The Benghazi Witch Hunt

I offer my sincere condolences to those who believe that there is an ongoing cover-up of the Sept. 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. embassy in Benghazi, Libya in which 4 Americans were killed. They assume that the recent vote on May 8 by the House to establish yet another investigation into the Benghazi attack and that the incessant droning about Benghazi cover-ups on Fox “News” actually means that a conspiracy or cover-up exists. Since the attack and over a period of 20 months -- after 13 hearings, 50 briefings, 25 transcribed interviews, 8 issued subpoenas, more than 25,000 pages of documents, 6 congressional reports, a postmortem by the NY Times, and a detailed analysis by the journalist Michael Hirsh for Politico magazine -- no evidence of a conspiracy or cover-up has been found. The House’s call for more hearings began after an email surfaced showing that Obama administration officials were concerned about the president’s image in the days after the attack. Of course, there were no calls for hearings after it was found that intelligence had been manipulated in the lead up to Bush’s attack of Iraq, or after his image enhancing “Mission Accomplished” ploy. The House and Fox “News” have increased the noise about Benghazi to cover-up the fact that they have gotten nowhere on the IRS scandal (because none existed) and that Obama Care, after a rough start and after the House voted to repeal it over 40 times, is working quite well. Additional noise has come from Karl Rove claiming that Hillary Clinton has brain damage after a fall last year because she spent 30 days (actually 3 days) in a hospital and emerged wearing brain damage glasses (whatever they are.) I’m sure neurologists everywhere are waiting in line to consult with Mr. Rove. The sole tactic of the Republican party since the Reagan administration has been, is, and will continue to be, noise. They have failed to repeal Obama Care. Their investigations of the so-called IRS scandal found nothing. Previous investigations of the Benghazi attacks found no conspiracies or cover-ups. What to do? Make noise with the help of their propaganda arm, Fox “News”. Their repeated Benghazi stirrings and baseless rumors about Hillary Clinton shows that they are desperate and need something to keep their base supporters riled up, voting, and donating. Will it work? The leaders and strategists of the Republican party are shrewd and intelligent. This doesn't mean that they care about the interests of the American people. But it does mean that they do believe that they can fool enough people to remain in power, which is their primary goal. The fate of our country is merely secondary.

(link to letter-to-editor)

JLF