Free Republic

Kerry Ladka stood before President Obama at last night’s town hall-style debate and asked the question that would touch off an onstage verbal brawl and, later, an intense national discussion. Here’s how it went: Q: It’s Kerry, Kerry Ladka. PRESIDENT OBAMA: Great to see you here. Q: This question actually comes from a brain trust of my friends at Global Telecom Supply in Mineola yesterday. We were sitting around talking about Libya, and we were reading and became aware of reports that the State Department refused extra security for our embassy in Benghazi, Libya, prior to the attacks that killed...

Kerry Ladka stood before President Obama at last night’s town hall-style debate and asked the question that would touch off an onstage verbal brawl and, later, an intense national discussion. (snip) President Obama, though, wasn’t done with Kerry Ladka. “After the debate, the president came over to me and spent about two minutes with me privately,” says the 61-year-old Ladka, who works at Global Telecom Supply in Mineola, N.Y. According to Ladka, Obama gave him ”more information about why he delayed calling the attack a terorist attack.” For background, Obama did apparently lump Benghazi into a reference to “acts of...

In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News, Fox News military analyst Colonel David Hunt laid the blame for the murder of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans at the Benghazi, Libya American mission on Hillary Clinton and the State Department: The State Department just allowed our guys to get killed. If you approve no bullets in guns for the mission security guards and an outhouse for a mission, you’re inviting it. Earlier, on Howie Carr's radio show Thursday, Colonel Hunt said that the American mission at Benghazi "was like a cardboard building, there wasn't even bullet proof glass." In...

LIMA, Peru –  U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton repeated on Tuesday her statement taking sole responsibility for security at all of America's diplomatic missions, an attempt to clear a political obstacle for her boss, President Barack Obama ahead of his second debate with Republican Mitt Romney."I take responsibility," Clinton said in a written statement. "I'm in charge of the State Department's 60,000-plus people all over the world (at) 275 posts."She would not answer questions on her statement.With only weeks before the presidential election, outrage has crystallized around Vice President Joe Biden's claim in last week's debate with...

Rest assured that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham-Clinton isn't taking a fall over the Benghazi debacle for President Obama without exacting a price -- a steep price. It's not Bill's or Hill's way to give from the heart. Like the devil, the Clintons expect their due, and gosh darn it, they're going to get it -- one way or another. The Benghazi cover-up is a festering sore on the Obama presidency -- or more immediately, on Mr. Obama's re-election chances. "What did the president know, and when did he know it" is more than a shopworn saying regarding Benghazi and...

Via Power Line and NRO’s Eliana Johnson and our own QOTD, Fox News’ Chris Wallace asks the question everyone except the media has been asking since the terrorist attack on our Benghazi consulate and the assassination of our Ambassador by al-Qaeda and/or its affiliates in eastern Libya.  Wallace doesn’t get to ask Barack Obama whether or not he bothered to hold a national-security meeting in the aftermath of the attack to determine whether the story the White House used for the next week was on the level — our President is much too busy weighing in on celebrity feuds to answer questions like these....

Reporter Question: You say you don’t want to play a blame game, but certainly there’s a blame game going on in Washington. In fact, during the presidential debate, Vice President Biden said “We didn’t know.” …White House officials calling around saying “Hey, this is a state department function.”… Are they throwing you under the bus? Hillary Clinton: Oh, of course not, you know -- look I take responsibility. I’m in charge of the state department – 60,000+ people all over the world, 275 posts. Uhh..the president and the vice-president , uh, certainly wouldn’t be…uhh…knowledgeable about specific decisions that are made...

The State Department has released a transcript of a briefing that two high-ranking department officials gave to a number of reporters via conference call on October 9 (Tuesday). I am not certain about this, but I believe the transcript was only made public today. You should read it in its entirety; it is the most detailed description I have seen of the events in Benghazi on September 11. While this is by no means clear, it appears that the State Department may have released the transcript as part of the escalating conflict between Barack Obama and Joe Biden and the...

Republican Senate Armed Services Committee members Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) and John McCain (R-AZ) slammed President Barack Obama’s administration after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton claimed the blame for the lack of security that lead to the death of the American ambassador in Libya on 9/11/12. The senators said that Clinton’s claim of full responsibility is a signal that “the White House is trying to avoid any responsibility whatsoever.” The senators say that Clinton’s claim of responsibility is laudable, but there is no way for the White House to escape ultimate responsibility for the failure of intelligence...

This thread is to consolidate all information on the Benghazi fiasco.

"Fox military analyst Col. David Hunt checked in with us again after the revelation that there were multiple listening posts which heard the cries for help from the US Embassy in Libya and none of them did anything. The State Department says they still do not know what really happened in Libya."

But of course she blames it on lower-level advisers. She says "I am responsible" for the security of State's 60,000 workers, but then says she's not responsible at all: "The decision about security aspects are made by security professionals." Source: Wendell Goler on FoxNews, about 40 minutes ago. The quote was printed on screen. I'm responsible, but then again, I'm not; the buck stops with me, but not really, it was this low-level political appointee scapegoat who's going to claim he "shielded" me from these demands for additional security on his own authority. But don't blame the President. See, I've...

Lima, Peru (CNN) -- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the buck stops with her when it comes to who is to blame for security ahead of a deadly assault on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya. "I take responsibility" for what happened on September 11, Clinton said in an interview with CNN's Elise Labott soon after arriving in Lima, Peru, for a visit. The interview, one of a series given to U.S. television networks Monday night, was the first she has given about the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. Clinton insisted President Barack Obama and Vice...

Sources have told the Daily Telegraph that just five unarmed locally hired Libyans were placed on duty at the compound on eight-hour shifts under a deal that fell outside the State Department's global security contracting system. Blue Mountain, the Camarthen firm that won a $387,000 (£241,000) one year contract from the US State Department to protect the compound in May, sent just one British employee, recruited from the celebrity bodyguard circuit, to oversee the work. The compound was overrun by a mob of Islamic extremists on the morning of September 12 in an apparent planned attack that resulted in the...

A small British firm based in south Wales had secured a contract to provide security for American diplomatic facilities in Benghazi despite having only a few months experience in the country. Sources have told the Daily Telegraph that just five unarmed locally hired Libyans were placed on duty at the compound on eight-hour shifts under a deal that fell outside the State Department's global security contracting system. Blue Mountain, the Camarthen firm that won a $387,000 (£241,000) one year contract from the US State Department to protect the compound in May, sent just one British employee, recruited from the celebrity...

According to proprietary reporting from Ed Klein, Bill Clinton is concerned that Barack Obama is about to throw Hillary Clinton under the bus. On The Kudlow Report, Klein said that President Clinton is reaching out to friends in the legal profession trying to figure out what his wife should do if she’s subpoenaed - called in to testify about events in Libya. Joe Klein went on to say if you listen to the language used by Joe Biden in the debate closely – Bill Clinton's move may be more than simply precautionary.“Biden said something like we were unaware – nobody...

At last night’s debate, Joe Biden said “we weren’t told” that the Benghazi consulate had requested additional security in the days leading up to the attack on the 9/11 anniversary. Today the White House is making sure everybody realizes that by “we,” Biden was referring only to the White House and not the administration as a whole. The ball of blame has been overhead smashed back to Hillary Clinton’s side of the court. “These kinds of issues are handled in the State Department by security officials,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said during Friday’s press briefing. Security matters “are decided...

As the dust of Thursday’s vice presidential debate settles, one of the storylines of Friday morning is Joe Biden’s bold statement that the administration was not told that officials in Libya requested more security before an attack that led to the death of several Americans, including our ambassador. The fact-checkers have found that to be patently false. And now, even the mainstream media is predicting it could be a problem.

In an often heated congressional hearing Wednesday, lawmakers and witnesses alike pointed to State Department official Charlene Lamb as the person most directly responsible for rejecting multiple requests for increased security at the U.S. diplomatic missions in Libya prior to the Sept. 11 attack. House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) excoriated the State Department for rejecting requests from the U.S. Embassy in Libya for an extension of temporary security forces that were withdrawn in the months prior to the attack that killed Amb. Chris Stevens and three other Americans. In a dramatic moment at the hearing, Issa released unclassified...

In a testimony written by Colonel Andrew Wood to the Committee of Oversight and Government Reform he describes the vulnerability and lack of proper protection for the US Embassy in Benghazi where 4 Americans were murdered including US Ambassador Chris Stevens. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, led by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., will hold hearings on what went wrong today at noon ET. Nordstrom will testify at that hearing. TESTIMONY: I am Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Wood. I am a member of the Utah National Guard with 24 years of service as a Special Forces soldier. I was mobilized...