Doug Mills/The New York
Times
President Obama commented on Benghazi and the I.R.S. at a news conference with Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain
Excuse us, we have to go check our phone records right now. The Associated Press on Monday slammed the government for the “massive and unprecedented intrusion” of seizing the news agency’s phone records, while the White House insisted it had “no knowledge” of the Justice Department’s operation. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington confirmed Monday that it had issued subpoenas of the AP’s phone records in an effort to track down a source who had disclosed an alleged Yemeni terrorist plot. The White House tried to distance itself from the latest public-relations disaster, with Press Secretary Jay Carney insisting that it is not involved. The Justice Department, for its part, said it values press freedoms, but that the public interest outweighed them. Well, that’s not really comforting. Attorney General Eric Holder [below] told reporters that the leak “put the American people at risk and was among the most serious—“if not the most serious”—leak he has ever seen. He said he had recused himself from the leak investigation last year.
May 14, 2013 6:49 AM
Facing a barrage of questions from reporters, Holder said he had ordered an investigation into the IRS's targeting of conservative groups, and that the FBI and Justice Department were coordinating on the matter...An inspector general’s report described a failure to stop the singling out of conservative groups as Congressional aides sought to determine if knowledge of the effort went beyond the Internal Revenue Service. .
Facing a barrage of questions from reporters, Holder said he had ordered an investigation into the IRS's targeting of conservative groups, and that the FBI and Justice Department were coordinating on the matter...An inspector general’s report described a failure to stop the singling out of conservative groups as Congressional aides sought to determine if knowledge of the effort went beyond the Internal Revenue Service. .
May 14, 2013 1:56 PM
N.Y. TIMES
A veteran diplomat gave a riveting minute-by-minute account on Wednesday of the lethal terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, last Sept. 11 and described its contentious aftermath at a charged Congressional hearing ...
During a chaotic night at the American Embassy in Tripoli, hundreds of miles away, the diplomat, Gregory Hicks, got what he called “the saddest phone call I’ve ever had in my life” informing him that Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens was dead and that he was now the highest-ranking American in Libya. For his leadership that night when four Americans were killed, Mr. Hicks said in nearly six hours of testimony, he subsequently received calls from both Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and President Obama.
Drew Angerer for The New York Times
Gregory Hicks, center, a State Department official, presented on Wednesday the first public testimony from an American official who was in Libya during the siege of the diplomatic compound in Benghazi last Sept. 11.
N.Y. TIMES
A veteran diplomat gave a riveting minute-by-minute account on Wednesday of the lethal terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, last Sept. 11 and described its contentious aftermath at a charged Congressional hearing ...
During a chaotic night at the American Embassy in Tripoli, hundreds of miles away, the diplomat, Gregory Hicks, got what he called “the saddest phone call I’ve ever had in my life” informing him that Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens was dead and that he was now the highest-ranking American in Libya. For his leadership that night when four Americans were killed, Mr. Hicks said in nearly six hours of testimony, he subsequently received calls from both Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and President Obama.
But within days, Mr. Hicks said, after raising questions about the account of what had happened in Benghazi offered in television interviews by Susan E. Rice, the United Nations ambassador, he felt a distinct chill from State Department superiors. “The sense I got was that I needed to stop the line of questioning,” said Mr. Hicks, who has been a Foreign Service officer for 22 years.
He was soon given a scathing review of his management style, he said, and was later “effectively demoted” to desk officer at headquarters, in what he believes was retaliation for speaking up....
The accounts from Mr. Hicks and two other officials, Mark I. Thompson, the former deputy coordinator for operations in the State Department’s Counterterrorism Bureau, and Eric Nordstrom, an official in the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security who had testified previously, added some detail to accounts of the night of Sept. 11 in Benghazi. Armed Islamic militants penetrated the diplomatic compound, starting the fire that killed Mr. Stevens and an aide, and later killed two security officers in a mortar attack; in Tripoli, where frantic diplomats fearing a similar invasion used an ax to destroy classified hard drives; and in Washington, where officials struggled to keep up with events. ...
The three witnesses challenged both the Obama administration’s initial version of events — long ago withdrawn — and its claim to have exhaustively investigated the attacks.
When Ms. Rice suggested on Sunday talk shows days after the attack that it had begun with protests against a crude anti-Muslim video that had been posted on YouTube, Mr. Hicks said: “I was stunned. My jaw dropped and I was embarrassed.”
Her remarks angered the president of Libya’s National Assembly, Mohamed Magariaf, who had said on one of the Sunday shows that the attack was the “preplanned” act of militants, including some from Al Qaeda, Mr. Hicks said. He asserted that Mr. Magariaf’s fury at being undercut caused Libyan officials to drag their feet on cooperating with F.B.I. investigators. A State Department official said the delays were caused by security concerns in Benghazi.
The witnesses also said they felt that the administration’s official investigation, led by a retired diplomat, Thomas R. Pickering, and a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm.Mike Mullen, was inadequate.
“They stopped short of interviewing people who I personally know were involved in key decisions,” Mr. Nordstrom said....
Mr. Nordstrom said that when he pressed for additional security personnel, he was told, “Basically, stop complaining.”
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