Following up to yesterday and the Elijah Cummings pre-testimony report, let’s focus on the CBS presentation therein.

CBS is a good reference to show the media obfuscation attempts because CBS holds a vested self-interest in deflections around the various Benghazi narratives.  You might remember it was Ben Rhodes who wrote the Benghazi talking points; Ben’s brother David is President of CBS News.

In addition, you might also remember it was CBS, via 60 Minutes, who withheld/embargoed a broadcast pre election 2012 where President Obama denied al-Qaeda’s terrorist involvement.

A claim Obama denied making in the Candy Crowley debate against his opponent Mitt Romney.  CBS covered Obama’s ass allowing the lie to go undiscovered until after the November 2012 election.  It was also CBS who refused to allow Sharyl Attkisson to continue investigative reporting on the Benghazi story.

Here’s the current presentation of the Elijah Cummings report by CBS:

[…]  Based on 54 interviews, the Democrats said the committee found no evidence that Clinton ordered the military to stand down on the night of the attacks,…

How could Hillary Clinton order the “military”, Defense Department / Pentagon, to stand down, when the DoD didn’t even know their was a consulate in Benghazi.  According to General Carter Ham (AFRICOM Command) the Pentagon was not even aware the State Department was operating an outpost in Benghazi.  Hillary couldn’t tell them to stand down, because they were never positioned to stand up; they were blind to the issues.

[…] no evidence she personally approved a reduction in security before the attacks

Key words “she personally”.  It is already a matter of public record via Charlene Lamb that Ambassador Stevens requests for additional security personnel were denied.

Why?  Well again, remember the Defense Department didn’t even know about the Benghazi outpost.  This was EXCLUSIVELY a joint State Dept./CIA operation – not Pentagon.

[…] and no evidence Clinton or her aides oversaw an operation to scrub or destroy documents related to Benghazi, among other findings.

No evidence despite Raymond Maxwell specifically stating that the weekend document session was held in the basement of the State Department’s Foggy Bottom headquarters in a room underneath the “jogger’s entrance.” He describes it as a large space, outfitted with computers and big screen monitors, intended for emergency planning, and with small offices on the periphery.

When he arrived, Maxwell says he observed boxes and stacks of documents. He says a State Department office director, whom Maxwell described as close to Clinton’s top advisers, was there. Though the office director technically worked for him, Maxwell says he wasn’t consulted about her weekend assignment.

“She told me, ‘Ray, we are to go through these stacks and pull out anything that might put anybody in the [Near Eastern Affairs] front office or the seventh floor in a bad light,’” says Maxwell. He says “seventh floor” was State Department shorthand for then-Secretary of State Clinton and her principal advisers.

“I asked her, ‘But isn’t that unethical?’ She responded, ‘Ray, those are our orders.’ ”

In an interview Monday morning on Fox News, Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, named the two Hillary Clinton confidants who allegedly were present: One was Cheryl Mills, Clinton’s chief of staff and a former White House counsel who defended President Bill Clinton during his impeachment trial. The other, Chaffetz said, was Deputy Chief of Staff Jake Sullivan, who previously worked on Hillary Clinton’s and then Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns.(September 2014)

Someone is lying, and it doesn’t appear to be Raymond Maxwell.

CBS cont. […]  Documents obtained by the committee confirmed Clinton’s earlier testimony about her actions that night, the report said, as did the interviews with Mills and Sullivan.

After Clinton learned about the attack in the afternoon of Sep. 11, 2012, for example, the report said Clinton held a phone call with then-Libyan President Mohammed Magariaf, a conference call with her closest State Department aides and a secure video teleconference with the White House and agency officials about the U.S. consulate in Benghazi.

Now ask yourself, why would Hillary Clinton be on a “secure video teleconference with the White House” when she was in her DC office only minutes away from the White House and situation room?   Mrs. Clinton previously admitted her White House liasion was National Security Advisor Tom Donilon who was in the situation room with Tommy “dude” Vietor.

[…]  Mills told the panel that she remembers during the video teleconference, Clinton “said we need to be taking whatever steps we can, to do whatever we can to secure our people” and said she remembered President Obama being 100 percent behind whatever needed to be done, the report said.

Notice how this is Mills recounting a theory of what she proposed Obama’s position was.

[…]  The committee also asked Mills a series of questions regarding allegations claiming she was involved in a scrubbing of Benghazi-related documents before materials were handed over to the Accountability Review Board.

Asked if she had any evidence that anyone at the State Department removed or scrubbed damaging documents, Mills replied, “I don’t.”

Oh lookie, Mills doesn’t have “any evidence” of a basement operation that she was actively engaged in, per Robert Maxwell.  Yeah, funny that.

[…] Unnamed principal officers and diplomatic security agents who served in Benghazi during the fall of 2012 also told the committee that they had no evidence that Clinton ordered then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta to stand down during the night of the attacks, the report said.

Again, remember the origin of the entire Libya issue.  President Obama signed a Presidential Finding Memo in February of 2011 authorizing a joint State Dept./CIA operation to begin.  Leon Panetta was the CIA director when that operation began.

However, when the Benghazi attack took place he had moved to Secretary of Defense.

Hillary and Panetta began the Benghazi operation, the Defense Department never knew about it.  When the attack took place, Panetta was in a unique position of knowing the origin and intent of the Benghazi Mission, yet not in a position of divulging it to the Defense Department he now headed.  SEE THE PROBLEM ?

This is why the deposition/testimony of Leon Panetta is ultimately so important, and yet the CIA aspect is also why it appears Leon Panetta was never called to testify before the committee, OR ANY COMMITTEE.

[…]  The committee also interviewed officers and agents who were not in Benghazi during the attacks as well as Clinton’s speechwriters at the State Department, U.S. representatives to the United Nations and a former U.S. ambassador to Libya.

Many witnesses were asked whether they had evidence showing Clinton ordered Panetta to stand down and whether they had evidence that the Pentagon had military assets that night that were intentionally not used, according to the Democrats’ report. All of the witnesses said they did not have any such evidence.

Again, of course they didn’t, why would they?  Leon Panetta was in the White House at the time the attacks began on September 11th 2012.

Because he helped start it, Panetta would know, immediately, the operation in Benghazi was an “off the books” State/CIA operation.  There was no “stand down” order because there was never any indication the Pentagon had any idea Ambassador Stevens was in Benghazi in the first place.

This entire report by Elijah Cummings, holds so much similarity to the Rogers/Ruppersberger House Intel Panel report it’s almost comical.

Again, for anyone who really cares about this issue – go back and look at what we previously outlined within the Mike Rogers/Ruppersberger report.  READ HERE

Congress is COVERING THEIR ASS !!

The Benghazi Brief – President Obama signed a finding memo in 2011 permitting Operation Zero Footprint to begin. The congressional “gang of eight” held oversight responsibilities.

• Rogers, Ruppersberger along with Nancy Pelosi, John Boehner, Harry Reid, Mitch McConnell, Saxby Chambliss and Diane Feinstein would have been notified of the presidential authorization. In 2011 they were the congressional Gang of Eight.  Their lack of oversight reflected a willful blindness to the operation.