Sharyl Attkisson of CBS News tweeted today:
"Secy Kerry tells congress he will NOT honor the request to make Benghazi survivors available for questioning."
The stonewalling of the Obama Administration on the Benghazi survivors is incredibly frustrating, but made worse by the complete lack of interest by the mainstream media. Kerry has faced the question of the Benghazi survivors on numerous occasions and has effectively dodged the issue at every turn.
In March, Secretary of State John Kerry was asked by Fox News correspondent James Rosen why nobody has “heard from” the Benghazi survivors. Kerry stumbled through the answer, saying
Well, I – I mean, I can't tell you the answer to that.
Rosen pressed John Kerry on the issue by asking, “Will we hear from them?”
Kerry responded:
I can't tell you – I don't know what the circumstances are of any requests to talk to them or not.
In April, Kerry was asked about the status of the Benghazi survivors again by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher of the House Foreign Affairs Committee as reported by RealClearPolitics.
Rohrabacher said,
We have made request after request...just to get the list of the names of the people who were evacuated from Benghazi and we haven't even gotten that...
John Kerry responded by saying in part,
I can promise you that if you're not getting something that you have evidence of or you think you ought to be getting, we'll work with you. And I will appoint somebody to work directly with you starting tomorrow, with you, Mr. Chairman, to have a review of anything you don't think you've gotten that you're supposed to get...we got a lot more important things to move on to and get done. [emphasis added]
The Examiner reached out to Rep. Dana Rohrabacher's office and spoke with former Communications Director, Tara Olivia Setmayer to inquire about Kerry's promise.
Setmeyer replied,
There has been no update specifically to our subcommittee since Kerry appointed his senior advisor to be the liaison. I can't speak for other committees.
The answer was frustrating, to say the least.
Just last week, John Kerry again diminished Benghazi during the House Foreign Affairs Committee Hearing to discuss whether America should intervene in Syria with military strikes. Rep. Jeff Duncan said that Benghazi, as well as other recent scandals plaguing the White House,
call into question the accountability of this administration, its commitment to the personnel on the ground, and the judgment that it uses when making these determinations.
Matthew Boyle of Breitbart reported that Kerry replied in part,
We’re talking about people being killed by gas and you want to go talk about Benghazi and Fast and Furious.
Stunning quotes from other officials regarding the Benghazi survivors can be found at Tavern Keepers. The only clear thing about the survivors of the Benghazi terror attack is that government officials have been offering mixed messages about their whereabouts.
Secy Kerry tells congress he will NOT honor the request to make Benghazi survivors available for questioning.
The survivors of the attack are not the only witnesses who have been held back from testifying. In July, the Examiner spoke with Dan Lamothe of the Marine Corps Times, who reported that the Pentagon admitted that an "administrative error" mistakenly classified Marine Col. George Bristol as "retired" and therefore unavailable to testify about his knowledge of the events surrounding the Benghazi terror attack in Libya last year.
Lamonthe exposed the story, which went mostly unreported in the mainstream media. It was his reporting that led to Bristol to testify in a closed door hearing. The results of that testimony are not easy to find, but UPI reported that Col. George Bristol "gave troops in Libya permission to respond" in Benghazi, despite it being widely reported that he gave a "stand down" order.
Again, the mainstream media was generally uninterested.
Lamonthe said,
"I think this stands as a good example of what a free press can do. The Pentagon said Col. Bristol was retired, but either didn't bother to check whether he was fully retired or didn't want to acknowledge he was still not a civilian. A simple records check with cooperative Marine officials showed he was not scheduled to hit the inactive service list until Aug. 1."
Sharyl Attkisson's shocking tweet should result in an immediate select committee on Benghazi, something that Twitter users have been demanding on a daily basis. H.Res. 36, sponsored by Rep. Frank Wolf, calls for a select committee "to investigate and report on the attack on the United States consulate in Benghazi, Libya."
A list of representatives who have NOT signed on to support H.Res. 36 can be found here.
Check out TavernKeepers.com for news you won't find in the mainstream media.
