The Mike Rogers/Dutch Ruppersberger report was predictable in the extreme; anyone who has researched the surrounding issues of the Benghazi backstory knew to expect it:

…”with Rep Trey Gowdy’s Chairmanship of a Select Committee on Benghazi anticipated to start up again in January, and with House Intel Chair Rogers exiting from congress, the authors of this report hold a motive to undercut Gowdy’s investigation into the missing 2011/2012 intelligence oversight that would normally be part of Rogers/Ruppersberger’s responsibility.”…

In addition, the media skipping gleefully in circles while waving the Rogers/Ruppersberger report, was similarly predictable – as seen here in this recent CNN interview.

However, despite how much the media want to avoid the sunlight there are too many people who understand the motives of Mike Rogers, including his own financial stake in the Benghazi security contract. Here’s a great op-ed outlining some of that understanding. It is well worth reading: (more…)

Those of you familiar with the Benghazi Brief will note the alignment and expectation of the Rogers/Ruppersberger report.  Their report is exactly as we anticipated it would be.
With a House Select Committee (Trey Gowdy) already in place, you might rightly ask yourself why did Mike Rogers and Dutch Ruppersberger even produce a report?  As you read their House Intelligence Panel Report on Benghazi it is important to note a few key aspects:

• Both Mike Rogers and Dutch Ruppersberger are members of the Congressional Gang of Eight.  They are the ONLY authors.

• This is not a House Intelligence “Committee” report on Benghazi.  This is only two committee members writing a report based on prior information.

• Both Rogers and Ruppersberger would have been briefed on the CIA operations in Benghazi during 2011/2012 as the covert operation began.

• 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.

• In addition to the covert Zero Footprint Operation, the Benghazi CIA annex served as a rendition site. [We find this out in 2013 from Paula Broadwell, who was the pillow-talk recipient of information from 2012 CIA Director General David Petraeus. Broadwell and Petraeus had an extramarital affair.]

[scribd id=247819208 key=key-rry9o06IDR3YfzhJhGb3 mode=scroll]
The Rogers/Ruppersberger Report is specifically designed, by wording, to provide political cover to both parties – Republicans and Democrats within the Gang of Eight particularly  included, and protected.
It is professional obfuscation in structure, content and wording. Here’s an example: (more…)

They’re trying to flood the field ahead of Thanksgiving, it’s brutally obvious.  This is classic use of “the bathtub principle” at work:

Today IRS reports recovery of 30,000 Lois Lerner emails from ’09 to ’11

Today House Intel “Panel” Releases Benghazi Report

Today Obama gives speech on highly anticipated immigration Executive Order

Today media and nation await Saint Louis Mike Brown shooting verdict. 100 FBI agents dispatched to Ferguson

DOJ Releases 40,000+ Fast and Furious documents (emails)

HHS Admits ObamaCare enrollment overstated.

If you have read the Treehouse Benghazi Brief you already knew to expect this outcome.  However, it’s important to note who conducted the investigation and published the report:

…[…] “We spent thousands of hours asking questions, poring over documents, reviewing intelligence assessments, reading cables and emails, and held a total of 20 committee events and hearings,” said Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., the committee’s chairman, and Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger of Maryland, the ranking Democrat, in a joint statement.

Both Mike Rogers and Dutch Ruppersberger were members of the “Gang of Eight” who were fully aware of operation Zero Footprint in 2011 which led to the Benghazi issues:

FULLY RESEARCHED:  “THE BENGHAZI BRIEF” HERE

TODAY: WASHINGTON (AP) — A two-year investigation by the Republican-controlled House Intelligence Committee has found that the CIA and the military acted properly in responding to the 2012 attack on a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, and asserted no wrongdoing by Obama administration appointees. (more…)

Here’s The Full Benghazi Brief

Grab a cup of coffee because it’s a long read with over 350 citations and reference source links for confirmational material. We think you’ll get hooked and find 95% of your Benghazi questions answered. And if you can find a factual flaw I’ll buy the coffee.. SD

We know from the Bret Baier interview with Hillary Clinton that she was physically located at her 7th floor office in Washington DC on the night of the attack. Unfortunately we also know during the November 2012 Thanksgiving holiday a mysterious fire took place in that building. Well, actually directly above her exact office – cause undetermined.
A “fire” which preceded an unfortunate slip and fall for the Secretary, resulting in a concussion, which led to the discovery of a blood clot, that ultimately delayed her congressional testimony before a Senate Hearing into the events of the night in question.
We know the Libyan uprising began on February 10th of 2011, and we also know that sometime around the end of February 2011 President Obama signed a presidential directive authorizing the State Dept and CIA to begin a covert operation to arm the Libyan “rebels”.
We also know of a Second Presidential Finding Memo authorizing additional CIA covert action in 2012, this time in Syria. However, unlike the 2011 Libyan operation we do not know the operational name of the second action in 2012 Syria.
We know the Libyan “rebels” were positioned in two strategic places. Benghazi, and the port city of Darnah, both located in Northeastern Libya.
We know this 2011 Libyan covert operation came to be known as “Operation Zero Footprint“, and fell under the military command authority of NATO not (important to repeat), NOT, the U.S. Military. (more…)

Who didn’t see this coming:
https://twitter.com/SharylAttkisson/status/527540380808773633
https://twitter.com/SharylAttkisson/status/527540520684638208
(more…)

If you listen to the answers given by Leon Panetta in this interview regarding the CIA talking points you will note his discomfort at O’Reilly attaching General Petraeus to the Benghazi talking points.

Panetta continues to say “the CIA” talking points when pushed, because he knows Petraeus did not construct them, Deputy CIA Director Mike Morell did.
It was Mike Morell and Ben Rhodes who formulated the political strategy Susan Rice was sent forth to sell. That’s why Petraeus became a risk prior to the November 2012 election and needed to be removed. That’s why Petraeus’s relationship with Paula Broadwell was leveraged for his removal.
(more…)

When it mattered, when it could have made a difference, he was willfully blind and silent.
Now, post facto, he’s filled with President Obama should have’s…

(more…)

The insufferable Leon Panetta has a new book revealing how President Obama, Denis McDonough, Valerie Jarrett and Ben Rhodes constructed every encountered policy, including defense, through a domestic political lens.  Duh! 
This short-sighted and naïve world view is why the foreign policies of the Obama administration -from Libya and the support for al-Qaeda, to Iran and the almost certain nuclear bomb they will acquire- have been catastrophic in consequence. But it really doesn’t matter now does it?

The value in Panetta’s public push back -against the amateur crowd occupying the White House- would have been important when those disastrous policies were being debated, planned and executed. But now, not so much – the Rubicon has been crossed, and hundreds of U.S. military have been killed.
It should also be remembered that Panetta the Prog is responsible for constructing ‘Operation Zero Footprint’ with Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton. A State Dept. and CIA operation which eventually led to the death of Ambassador Chris Stevens, Sean Smith, Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty. Neither Clinton nor Panetta have been held to account.
(Via Washington Post) Tell-all memoirs can be tough when they actually, well, tell all. But it would be hard to surpass the shot that Leon Panetta, President Obama’ s former CIA director and secretary of defense, takes at his former boss and the White House foreign policy team in his new book: “Worthy Fights.” (more…)