The Republican-led House Select Committee on Benghazi hastily deleted the name of a high-level Libyan defector from one of its public releases on Monday, shortly after Yahoo News reported the panel had inadvertently revealed the defector’s name in an effort to embarrass Hillary Clinton.
The disclosure, followed by the quick wiping out of the name of ex-Libyan foreign minister Moussa Koussa (who had defected and become a source for the CIA on Libya), once again put the panel on the defensive on the eve of Thursday’s slated testimony from Clinton.
The incident was especially awkward for GOP chairman Rep. Trey Gowdy because just two weeks ago he had sought to make an issue over Clinton’s handling of an email that contained Koussa’s name.
At the time, Gowdy said, an email sent to Clinton on March 18, 2011, by her longtime friend and adviser Sidney Blumenthal contained the “name of a human source” for the CIA and was therefore “some of the most protected information in our intelligence community.”
“Armed with that information, Secretary Clinton forwarded the email to a colleague — debunking her claim that she never sent any classified information from her private email address,” wrote Gowdy in an Oct. 7 letter to Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the panel’s ranking Democrat, which he released publicly.
But over the weekend, the CIA undercut Gowdy’s assertion by informing the committee it did not seek any redactions in that or 126 other Blumenthal emails sent to Clinton, a sign that the panel did not view the information as classified.
Gowdy quickly pushed back on Sunday, countering that the Blumenthal email still contained “sensitive” information that should have been protected. He then publicly released the full text of the Blumenthal email with the name of the CIA source redacted.
But, as Yahoo News pointed out in a story published this morning, Gowdy’s release included Blumenthal’s subject line — which had Koussa’s name in it. Shortly after the story appeared, the committee then redacted Koussa’s name from the subject line. (You can read the original Gowdy release here and see the current version, with the Koussa redaction, here.)
Predictably Gowdy is on trial here instead of the tyrannical HRC. History is long, Gowdy is mature enough to know that ultimately media and politically driven propaganda fades and facts remain.
ReplyDeleteHRC has cleared her calendar for the first three days of this week. She understands that there will be no time limits or lack of cross examination this time around the block.
Gowdy will expose "what difference it does make." Families of the slain American's will get their answers to questions such as why security staffing at the consulate was reduced from 38 to 9.
Uncle Joe waits in the wings.
Here is the transcript of what Hillary really said:
DeleteClinton: With all due respect, the fact is we had four dead Americans. Was it because of a protest or was it because of guys out for a walk one night who decided that they’d they go kill some Americans? What difference at this point does it make? It is our job to figure out what happened and do everything we can to prevent it from ever happening again, Senator. Now, honestly, I will do my best to answer your questions about this, but the fact is that people were trying in real time to get to the best information. The IC has a process, I understand, going with the other committees to explain how these talking points came out. But you know, to be clear, it is, from my perspective, less important today looking backwards as to why these militants decided they did it than to find them and bring them to justice, and then maybe we’ll figure out what was going on in the meantime.
Johnson: OK. Thank you, Madame Secretary.
Only today, after three years, has the State Department released another fourteen hundred pages on the ambassador ' s emails.
DeleteGowdy is patient. He will wait until this entire sordid episode is brought to the light of day. The FBI will follow down every last lead. The propaganda fog will slowly dissappear.
HRC and her fabricated video story will look like BS in history. Soon she becomes a three time loser. The Clinton Foundation will reside in the bilge of the good ship progressive. Uncle Joe will ride in and be distroyed with his massive Delaware electoral college count.
We have all this to look forward to over the next thirteen months.
If you really watched and listened the families only asked that the deaths of their loved ones not become a political football. Thanks to Mr. Gowdy that's exactly what they have become. How many million has this witch hunt cost now? Brought to you by the cost saving republican party.
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