Republicans in the Select Committee on Benghazi failed to bring up the real criminal scandals in Libya

Republicans in the House of Representative Select Committee on Benghazi missed a unique opportunity to inform the American people regarding the true and scandalous events in Libya. To assist the Select Committee on Benghazi, Roger Aronoff wrote an article titled “Questions to Watch for at Thursday’s Benghazi Hearing” which was published in Accuracy in Media.org on October 21, 2015.

Aronoff, a great patriot, set up the Citizens’ Commission on Benghazi (CCB) in September 2013 to investigate the causes and the circumstances involved in the attacks of September 11, 2012 on the U.S. diplomatic compound and the nearby CIA Annex in Benghazi, Libya. The members of the commission included former CIA officers, retired military from the different branches of the Armed Forces, journalists, and defense consultants.

Aronoff criticized the recent statements by Representative Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Representative Richard Hanna (R-NY) that indicated that the House of Representative Select Committee on Benghazi was set up to hurt Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. He said that “despite Hillary Clinton new attitude of defiance—acting as if these recent statements by the two Republicans have somehow proven that this has been a political witch-hunt all along—they proved nothing of the sort.”

Aronoff appeared recently on The Blaze with Dana Loesch and explained the following: “While the failure to either provide sufficient security for Ambassador Chris Stevens, or to remove him before the attacks occurred on September 11, 2012, is an important issue, it is certainly not the only one that Mrs. Clinton must answer for. Two new articles out in the last day present powerful arguments and lines of questioning that should be pursued. One is from The Washington Times, which lays out new evidence showing how the U.S. facilitated the flow of arms to militia groups in Libya, many of which went to al-Qaeda linked groups. This violated both American law and a U.N. resolution. The other article is by Nancy Youssef in The Daily Beast, where she questions the wisdom, motives and strategy that led the U.S. and NATO into the war in Libya in the first place. She points out that while President Obama may have been reluctant at first, with no stated plans to remove Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi that is exactly what happened, with no plans in place for what would come after Qaddafi. And what has followed is a failed state.”

Aronoff wrote that both of these points were made in the Interim Report by our Citizens’ Commission on Benghazi (CCB) of April 2014 and received little attention at the time. Many in the media kept asking what more was there to learn. Aronoff pointed out that the CCB had prepared a list of questions that he hoped would be asked during the House of Representative Select Committee on Benghazi hearing on October 22, 2015. Below are the questions prepared by the Citizens’ Commission on Benghazi to be asked to Hillary Clinton:

Before

“When, how and why did the Obama administration and the State Department decide to back the overthrow of the Qaddafi regime?

Why did you refuse Saif Qaddafi’s phone call about the willingness of his father to negotiate a truce rather than subject his country and himself to the impending attack by NATO forces?

When and how was the decision made that the administration officially would facilitate the delivery of weapons to known Libyan al-Qaeda militias like the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG)?

Did you and the Obama administration believe that the Presidential Intelligence Finding of March 2011 was legally sufficient to overcome the otherwise felonious provision by the U.S. government of material support to terrorism? Which legal authorities by name provided this advice to you?

Exactly when and specifically which Congressional members were briefed on the administration’s decision to overthrow Qaddafi, back the Libyan Muslim Brotherhood-led rebels, and facilitate the delivery of weapons to Libyan al-Qaeda-linked militias?

Why did approximately half of your emails on Libya, that the committee has only recently received, come from Sidney Blumenthal, who President Obama had forbidden you to hire at the State Department?

Why did we maintain the Special Mission Compound in Benghazi when others, such as the British and the Red Cross had pulled out because of the security situation?

Why did you ignore an internal State Department audit on the compound when it first opened which concluded that they should either beef up the security or close it?

Please name and identify by affiliation the top Libyan rebel commanders with whom Christopher Stevens, the official U.S. government envoy to those rebels, collaborated during the 2011 Libyan revolution and explain how these commanders were selected.

Please describe in detail the weapons procurement and delivery process by which arms were acquired, funded, transported and distributed to the Libyan rebels in 2011.

Please describe in detail the weapons buy-back and collection program in Libya in 2012, including which U.S. agency had the lead for that program, how funds were disbursed for such weapons, where and how they were stored, their transport on exactly which/whose ships, and where those ships and their weapons cargo went after they departed from Libya.

By allowing the flow of arms to groups in Libya that we knew were affiliated with al Qaeda, weren’t we in effect switching sides in the War on Terror?

Were you personally aware of multiple warnings that indicated an Islamic terror attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi was likely or in potential planning stages?

Why were all of Stevens’ requests for increased security turned down and in-country security forces drawn down? (We now know that there were over 600 requests for assistance that were denied!)

Did you see, or were you made aware of the Ayman al-Zawahiri video-taped warning, issued on jihadi websites on 10 September 2012, that apparently gave the green light for the attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi? If so, when? If not, why not?

What action did you take when you received word of a 10 day advanced notice that an attack on our facilities in Benghazi was going to take place?

What additional security measures did you as Secretary of State order for missions across North Africa and/or elsewhere once the American Embassy in Cairo warned that Muslim anger was building over the airing on Egyptian TV on 9 September 2012 of a clip from the YouTube video “Innocence of Muslims?”

Why was an order given to Ambassador Stevens’ Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) personnel to store their weapons in a separate location in the compound?

During

What about your 10 p.m. phone call with President Obama on the night of the attack? Why did the State Department proceed to issue a statement shortly thereafter citing the video as the likely cause of the attack?

Who was responsible for making sure the car was parked outside the safe room window as a key part of the escape plan for the ambassador?

Why were the Marine Fast teams at Rota naval base in Spain held up and made to put on civilian clothes?

What classified equipment and material were taken from the compound?

Please describe in chronological detail where you were, Secretary Clinton, throughout the night of 11-12 September 2012.

Exactly when and by what process did you, Secretary Clinton, receive command authority over U.S. military units that might have responded to the Benghazi mission attack during the night of 11-12 September 2012?

Who made the decision that no U.S. government military response would be ordered to come to the rescue of the Americans under terrorist assault the night of 11-12 September 2012 in Benghazi?”

The House of Representative Select Committee on Benghazi hearing

It was extremely sad that the Republicans in the House of Representative Select Committee on Benghazi did not ask all these important questions suggested by CCB, with the exception of the emails sent and received by Hillary Clinton from her friend Sidney Blumenthal and one question on the gunrunning operation in Libya. Unfortunately, they missed their unique opportunity to inform the American people of the worst scandal of the Obama administration.

Alex Newman wrote an article entitled “Clinton Exposed as Liar in Benghazigate Hearings, but Secrets Remain” which was published by New American on October 23, 2015. Newman said that Mrs Clinton was exposed as a liar during her testimony at the House of Representative Select Committee on Benghazi hearing. But she was careful “to avoid any serious scrutiny of the Obama administration’s widely reported gun-running programs for jihadists battling former U.S. government terror-war allies in Libya and Syria.”

When questioned, Hillary Clinton lied and denied any knowledge of such a program. Only to be confronted with an e-mail in which she proposed doing precisely that via proxies by Representative Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.). As many journalists have written, including this writer, President Obama, with the knowledge of his former Secretary of State, illegally armed jihadists first in Libya and later in Syria. Newman explained that when facing a question by Representative Mike Pompeo about whether Mrs Clinton knew of a gun-running scheme to Libyan rebels, she said, “I think the answer is no.” Asked if she knew whether the U.S. government or its proxies were sending weapons to Syrian rebels from Libya, Clinton also said no.

Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton participated at a press conference condemning the Benghazi attacks in the White House. Both of them lied repeatedly to the American people and to the families of the four brave men who died there.

Representative Pompeo read an e-mail from Clinton to another official at the time outlining a scheme to do exactly that. Her email stated that “FYI, the idea of using private security experts to arm the opposition should be considered.” But Clinton continued lying and said: “It was not considered seriously.”

Newman pointed out that Representative Pompeo asked whether there were more discussions or e-mails on arming the jihadist rebels. Clinton again lied and said she was not aware of any and Pompeo moved on, again leaving the issue of Obama administration gun-running to jihadists unresolved. This crime committed by the president and Hillary Clinton should have pursued vigorously and not dropped!

Newman said the following: “Not only did those weapons end up in the hands of al-Qaeda, ISIS, and other jihadist groups, they are now being used across the region to wreak havoc, murder Christians, overthrow governments, and much more. In a United Nations report, the global outfit said the Libyan weapons, now in the hands of al-Qaeda, were fuelling conflict and terror throughout North Africa, Syria, Gaza, and beyond. If an everyday U.S. citizen had been responsible for such a disaster, he would likely be sitting in federal prison for a long time for providing material support to terrorists.”

Newman explained that Hillary Clinton was also asked on the fact that Ambassador Christopher Stevens, had met with a rebel leader who had previously fought U.S. troops under al-Qaeda in Iraq. “Were you aware that our folks were either wittingly or unwittingly meeting with al-Qaida on the ground in Benghazi, Libya, just hours before the attack?”, Representative Pompeo asked. Mrs Clinton replied: “I know nothing about this, Congressman.” Pompeo called that response “deeply disturbing.”

Newman concluding his article by stating the following: “Now, the fruits of that lawless war are clear, yet the officials responsible for the bloodshed, genocides, revolutions, and lies remain in power. Indeed, Obama is still in the White House using his “pen and phone” to strip Americans of their rights and foment chaos abroad, and Clinton remains the leading 2016 presidential contender for the Democrat Party. Americans, especially those killed in Libya, deserve better. And they deserve, at the bare minimum, the truth.”

It was positive that Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH) during the Benghazi hearing brought up a couple of key communications from Mrs. Clinton in the immediate aftermath of the September 11, 2012 attacks revealing that she knew from the moment shots were fired that it was a premeditated terror attacks. The night of the attack, Clinton emailed her daughter, Chelsea, and said, “Two of our officers were killed in Benghazi by an Al Qaeda-like group.” Representative Jordan told Mrs. Clinton, “You tell the American people one thing, and you tell your family an entirely different story.”

Representative Jordan brought up a State Department summary of a call between Mrs. Clinton and the Egyptian prime minister the day after the attack. Those notes reveal she informed him of the following: “We know the attack in Libya had nothing to do with the film. It was a planned attack — not a protest.” Based on the information we saw today we believe the group that claimed responsibility for this was affiliated with al Qaeda.” Yet, on the night of the attacks, the State Department issued a statement blaming “inflammatory material posted on the Internet” for a spontaneous protest that became violent.

Representative Jordan told Clinton the following: “Let me read that one more time. We know — not we think, not it might be — we know the attack in Libya had nothing to do with a film. It was a planned attack. Not a protest. State Department experts knew the truth. You knew the truth, but that’s not what the American people got.” Finally, Representative Jordan asked “Where did the false narrative start?” Then he answered his own question by saying “It started with you, Madame Secretary.”

The Select Committee on Benghazi found out about the hidden secret private email server while examining documents that were produced after many months of delay. However, Mrs. Clinton deleted thousands of emails in violation of many federal laws. She is undergoing an FBI criminal investigation. The Select Committee interviewed more than 50 witnesses and reviewed classified materials that will help draft its final report. This report, which no doubt, will include why the United States was not able to prevent the terrorist attack and send military assistance to save the lives of the Americans at Benghazi. The Select Committee has already proven that Obama administration officials, including Hillary Clinton, lied repeatedly and tried to mislead the public as to why it happened.

In what appears to be another lie, during Mrs. Clinton’s testimony in front of the Benghazi panel she claimed that 90% to 95% of her work emails were automatically preserved in the State Department’s system. She said and if they wanted to see them, they would certainly have been able to do so. The following day the State Department said it cannot confirm that assertion during her tenure as Secretary of State. On October 23, 2015, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said that the figure is something her campaign is using and referred questions to them for “the rationale or the background behind it.” Toner said, “I’m not aware that we have given that figure, I’m not in a position right now to confirm that.”

During the hearing at the House of Representative Select Committee on Benghazi on October 22, 2015, no one asked why General Carter Ham, Commander of the United States African Command, and Rear Admiral Charles M. Gaouette, who was in charge of Carrier Strike Group Three, which included the aircraft carrier U.S.S. John C. Stennis, were both retired for possibly trying to send a rapid response team to Benghazi to save our people in violation of the order that they were given to stand down, meaning do nothing to save our people.

During the long hearing it was explained that in June 2012 both the British Consulate and the International Red Cross had to close their offices due to the assassination attempt on the British Consul General and other assassinations. The bombing outside our special mission compound in Benghazi took place on June 6, 2012.

Ambassador Chris Stevens had repeatedly requested additional security assistance on multiple occasions. Secretary Clinton’s State Department sent home Lieutenant Colonel. Wood and the 16-man security force which was at our embassy in Tripoli. The pleas in more than 600 emails from our ambassador for additional security were ignored and denied by the State Department. This was most shameful! Hillary Clinton blamed her subordinates in charge of providing security, in spite of the fact that she was aware of all the acts of terrorism going on in Benghazi.

Democrats and the Obama complicit media want us to believe that Mrs. Clinton emerged from the hearing unscathed and that she had every right to look as irritated and bored as she did. Moreover, the Democrats in the Select Committee want to abolish it saying that the 17 months of work and the $4.7 million spent by the panel has been a waste of time and money. Editorials in the established and complicit newspapers have also called to disband the Select Committee since these pro-Democrat and liberal newspapers want to protect the corrupt and likely presidential candidate Hillary Clinton for what she and the president did in Libya. But it is no wonder Mrs. Clinton sought to conceal her emails, and then, when she could no longer do so, deleted 30,000 of them before handing over printed copies to the State Department. Obviously, she had a lot to hide from the American people!

Ambassador Christopher Stevens, his aide Sean Smith, and two diplomatic security officers, former Navy SEALs Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods, were killed in Benghazi due to the criminal negligence and dereliction of duty of the State Department and the White House.

Committee Democrats did their best to severely denounce the Republicans in the Select Committee and, by asking leading questions, help elicit the answers Mrs. Clinton wanted to give. But her negligence in not providing additional security support in Benghazi and subsequent cover-up of the true story of the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi were on full display. As committee chairman Trey Gowdy made clear in his opening statement, Ambassador Christopher Stevens, his aide Sean Smith, and two diplomatic security officers, former Navy SEALs Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods, deserve answers and accountability.

At one point in the 11-hour hearing, Mrs. Clinton attempted to take the moral high ground and show her compassion by stating the following: “I would imagine I’ve thought more about what happened than all of you put together. I’ve lost more sleep than all of you put together. I have been wracking my brain about what more could have been done or should have been done.”

As this writer has written in many articles, the president, Mrs. Clinton, and the entire Obama administration lied about the attack. Not only did Mrs. Clinton lie to the American people for weeks, she had the audacity to lie to the families of the four slain Americans over their flag-draped caskets. She told them, “We’ve seen rage and violence directed at American embassies over an awful Internet video that we had nothing to do with.” During the October 22, 2015 Select Committee hearing, Mrs. Clinton lied again insisting, “I believe to this day the video played a role.”

Hillary Clinton’s Five Biggest Lies in her Benghazi Testimony

Ben Shapiro wrote an article entitled “Hillary Clinton’s Five Biggest Lies in her Benghazi Testimony” which was published on October 23, 2015 by Breitbart and bwcentral.org. He explained Mrs. Clinton five most important lies. They were the following:

Hillary Cared Deeply About the Human Cost.

“Hillary kept claiming that she cared deeply about her good friend Chris Stevens. Hillary admitted in her testimony that her good friend Chris Stevens did not have her private email address, and that she could recall no conversations with him after he became ambassador to Libya. The night of his death, she wrote an email with the subject line: Chris Smith, conflating his death with that of diplomat Sean Smith. She didn’t bother speaking with survivors of the attacks until days later.

As to the notion that Hillary lost sleep, she apparently didn’t the night of the attack—she went home instead of sticking around at the State Department or heading over to the White House, because, she said, she had to prepare for what would be a rough rest of the week. She didn’t talk to then-Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta or Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey. We do know that she spent the night alone, a fact which led her to chortle. Hillary may have lost sleep over her failures later—clearly, she spent some time coming up with lies about a YouTube video.”

Hillary Thought The Attacks Had Something to Do With a YouTube Video.

“Hillary maintained during the hearing that she believed the attack still had something to do with the YouTube video, “The Innocence of Muslims.” But the night of the attack, she emailed Chelsea Clinton and told her that an al-Qaeda-like group had killed the ambassador. As Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH) said to Clinton, “You tell the American people one thing. You tell your family an entirely different story.”

In fact, Hillary told the Egyptian Prime Minister the day after the attacks, “We know the attack in Libya had nothing to do with the film. It was a planned attack. Not a protest.” Hillary tried to state that she had actually told people that some people were pinning the attack on the video, but she herself pinned the attacks on the YouTube video in videos released in Pakistan. She lied, because it was obvious that she had failed in her central duty to protect her diplomats in the most dangerous part of the world—a part of the world she had made more dangerous with her favorite invasion.”

Hillary Didn’t Use Sidney Blumenthal as an Advisor.

“Hillary Clinton had reams of email exchanges with hit man Sidney Blumenthal. Blumenthal had been banned from the Obama administration for his corruption and Clintonian loyalties. Hillary said that the emails were unsolicited. Representative Trey Gowdy (R-SC) shot that idiocy down easily: “You wrote to him, ‘Thanks and please keep them coming,’ ‘Greetings from Kabul and thanks for keeping this stuff coming, any other info about it?’ ‘What are you hearing now?’” Hillary then tried to amend her statement by saying they began as unsolicited emails. Hillary used Blumenthal as an advisor, and she routinely corresponded with him. Any implication to the contrary is absolutely false.”

Hillary Was Transparent About Her Emails.

“Hillary insisted again on Thursday that she’d been fully transparent about her emails. Even the State Department has rejected that nonsense repeatedly. The hearings did provide some perspective into just why Hillary might have deleted 30,000 emails, however, she claimed that her correspondence about Libya, which dropped dramatically from 2011 to 2012, was not because she cared less about the country—it was because she had people shuttling documents to her in suitcases. In fact, she said, she didn’t even have a computer in her office. A State Department email address could have confirmed whether any of that was true. Now we will presumably never know.”

Chris Stevens Was Responsible for His Own Death.

“The most despicable lie of the day came from Hillary’s defense of her own conduct via ripping Chris Stevens, the dead ambassador. She spent virtually the entire day suggesting that Stevens knew the risks of his job, that he accepted those risks, and that he died knowing those risks. She even said that Stevens “felt comfortable” on the ground. If that is true, it’s certainly odd that the State Department team in Libya asked for more security over 600 times. Hillary said she didn’t receive any of those requests and blamed her security team for not granting more security—all the while saying she took responsibility for what had happened.

Hillary Clinton was largely responsible for a pointless invasion of Libya, which promptly turned into a terrorist-run hellhole. She was responsible for the security of her diplomats in Libya, but she didn’t provide for it. She had no correspondence with those diplomats on the ground but plenty of time for Sidney Blumenthal. When those diplomats and those who ran to help them were killed, she blamed a YouTube video. And finally, she used her jerry-rigged email server to selectively edit the material the public would see. But don’t worry—Hillary’s the victim. Republicans are the perpetrators. And Chris Stevens is just one more bump in the road on her journey to the White House.”

Citizens’ Commission on Benghazi

Members of Citizens’ Commission on Benghazi shared their finding at the National Press Club. Why is the Select Committee not investigating the CCB report of April 2014?

This writer has investigated the criminal behavior of both President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton before, during, and after the war in Libya. What follows are the events in Libya before, during, and after its Civil War and the role of the Obama administration.

A Citizens’ Commission on Benghazi was set up by Roger Aronoff in September 2013 to investigate the causes and the circumstances involved in the attacks of September 11, 2012 on the U.S. diplomatic compound and nearby CIA Annex in Benghazi, Libya. The members of the commission included former CIA officers, retired military from the different branches of the Armed Forces, journalists, and defense consultants.

Among the members were Roger Aronoff, editor of Accuracy in Media; Brigadier General Charles Jones (Ret); Admiral James Lyons (Ret); General Thomas McInerney (Ret); former CIA officer Clare Lopez; former CIA officer Wayne Simmons; former CIA officer Kevin Shipp; General Paul Vallely (Ret); former Congressman and Lieutenant Colonel (Ret) Allen West; Captain Larry Bailey (SEAL Ret); and John A. Shaw former Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for International Technology Security. After many months of investigation and research, which involved interviews with several knowledgeable sources, the Citizens’ Commission on Benghazi issued on April 22, 2014 an interim report entitled How America Switched Sides in the War on Terror.”

This is a summary of the alarming findings:

“1) The war in Libya was unnecessary, served no articulable U.S. national security objective, and led to preventable chaos region-wide. In the period since 2011 revolution in Libya, the country has remained fragmented, poorly governed, and overrun with violent militias, the majority of which are jihadist al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) affiliates. Yet, at the time of his overthrow, Muammar Qaddafi was an ally of the United States in the Global War on Terror.

On March 17, 2011 the United Nations Security Council passed resolution 1973 for a ” No Fly Zone”, ostensibly to protect Libyan civilians caught up in the hostilities between the Libyan government forces and the rebel forces, which were dominated by the Libyan Muslim Brotherhood and al Qaeda. The following day in London, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced U.S. government support for the Muslim Brotherhood-led Libyan Transitional National Council (TNC) in its revolt against Qaddafi”.

The commission found out that the Civil War in Libya could have been avoided and would have saved thousands of lives and the enormous turmoil that followed the fall of the dictator Muammar Qaddafi. After a few days of the Obama administration declaration that the United States would support the Libyan rebels, Qaddafi wanted to enter negotiations to discuss his possible resignation and exile.

On March 20, 2011, General Abdulqader Yusef Dibri, head of personal security of Qaddafi, contacted Rear Admiral (Ret) Chuck Kubic. Once receiving this information, Rear Admiral Kubic telephoned Lieutenant Colonel Brian Linvill in Stuttgart, Germany, the U.S. AFRICOM officer point of contact for all military matters involving Libya. Lieutenant Colonel Linvill immediately notified the head of AFRICOM, General Carter Ham stating that the Libyan dictator was ready to establish communication with the Africa military command. General Ham was quite interested; however, the Obama administration did not give permission to General Ham to proceed with the negotiations.

The opportunity for a peaceful resolution of the conflict in Libya did not interest President Obama. The war continued and tens of thousands of lives were lost. It was absolutely appalling that the White House and the State Department did not even consider entering negotiations with Qaddafi to avoid bloodshed since President Obama and Secretary Clinton wanted to pursue the unconstitutional war in Libya supporting the Muslim Brotherhood and the al Qaeda-linked rebels. Both Obama and Clinton need to explain to the American people and to Congress why both of them wanted to empower jihadists and the Muslim Brotherhood in Libya which went against the national security interest of our nation.

General Carter Ham, the head of the African Command AFRICOM, was told by Washington to stop negotiating with the followers of dictator Muammar Qaddafi. He may have prepared a rapid response team to fight the terrorists attacking the U.S. compounds at Benghazi and after refusing the stand down order, he was relieve from command and retired.

“2) Changing sides in the War on Terror: Even more disturbingly, the United States was fully aware of and facilitating the delivery of weapons to the al Qaeda-dominated rebel militias throughout the 2011 rebellion. The jihadist agenda of AQIM, the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, and other Islamic terror groups represented among the rebel forces was well known to U.S. officials responsible for Libya policy.

The rebels made no secret of their al Qaeda affiliation, openly flying and speaking in front of the black flag of Islamic Jihad, according to author John Rosenthal and multiple media reports. And yet, the White House and senior Congressional members deliberately and knowingly pursued a policy that provided material support to terrorist organizations in order to topple a ruler who had been working closely with the West actively to suppress al Qaeda. The result in Libya, across much of North Africa, and beyond has been utter chaos, disruption of Libya’s oil industry, the spread of dangerous weapons (including surface-to-air missiles), and the empowerment of jihadist organizations like al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood.”

“3) The weapons flow: An American citizen source trusted by the Citizens Commission on Benghazi who has long experience in the Middle East described the flow of weapons from Qatar to the Libyan rebels and the diversion of some of those arms. After Qaddafi’s regime had been ousted, a delegation from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) traveled to Libya to collect payment for the weapons that the UAE had financed and Qatar had delivered to the Transitional National Council (TNC) during the war.

During their visit to Tripoli, the UAE officials discovered that half of the $1 billion worth of weapons it had financed for the rebels had, in fact, been diverted by Mustafa Abdul Jalil, the Muslim Brotherhood head of the Libyan TNC, and sold to Qaddafi. Furthermore, according to information learned during the UAE visit to Tripoli, when Jalil learned that Major General Abdel Fatah Younis, Qaddafi’s former Minister of the Interior before his late February 2011 defection to the rebel forces, had found out about the weapons diversion, he ordered Abu Salim Abu Khattala to kill him. Abu Khattala, later identified as the Ansar al-Shariah commander who led the September 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, accepted the order and directed the killing of General Abdel Fatah Younis in July 2011.

The key significance of this episode is a demonstration of a military chain-of-command relationship between the Libyan Muslim brotherhood leadership of the TNC and the al Qaeda-affiliated militia (Ansar al-Shariah) that has been named responsible for the attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi. Abu Khattala is under a Department of Justice sealed indictment. His brigade merged into Ansar al-Shariah in 2012, and he was positively identified to the FBI in a cell-phone photo from the scene of the attack, yet remains free and available for interviews to the media.” (Abu Khattala was captured in Libya and is awaiting trial in a jail in Virginia)

The future ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, was sent to Benghazi to coordinate the assistance provided by the Obama administration to the Libyan Muslim Brotherhood and al Qaida-linked terrorist organizations. Once he became the U.S. ambassador, Stevens continued working with the jihadist terrorists. Somehow a dispute must have arisen and he was assassinated by Ansar al-Shariah, the terrorist group that he had been assisting during the Civil War and later been working with Ansar al-Shariah jihadists to send weapons to Syria.

Many of these weapons fell into the hands of al Qaida-link terrorist groups trying to overthrow the Syrian dictator. Perhaps Obama let him die to avoid a future Congressional investigation or avoid that the gun-running operation would come to light just before the 2012 presidential election.

The Citizens’ Commission on Benghazi also investigated the White House cover-up on Benghazi. It stated the following: “The White House campaign appears to have been well-coordinated with U.S. Muslim Brotherhood organizations as well as Islamic nations which are members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, who all joined in condemnation of the video, and, even more troubling, issued calls for restriction on Americans’ free-speech rights. The Obama administration officials knew that the YouTube video had nothing to do with the terrorist attack in Benghazi, yet for two weeks President Obama and members of his administration deliberately falsely claimed that a protest had preceded the attack on our Benghazi mission.

There is no question in the mind of this writer that President Obama committed treason, dereliction of duty, and criminal negligence in Libya during the Civil War against Qaddafi and for his refusal to save our diplomats and Navy Seals in Benghazi. Hillary Clinton is also guilty of treason and criminal negligence since she supported assisting the Muslim Brotherhood and jihadists to overthrow Qaddafi, for her State Department later denying repeated requests from Ambassador Chris Stevens for protection, and for her lying to the American people, and for her participation in the cover-up

Why was the Select Committee on Benghazi created?

House Speaker John Boehner, Republican from Ohio, explained why he called a vote to create the Select Committee, after having resisted demands to do so in the past. Boehner decided to create the Select Committee in May 2014 after a lawsuit by conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch forced the release of an email that had been sent from President Obama’s national security advisor Ben Rhodes to United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice in the days following the attack. In that email Rhodes advised Rice to stick to blaming the attack on the anti-Muslim video in the upcoming appearances on five Sunday television talk shows. Obama and Hillary Clinton lied repeatedly to the nation for several days.

President Obama and Ben Rhodes, as well as the rest of the officials in his administration in the White House, Central Intelligence Agency, FBI, State Department, and Defense Department were fully aware that the premeditated terrorist attacks at Benghazi had nothing to do a video. The White House decided to mislead the nation once again. Speaker Boehner stated, “a line was crossed” when new information was discovered that pointed to the White House involvement in misguiding the American people in the talking points used by former United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice on five Sunday television shows.

The Obama administration officials, as well as the president, blamed the terrorist attacks in Benghazi on a video for two weeks since Barack Obama was campaigning for reelection stating that he had defeated al Qaeda. The attack at Benghazi contradicted his speeches over his victory over al Qaeda. The president was well aware that al Qaeda, rather than being defeated, was getting stronger in Africa and the Middle East.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke about the “fog of war” and together with Obama, deliberately lied to the family members of the four brave Americans who were assassinated by terrorists in Benghazi. Administration officials knowingly lied by stating that the CIA intelligence indicated that the attack in Libya was due to a video. Lying is a felony. President Obama and Secretary Clinton should be held accountable for their actions.

The Benghazi scandal involved criminal negligence and dereliction of duty as the Obama administration allowed Ambassador Chris Stevens, two former Navy Seals, and a computer specialist to die for political reasons when the United States had forces nearby that could have saved them. The Benghazi attack consisted of military assaults on two separate U.S. diplomatic compounds. The first assault occurred at the main compound, approximately 300 yards long and 100 yards wide, at about 9:40 pm local time (3:40 p.m. Washington, D.C.). The second assault took place at a CIA annex 1.2 miles away at about 4 a.m. the following morning.

Between 125 and 150 terrorists belonging to Ansar al-Sharia participated in the assault. Some of the assailants had their faces covered and wore flak jackets. The weapons used during the two attacks included rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs), hand grenades, AK-47 and FN F2000 NATO assault rifles, diesel canisters, mortars, and heavy machine guns and artillery mounted on gun trucks.

Map of the U.S. diplomatic compound and CIA annex.

For seven hours, a small group of brave Americans fought at the CIA annex approximately 120 terrorists while notifying our government and repeatedly requesting help. There were two squadrons of F-16s at Aviano Air Base in Italy. The F-16 aircraft is armed with 500 20 mm rounds and other weapons and they are able to fly at 0.92 match speed. A Marine detachment was at the U.S. Navy Base in Rota, Spain. U.S. forces were also stationed in Greece. The ensuing cover up was disgraceful and it is completely unacceptable. It violated our armed forces Code of Conduct, which states that we do not leave someone behind.

Obama violated several laws when he provided weapons to terror groups. Perhaps, this is why the president signed an executive order on September 16, 2013 waiving a ban on arming terrorists to allow aid to the Syrian rebels, many of which are supporters of al Qaeda. In essence, he exempted himself from any laws, such as the Patriot Act, that prohibits anyone from giving weapons to a terrorist organization. This executive order should be grounds for impeachment.

In reality, Obama has been secretly shipping weapons from Libya to Turkey for a couple of years. The weapons were being given, supposedly, to the Free Syrian Army moderate rebels fighting the Syrian regime. However, most of the weapons were captured by the Islamic State or ISIS or ISIL and other al- Qaeda-linked rebels groups. One of the largest al-Qaeda groups is the Nusra Front. Abu Mohammed al Golani is the leader of this al Qaeda-affiliated terrorist group and he has an army of 10,000 soldiers under his command in Syria.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton´s previous testimony to Congress was appalling. Mrs. Clinton, when asked repeatedly about the scandal and cover-up of Benghazi, she became very upset and at one point pounded the table. When asked why the Obama administration kept claiming for weeks after the attack that what had occurred in Libya was in response to an anti-Islamic video produced in the United States, when it was obvious that this was a lie, she answered, “What difference does it make?”

Of course, the difference is that we had four Americans murdered. Mrs. Clinton talked a lot about the Department of State Independent Accountability Review Board during both hearings, which took several months to look into the terrorist attack. Admiral James Lyons, a member of the CCB explained that, from his perspective, “the board was like having the Mafia investigate a crime scene.” He said that Thomas Pickering, a former career employee of the State Department, who is now the chairman of the International Crisis Group, which is a Soros-funded group, could hardly be trusted to conduct a fair investigation.

During the hearing at the House of Representative Select Committee on Benghazi on October 22, 2015, no one asked why General Carter Ham, Commander of the United States African Command, and Rear Admiral Charles M. Gaouette, who was in charge of Carrier Strike Group Three, which included the aircraft carrier U.S.S. John C. Stennis, were both retired for possibly trying to send a rapid response team to Benghazi to save our people in violation of the order that they were given to stand down, meaning do nothing. These officers should be interviewed.

What is next for the House of Representatives the Select Committee on the Events Surrounding the 2012 Terrorist Attack in Benghazi?

Representative Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., is the Chairman of the House of Representatives the Select Committee on the Events Surrounding the 2012 Terrorist Attack in Benghazi.

Representative Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., said he will conduct as many as 20 additional interviews with witnesses before the end of 2015. He wants to interview General Martin E. Dempsey, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Susan Rice, White House National Security Advisor; and Denis R. McDonough, White House Chief of Staff, among others. The final report is expected to be completed by March or April 2016. It would then be reviewed for any possible classified information. By the time is released to the American people in the middle of 2016, the presidential campaign will be in full swing.

Conclusion

Why is the politically corrupt pro-Obama established media not reporting all the facts described in this article? Why did the Select Committee fail to investigate the findings of the report of the Citizens Commission on Benghazi and ask the questions suggested by Roger Aronoff and his CCB? How could President Obama and Secretary Clinton get away with supporting the Muslim Brotherhood and al Qaeda-linked terrorist organizations in Libya and violate the Patriot Act and other laws in our nation?

Thus far, for unknown reasons, the Select Committee on the Events Surrounding the 2012 Terrorist Attack in Benghazi (the full name of the panel) has not brought up the Obama administration’s illegal assistance to the Libyan Muslim Brotherhood and jihadists during the Civil War or the later gunrunning operation from Libya to Turkey to Syria. Additionally, the Select Committee needs to investigate the White House cover-up with respect to the Muslim Brotherhood organizations in the United States and Muslim nations in the world. Let us hope that the final report will bring this information to the American people, if not Select Committee on Benghazi would be a failure and a disservice to the nation.

President Obama, at the strong recommendation of Hillary Clinton and against the wise advice of Vice President Joe Biden, entered into a war in Libya violating the Constitution since Congress did not authorize it. Later, Obama had been engaged in a Middle Eastern gun-running operation without Congressional authority and in violation of United States laws.

If the Select Committee does its job properly, it would uncover what the CCB and this writer investigative research discovered more than a year ago. The president violated his oath of office and multiple laws by sending weapons to those working with terrorist groups during the Civil War in Libya and later by sending weapons from Libya to Turkey knowing that those weapons would eventually fall in the hands of al Qaeda-link terrorist groups fighting in Libya.

As this writer has written in many articles, Hillary Clinton, the president, and the entire Obama administration have lied about the terror attacks on Benghazi. Not only did Mrs. Clinton lie to the American people for weeks, she had the audacity to lie to the families of the four slain Americans over their flag-draped caskets. Mrs. Clinton told the family members, “We’ve seen rage and violence directed at American embassies over an awful Internet video that we had nothing to do with.” She again lied at the October 22 hearing by still insisting, “I believe to this day the video played a role.”

By now it is quite clear that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama lied about Benghazi in order to provide political cover during Obama’s 2012 campaign and now during Mrs. Clinton’s 2016 presidential aspirations. As representative Jordan told Mrs. Clinton, “Where did the false narrative start? It started with you, Madame Secretary.”

The cover up and Mrs. Clinton’s support for a gunrunning operation in Libya, which ended in the hands of terror groups in Syria, should make Hillary Clinton completely unfit for any political office. She needs to be indicted for the many laws she has violated. Whether or not she is indicted by the FBI, she should be indicted by voters and sent into permanent retirement.

Obama worked with the Muslim Brotherhood in the United States and Muslim nations to engage in a cover-up. This is shameful and Obama is a traitor which should be prosecuted as well as Hillary Clinton. For this reason, the House of Representatives must file impeachment charges against President Barack Obama. As pointed out earlier, President Obama committed treason, dereliction of duty, and criminal negligence in Libya during the Civil War against Qaddafi and his refusal to save our diplomats and Navy SEALs in Benghazi.

President Barack Obama is unfit to be our commander-in-chief and must be impeached by the House of Representatives. It is most unfortunate that Republican leaders are fearful of filing impeachment charges against Obama for fear that he would manufacture a crisis and suspend the Constitution by declaring martial law. As for Hillary Clinton, she owns Benghazi and should she be nominated as the candidate for president by the Democratic Party, Republicans need to make sure Benghazi an important issue of the campaign.