Free Republic

Question: How is Benghazi different from Watergate and Iran-Contra? The obvious answer: the media. Liberal journalists turned Watergate and Iran-Contra into gigantic national scandals by their consistent, relentless pursuit of both stories; to the contrary, they are consistently, relentlessly ignoring Benghazi................... [SNIP] ......The operative words are "searched diligently." CBS, NBC, ABC, the New York Times, the Washington Post, NPR, and the usual suspects looked everywhere for something -- gee, anything -- to hurt Reagan. Being political partisans first and journalists second, they dug furiously for their Watergate. And they thought they had it in Iran-Contra. It's fascinating, however, to see...

As he left his Marine One helicopter Wednesday evening and walked to the residence of the White House, President Obama did not respond to a question shouted out by ABC News’s Mary Bruce about when he would begin to provide answers to the numerous questions building up about what exactly what went wrong in Benghazi, Libya, on September 11, 2012. The president smiled and continued walking. Perhaps he couldn’t hear the question over the din of the chopper’s blades, but either way the smile and wave – almost Reagan-esque in style – underline the apparent strategy the president specifically and...

Fox News reports: >>>The U.S. Mission in Benghazi convened an “emergency meeting” less than a month before the assault that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans, because Al Qaeda had training camps in Benghazi and the consulate could not defend against a “coordinated attack” . . . . Summarizing an Aug. 15 emergency meeting convened by the U.S. Mission in Benghazi, the Aug. 16 cable marked “SECRET” said that the State Department’s senior security officer, also known as the RSO, did not believe the consulate could be protected. . . . According to a review of the cable...

There are some large disconnects between Obama administration explanations concerning security and response actions taken before, during and after the disastrous terrorist attacks on our Benghazi consulate and accounts,compared with those which continue to emerge from outside sources. Following numerous White House claims now known to be inaccurate and intentionally misleading,we are repeatedly assured that we will get the real scoop in due time after full investigations are complete. One perplexing issue,among many, evolves around conflicting accounts regarding requests and denials of military aid which might have saved American lives.Further delays only increase wide-spread suspicions that there are no legitimate...

The Obama administration fiddled while Benghazi burned and four Americans died. Late last week, Jennifer Griffin of Fox News reported that CIA operators caught in the attack in Benghazi requested military backup but were denied by higher headquarters. If true, this would exhibit fatal inaction and negligence on the part of the administration or the military's chain of command, or worse, some sort of cover-up. On Friday, President Obama was asked directly by Denver's KUSA-TV's Kyle Clarke whether our forces were denied backup during the attack. The president dodged the first question. Clark followed up, "Were they denied requests for...

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice got it half-right last week when, asked about the Obama administration's conduct of events before, during and after a terrorist attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, she said it would all take a while to sort out because of "the fog of war." True, as far as it goes, but there's also the fog of political expediency to consider. It will prove thicker and more difficult to penetrate. If Americans ever get a full, official accounting about what happened in Benghazi, it won't be until after Election Day -- and absent a...

Sensing a moment of political vulnerability on national security, Republicans pounced Friday on disclosures that President Obama's administration could have known early on that militants, not angry protesters, launched the deadly attack on U.S. diplomats in Libya. Within 24 hours of the Sept. 11 attack, the CIA station chief in Libya reported to Washington that there were eyewitness reports that it was carried out by militants, officials said. But for days, the Obama administration blamed it on an out-of-control demonstration over a video made in America ridiculing Islam's prophet Muhammad. Paul Ryan, the Republican vice presidential nominee, led Friday's charge....

An insidious form of self-censorship has gripped not only the mainstream media but most of the conservative media as well. All Americans who believe in the quest for the truth should be concerned that a rigid taboo is being enforced to prevent the discussion of serious evidence that the President of the United States has presented documents that were constructed on a computer as his genuine birth certificate.

The story of a shooting involving the White House is just breaking wide open this morning. Drudge is all over it as is Twitter. But the shooting occurred last Friday night, and a full two days ago the media quietly reported the following: Police in the nation’s capital searched the Occupy D.C. encampment in McPherson Square on Monday for a 21-year-old man wanted in Friday night’s incident where gunfire was reported near the White House. As the Washington Examiner reported, U.S. Park Police officers conducted a “sweep” of the park and were seen pulling an Occupy protester out of a...

Democratic Sen. Edd Houck announced Thursday he will not request a recount and conceded his race to Republican challenger Bryce Reeves, giving the GOP complete control of government in Richmond. Houck, a seven-term incumbent from Spotsylvania, was 86 votes behind Reeves on election night Tuesday, but the gap grew to 222 after localities tallied provisional ballots. The 0.5 percent difference in 45,077 votes was still close enough for Houck to ask for a recount, but he said he would decline that opportunity during a press conference Thursday. Reeves' victory gives the GOP a two-seat gain in the Senate and forces...

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - The Federal Communication Commission's net neutrality rules were made official on Friday morning, with their publication in the Federal Register. As already announced, they will go into effect on November 20. .... Consumer advocates were on the whole more positive. The non-partisan group Free Press, which champions universal access to communications, supported the rules while also voicing reservations about loopholes. " don't do enough to stop the phone and cable companies from dividing the internet into fast and slow lanes, and they fail to protect wireless users from discrimination that is already occurring in the marketplace...

Considering the source, we do have to take this news with a gigantic grain of salt, but the National Enquirer (via the Daily Mail) is reporting that scandal-maker John Edwards is really down and out. Sadly, it's not really so hard to believe though. I mean, he'd have to be completely dead inside not to be depressed about the state of his life right now -- even if he did create a good number of his woes. I really want to be mad at the guy. To say he deserves everything he gets. But I just can't. And I hope...

Police and volunteers are manning checkpoints, lookouts and ambushes throughout Israel in an effort to combat a wave of terrorist arson by Arab citizens of Israel. While occasionally reporting some of the arson incidents, most news sources are playing them down considerably, while others cover them up completely. The IDF has released video footage shot from an IAF aircraft, which shows a vehicle escaping from the scene of an arson attack on the Carmel Mountain. The conversation on the radio, in Hebrew, is between pilots and police. The pilots report that they have received word from a firefighting aircraft that...

In 2010, a donation of $450 was given to Democrat causes by one person, David Obama, according to the Huffington Post’s Fundrace website. He is President Barack Obama’s half brother by Barack Obama, Sr. and third wife Ruth. Fundrace reveals five people having an Obama surname gave $11,399 to Democrats, namely Michelle, Barack, Susan, Martha, and Kenneth, a “university professor.” Nevertheless, this total differs from the total arrived at by adding: $450 from David Obama; $6,900 identified as last name Obama donors; $2,300 given to Hillary campaign by Barack Obama; $2,300 given to Hillary campaign by Michelle Obama. These numbers...

Florida foreclosure law firms were using the same "robo-signer"-type practices to repossess homes that tripped up the nation's major lenders, a signal, defense attorneys argue, that should lead to a larger foreclosure moratorium. Banks that have not pulled back on foreclosure sales and evictions, such as lender CitiMortgage, gave firms power of attorney to sign documents on their behalf. In turn, some firms created assembly-line signing systems to keep up with bank deadlines on foreclosure cases.

I'm getting tired of this, so I'm going to trot out the proof and stick it under everyone's nose. We keep hearing that these "lost document" affidavits and similar are just "sloppiness." They are not. They are hard evidence of fraud, with the only decision left to be made being one on exactly where the fraud happened. I'm going to show you a document - a Pooling and Servicing Agreement - from one MBS Trust. There are literally thousands just like this. I've read dozens. Those that were sold to the public are all filed on the SEC's web page,...

BOSTON (MarketWatch) — Some of the country’s biggest mortgage lenders apparently have been bending the law to speed up foreclosures. Investigations are under way at Bank of America Corp. /quotes/comstock/13*!bac/quotes/nls/bac (BAC 13.32, +0.17, +1.29%) , J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. /quotes/comstock/13*!jpm/quotes/nls/jpm (JPM 39.35, +0.40, +1.03%) and Ally/GMAC for pushing foreclosures with flawed paperwork. All three have frozen many of their foreclosures pending a review. One suspects that others are doing the same. What does this mean? Here are seven lessons from the latest scandal: 1. The banks are still stupid — OK, not all of them, but a surprising number....

ATLAS EXCLUSIVE! GROUND ZERO MOSQUE IMAM FEISAL'S EXTREMISM EXPOSED: IN HIS OWN WORDS: "THE UNITED STATES HAS MORE MUSLIM BLOOD ON ITS HANDS THAN AL QAIDA," ELIMINATION OF ISRAEL, THE N-WORD, "FAHRENHEIT 91 The media frenzy to destroy good, decent Americans who oppose a 15-story mega-mosque on Ground Zero is rabid. Even for them. Despite red flags everywhere and the nationwide grief caused by this grotesque act of Islamic supremacism, why isn't the media doing its job, investigative journalism? Instead, the morally ill media is in full-on operational smear machine mode in the raging war of ideas, the information battle...

On July 24, Kimberly Dvorak, of the Examiner, and Don Amato, of the blog Digger’s Realm, broke the story about two Texas ranches outside of Laredo, Texas, being seized by members of Los Zetas drug cartel. Today, Ms. Dvorak posted a copy of the police blotter which provides a good deal of the information necessary to confirm her initial story’s claims:

EDITOR'S NOTE: Andy Martin is an author, Internet columnist and media critic.* Martin is currently promoting his best-selling book, "Obama: The Man Behind The Mask" and promoting his new Internet movie "Obama: The Hawai’i years." Martin is Executive Editor and publisher of www.ContrarianCommentary.com. Martin holds a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Illinois College of Law and is a former adjunct professor of law at the City University of New York. Why Obama’s Personal History Still Matters: Barack Obama has been in the White House for over a year, but his past remains a mystery to the American people....