Politics Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for people interested in governments, policies, and political processes. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
Recently, I've been hearing bits and pieces regarding some controversy involving the 2012 Benghazi embassy attack
Although It's not hard to find stories about the controversy , I've found it considerably harder to find out exactly what the controversy is starting from the beginning.
On September 11, 2012, There was an attack on the United-States Embassy in Behghazi. 4 people died in this attack.
It was initially believed by the public that this attack was in response to the movie "Innocence of Muslims".
Several days later, It was confirmed to be a terrorist attack that was related to Al Qaeda.
The accusation is that the Obama Administration knew that it was a terrorist attack, and that they initially tried to cover it up. They are also being accused of not reacting strongly enough to the attacks, and not being prepared enough for such attacks.
On May 8 -
Gregory Hicks, Eric Nordstrom, and Mark Thompson testify before the United States House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and were called "whistleblowers" by the committee chairman.
Hicks testified that more assistance from the U.S. military could have been provided, that attempts to send additional forces were told to stand down by another authority, and he was demoted for telling his recollection of events; the Defense Department disputed Hicks' testimony, and the State Department did not respond.
Hicks further stated that since the Libyan government had called the attack a terrorist attack, and the United States did not, complicated the FBI investigation. Thompson testified that a Foreign Emergency Support Team was not sent due to instructions from the State Department, which the State Department said would have taken too long to be effective;
Nordstrom criticized the Accountability Review Board, that it did not look into decisions made by those individuals in higher authority. Furthermore, they testified that their previous attempts to increase security leading up to the attacks were, were denied.
Democrats charged that the Republicans were politicizing the investigation.
House Republicans released a report on the Benghazi attack that was highly critical of the White House and the State Department; the White House dismissed the report, and House Democrats called the report biased.[128]
Among dozens of findings, the report[129] states that:
- "Senior State Department officials knew that the threat environment in Benghazi was high and that the Benghazi compound was vulnerable and unable to withstand an attack, yet the department continued to systematically withdraw security personnel"
- The "[Obama] Administration willfully perpetuated a deliberately misleading and incomplete narrative that the attacks evolved from a political demonstration caused by a YouTube video."
- "... after a White House Deputies Meeting on Saturday, September 15, 2012, the Administration altered the talking points to remove references to the likely participation of Islamic extremists in the attacks. The Administration also removed references to the threat of extremists linked to al-Qa’ida in Benghazi and eastern Libya...."
- "The Administration deflected responsibility by blaming the IC [intelligence community] for the information it communicated to the public in both the talking points and the subsequent narrative it perpetuated."
sources:
"2012 Benghazi attack" on Wikipedia
"Timeline of the investigation into the 2012 Benghazi attack" on Wikipedia
What is the Benghazi scandal?
Official statements at the time didn't entirely mesh with what happened. The scandal part is the theory is that there may have been a cover up of some sort.
What about it makes it such a big scandal?
A matter of opinion.
Why is it making such major news now?
Those with the opinion that it's a scandal have been using it as a frequent enough talking point as to keep it in the media spotlight.
I'm going to give you a very simple, two minute response.
What is the Benghazi scandal?
A US Diplomatic building came under attack by Libyan protesters. Three Americans(including the US Ambassador to Libya) died.
What about it draws so much coverage?
It's a combination of things. The Obama Administration did not handle the situation very well, not claiming it was a really big issue, not using specific terms, etc. But the reason it draws so much coverage is the fact that Media needs drama. Fox News, NBC, etc.
Why is it making such major news now? Various Conservative Representatives and Media Outlets are making a big deal out of the situation. They always have.
Sorry that I don't have references but here's what I can recall from the various reports I've heard, seen or read.
"What is the Benghazi scandal"
It's that the administration is refusing to disclose what really happened. Who made what decisions and when? They've intimidated state dept./CIA employees into keeping silent. What was removed from the original report before the one that was officially released? Who removed those details? There's just too much evasion (or appearance of evasion) if there really is nothing of interest to be found.
Even if everything done by the WH administration was perfectly valid, the mere fact that the Obama administration doesn't believe there is any obligation to answer to the people/congress is arrogant and deserving of whatever scrutiny is thrown at them. Why would it have been so hard for Hillary to simply state what she did and didn't do on the night in question? Instead, she acted like a spoiled brat who was insulted that congress had the gaul to inquire into finding out what happened on that night. Especially, when it is so obvious that many details were being left out in the official explanation.
Nobody has ever gotten an answer to where was Obama and what did he know while all this was happening. Obama is notorious for his dislike of meetings so he chooses to get his security info via email-like reports instead. Some believe that he got the report but didn't bother reading it, so he didn't even know Benghazi was happening.
"What makes it a big scandal"
One theory is that the WH admin chose to not defend the embassy because the voters seeing terrorist activity at that time might cost Obama some votes. So the WH chose to let people die instead. Although, in fairness it was probably more like they chose to leave people in a dangerous situation and it blew up in their faces when people were actually killed. Was the WH willing to endanger lives for the sake of their election? How high up did this decision go?
Another possibility, from above is how "engaged" in doing his job is Obama really. Did he get the security report? Did he read it? Did he do anything about it?
Another issue is the administration intimidating employees into not talking to congress. You can't have checks and balances if people are intimidated into silence.
"Why is it making major news now"
Because congress finally found a couple of people willing to talk. After their testimony, the WH has now gone on to rev. 4 or 5 of their version of what happened. Sorry, I don't remember which WH official testified after Hicks last week but I remember him saying something like what follows that I believe will become infamous "It is not the State Departments job to ...[ughhh can't remember]". But it was kind of an admission that they knew more than they've already admitted to knowing.
Anyways, while the MSM is trying to sweep this story under the carpet, you can see that there's all kinds of side stories and theories that actually make this quite an interesting investigation. Many of the pundits strongly believe that this story is going to take some big-shot down, but nobody knows who yet.
