Top Revelations from Libya Hearing

[formerlurker]

Top Revelations from Libya Hearing
By Katrina Trinko
October 10, 2012 7:39 P.M.
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At the House Oversight Committee hearing’s today on Libya, there were plenty of revelations. Here are some of them in no particular order:

1. Charlene Lamb is uncomfortable with the word terrorist. “You don’t mention terrorist at all,” commented Representative Dan Burton (R., Ind.) “Why is that? … Why would you call this stuff anything but a terrorist attack?”

“I have just presented the facts as they come across,” responded Lamb. “I am not making any judgments on my own, and I’m leaving that to –”

Later on, Representative Sandy Adams (R., Fla.) said to Lamb, “As a former law enforcement officer, I recognize there are certain dates that law enforcement that across our great nation prepare for because we believe they are significant to certain groups, one of which is September 11, and it is significant to which group, Miss Lamb? Which group would make that significant?”

Lamb said she wasn’t following Adams, and then this exchange occurred:

Adams: “Which terrorist group finds September 11 significant?”

Lamb: “I’m sure all terrorists groups –

Adams: “But mostly Al-Qaeda, would you not agree?”

Long pause

Adams: “Yes or no. If you don’t agree, say you don’t agree.”

Lamb: “Yes, I’m sure they do.”

2. Contra the Democrat narrative, the security flaws in Benghazi were not due to the budget. From Representative Elijah Cummings (D., Maryland) prepared statement for the hearing (emphasis in original):

    The fact is that, since 2011, the House has cut embassy security by hundreds of millions of dollars below the amounts requested by the President.  The Senate restored some of these funds, but the final amounts were still far below the Administration’s requests.  And they were far below the levels we enacted in 2010.

    We can do better, and I would like to ask the Chairman to join me in doing so.  Mr. Chairman, I ask you to join me in calling on our leaders in the House to immediately consider a supplemental funding bill to restore funding for embassy security that was cut by the House over the past two years.

    According to the Joint Committee on Taxation, we could save $2.5 billion per year just by eliminating the tax break for oil companies.  Even Republicans now agree that we should do this, including Governor Romney.  We could fully replenish these embassy security accounts with just a fraction of that amount.

But when questioned, Lamb denied that budgetary concerns had influenced her decision. committee “It has been suggested that budget cuts are responsible for a lack of security in Benghazi, and I’d like to ask Miss Lamb,” said Representative Dana Rohrabacher (R., California). “You made this decision personally. Was there any budget consideration and lack of budget which lead you not to increase the number of people in the security force there?”

“No, sir,” said Lamb.

This post will be updated as I transcribe.

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner

Truly unbelievable.

 

[Texacon]

This is horrible. I watched about an hour of this at lunch. If this doesn't grab the nations attention we are lost as a nation.

KC

[thundley4]

This will take more than some low life lackey falling on their sword to save Obama, imo.  Someone higher up is going to get tossed under the bus this time.

[Boudicca]

This will take more than some low life lackey falling on their sword to save Obama, imo.  Someone higher up is going to get tossed under the bus this time.

Well, Obama's appointment of Hillary as Sec of State has finally become clear.

[Freeper]

This is horrible. I watched about an hour of this at lunch. If this doesn't grab the nations attention we are lost as a nation.

KC

Hell by next week this will be Bush's fault.