The phone call came at 2:00 AM, not at Hillary’s preferred 3:00 AM, so perhaps that made the difference:
After the attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Benghazi, after four Americans were slaughtered, Hillary Clinton looked the American public in the eye and claimed that a YouTube video was responsible. There were cracks in that narrative from the very beginning. But this morning, Gregory Hicks, Deputy Chief of Mission at the embassy, delivered a final, devastating blow.
Hicks testified that Clinton had called him at 2 a.m., while the attacks were underway.
Hicks also confirmed that the military were told to stand down in Benghazi; their response? “They were furious.”
As Charlie Spiering of the Washington Examiner notes today:
During the House and Oversight Committee hearing on Benghazi this afternoon, Gregory Hicks testified that the YouTube video that was blamed for sparking a protest had nothing to do with the attacks in Benghazi, Libya.
“The YouTube event was a non-event in Libya,” Hicks stated flatly, when asked about whether it sparked a protest in Libya.
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The attacks occurred in Benghazi on September 11th, 2012. Hillary was briefed on the night of the attack. “The YouTube event was a non-event in Libya,” Hicks states today. But as Stephen F. Hayes notes at the Weekly Standard in his article, “The Benghazi Talking Points — And how they were changed to obscure the truth:”
In ensuing days, administration officials emphasized a “demonstration” in front of the U.S. facility in Benghazi and claimed that the demonstrators were provoked by a YouTube video. The CIA had softened “attack” to “demonstration.” But as soon became clear, there had been no demonstration in Benghazi.
More troubling was the YouTube video. Rice would spend much time on the Sunday talk shows pointing to this video as the trigger of the chaos in Benghazi. “What sparked the violence was a very hateful video on the Internet. It was a reaction to a video that had nothing to do with the United States.” There is no mention of any “video” in any of the many drafts of the talking points.
Still, top Obama officials would point to the video to explain Benghazi. President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton even denounced the video in a sort of diplomatic public service announcement in Pakistan. In a speech at the United Nations on September 25, the president mentioned the video several times in connection with Benghazi.
On September 17, the day after Rice appeared on the Sunday shows, Nuland defended Rice’s performance during the daily briefing at the State Department. “What I will say, though, is that Ambassador Rice, in her comments on every network over the weekend, was very clear, very precise, about what our initial assessment of what happened is. And this was not just her assessment, it was also an assessment you’ve heard in comments coming from the intelligence community, in comments coming from the White House.”
And as we mentioned yesterday, on September 14th, 2012, Hillary Clinton had this to say at Andrews Air Force Base, in what the State Department called her “Remarks at the Transfer of Remains Ceremony to Honor Those Lost in Attacks in Benghazi, Libya:”
“This has been a difficult week for the State Department and for our country. We’ve seen the heavy assault on our post in Benghazi that took the lives of those brave men. We’ve seen rage and violence directed at American embassies over an awful internet video that we had nothing do to with. It’s hard for the American people to make sense of that, because it is senseless, and it is totally unacceptable. The people of Egypt, Libya, Yemen and Tunisia, did not trade the tyranny of a dictator for the tyranny of a mob. Reasonable people and responsible leaders in these countries in these countries need to do everything they can to restore security and hold accountable those behind these violent acts. And we will, under the president’s leadership, keep taking steps to protect our personnel around the world.”
No wonder, as Ace adds today, “Hicks Was Told Not to Speak Alone to Congressional Investigators; Hillary’s ‘Fixer’ Cheryl Mills Insisted On Being Present At Every Meeting.”
Bryan Preston is live blogging today’s hearings at the Tatler; describing numerous examples of stonewalling, fillibustering, and Alinsky-style attack the accuser-style tactics emanating from the port side of the aisle.
Oh, and speaking of Alinksy-style tactics:
As Jim Treacher writes, “In 40 years, WaPo has gone from All the President’s Men to… THIS.”
Why, it’s as if the very JournoList itself runs through the Washington Post’s offices.
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