Benghazi hearings about GOP’s political gain, not Clinton’s honesty

By William Morales, Henderson

Friday, Nov. 13, 2015 | 2 a.m.

The Benghazi hearings were nothing more than a political sham. Two Republican congressmen and a former aide report that the Benghazi committee was designed to undermine Hillary Rodham Clinton’s reputation as a presidential candidate. Other evidence exists, missed by the news media, that proves the Select Committee on Benghazi is a political fraud.

United States embassies and consulates are easy targets for protest and attack by agitators and terrorists with gripes against U.S. policies. What is incredible are the deceitful, dishonest, duplicitous double standards carried out by Republicans that exploit lost American lives for pure political gain.

During President George W. Bush’s two terms, terrorists attacked U.S. embassies and consulates 13 times, killing 98 and wounding 64. Three attacks occurred against U.S. diplomatic facilities in Pakistan, one of which resulted in the death of U.S. Diplomat David Foy. Other attacks happened in India, Indonesia, Uzbekistan, Syria, Greece and Yemen. On May 12, 2003, al-Qaida terrorists assaulted the diplomatic compound in Saudi Arabia, killing 36 people, including nine Americans. On Dec. 6, 2004, again in Saudi Arabia, al-Qaida terrorists stormed the U.S. Consulate and occupied the perimeter wall, killing nine.

Neither President Bush nor his two secretaries of state were ever criticized. There was never a call for “investigations.” Every accusation issued about Benghazi also could have been raised about the attacks during the Bush era. Sanctimonious, hypocritical Republican extremists justified their silence so as to not “undermine the commander in chief while troops were in harm’s way.” American troops and State Department personnel worldwide were in harm’s way Sept. 12, 2012, when the sad episode at Benghazi occurred.

On May 14, 2014, Rep. Darrell Issa and then-House Speaker John Boehner formed a select committee to again investigate Benghazi. Issa went so far as to subpoena Secretary of State John Kerry to testify. Kerry was not with the State Department when the Benghazi attacks happened. When called to testify, Kerry was dealing with major crises in Ukraine, Syria, Israel, South Sudan, North Korea and other hot spots. Issa’s subpoena put our diplomacy on hold while he poked around in the ashes trying to find incriminating evidence against Clinton.

Issa’s double standards and hypocrisy were clearly political. Issa opposed subpoenaing then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in 2007 in the yearslong investigation of phony Iraq War evidence, during which Issa then decried “the inappropriateness of hauling the secretary of state ... out of the performance of her job.”

The Select Committee on Benghazi is an inquisition that has no place in our politics.

The writer is a retired Air Force colonel.