Is Clinton Stonewalling on Providing Benghazi Attack Details Before Election?

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Katrina Trinko @ NRO:

Yesterday, Representatives Darrell Issa and Jason Chaffetz sent a letter to Hillary Clinton requesting more details about the events preceding the attack in Benghazi:

Based on information provided to the committee by individuals with direct knowledge of events in Libya, the attack that claimed the ambassador’s life was the latest in a long line of attacks on Western diplomats and officials in Libya in the months leading up to Sept. 11, 2012. It was clearly never, as administration officials once insisted, the result of a popular protest. In addition, multiple U.S. federal government officials have confirmed to the committee that, prior to the Sept. 11 attack, the U.S. mission in Libya made repeated requests for increased security in Benghazi. The mission in Libya, however, was denied these resources by officials in Washington.

Issa and Chaffetz requested that the State Department answer a few questions by October 8, including what was known prior to the Benghazi attacks about other attacks that had occurred and if there had been requests for additional security and how those had been responded to.

But Clinton’s letter in response indicates that Issa and Chaffetz won’t get their answers until November at the earliest. From Foreign Policy’s ‘The Cable’ blog (emphasis mine):

“I appreciate that you and your committee are deeply interested in finding out what happened leading up to and during the attacks in Benghazi, and are looking for ways to prevent it from happening again. I share that commitment,” Clinton wrote in the letter, obtained by The Cable.“Nobody will hold this department more accountable than we hold ourselves — we served with Chris Stevens, Sean Smith, Glen Doherty, and Tyrone Woods.”

Clinton said that the State Department’s Accountability Review Board will begin work this week and the letter revealed the names of all five board members. In addition to former Deputy Secretary of State Thomas Pickering, who will lead the board, the other members will be former Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen (ret.), Catherine Bertini, Hugh Turner, and Richard Shinnick.

Clinton asked Issa to withhold any final conclusions about the Benghazi attack until the review board finishes its work and reports to Congress, which could come as early as November or as late as early next year. She pledged to work with Issa’s committee and asked him to submit any requests for information or witnesses at hearings to the State Department’s Office of Legislative Affairs.

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Hillary also said she thought she gave all of the information to Vince Foster on his way to relax on the grass in Fort Marcy park.

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I am still amazed and thankful that she hasn’t gotten “O” out of the way for her to run on an anti-gun platform. Is she remains tied at the hip to the criminal n chief we may see the sun set on that evil empire next month to.

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Sensitive documents left behind in Libya

“Securing the site has obviously been a challenge,” Mark Toner, deputy spokesman at the State Department, said in response to questions about conditions at the Benghazi compound. “We had to evacuate all U.S. government personnel the night of the attack. After the attack, we requested help securing the site, and we continue to work with the Libyan government on this front.”

State Department officials were provided with copies of some of the documents found at the site. They did not request that the documents be withheld from publication.

None of the documents were marked classified, but this is not the first time that sensitive documents have been found by journalists in the charred wreckage of the compound. CNN discovered a copy of the ambassador’s journal last month and broadcast details from it, drawing an angry response from the State Department. Unlike the journal, all of the documents seen by The Post were official.

At least one document found amid the clutter indicates that Americans at the mission were discussing the possibility of an attack in early September, just two days before the assault took place. The document is a memorandum dated Sept. 9 from the U.S. mission’s security office to the 17th February Martyrs Brigade, the Libyan-government-sanctioned militia that was guarding the compound, making plans for a “quick reaction force,” or QRF, that would provide security.

“In the event of an attack on the U.S. Mission,” the document states, “QRF will request additional support from the 17th February Martyrs Brigade.”

Other documents detail — with names, photographs, phone numbers and other personal information — the Libyans contracted to provide security for the mission from a British-based private firm, Blue Mountain. Some of those Libyans say they now fear for their lives, and the State Department has said it shares concerns about their safety.

“The guys with beards may endanger my life,” said one Libyan contractor, referring to the people who attacked the U.S. mission. He spoke on the condition of anonymity, but his photograph, phone number, birthday, age, religion, English-language skills, Libyan national identity number, marital status, method of transport to work and first date of employment at the mission were all included in a document found at the site, along with similarly detailed information about 13 others and basic information about dozens more.

Libyans say little is being asked about attack

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