to the attention of the FBI were not enough to warrant criminal charges. Why, then, was an investigation carried out, using FBI resources to dig through the anonymous account, tracing it back to Broadwell?

Did a judge sign off on a warrant allowing that? Which judge? Based on what evidence?

And, once it was traced back to Broadwell – still assuming that there was nothing warranting criminal charges – why go through all of Broadwell’s personal, private email that exposed the Petraeus link?

If the original anonymous emails weren’t threatening enough for criminal charges, how did this investigation continue from the get-go?

I’m not trying to claim that there is a hidden agenda behind the email investigation … yet. I really don’t understand how it went from “not enough to warrant criminal charges” to “let’s go through Broadwell’s personal, private email account”.

Maybe someone with a good understanding of how investigations of cyberstalking work can explain it to me?

Nicholas Jagneaux
Monday, November 12, AD 2012 4:07pm

The standard is fairly low for a warrant requiring a low threshold of probable cause.

Thanks, Donald. That answers a question I had. So, even though it was clear that the harassment and threats were not criminal, some judge decided to allow the FBI to search a private email account.

If the threshold is that low, then what’s to stop the FBI/local law enforcement searching someone’s email account for a “harassing” comment in a blog comment? Nothing criminal, mind you; just “harassing”.

Nicholas Jagneaux
Monday, November 12, AD 2012 5:08pm

Well, I understand what you’re saying, but I think there’s more to the story than that.

The Washington Post story says that “three senior law enforcement officials with knowledge of the episode” determined the threats weren’t specific enough for criminal charges. So, why ask for a warrant?

As your update indicates, we’re at the tip of the iceberg.

Thanks for indulging my questions, and for a very informative (and entertaining) blog.

G-Veg
G-Veg
Monday, November 12, AD 2012 5:12pm

With respect Don, I do not agree with your assessment if by your statement you mean that God does not extend or withhold his favor from peoples in accordance with His Plan.

Perhaps I misread you though.

Certainly Washington believed that Providence was visited upon the nation at her inception. Given the extraordinary turns of events, it is not difficult to see the hand of God in the twists of history that brought our Republic into being.

If you mean that we can’t see whoch events are providential and which are not, I entirely agree. But, that we can’t see His actions hardly indicates that they are not present.

Again, the Old Testament repeats he tale of God showering Grace on a people while the acknowledge Him and then withdrawing His blessings when they set Him aside. I see the same pattern over the last 2000 years in the West.

Paul W. Primavera
Monday, November 12, AD 2012 6:26pm

Donald is right again. However, in spite of all its inaccuracy, I like how The Message translation renders this section of Sacred Scripture:

42 1-6 Job answered God:

“I’m convinced: You can do anything and everything.
    Nothing and no one can upset your plans.
You asked, ‘Who is this muddying the water,
    ignorantly confusing the issue, second-guessing my purposes?’
I admit it. I was the one. I babbled on about things far beyond me,
    made small talk about wonders way over my head.
You told me, ‘Listen, and let me do the talking.
    Let me ask the questions. You give the answers.’
I admit I once lived by rumors of you;
    now I have it all firsthand—from my own eyes and ears!
I’m sorry—forgive me. I’ll never do that again, I promise!
    I’ll never again live on crusts of hearsay, crumbs of rumor.”

Art Deco
Monday, November 12, AD 2012 6:28pm

However, the dole is national in the US and Europe and rapidly growing.

Federal welfare expenditure can be categorized as follows (approximately):

44% cash pensions for the elderly and disabled
24% medical benefits for the elderly and disabled
9% medical benefits for the generally impecunious
5% financing of nursing home care
5% temporary unemployment compensation
13% various

The burgeoning of this sort of expenditure is driven by demographic factors and some of the unfortunate effects of poorly structured programs on the way the medical sector does business. These problems can be addressed, but first someone has to be willing to tell the public that first-dollar coverage of medical expenses is not economically sustainable.

It is really the last category above which is socially problematic, and, no, it was not ‘growing rapidly’ until the advent of the current administration. The most problematic programs (public housing and cash doles for women with bastard children) are a good deal less consequential than was the case a generation ago (enrollment in TANF was at one point one-third in number enrolled in its predecessor program 15 years ago, in spite of the increase in population in the interim).

G-Veg
G-Veg
Monday, November 12, AD 2012 8:27pm

G.K. Chesterton said ”once abolish the God and the government becomes god.” I am not the first to note that many in the West have replaced God with government. Certainly putting one’s faith in government is as much a violation of the First Commandment as putting faith in wealth or intellect or strength is. I am suggesting that the Bible contains ample evidence that a people is as beholden to God as any individual and that individually or collectively, we rebel against God at our own peril.

The Psalms affirm the idea that there is a relationship between a people’s faithfulness and God’s Providence. (E.g. see Ps. 5, 33, and 67) This was true in the beginning for we see in Genesis, God making covenants with Abraham to give him a blessed people – not only to bless him individually if he followed God’s commands but that his progeny would benefit from his faithfulness. In Gen. 39, we see this promise continued in Joseph. God blesses the people because of Joseph’s faithfulness.

It isn’t just a tangential concept either. It is an idea at the center of the salvation story. God is explicit in the connection between a people’s faithfulness and His blessings in Deuteronomy 7:13 and in Deut. 8 the consequences of forgetting Him. In the New Testament we see Providence bestowed in abundance on the fledgling church because of their faithfulness.

In Acts 2: 46-47 we are told that “the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved” because of the behavior of the Church. This fits Christ’s promise in Matthew 6:33 that if we seek “first the kingdom of God” he will provide everything we need, echoing Zechariah 3:7-9. Again and again in the Bible we are told that, if a people follows God’s laws they will be blessed. (Jeremiah 7:5-7) We are even told that we can reclaim His favor by turning from sin – as a people mind ye – for “if then my people, upon whom my name has been pronounced, humble themselves and pray, and seek my face and turn from their evil ways, I will hear them from heaven and pardon their sins and heal their land.” (2 Chron. 7-14) The whole point of Jonah is precisely this and Ninevah avoids Sodom’s fate by turning from evil as a community.

All I’m saying is that we cannot, as a people, directly push God away and still expect everything to be OK. It doesn’t work that way.

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