Free Republic

The Office of the Inspector General of the State Department found in its latest investigation that Clinton aides had “created an appearance of undue influence and favoritism” in a number of cases including that of Ambassador Howard Gutman. The investigation is largely a whitewash. There is no mention of the fact that one whistleblower related to the case, Richard Higbie, had his emails deleted by a hacker. Or that the main whistleblower, Aurelia Fedenisn, was harassed at home and had her law firm burgled.It goes almost without saying that Richard Nixon went down for much less than that.There is also...

Now it’s Patches Kennedy’s turn to write his memoir, and no, it’s not a coloring book. The working title is “A Common Struggle,” but surely Ted’s boy can do better than that. When he first ran for Congress in 1994, Patches admitted that he had never had “to worry about making mends meet.” That’s right, making mends meet. And I think that should be the title of his new tome: “Making Mends Meet.” Or “Drinkin’ Doubles Don’t Make a Party.” Or, “One Bad Ice Cube at a Time.” Or, “3 a.m. Roll Call.” The book is due out late next...

As a hard-partying teenager, Patrick Kennedy met President Reagan at a fundraiser for the JFK Library, a meeting captured in a photograph that the former Rhode Island congressman now hangs in his home office. He used to think of it as a funny episode, a collision of Camelot’s cocaine kid and America’s foremost opponent of illegal drug use. But Kennedy took his last hit of anything in 2009, and he’s since honed an anti-drug message that sounds a bit like Reagan with a Boston brogue. Kennedy believes there is "an epidemic in this country of epic dimensions when it comes...

Last week the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence issued its report on the Sept. 11, 2012, terrorist attacks in Benghazi, Libya. The report concluded that the attack, which resulted in the murder of four Americans, was "preventable." Some have been suggesting that the blame for this tragedy lies at least partly with Ambassador Chris Stevens, who was killed in the attack. This is untrue: The blame lies entirely with Washington. The report states that retired Gen. Carter Ham, then-commander of the U.S. Africa Command (Africom) headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany, twice offered to "sustain" the special forces security team in Tripoli...

Senate Intelligence Committee members did not include important testimony from Benghazi whistleblower Gregory Hicks about security at the U.S. mission in their final report, which had the effect of blaming the fallen ambassador and protecting a top State Department official from responsibility for the attack. "I was interviewed by the Select Committee and its staff, who were professional and thorough. I explained this sequence of events," Hicks (who worked with the late U.S. Ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, in the lead-up to the attack) explained in a Wall Street Journal op-ed published Thursday. "For some reason, my explanation did not...

President Obama, speaking earlier today at conference on mental health at the White House: "There are other people who are leading by example. My great friend, Patrick Kennedy, when he was running for reelection back in 2006, he could have avoided talking about his struggles with bipolar disorder and addiction. Let’s face it, he’s a Kennedy," said Obama. After the audience stopped laughing, Obama continued, "He was -- his seat was pretty safe. Everybody loved him. And yet, Patrick used his experience as a way to connect and to lift up these issues, not hide from them." And one day,...

As the investigation into the Obama administration’s handling of the attacks on U.S. facilities in Benghazi intensifies, lawmakers on Capitol Hill are seeking to conduct transcribed interviews with thirteen top State Department officials in the coming weeks in order to learn more. Those named in the letter include a wide range of current and former State Department personnel, from senior advisers to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to mid-level career officials with responsibility for diplomatic security. Among those officials: Jacob Sullivan, then deputy chief of staff and director of policy planning (and currently national security adviser to Vice President Joe...

This is a very interesting article by Sharyl Attkisson at CBS News. It’s very long and covers different topics surrounding Benghazi, from the decision not to deploy FEST to how the talking points came about. The quote below talks about how certain anonymous White House officials say that the missteps in Benghazi was less about malice and more about incompetence. For instance, they claim that the reasoning behind not deploying the counterterrorism unit known as FEST stemmed from a misunderstanding of FEST’s role and ability. One official does pin the decision not to send in FEST on Under Secretary Patrick...

There's "no question" someone from Hillary Clinton's circle - if not the former secretary of state herself - was involved in the "cover-up" of any missteps by the administration following an attack on a U.S. consulate last Sept. 11 in Benghazi, Libya, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., told CBS News on Monday. "If Hillary Clinton is not responsible for the before, during and after mistakes... it's somebody close," Issa told CBS News correspondent Nancy Cordes on Monday. "There certainly are plenty of people close to the former secretary who knew, and apparently were part of...

On the night of Sept. 11, as the Obama administration scrambled to respond to the Benghazi terror attacks, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and a key aide effectively tried to cut the department's own counterterrorism bureau out of the chain of reporting and decision-making, according to a "whistle-blower" witness from that bureau who will soon testify to the charge before Congress, Fox News has learned. That witness is Mark I. Thompson, a former Marine and now the deputy coordinator for operations in the agency’s counterterrorism bureau. Sources tell Fox News Thompson will level the allegation against Clinton during testimony on...

CBS released information on the Benghazi 9-11 massacre today that could potentially bring down the Obama Administration. Buried in their report (down in paragraph eight) CBS reported, “Throughout the night, sources say Americans on the ground in Libya at times felt helpless and abandoned… But they were told immediate help wasn’t available.” But, counterterrorism sources and internal emails reviewed by CBS News express frustration that key responders were ready to deploy, but were not called upon to help. CBS reported: Throughout the night, sources say Americans on the ground in Libya at times felt helpless and abandoned. “We relied on...

SNIP Throughout the night, sources say Americans on the ground in Libya at times felt helpless and abandoned. "We relied on Washington for dispassionate assessment," one eyewitness told CBS News. "Instead, they [Washington officials] were asking us what help we needed. We answered: 'Send reinforcements!' " But they were told immediate help wasn't available. Embassy personnel say they repeatedly asked the Defense Attache on site in Tripoli for military assistance. "Isn't there anything available?" one Embassy official says he asked. "But the answer was 'no.'" "What about Aviano?" the official pressed, referencing the NATO air base with US assets in...

"They're making up for all the mistakes they made with excuse." In this space over the last two days, we have focused on the three part series by Fox News still looking for the truth and answers to the September 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. Diplomatic Mission in Benghazi that resulted in the death of Ambassador Chris Stevens, diplomat Sean Smith, and former SEALS Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty. Below is the Part III report by Adam Housley in which the military Special Operator with intimate knowledge of the Benghazi attack charges that the Obama Administration "had no plan"...

Patrick Kennedy sees ‘mad rush’ to legalize marijuana Ex-congressman’s cautionary efforts provoke pushback DENVER — Not all Coloradans appreciated former Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy harshing their buzz Wednesday with his anti-marijuana effort. Mr. Kennedy received a mixed reception at the unveiling of Project Smart Approaches to Marijuana, known as Project SAM, which seeks to spread information about the medical and public-health drawbacks of legalizing marijuana. “Project SAM was created because we were concerned about the mad rush to legalization in this country and the false dichotomy presented as policy,” Mr. Kennedy said. “Incarceration or legalization. Lock ‘em up or let...

Former Rhode Island Rep. Patrick Kennedy says he’s established a group to lobby against legalized marijuana. … The Providence Journal reports that Kennedy’s group, Project SAM—for Smart Approaches to Marijuana—will instead lobby for increased treatment for marijuana and drug abuse. …

Rep. Patrick Kennedy: 'I don't need Bush's tax cut. I have never worked a [bleeping] day in my life'....

Lamb reports to Assistant Secretary for Diplomatic Security Eric Boswell, who reports to Under Secretary of State for Management Patrick F. Kennedy, who in turn reports directly to Secretary of State Clinton. A primary responsibility of Boswell and Lamb in Libya was enforcing the "No Marines, No Bullets" State Department Rules of Engagement for Libya document signed by Secretary Clinton some time within the past year and a half after the fall of Khadafi's dictatorship in Libya.

The Obama administration’s Benghazi response continued to unravel at the House Oversight Committee hearing today, as State Department officials struggled unsuccessfully to get their stories straight. Ambassador Patrick Kennedy defended UN Ambassador Susan Rice’s claim on September 16 that the attack was part of a spontaneous protest that erupted over an anti-Islam video, saying that anyone at the State Department would have said the same thing as Rice based on the intelligence available at the time. “If any administration official, including any career official, were on television on Sunday, September 16, they would have said what Ambassador Rice said. The...

The State Department’s top security officer is coming under scrutiny for playing a role in creating a special board that is investigating last month’s fatal attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. One of the State Department’s accountability review board’s key tasks will be to probe why the office of Patrick Kennedy, undersecretary of state for management, rejected requests for more diplomatic security in Libya in the weeks leading up to the Sept. 11 terrorist attack. Mr. Kennedy, a career diplomat whose portfolio includes being the top security officer, signed the memo Oct. 1 that set up the review...

CHICAGO (AP) — U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. is in a "deep" depression and has "a lot of work" ahead of him on the road to recovery, former Rhode Island U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy said Thursday after visiting the hospitalized Chicago Democrat. Jackson has been on a secretive medical leave since June 10, when family members said he collapsed at their home in Washington. He is currently being treated for bipolar disorder at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. But neither his office nor family members have said much about his medical condition. The visit from Kennedy — who has...