General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: THIS should be the headline: REPUBLICANS CUT FUNDING FOR BENGHAZI CONSULATE.... [View all]JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)On the one hand they support the prosecution of Bradley Manning (which provided he is not tortured and gets a fair trial may be OK depending on facts which I do not know) and put out a lot of rhetoric about how Julian Assange should be prosecuted. On the other hand, they want to know all the details about whatever transpired in Benghazi while the families of the deceased are still grieving and before a reasonable investigation has been completed. If those who did the killings are to be apprehended and punished, they have to be found through a somewhat discrete process I should imagine. If they find out how much the CIA and president know about them, they will get away.
As for the events in Benghazi. It appears that our ambassador and the ambassador from Turkey met in Benghazi that night and that they were quite concerned about their security.
Now the real question is why would two ambassadors have met in Benghazi when Tripoli is the capital of Libya and the embassies of both countries (if Turkey has one in Libya) would both be located in Tripoli.
It is my suspicion that something was being negotiated or carried out in Benghazi that our government does not want the world to know about.
The president and the administration are entitled to and can legally carry out all sorts of top secret, classified activities. There may be times when matters are so sensitive that not even members of Congress should know. Not declarations of war, but how about, say an exchange of prisoners for third parties (other countries)?
As an example, what if Israel and Palestine or Israel and Syria wanted to exchange prisoners (just examples, please. I have no information on this but I understand that Paula Broadwell said something about prisoners in Benghazi)? Wouldn't Benghazi a good place to do it? And wouldn't the American and Turkish ambassadors be trusted to do it? And why would Congress need to know that?
I am very much in favor of full disclosure to Congress but let's remember that the Republicans use every possible excuse to try to embarrass our president.
Assuming there was an attack on the Benghazi consulate, it may have been performed by third parties -- by some third country -- and that may be the subject of a huge investigation. These sorts of things have happened.
Further, in the recent past, some members of Congress, such as Issa have exposed classified information whether purposely or inadvertently.
Congress has to have more understanding of the necessity for secrecy with regard to some ongoing security and diplomatic matters.
In contrast, everyone is blood thirsty when it comes to the likes of Julian Assange who simply published diplomatic information that had been broadly disseminated within the armed forces. In discussions of the Assange matter, I have pointed out that the matters he exposed are not so important. They mostly happened in the past. While they have bearing on current matters, so do a lot of historical events that were once secret and are now common knowledge to us political junkies. Take, for instance, Kermit Roosevelt's toppling of a government in Iran.
If there is information about the events in Benghazi that have not been disclosed to Congress, then it is extremely sensitive. It no doubt concerns matters yet to be resolved. Congress should be patient and work quietly behind the scenes to gain understanding about what transpired in Benghazi. Their publicity about their concerns is harming our country and our intelligence and security agencies in my opinion.
Let's just wait on this one. Something happened in Benghazi, but we just have to wait to find out what it was. And in the end, it may be really none of our business.