Pentagon tells Gowdy and Benghazi Panel to Back Off

It is hard to imagine a court case where critical information could be hidden or delayed from delivery for five years, especially with a congressional committee demanding answers and documents. Someone would surely go to jail for contempt or obstruction, and yet the Pentagon continues to stonewall and to complain about the requests from the committee.

It appears that there is some type of collusion to keep Hillary Clinton’s involvement in Benghazi from being exposed, and of course there is her long established penchant for dragging things out until the press and the public lose interest and tire of whatever investigation she is trying to escape from. And all the while, corrupt actions like those being practiced by the Pentagon are being ignored, and it is likely that the committee will ultimately issue a report that is ignored and quickly forgotten.

The Pentagon is sick of a House panel’s demands regarding the 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, and sent a letter to the committee Thursday night calling on them to do a better job with their urgent requests for interviews.

“The department is working diligently to accommodate your staff’s multiple and changing requests,” Hedger said. “[H]owever, we are concerned by the continuous threats from your staff to subpoena witnesses because we are not able to move quickly enough to accommodate these new requests.”

The letter was released by committee Democrats, who have charged that the investigation into the Sept. 11, 2012 attack on American facilities in Libya is aimed at impugning former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

One would think that five years is sufficient time to provide the witnesses requested, and that the committee was more than patient in waiting for their requests to be fulfilled.

Republicans have suggested they hope to finalize their report on the issue by mid-summer, revealing what the State Department knew about the issue and whether officials responded appropriately.

Hedger wrote that the Pentagon’s frustration came from requests for interviews that never seem to end.

“In February 2016, nearly 22 months after the establishment of the Committee, DoD lawyers met with Committee staff to receive what was represented to be a final list of requests for the Department,” Hedger wrote, adding that the list expanded in February and March, leading to a March 31 meeting to establish the new final list. Yet another came April 22. “While we understand that investigations evolve over time, it is unfortunate that the Committee has identified the need for these interviews only now.

The letter concluded with a complaint that Pentagon officials were being asked to talk about issues they deemed speculation, and a request that the department be left out of it.

“DoD interviewees have been asked repeatedly to speculate or engage in discussing on the record hypotheticals posed by Committee Members and staff, regardless of the interviewee’s actual knowledge or expertise to provide appropriate analysis or insight … I would respectfully request that you ensure pending interviews remain focused on obtaining facts rather than encouraging speculation,” Hedger wrote.

“This letter is further proof the Benghazi Committee is conducting a thorough, fact-centered investigation,” said a spokesman for the House Select Committee on Benghazi.

“It’s unfortunate it took the threat of subpoenas for the Pentagon to make witnesses available earlier this year. This delayed the committee from learning a tremendous amount of new information from several witnesses, and when they refer the committee to others in the department, the responsible thing to do is to interview them. What is DOD so afraid of? Why are they supposedly unable to find their own employees?”

Had the Pentagon been forthright and open in the beginning, additional witnesses would have been identified from the start. Instead, there has been a game of “hide the marble under the cup,” with some key witnesses being moved out of the country to make interviewing them more difficult. And it was actually not until October of 2015 that Clinton’s private server email was discovered and revealed the fact that she knew from day one that the attack was planned and launched by Islamic terrorists rather than resulting from the release of a bizarre and barely seen internet movie as she claimed for weeks after the attack.

So the lying continues, and the Clinton machine continues to corrupt and defile government agencies and workers who support her campaign for the presidency. It is discouraging and frightening that organizations such as the Pentagon could be influenced by such a dishonest and damaging person, but it is difficult to see any other explanation for the outrageous delay in providing the information and contacts necessary to resolve this case. It seems that some in the military have given up on the honor code and are more interested in covering for Clinton than in serving and protecting this nation.