WE NEED YOUR HELP – The mainstream media on both sides of the issue, but mostly on our side, are missing a key point when analyzing the latest release of Hillary Clinton e-mails and the topic of Libya in 2011.  We have exhaustively researched and presented a sourced and cited timeline for the Libyan folly throughout 2011 and 2012 – All covered in the Benghazi Brief.

Everyone is missing the late February 2011 Presidential Finding Memo, , signed by President Obama which authorized the covert CIA/State Department operation.

[…]  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”.

Everyone is also missing – as a result of that directive the Intelligence Gang of Eight, which included Mike Rogers, was informed of the CIA/State Dept. goal. (more…)

State Dept. FOIA website keeps crashing – Try Here – We’ll keep trying to locate alternatives:  Update – Here They Are 

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*Context Note* ALL of these emails were previously shared with the House Select Committee on Benghazi (Trey Gowdy – chair) several months ago.
When Hillary Clinton first admitted to the exclusive use of a private email system, during her tenure at Secretary of State, one of her main points of emphasis was that none of the emails she received (or sent) -from the non-secure network- were classified.

However, today the State Department has released a few (approx. 300) of those emails and many are redacted, some due to classified content. (more…)

(Via The Hill) A federal judge has rejected the State Department’s proposal to not release thousands of pages of emails from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton until next year, instead calling for them to be released on a rolling basis.

[…]  Jeffrey Light, the lawyer for Vice News, which filed the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit for the emails, said the judge had given the Obama administration one week to provide a schedule for the public release of all the emails, including those pertaining to Benghazi, Reuters reported.
The State Department had proposed releasing the emails sometime before Jan. 15, 2016, in court documents filed Monday night.
Those emails, which were submitted to the State Department in paper form, will be viewable in redacted form on the department’s website, according to John F. Hackett, who handles FOIA requests for State. (more…)

The New York Times has a new article outlining the relationship between Hillary Clinton, the State Department, the Clinton Foundation, and her pal Sidney Blumenthal. However, they somewhat bury the lede regarding the impression that Blumenthal was leveraging Hillary for a group of business partners (he led) who wanting to invest in Libya.
New York Times […] as Hillary Rodham Clinton embarks on her second presidential bid, Mr. Blumenthal’s service to the Clintons is once again under the spotlight. Representative Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, a Republican who is leading the congressional committee investigating the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya, plans to subpoena Mr. Blumenthal, 66, for a private transcribed interview.

Mr. Gowdy’s chief interest, according to people briefed on the inquiry, is a series of memos that Mr. Blumenthal — who was not an employee of the State Department — wrote to Mrs. Clinton about events unfolding in Libya before and after the death of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi.
According to emails obtained by The New York Times, Mrs. Clinton, who was secretary of state at the time, took Mr. Blumenthal’s advice seriously, forwarding his memos to senior diplomatic officials in Libya and Washington and at times asking them to respond. Mrs. Clinton continued to pass around his memos even after other senior diplomats concluded that Mr. Blumenthal’s assessments were often unreliable. (more…)

Former interim CIA Head Mike Morell was part of team Hillary both before and after her tenure as Secretary of State so this admission carries a little more sting…. 

(Via Politico) Former Deputy CIA Director Michael Morell said that he believes some foreign intelligence agencies possess the contents of Hillary Clinton’s private email server.
“I think that foreign intelligence services, the good ones, have everything on any unclassified network that the government uses,” Morell said Friday in an interview on the Hugh Hewitt Show.
“I don’t think that was a very good judgment,” he added of Clinton’s decision to use the private server for official State Department business. “I don’t know who gave her that advice, but it was not good advice.” (more…)

If, like many of us, you are deep in the weeds in your understanding of the issues around Benghazi, the 2010 Arab Spring (Tunis, Egypt, Libya, Syria, Bahrain, Yemen), or the CIA operation “Zero Footprint” in Libya and the follow-up operation in Syria, you will enjoy this interview with former Panetta/Petraeus replacement Mike Morell.
Or, if you have a cursory understanding of events, this interview might spur you toward further research.  “The Benghazi Brief” – Regardless of your current level of understanding behind events of the past 7+ years, this interview is well constructed.
Bret Baier has done his homework, and in a refreshing and surprising manner you can see how Baier is able to cut through the distracting ‘talking points’ (no pun intended), and draw out the reality of what lies behind Morell and his foundational motives.

Trey Gowdy, Chairman of The House Select Committee on Benghazi, has requested former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appear before the panel next month.
In a letter to Clinton attorney David Kendall (below) Gowdy asks that Hillary testify before the committee “the week of May 18” to discuss email issues; and again before June 18 to talk about the deadly Benghazi attack (9/11/2012)

(more…)

As you read the following media report it is important to remember: ♦ Hillary Clinton has previously stated, unequivocally, that no classified communication traveled through her self-created personal communication network. 

So what exactly is there to review?  Either the U.S. government believes the statements by the Secretary of State to be true, or they do not.

Second, ♦ the government knowingly allowed the secret communication network to exist and allowed all the construction issues therein to take place.  Therefore the burden of any administrative compliance issue should reside upon them to reconcile expeditiously.

(The Washington Times) The Obama administration told a federal court Monday that it needs “several months” more to go through former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s government emails, saying it’s proving time-consuming to sort out exactly what information they can release to the public,

Justice Department lawyers also bristled at accusations that the government perpetrated a fraud by hiding the existence of the emails, as Mr. Obama’s team begins to fully grapple with the legal complications Mrs. Clinton has left them. (more…)

As we have outlined (with considerable criticism) over the past year, the only substantive inquiry into the Benghazi scandal will have to be held in non-public settings. When you dig into the substance, and avoid the political aspects, everything that matters regarding the Benghazi fiasco is covered under U.S. national security protections.

There is little of value available to discuss in public hearings. If you understand the Benghazi Brief you understand why.

The CIA and the State Department were conducting a joint covert operation labeled “Zero Footprint” in Libya. That operation was expanded into Syria after Panetta left the CIA. The congressional intelligence oversight known as the Gang of Eight were fully briefed.

Hence, if House Select Committee Chair Trey Gowdy wants to discuss email use, or communication methods therein, during the tenure of Clinton and Panetta, around Operation Zero Footprint, Gowdy has to make those inquiries in private.

WASHINGTON — The chairman of the House select committee investigating the Benghazi attacks asked Hillary Rodham Clinton on Tuesday to appear for a private interview about her exclusive use of a personal email account when she was secretary of state.

“The committee believes a transcribed interview would best protect Secretary Clinton’s privacy, the security of the information queried, and the public’s interest in ensuring this committee has all information needed to accomplish the task set before it,” the chairman, Trey Gowdy, Republican of South Carolina, said in a letter sent Tuesday morning. (more…)

Hillary Clinton said the construct of her secret communication network was specifically because she only wanted to carry one device – obviously she lied right out of the gate.

The Associated Press has gained a total of FOUR emails from a FOIA request regarding correspondence between Hillary Clinton and her personal aide Huma Abedin search term “drone strikes”.

The emails show the Clinton led U.S. State Department focused an inordinate amount of time and energy discussing articles written by the media. It would appear at least a substantive portion of time in/around the State Dept was spent reviewing what reporters were writing about U.S. foreign policy outcomes.

One of the emails (Sept 18th 2011 – last in the pdf below) shows Hillary answering a question about floral arrangements amid a chain email discussing Pakistan’s efforts to battle the Taliban. Ms. Abedin responds curiously. (more…)