White House releases additional documents related to Benghazi response

 

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White House releases additional documents related to Benghazi response

Is This The Reasion Why The White House Will Not Release The Benghazi Emails?

War News Updates

Acting U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Elizabeth Jones told Libya's president one day after the Benghazi attack that Islamic terrorists had killed the U.S. Ambassador and reduced the compound to a burnt-out shell

Secret Email Reveals Top Official Told Libya's U.S. Abmassador That Terrorists Were Behind Benghazi Attack - Four Days BEFORE U.S. Ambassador To UN Said It Was A Spontaneous Attack -- Daily Mail

Sept. 11: Terrorists attack the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya
Sept. 12: State Dept. Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs tells Libya's President that Ansar al-Sharia was responsible
Sept. 13: CIA writes candid talking points for members of Congress
Sept. 15: White House deputies edit the talking points, removing all references to Islamic terrorism
Sept. 16: UN Ambassador Susan Rice, in five television interviews, blames the attack on a spontaneous mob angered by an anti-Islam YouTube video

A top State Department appointee told Libya's ambassador to the United States one day after the military-style assault on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi that the terror group Ansar al-Shariah was responsible.

But four days later, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations said on television that it was the product of a spontaneous protest.

During a fiery and emotional congressional hearing on the 2012 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Rep. Trey Gowdy read aloud from an email dated Sept. 12, 2012 to senior State Department officers, from Elizabeth Jones, the acting Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs.

Read more >>

Is This The Reasion Why The White House Will Not Release The Benghazi Emails?

Boehner calls for release of Benghazi emails as pressure grows on administration

Fox News

Pressure on the Obama administration to release more information about the Benghazi attack grew Thursday, as House Speaker John Boehner demanded officials turn over emails pertaining to the controversial "talking points" and another top Republican appealed for more whistle-blowers to come forward.
On the heels of a dramatic hearing where three whistle-blowers testified, Fox News has learned that former Vice President Dick Cheney on Thursday, on the Hill for a meeting with House Republicans, also told lawmakers: "I think Hillary (Clinton) should be subpoenaed if necessary."
The comments and developments signal that Republicans will continue to press for answers on the deadly Sept. 11 attack. Despite arguments from Democrats that the hearing was not nearly as shocking as Republicans made it out to be, GOP lawmakers said it raised troubling questions that need to be investigated.
"The truth shouldn't be hidden from the American people behind a White House firewall," Boehner said Thursday. "Four Americans lost their lives in this terrorist attack. Congress will continue to investigate this issue, using all of the resources at our disposal."
Boehner specifically urged the Obama administration to make public a set of internal emails that some lawmakers had been able to review but not keep.
One of the emails apparently showed a top State Department official saying a group affiliated with Islamic terrorists was responsible for the strike. Separate emails, though, allegedly depict the White House and State Department pressing lower-level officials to remove references to terrorism in talking points about the attacks.
Based on those talking points, U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice would go on five Sunday talk shows shortly after the attacks to claim they were triggered by protests over an anti-Islam film. Top officials would later claim the flawed assessment was based on the best intelligence at the time, but the testimony from whistle-blowers Wednesday indicated that those on the ground knew the attack was terrorism.
"The YouTube video was a non-event in Libya," Greg Hicks, deputy chief of mission in Libya, testified Wednesday.
After the hearing, Republican Rep. Darrell Issa said he will continue to seek whistle-blowers to "come forward."
"Candidly, as quickly as possible, we simply want to have the whistleblowers that are still out there, in fact witnesses that are still out there to come forward, tell us their story. We will get it out and we will close up this investigation," he told Fox News.
Issa, R-Calif., is chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which held the hearing.
The wide-ranging and dramatic testimony Wednesday raised several fresh questions about the attack. Witnesses questioned why security had not been tightened in Benghazi in the months leading up to the assault and why U.S. military assets did not respond sooner that night, with one alleging a military team was not given permission to fly from Tripoli to Benghazi the next morning.
Further, they raised serious concerns about the administration's initial decision to describe the attack as a protest gone awry despite evidence on the ground to the contrary.
In startling testimony, Hicks also claimed the State Department retaliated against him after he raised questions about that decision. He claimed that Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Elizabeth Jones delivered a "blistering critique" of his management style after he criticized Rice's initial claim that the attack was tied to anger over an anti-Islam film. He also claimed that he was counseled to avoid personally discussing the attack with Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz and was "effectively demoted" to a desk officer in the end.
Issa, in a written statement after Wednesday's hearing, called the alleged retaliation and intimidation "perhaps most troubling."
Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., top Democrat on the committee, vowed to protect the whistle-blowers while criticizing his Republican colleagues for allegedly trying to politicize the tragedy. He claimed afterward that the testimony only served to undercut Republican allegations.
"What should have been a bipartisan investigation involving our national security was another sorry example of Republicans promising explosive new facts but delivering only a press spectacle," he said in a statement.
The committee may move to hear testimony next from at least one leader of the State Department's internal review of the Benghazi attack. Though the leaders, former Joints Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen and former Ambassador Thomas Pickering, apparently declined to testify, Pickering told MSNBC on Wednesday that he is willing to speak.
Issa spokesman Frederick Hill on Thursday noted the "change of heart" -- but also said neither Pickering nor the administration has contacted the committee about possible testimony.
Several claims from Wednesday's hearing could open up new lines of inquiry on the attack and its aftermath. Among them, Hicks claimed that Rice's faulty claims about the nature of the attack hurt the FBI investigation.
Hicks argued that Rice's comments so insulted the Libyan president -- since they contradicted his Sept. 16 claims that the attack was premeditated -- that it slowed the FBI's investigation.
"President Magariaf was insulted in front of his own people, in front of the world. His credibility was reduced," Hicks said, adding that the president was apparently "still steamed" two weeks later.
This bad blood, he claimed, contributed to the FBI team being stuck in Tripoli for about 17-18 days.
"I definitely believe that it negatively affected our ability to get the FBI team quickly to Benghazi," he said, adding that the U.S. could not even get the Libyans to secure the crime scene during that time.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/05/09/issa-seeks-more-whistle-blowers-after-dramatic-benghazi-hearing/#ixzz2Sp6u0oH4

Boehner calls for release of Benghazi emails as pressure grows on administration

The State Department on Mariela Castro's visa

capitolhillcubans

www.voanoticias.com

From the U.S. State Department's Daily Press Briefing with spokesperson Patrick Ventrell:

QUESTION: One directly has to – relates to travel restrictions. And that is, have you gotten this letter from three members of Congress – Representative Ros-Lehtinen, Representative Sires, and Representative Diaz-Balart about Castro’s – about Ms. Castro’s visa?

MR. VENTRELL: I’ll have to check on that, Matt. I wasn’t aware of that this morning.

QUESTION: Okay, well, regardless, the letter sent to Secretary Kerry was just sent, I think, this morning. So I’m not surprised you don’t have it. But perhaps you are able to answer some of the questions that they have --

MR. VENTRELL: I’ll do my best.

QUESTION: One is, why – these are questions that they asked: Why is the State Department ignoring current U.S. law by continuing to provide visas to Cuban Communist Party operatives such as Mariela Castro?

MR. VENTRELL: I do have a little bit of information about this. And again, what I said about adjudicating visas based on U.S. laws is something that we absolutely do. While we can’t discuss the individual – specific details of individual cases, under Presidential Proclamation 5377 and other applicable requirements, those are all duly considered and strictly followed in adjudicating visa applications submitted by Cuban nationals. Each visa request is reviewed on a case by case basis, including with our agency partners, and there’s no blanket ban on issuing visas to Cuban Government officials.

QUESTION: Okay. Number two: Given the fact that the United States must preclude any travel outside of a 25 mile radius – New York – for Cuban operatives – and I understand she was given a visa to go to New York to attend some kind of UN meeting – why did Mariela Castro get permission to go outside that 25 mile radius and attend this conference in Philadelphia?

MR. VENTRELL: Again, I can’t speak about specific cases. You’re right, Matt, that for certain countries at the UN, there are specific restrictions about officials who have come from that country who are going just for UN business in terms of traveling outside that radius, but those can be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.

QUESTION: So if the – and not – and again, not specifically about this case, which you say you can’t talk about specifically, but if permission was granted, it would – to go outside that radius, it would have been because there was some kind of compelling reason for that person to do so? Is that correct?

MR. VENTRELL: Again, they have to be considered on a case-by-case basis.

QUESTION: All right. And then the last one is – it’s a question about reciprocity --

MR. VENTRELL: Yeah.

QUESTION: -- and whether U.S. diplomats in Cuba are given the – are freed or the restrictions on their travel have been either removed or eased in any way.

MR. VENTRELL: I’m not aware that they’ve been eased. There certainly are restrictions on our people, and at times, from time to time in the past, we’ve had frustrations or problems with travel, even sometimes for routine consular matters. But I’d have to check in terms of the very recent past.

QUESTION: All right. But you don’t know of any specific reciprocity for – in exchange for the Mariela Castro (inaudible)?

MR. VENTRELL: Not in this specific case, but reciprocity is something that is one of our principal concerns and something that does govern how we look at this.

QUESTION: Okay. And when you do answer – when you do get this letter, when the Secretary does get this letter, and presumably there will go – be a response --

MR. VENTRELL: Yeah.

QUESTION: -- do you know if the Department is able to say more to members of Congress than you are allowed to say from the podium?

MR. VENTRELL: I think there are some waivers to visa confidentiality for members of Congress, and I think that they’ll be able to answer in more detail in terms of how this specific presidential – again, let me read it to you again. It’s --

QUESTION: Yeah, no, they cite it --

MR. VENTRELL: Okay.

QUESTION: -- 5377, Section 1, all right.

MR. VENTRELL: Yeah. So I imagine in the letter we’ll be able to get into more detail.

The State Department on Mariela Castro's visa

Another State Department Concession to the Castro Family: Mariela exemption

capitolhillcubans

Last week, the State Department decided to deny permission to Raul Castro's daughter, Mariela, to travel to Philadelphia to attend an LGBT conference.

Today, it reconsidered and an official told CNN that, "the restriction on her visa has been lifted."

In doing so, the State Department has (yet again) made an exemption for the Cuban dictator's daughter from Presidential Proclamation 5377, which denies visas to Cuban nationals affiliated with that country's totalitarian regime.

Mariela is not only the daughter of Cuba's dictator, but she is a member of his regime's National Assembly, a spokesperson for its repression against democracy activists (whom she refers to as "despicable parasites") and a defender of the arbitrary taking of American hostage Alan Gross.

Moreover, this throws (yet another) bucket of cold water on President Obama's Presidential Proclamation 8697 of August 2011, which sought to "close the gap" in granting visas to foreign nationals affiliated with human rights violators -- and singling-out "prolonged arbitrary detentions" as a main violation.

Mariela's father, is one of the world's worst offenders of such detentions.

Just this weekend, dozens of members of the Ladies in White pro-democracy group were savagely beaten and arrested for their peaceful  advocacy.

Despite this, the Castro family gets rewarded with another U.S. visit.

Let's be clear on another point:  Mariela Castro does not support "LGBT rights."

She doesn't support the right of any Cuban -- gay or straight -- to exercise their fundamental human rights.

To claim that Mariela Castro supports the rights of LGBTs, while she supports violating the fundamental rights of all Cubans, is nonsensical. 

Why doesn't Mariela allow the recognition of independent LGBT groups on the island?  

Or any independent group for that matter?

To continue rewarding the Castro family, while they continue brutalizing men, women and children (of all sexual preferences) is insulting and demoralizing to all those courageously clamoring for freedom

Another State Department Concession to the Castro Family: Mariela exemption

US State Department: No Current Plans to Remove Cuba From Terrorism List‏

www.itsmachas.com

again for now. in politics it is not what you see.

------------------------------

capitolhillcubans

From today's State Department Daily Press Briefing with Spokesperson Victoria Nuland:

QUESTION: There are reports today that Secretary Kerry is in discussions on possibly removing Cuba from the state sponsor terror list. Can you comment on that?

MS. NULAND: I saw that report. Let me say firmly here it is incorrect. This Department has no current plans to remove Cuba from the state sponsor of terrorism list.

QUESTION: And why not?

MS. NULAND: We review this every year, and at the current moment we – when the last review was done in 2012, we didn’t see cause to remove them. We’ll obviously look at it again this year, but as I said, we don’t have any plans at the moment.

QUESTION: Sorry, really quick, can you just give a little bit more of an explanation of what exactly are the – what makes a country – I mean, what are the specifications for a country being on the state sponsor of terror?

MS. NULAND: Well, we’ve talked about this before here. There’s a limit to what I can get into because it takes me into intelligence. But we do – we are required to look at these lists every year and to judge countries individually against the standards in the legislation. And we did that in 2012. We’ll obviously have to do it again in 2013.

US State Department: No Current Plans to Remove Cuba From Terrorism List‏

State Department official who 'resigned' after Libya findings reportedly staying on payroll

foxnews

Eric Boswell, the former assistant secretary of state for diplomatic security, and Charlene Lamb, the deputy assistant secretary responsible for embassy security. (AP)

A State Department security chief who was said to have resigned last week after the release of a scathing report about security lapses at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi in the run-up to the terror attack that killed four Americans reportedly is still on the department's payroll.
The New York Post reports that Eric Boswell, the assistant secretary of state for diplomatic security, has not resigned from the department, as a State Department spokeswoman indicated Dec. 19. Boswell is instead just "switching desks," according to the report.
Three other State Department officials, including Charlene Lamb, the deputy assistant secretary responsible for embassy security, were placed on administrative leave after the release of the report. However, according to the Post they are expected to return.
The State Department-ordered investigation of the attack found that "systemic failures" had left the consulate facility in Libya inadequately protected.
The report, which was presented to Congress by an independent review board on Dec. 18, also concluded that no protest preceded the attack, despite earlier claims made by the Obama administration.
The State Department responded to the New York Post's questions about the employment status of Boswell and other officials by reissuing an earlier statement confirming Boswell's decision to resign.
More on NYPost.com >>

State Department official who 'resigned' after Libya findings reportedly staying on payroll

State Gave Mariela Castro VIP Treatment

Capitol Hill Cubans

In case you still have any doubt that the State Department knew exactly what it was doing in exempting Cuban dictator Raul Castro's daughter from the visa ban for senior regime officials, just take a look at the picture below.

Those are State Department Diplomatic Security (DS) special agents flanking her.

In addition to protecting the U.S. Secretary of State and the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, DS special agents are also assigned to protect cabinet-level foreign dignitaries who visit the United States.

Thus, Mariela Castro was not merely a sexologist going to a conference in San Francisco.

And State knew that.

State Gave Mariela Castro VIP Treatment

State Department Press Briefing on Mariela Castro and Alan Gross

by Chris Simmons

Special Briefing

Michael A. Hammer

Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Public Affairs

Washington, DC

June 1, 2012

Extract:

QUESTION: Did she [Mariela Castro] meet with a member of the administration, and second is there some progress in the matter of Alan Gross. The Secretary met with [Judy] Gross this week. Is there anything to report in this regard?

MR. HAMMER: First, no one from the administration met with Mariela Castro. Second, the issue of Alan Gross is something we consider every day here. The State Department is very concerned about his health and situation. Secretary Clinton, as you mentioned, met with his wife, Judy Gross, and continues to urge the Cuban authorities, well, to release him immediately. It is a very unfair case, and even for humanitarian reasons they should allow Alan Gross to come to visit his 90 year-old mother, who is ill, just as René González was allowed to go to Havana in a similar humanitarian case. We will continue to insist. I really cannot understand why the Cuban regime does not allow Alan Gross to have his freedom. But at least it should allow a humanitarian release, given the seriousness of the illness of his mother, who is very old.

QUESTION: And the United States has always argued that this is a case that cannot be compared with the other case. Now you say that, it should now be with Gross just like it was for Rene. Isn’t this comparison just like that made by Havana?

MR. HAMMER: No, the only thing similar is that here, our judicial authorities gave humanitarian permission in a similar situation in the case of Rene Gonzalez, who had a relative who was also very sick. There are very different circumstances under which the Cuban spies were imprisoned here than for Alan Gross, who actually was working in an appropriate manner in Cuba. Therefore the cases are very different, but they are similar in that there sometimes are circumstances where you want to see that you can provide a way out for someone for humanitarian reasons; and one would like to see the same kind of understanding by the Cuban authorities. But let me be clear, Alan Gross should not be imprisoned. He has been unfairly imprisoned for more than two years and five months. In this case, he should be released immediately, and that is what we believe. But if they are not ready to do that now, at least in this case they should grant a humanitarian visit.

State Department Press Briefing on Mariela Castro and Alan Gross

State Department Adds Insult to Death

Capitol Hill Cubans

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State Department Adds Insult to Death

On Friday, The White House released a non-political statement of condolence for the death of Cuban prisoner of conscience Wilmar Villar Mendoza.

That was appropriate.

But it was insulting for the State Department to follow-up with this political statement:

"We will continue to support, in the words of the president, ‘pockets of freedom’ in Cuba through Cuban American family visits and remittances, purposeful travel, and humanitarian assistance to dissidents and their families."

How has the Obama Administration's travel and remittance policy created "pockets of freedom"?

To the contrary, it has more than doubled the Castro regime's hard currency reserves (as confirmed by the Bank for International Settlements), which is currently bankrolling the worst wave of repression in 30 years (since President Jimmy Carter had a similar policy).

How did the Obama Administration's policy help Wilman Villar Menodza, Laura Pollan or Orlando Zapata Tamayo?

To the contrary, it never mentioned them once by name until after their tragic deaths.

How have the Obama Administration's new "purposeful" travel regulations helped Cuba's courageous pro-democracy leaders?

To the contrary, the trips being approved by State (and pre-approved by the Cuban dictatorship) are focused on salsa dancing, baseball games, cigar factories and visits with the Castro family, the Ministry of Tourism, the repressive Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR) and other regime entities.

We challenge State and Treasury to show us just one approved "people-to-people" itinerary that includes visits with the Ladies in White, the Cuban Patriotic Union or any of the numerous pro-democracy groups across the island.

They don't exist. Why?

Because the Obama Administration's "people-to-people" travel category is not aimed at supporting these courageous pro-democracy activists. It is aimed at creating greater understanding with their oppressors, the Castro regime.

Otherwise, there would have been no need for a new "people-to-people" travel category, for anyone who wants to travel to Cuba to support pro-democracy activists could do so under the long-standing travel category of "Support for the Cuban People" (aimed at helping human rights groups, pro-democracy activists and civil society).

To add even further insult, State and Treasury's requirements for travel under the "Support of the Cuban People" are more stringent than those under Obama's "people-to-people" tours led by the Castro regime.

That's right, the Obama Administration's policy makes it more burdensome to travel to Cuba to help pro-democracy activists than to travel on a "people-to-people" tour hosted by the Castro regime.

That is a fact.

It is the same absurd rationale that has led the Administration to exchange letters with Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei, while democracy activist filled the streets, and that originally led them to send envoys to come to terms with the "reformer" Bashar al-Assad in Syria.

The result?

Emboldened regimes that have resorted to greater violence without any consequence.

Enough is enough.

State Department Adds Insult to Death

Cuba por el Dpto de Estado de los EU

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2886.htm

Cuba por el Dpto de Estado de los EU