House Intel Committee On Benghazi: No Obama Administration Wrongdoing
The House Intelligence Committee is just one of many congressional panels to investigate the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, which took place in 2012, and the Republican-led inquiry has reportedly concluded that there was no deliberate wrongdoing by the Obama Administration surrounding the event.
According to The San Francisco Chronicle, the panel voted on Thursday to declassify their report, which is the culmination of two years of investigative work. Although the report has not yet been made public, pending approval by U.S. Intelligence services, Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.) spoke to the paper about the committee’s findings:
“The House Intelligence Committee, led by Republicans, has concluded that there was no deliberate wrongdoing by the Obama administration in the 2012 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans, said Rep. Mike Thompson of St. Helena, the second-ranking Democrat on the committee. […] Thompson said the report ‘confirms that no one was deliberately misled, no military assets were withheld and no stand-down order (to U.S. forces) was given.'”
According to Thompson, the committee found that the attack in Benghazi was conducted by “”A mixed group of individuals, including those associated with al Qaeda, (Moammar) Khadafy loyalists and other Libyan militias.” The panel also concluded that while the Obama Administration’s method for developing “talking points” was “flawed,” they “reflected the conflicting intelligence assessments in the days immediately following the crisis.”
As The Inquisitr previously reported, those talking points included the assertion that the Benghazi attack was motivated by an anti-Muhammad video posted to YouTube in the U.S.
House panel: No administration wrongdoing in Benghazi attack http://t.co/N8PSRx2ufC #Duh #ToldYu #UniteBlue pic.twitter.com/J1Uv2oDXr7
— TruthtoConservatives (@ToConservatives) August 4, 2014
As MSNBC points out, the committee consisted of 12 Republican and 9 Democratic lawmakers. They highlight that eight separate committees have investigated the Benghazi attacks, including the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Fox: Breaking News: Obama Was In The White House During Benghazi http://t.co/nxhCOzi8vi #Uniteblue #Libcrib pic.twitter.com/7o7yKxOvhK
— Robin Simpson (@robin182zz) August 4, 2014
Rep Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD) released a statement in which he said that the House Intelligence Committee “held twenty briefings and hearings and conducted detailed interviews with senior intelligence officials and eyewitnesses to the attacks, including eight security personnel on the ground in Benghazi that night.”
According to The Fiscal Times, he added that “[T]he Intelligence Community warned about an increased threat environment, but did not have specific tactical warning of an attack before it happened.”
A select committee convened by House Republicans is currently investigating the Obama Administration’s handling of the Benghazi attack.
[Image via The Fiscal Times]
