The House Select Committee on Benghazi is set to hold its first public hearing this week on September 17th.
The Select Committee on #Benghazi will hold its first public hearing next week. pic.twitter.com/KwpANrqvPb
— Trey Gowdy (@TGowdySC) September 10, 2014
However, a note of caution should be added not to expect too much “substance” as an outcome.
As most readers are now aware the Benghazi FUBAR is essentially two-thirds a result of bad policy, and one-third a result of terrible decisions as a result of that bad policy. To date nothing has surfaced to undermine the essential research we have shared within the Benghazi Brief.
Actually, to the contrary “The Brief” has withstood relentless scrutiny. Unfortunately that also means Trey Gowdy will be hard pressed to deliver sunlight to the construct because most, if not all, of the flaws are within the intelligence aspects.
The State Department and the CIA are the two entities most at risk from any sunlight.
And, as we are painfully aware, the State Department leadership is a tight circle of like-minded ideologues not expected to break ranks with the White House.
Similarly the CIA is now under the tight control of John Brennan – so we should not look for any internal revelations, at least publicly.
Indeed if you look at the picture Trey Gowdy has included in his announcement above you’ll note the “qualifier”: “On Implementation of ARB Recommendations“.
We all know the ARB report was entirely designed by political operatives in defense of the administration. If the current approach is to look critically at the execution of the “ARB Recommendations”, the hearings will likely focus on the failure to secure the outpost – and the proposals to insure it doesn’t happen again. Neither of which are targeted to the actual framework of the covert policy itself.
In addition the leadership of both parties Democrat and Republican are as much to blame for their failed oversight, and questioning, of the covert action itself. As The Brief accurately identifies the “Gang of Eight“, both Republican and Democrat, knew the overall principles behind Operation Zero Footprint in Libya, and the Operation in Syria (name unknown).
The Gang of Eight in 2011 would have included: Speaker – John Boehner, Minority Leader – Nancy Pelosi; House Permanent Select Committee on Intel Chairman – Mike Rogers, and his Democrat counterpart Charles Ruppersberger; Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid; along with Senate Intel Chair Diane Feinstein and her Republican counterpart, Saxby Chambliss.
Not only would it be impossible for Trey Gowdy to publicly discuss the covert programs, due to security concerns, it would not serve his own party leadership to do so.
I cannot think of a similar boondoggle which was ever exposed without someone with direct knowledge of the covert action giving up their security clearance, running the risk of arrest for violations of National Security, and losing their career.
In addition the financial risk of needing a massive legal defense, for any intelligence whistleblower would be too significant for anyone to actually fathom.
Lastly, the valid criticism to The Brief surrounds our failure to identify specific motivation toward the actual perpetrators of the attack. It is a criticism we well understand. We can walk through the entire two years leading up to the attack, we can walk up to the exact moment the attack began, but we cannot assign direct motivation.
However, if you factor into The Brief the reality of the CIA Annex being a rendition site you can see how any of the numerous factions within the Libyan Fighting Groups would have a self-interest motivation once the USA fulfilled our usefulness.
In essence just about everyone in/around Eastern Libya hated us at that moment in time. When facing an armed mob of various factions does it really matter what affiliation the trigger man holds?
