Thursday, April 3, 2014
To: Friends & Supporters
From: Gary L. Bauer
Tragedy At Fort Hood
Yesterday America witnessed another terrible tragedy at Fort Hood. Ivan Lopez killed three people and wounded 16 others before taking his own life. Base commander Lt. Gen. Mark A. Milley says the investigation is ongoing and he isn’t ruling anything out. But you wouldn’t know that from our politically correct media, which rushed to judgment — quickly announcing that there was no evidence of terrorism.
The desire to so quickly take terrorism off the table is particularly frustrating since we reported Tuesday that the FBI was looking for another suspect who wanted to commit a “Fort Hood-inspired jihad against U.S. soldiers.”
More From Morrell?
Former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morrell testified yesterday before the House Intelligence Committee about his role in the Benghazi scandal. Predictably, he left many questions unanswered. We may need to hear more from Mr. Morrell.
Morrell admitted that he changed the talking points on what happened in Benghazi even though he had in front of him eyewitness reports from CIA officials in Libya telling him that it was a terrorist attack, not a “demonstration.”
Morrell was grilled about why he ignored that “on the ground” intelligence. He said that analysts in Washington, D.C., from the comfort of their desks and relying in part on “press accounts,” believed that the consulate was attacked due to an out of control demonstration caused by a video.
Former CBS reporter Sharyl Attkisson is skeptical. During an interview this morning, she called Morrell’s decision to rely on D.C.-based analysts a rookie mistake. Second-guessing agents on the ground is not something the CIA’s deputy director would be expected to do.
Attkisson added that when the Benghazi scandal began to unravel, the White House said it had nothing to do with the talking points. The State Department denied any responsibility too.
Then-CIA Director General David Petraeus told members of Congress that the CIA didn’t edit the talking points. In fact, Petraeus “grumbled” that the talking points were useless. Later, in a private meeting with key Senate Republicans, Morrell said the FBI had edited the talking points, which the FBI furiously denied.
Attkisson then reminded the audience that as the Benghazi attacks were happening, General Petraeus was already under investigation for having an affair, which eventually forced his resignation. During Morrell’s testimony yesterday, Rep. Peter King (R-NY) asked Morrell when he first learned that his boss, Gen. Petraeus, was under investigation. Morrell initially couldn’t remember, but later said it was the day before Petraeus resigned.
Did the investigation have anything to do with Petraeus pulling his punches on the talking points?
During one bizarre exchange, Morrell actually admitted that he edited the talking points to the detriment of his own agency and to the benefit of the State Department. He said:
“I saw the [CIA’s] language as self-serving and defensive on the agency’s part. Here was a tragic event, and we were saying, ‘We told you so.’ This was wrong, in my view, and would have been seen as an attempt to make the CIA look good and shift any possible blame for failing to see the risk of an attack from the agency to the State Department.”
But it was the State Department’s fault! The State Department repeatedly ignored warnings and threats, as well as requests for more security. In fact, one former security official testified that the most frustrating aspect of his job was fighting the enemy “inside the building” — referring to Hillary Clinton’s State Department.
We also know that a top State Department official complained that early changes to the talking points didn’t “resolve all of my issues or those of my building’s leadership.”
Morrell may have been the deputy director of the CIA, but he was first and foremost looking out for Hillary Clinton’s best interests. And it seems certain that he will have a major role in government once again if Hillary ever sits in the Oval Office.
Members of Congress must keep digging. They must create a joint select committee to get the answers that the families of the four brave Americans who were killed — Christopher Stevens, Glen Doherty, Sean Smith, and Tyrone Woods — deserve.
Priorities?
There is a long list of things we have witnessed in recent years that might shake one’s confidence in government — the IRS scandal, NSA spying, Benghazi, the Cornhusker kickback, stimulus-funded boondoggles for big donors and so on. Here’s another.
The Commandant of the Coast Guard, Admiral Robert Sapp, recently described a scene in which the president summoned all the service heads to the Oval Office in 2010 for a special meeting.Here’s what Admiral Sapp said:
“We were called into the Oval Office and President Obama looked all five service chiefs in the eye and said, ‘This is what I want to do.’ if any of us didn’t agree with it, we all had the opportunity to resign our commissions and go do other things.”
What was the president’s urgent priority? To discuss ways to protect the country from radical Islamists? To demand more action to secure our borders? To insist on answers for dealing with Iran’s nuclear program, Russia’s moves against its neighbors or China’s rapidly developing naval capabilities? No, it was nothing like that.
Obama ordered the top brass to the White House to demand that they aggressively promote homosexuality in the military or resign. Keep in mind, folks, that when Obama campaigned for office two years earlier and was asked about repealing the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, Obama said, “I would never make this a litmus test for the Joint Chiefs of Staff.”
We’ve gone from an America where George Washington knelt in prayer outside of Valley Forge, and was overheard by an eyewitness crying out to God for His blessing, to a president who makes the promotion of homosexuality a litmus test for military leadership.
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