DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson is rumored to be on a very short list of people being considered to replace outgoing Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel.
So with Secretary Jeh Johnson in mind, here’s two aspects toward that end which both align with the proposition, yet you won’t find them openly discussed amid the pages of the Pretorian guard media.

FIRST ISSUE: Back in 2011 when President Obama was s-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g his constitutional boundaries and taking us to {*cough*} war in Libya, via the non-war, war, position and R2P -I digress-there was this pesky little fact of executive overreach with a non-declared war, and Obama’s refusal to request approval from congress.   Perhaps you remember it.
At the time, June 2011, a little known attorney existed inside the Pentagon, Jeh Johnson.  Johnson was the legal counsel for the Pentagon, and as a consequence was also part of the administration’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC).   Jeh Johnson was part of the OLC who told President Stompy Feet his executive foundation for military engagement was illegal.
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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…)

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…)

EGYPT – Under increasing pressure from the military, Egypt’s deadliest jihadist group pledged allegiance to the Islamic State organisation in a bid to boost recruitment and bolster its fight against the army, analysts say.
Ansar Beit al-Maqdis (Partisans of Jerusalem) has waged an insurgency from its Sinai Peninsula stronghold that has killed scores of Egyptian police and soldiers since the army ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi last year.
In response, the army has launched a huge operation in Sinai targeting jihadists and last month began building a buffer zone on the border with Gaza to stem the flow of militants and weapons from the strip. (more…)

In this brief exchange on Bloomberg news the discussion highlights the current Democrat problem for 2016. Behind Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton there is no-one. Watch video:

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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…)

Somehow I doubt Samantha Power, Susan Rice and Hillary Clinton thought things out this far…  Just a hunch.

(Via Front Page Mag) A new generation of the Libyan army was supposed to be trained in the West as part of international efforts to rebuild the country after the ouster of Muammar Gaddafi. Hand-picked recruits were invited to rural England for basic infantry and junior command training.

On Tuesday, however, the British Ministry of Defense announced that all 300 trainees would be sent home early after a string of sexual assaults were perpetrated against the residents of Cambridgeshire, culminating in the alleged gang rape of a young man.[…]
Two of the recruits have admitted to two sexual assaults and a bicycle theft in Market Square right at the center of the old town. They also pleaded guilty to threatening a police office. Another cadet, aged 18, has been charged with three sexual assaults.
In total, police have investigated reports of 11 sexual assaults in central Cambridge within nine days. (more…)

This is a pretty sobering statistic.   Last week in response to continued terrorist attacks in the Sinai region, Egypt began to widen the border between Gaza and Egypt.  A “buffer zone” is being built and homes on the border are being removed.  A “border wall” is currently being considered.
So far around 200 homes have been bulldozed or destroyed as Egypt’s President Abdul Fattah el-Sisi and his government begin the process.  Of the 200 homes removed, 78 have been found to house tunnels from Egypt into Gaza, that’s 39%.  These tunnels are used by Hamas to smuggle arms and rockets into the Gaza strip – the target of the rockets is Israel.

EGYPT – North Sinai Governor General Abdel-Fattah Harhour said owners of houses on the border line with the Gaza Strip will not receive any compensation for their demolished houses if smuggling tunnels were discovered inside their homes.
“The number of these homes whose owners will not receive compensation is 78, no compensation because these houses have smuggling tunnels,” he told local CBC television.
On Wednesday, the army began demolishing homes along the border line with the Gaza Strip to create a buffer zone which aims at preventing weapons smuggling. (more…)

LIBYA – Dozens of residents of a town in eastern Libya have pledged allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of Islamic State militants fighting in Syria and Iraq, according to a video and a resident.
Around 50 young people could be seen in a video posted on social media gathering in Derna to support Baghdadi, who calls himself “caliph”, or Muslim leader, of Islamic State, an Al Qaeda offshoot.

A Derna resident confirmed the authenticity of the video, taken late on Friday. (more…)