# Benghazi Attack for Dummies. **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 8, 2013, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benghazi-attack-for-dummies/673466 "2013-11-08T23:46:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 14
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2013, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benghazi-attack-for-dummies/673466/261 "2013-11-20T23:01:32Z")
Wow my first moderator admonishment (albeit collective), and well deserved even. I’m starting to feel like a real board member. Sorry, I’ll clean up my act. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2013, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benghazi-attack-for-dummies/673466/262 "2013-11-20T23:05:38Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > That goes for both sides. Rein it in, friends. Rein it in. Don’t you want to keep the thread interesting, almost exciting? Because when it reins, it bores. Sorry. ---
**Author:** ![NotfooledbyW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f475e1/32.png) [@NotfooledbyW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NotfooledbyW)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2013, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benghazi-attack-for-dummies/673466/263 "2013-11-21T02:20:07Z")
> [@KarlGauss](#): > > Don’t you want to keep the thread interesting, almost exciting? Any thread is interesting when facts are made available and to watch how certain parties deal or do not deal with them. This is a classic thread on that score. Facts such as the Adminstration did not blame the youTube video for the attacks. Here is what Secretary Clinton said on September 12, the day after the attack: QUOTE]Secretary of State Clinton also made a statement on September 12, describing the perpetrators as “heavily armed militants” and “a small and savage group – not the people or government of Libya.”[168] She also reaffirmed “America’s commitment to religious tolerance” and said “Some have sought to justify this vicious behavior, along with the protest that took place at our Embassy in Cairo yesterday, as a response to inflammatory material posted on the internet,” but whether true or not, that was not a justification for violence.[169 [2012 Benghazi attack - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Benghazi_attack) [/QUOTE] She said clearly that ‘heavily armed militants’ were to blame because they are savages… Why do so many wish to believe that the Administration blamed the video for the attack? It would be interesting to find out why that is. Think about why actual words have very little meaning in our culture anymore. “Some have sought to justify this vicious behavior, along with the protest that took place at our Embassy in Cairo yesterday, as a response to inflammatory material posted on the internet,” but whether true or not, that was not a justification for violence. Secretary Clinton September 12, 2012. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2013, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benghazi-attack-for-dummies/673466/264 "2013-11-21T04:58:20Z")
> [@Ravenman](#): > > Give me the name of the Special Forces guy who was furious about it. Was it Lieutenant Colonel S.E. Gibson? Contact CBS and let us know. I gave you a cite. You refute it. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2013, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benghazi-attack-for-dummies/673466/265 "2013-11-21T05:01:31Z")
> [@NotfooledbyW](#): > > Facts such as the Adminstration did not blame the youTube video for the attacks. Here is what Secretary Clinton said on September 12, the day after the attack: I gave a cite on what happened. It’s fact that Rice made these statements. She didn’t roll out of bed and suddenly find herself in a TV studio. It was deliberate and it would have the backing of her superiors. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2013, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benghazi-attack-for-dummies/673466/266 "2013-11-21T05:30:47Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > Pardon me? From the moment the customer walks in and says “I’d like to charter a flight” to the moment it takes off…30 minutes? You have pilots on 24/7 standby? The plane is warmed up and fueled? A flight plan can be filed and approved? > > From a dead stop to in the air? > > I find myself doubting this. customers don’t “walk in a door”. They call asking for a flight. And yes, 30 minutes to the time I’ve made the call I’ve had a plane in the air. And yes, planes that are used for charter are fueled up and the pilots on standby. That’s how charter companies operate. Flight plans can be filed from your phone and they’re not “approved”. They’re just filed. And there is no mandate that a flight plan be filed but that’s the norm if it’s a fast pressurized plane because they fly above 18,000 feet which requires a flight plan. I’ve sent planes into some really small airports that were strictly VFR. Slot times at busy airports would have to be arranged but there is no reason for a charter to operate out of or into a major airport. In fact, it’s much more customer friendly to avoid major airports. Nobody would charter a plane to O’Hare when there are literally 20 airports around it that are easier to get to with a car or truck. Getting an airplane in the air is usually the easy part. Getting transportation and ground handling at either end takes up most of the time. The hardest charter I ever had involved talking a forestry group into offloading a plane with their equipment. It was the only airport within hundreds of miles and it was an emergency pipeline part that was a bit heavy to hand offload. Keep in mind I did chartering as an aside to my regular job. While I was somewhat good at it because of my pilot background I was hardly an industry guru. It was just shit work that landed on my desk. So I’m guessing people who spend their lives training for fast response missions are more than capable of finding the end of a runway without any special magic. ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2013, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benghazi-attack-for-dummies/673466/267 "2013-11-21T06:27:24Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > So I’m guessing people who spend their lives training for fast response missions are more than capable of finding the end of a runway without any special magic. …you have already been provided with a cite that shows it would take six hours from being given the go-ahead to get a flight and a team in the air. Charter companies don’t operate like the military. I very much doubt that plane you got on in thirty minutes came cheap. You are aware of how many airfields the US Military operate worldwide, correct? You want them all to have planes on the ground ready to take off in half an hour? How much would this cost? How much are you willing to pay to have a plane ready to go within 30 minutes on every US airfield worldwide? Not only Americans died on 9/11. I’m absolutely sure that there would have been an uproar if Russia and China started dropping troops on New York within half an hour of the planes striking the towers. I’m glad that the United States government isn’t stupid enough to commit to put troops on the ground of a sovereign nation without knowing exactly what is going on first. ---
**Author:** ![NotfooledbyW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f475e1/32.png) [@NotfooledbyW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NotfooledbyW)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2013, 8:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benghazi-attack-for-dummies/673466/268 "2013-11-21T08:33:18Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > I gave a cite on what happened. It’s fact that Rice made these statements. She didn’t roll out of bed and suddenly find herself in a TV studio. It was deliberate and it would have the backing of her superiors.( You gave a cite and I posted excerpts from that cite where Rice said exactly what I argue that she said. She blamed the attacks. Since you were unable to respond to my post dated 11-20-2013 at 04:43 AM (324a0443) I will post it again so all the good readers can see what exactly wht it was that you have not responded to without having to look it up. **(A)** I’m fairly certain it was covered to death. -Magiver [http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2012/11/16/flashback-what-susan-rice-said-about-benghazi/](http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2012/11/16/flashback-what-susan-rice-said-about-benghazi/) -cited by Magiver **(B.a)** in response to (A) "This is an explicit quote from Ambassador Rice where she blames the attack on “some individual clusters of (protest-hijacking) extremists who came with heavier weapons”. " -NotfooledbyW > [@](#): > > We believe that folks in Benghazi, a small number of people came to the embassy to — or to the consulate, rather, to replicate the sort of challenge that was posed in Cairo. And then as that unfolded, it seems to have been hijacked, let us say, by some individual clusters of extremists who came with heavier weapons, weapons that as you know in — in the wake of the revolution in Libya are — are quite common and accessible. And it then evolved from there. > > [http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2012/1...bout-benghazi/](http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2012/1...bout-benghazi/) -posted by NotfooledbyW B](B.b)\*\* in response to (A) So Magiver’s cite establishes that Rice: (a) was not speaking with ‘certainty what transpired’ just yet and… (b) the best assessment (that was we know now was provided by the CIA in talking points) was a ‘small number of people came to - the consulate to replicate the sort of challenge that was posed in Cairo.’, and… (c) the attack was actually blamed on “some individual clusters of (protest-hijacking) extremists who came with heavier weapons”. -NotfooledbyW > [@](#): > > MS. RICE: Well, Jake, first of all, it’s important to know that there’s an FBI investigation that has begun and will take some time to be completed. That will tell us with certainty what transpired. > > But our current best assessment, based on the information that we have at present, is that, in fact, what this began as, it was a spontaneous — not a premeditated — response to what had transpired in Cairo. In Cairo, as you know, a few hours earlier, there was a violent protest that was undertaken in reaction to this very offensive video that was disseminated. > > We believe that folks in Benghazi, a small number of people came to the embassy to — or to the consulate, rather, to replicate the sort of challenge that was posed in Cairo. -posted by NotfooledbyW B](B.c)\*\* in response to (A) Thus Magiver has provided a cite that not only shows that Magiver is wrong but that I am absolutely right. The attack was not blamed on the video. If a small number of people had shown up to replicate what happened in Cairo as Rice said then Stevens would not have been killed. He was killed as Rice said by extremists who brought heavy weapons and then hijacked what was believed to be a small crowd gathered to protest. There were no hijackers who brought heavy weapons to the violent protest in Cairo. Rice was not blaming the deaths of Stevens and Smith on the protest or a video. Those words are not what she said. She repeated the talking points prepared by the CIA verbatim. She blamed the deaths of Stevens and Smith on heavily armed attackers and her entire statement was qualified with her notice that the investigation would tell us what actually transpired. -NotfooledbyW ---
**Author:** ![NotfooledbyW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f475e1/32.png) [@NotfooledbyW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NotfooledbyW)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2013, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benghazi-attack-for-dummies/673466/269 "2013-11-21T08:45:43Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > I gave a cite on what happened. It’s fact that Rice made these statements. She didn’t roll out of bed and suddenly find herself in a TV studio. It was deliberate and it would have the backing of her superiors. It is a fact that Rice made the statements. No one is arguing with that. It is the content of the statements where your invalid arguments begin to fail and continue to fail throughout your entire opinion of what happened at Benghazi, what could have been during the attacks at Benghazi, and what was said about Benghazi after it happened. Your cites contradict what you claim they say. And I’d like to see you deal with it rather than just repeat the fact that you were able to provide a link to quotes of what Susan Rice actually said. ---
**Author:** ![NotfooledbyW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f475e1/32.png) [@NotfooledbyW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NotfooledbyW)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2013, 9:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benghazi-attack-for-dummies/673466/270 "2013-11-21T09:46:21Z")
Magliver’s argument is so full of holes you could drive a \*\*fifty truck convoy \*\*through it. That is what the Libyan’s sent to escort the thirty or so Americans out of the CIA Annex compound safely back to the airport. But more important is that I can go to a conservative news source and learn that even the " situation at the \*\*CIA annex \*\*has calmed" about three hours and twenty minutes after the original attack had begun. The fight at the consulate compound was over and Stevens was at the hospital. > [@](#): > > “Around 1 a.m., a team of additional security personnel from Tripoli lands at the Benghazi airport and attempts to find a ride into town. Upon learning that Stevens is missing and that the situation at the CIA annex has calmed, the team focuses on locating Stevens and obtaining information about the security situation at the hospital,” reported the AP. - See more at: [http://cnsnews.com/news/article/cia-timeline-confirms-woods-and-doherty-killed-benghazi-7hrs-after-wh-told-attack#sthash.KNpeEHsK.dpuf](http://cnsnews.com/news/article/cia-timeline-confirms-woods-and-doherty-killed-benghazi-7hrs-after-wh-told-attack#sthash.KNpeEHsK.dpuf) And we learn from the CNS report that the mortar barrage that killed Woods and Dougherty lasted start to finish with about four being fired a total of eleven minutes. This eleven minute barrage took place about four hours after the CIA team reported a lull in the fighting. > [@](#): > > 5:15 a.m. The team arrives at the CIA annex, with Libyan support, just before mortar rounds begin to hit the facility,” says the AP report on the timeline. “Two CIA security officers Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty are killed when they take direct mortar fire while engaging the attackers. The attack lasts only 11 minutes before dissipating.” - See more at: [http://cnsnews.com/news/article/cia-timeline-confirms-woods-and-doherty-killed-benghazi-7hrs-after-wh-told-attack#sthash.KNpeEHsK.dpuf](http://cnsnews.com/news/article/cia-timeline-confirms-woods-and-doherty-killed-benghazi-7hrs-after-wh-told-attack#sthash.KNpeEHsK.dpuf) And just to put it on the record here is part of the David Ignatius timeline dealing with events at the Annex that CNS based much of their report on. It is always best to go to the source rather than believe the interpretation of it by partisan news services: > [@](#): > > ●11:11 p.m.: An unarmed military Predator drone arrives over the compound to provide aerial reconnaissance. The drone had been diverted from a mission over Darnah, about 90 minutes away. But without weapons, it can’t help much. > > ●11:15 p.m.: The CIA team puts a group of State Department officers into a vehicle and sends it to the agency base; at 11:30, the CIA officers depart under fire and reach the annex six minutes later. > ●11:56 p.m.: CIA officers at the annex are attacked by a rocket-propelled grenade and small arms. Sporadic attacks continue for about another hour. The attacks stop at 1:01 a.m., and some assume the fight is over. > > ●1:15 a.m.: CIA reinforcements arrive on a 45-minute flight from Tripoli in a plane they’ve hastily chartered. The Tripoli team includes four GRS security officers, a CIA case officer and two U.S. military personnel on loan to the agency. They don’t leave the Benghazi airport until 4:30 a.m. The delay is caused by negotiations with Libyan authorities over permission to leave the airport; obtaining vehicles; and the need to frame a clear mission plan. The first idea is to go to a Benghazi hospital to recover Stevens, who they rightly suspect is already dead. (Also killed was a State Department communication specialist.) But the hospital is surrounded by the al-Qaeda-linked Ansar al-Sharia militia that mounted the consulate attack. > > ●5:04 a.m.: The team from Tripoli arrives at the CIA base. Glen Doherty, one of the GRS men from Tripoli, goes to the roof and joins Woods in firing positions. > > ●5:15 a.m.: A new Libyan assault begins, this time with mortars. Two rounds miss and the next three hit the roof. The rooftop defenders never “laser the mortars,” as has been reported. They don’t know the weapons are in place until the indirect fire begins, nor are the mortars observed by the drone overhead. The defenders have focused their laser sights earlier on several Libyan attackers, as warnings not to fire. At 5:26 the attack is over. Woods and Doherty are dead and two others are wounded. > > ●6 a.m.: Libyan forces from the military intelligence service finally arrive, now with 50 vehicles. They escort the Americans to the airport. A first group of 18, including two wounded, depart at 7 a.m. A second group of 12, plus the four dead, leave at 10 a.m. for Tripoli and then the long flight back to America. > > [http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/david-ignatius-cias-benghazi-timeline-reveals-errors-but-no-evidence-of-conspiracy/2012/11/01/a84c4024-2471-11e2-9313-3c7f59038d93\_story\_1.html](http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/david-ignatius-cias-benghazi-timeline-reveals-errors-but-no-evidence-of-conspiracy/2012/11/01/a84c4024-2471-11e2-9313-3c7f59038d93_story_1.html) Keeping all Americans hunkered down at the CIA Annex until sufficient heavy Libyan security could arrive to escort them to safety was clearly the best call. There was nothing that could be done to stop the eleven minute mortar barrage that two of four shells made a direct hit. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2013, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benghazi-attack-for-dummies/673466/271 "2013-11-21T13:02:57Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > I gave a cite on what happened. It’s fact that Rice made these statements. She didn’t roll out of bed and suddenly find herself in a TV studio. It was deliberate and it would have the backing of her superiors. Can anyone explain why it is so fucking important what Rice said on the Sunday talk shows? ---
**Author:** ![Human\_Action](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@Human\_Action](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Human_Action)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2013, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benghazi-attack-for-dummies/673466/272 "2013-11-21T13:03:47Z")
> [@NotfooledbyW](#): > > Keeping all Americans hunkered down at the CIA Annex until sufficient heavy Libyan security could arrive to escort them to safety was clearly the best call. There was nothing that could be done to stop the eleven minute mortar barrage that two of four shells made a direct hit. And again, note that the mortar attack came minutes after more Americans arrived at the annex. It could have been a coincidence, but it’s at least as likely that the militia was waiting for more targets, and would have fired on a rescue team regardless of when it arrived. ---
**Author:** ![Hamlet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hamlet/32/2818_2.png) [@Hamlet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamlet)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2013, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benghazi-attack-for-dummies/673466/273 "2013-11-21T13:08:17Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > Can anyone explain why it is so fucking important what Rice said on the Sunday talk shows? Because it’s all they got. The studies and reports afterward show there was nothing the military could appropriately do, there were more numerous and deadly attacks on embassies and compounds under the Bush administration, and the Republicans voted to limit spending for embassy security. The only way to manufacture this tragic event into a scandal is to claim a lie, assert some kind of coverup, and … well then it sorta falls apart. But it lasts longer than the other potential scandals, so it was the best they had. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2013, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benghazi-attack-for-dummies/673466/274 "2013-11-21T13:28:07Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > Contact CBS and let us know. I gave you a cite. You refute it. It was refuted once, but I will repeat for everyone’s benefit. A State Department official testified in May 2013 that after a first rescue team went from Tripoli to Benghazi (and was subsequently stuck at the airport for hours), there was a second team of four Special Forces soldiers that was in Tripoli. In June 2013, the commander of that Special Forces detachment testified to the House Armed Services Committee. The Republicans on that committee then issued a press release, which said in part: [quote] In his testimony, LTC Gibson clarified his responsibilities and actions during the attack. Contrary to news reports, Gibson was not ordered to “stand down” by higher command authorities in response to his understandable desire to lead a group of three other Special Forces soldiers to Benghazi. Rather, he was ordered to remain in Tripoli to defend Americans there in anticipation of possible additional attacks, and to assist the survivors as they returned from Benghazi. **Gibson acknowledged that had he deployed to Benghazi he would have left Americans in Tripoli undefended. He also stated that in hindsight, he would not have been able to get to Benghazi in time to make a difference** , and as it turned out his medic was needed to provide urgent assistance to survivors once they arrived in Tripoli." [quote] [Cite.](http://armedservices.house.gov/index.cfm/press-releases?ContentRecord_id=2da7b67e-088e-462f-93c2-01cab80c562a)And what was the “urgent assistance” that was provided? According to the right-wing Washington Times, quoting the same State Department official, the urgent assistance “saved the leg and probably the life” of one of the evacuees from Benghazi. I’m sure Col. Gibson was pissed off at the time. But the point that almost everyone here has been making is that, in hindsight, rushing more people in wouldn’t have made a difference. _Col. Gibson himself acknowledged that in testimony to the House Armed Services Committee._ Why is it so difficult for you to see, even with the benefit of hindsight, that Col. Gibson and most posters in this thread are in agreement that your plan wouldn’t have worked? ---
**Author:** ![Human\_Action](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@Human\_Action](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Human_Action)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2013, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benghazi-attack-for-dummies/673466/275 "2013-11-21T13:35:52Z")
> [@Ravenman](#): > > Why is it so difficult for you to see, even with the benefit of hindsight, that Col. Gibson and most posters in this thread are in agreement that your plan wouldn’t have worked? **Magiver** ’s plan is different, and far bolder: rather than stating that the second team of four should have been deployed from Tripoli, he’s arguing that a FAST or SO team from Europe should have been dropped into Benghazi. ---
**Author:** ![Acewiza](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f475e1/32.png) [@Acewiza](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acewiza)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2013, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benghazi-attack-for-dummies/673466/276 "2013-11-21T14:05:44Z")
Can somebody explain to me why what happened after the attack actually started is more important than what happened before it, in terms of the high-ranking administration officials concerned? ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2013, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benghazi-attack-for-dummies/673466/277 "2013-11-21T14:11:52Z")
> [@Human\_Action](#): > > **Magiver** ’s plan is different, and far bolder: rather than stating that the second team of four should have been deployed from Tripoli, he’s arguing that a FAST or SO team from Europe should have been dropped into Benghazi. And just to state the obvious, that makes his plan _less_ realistic as opposed to more achievable. ---
**Author:** ![Acewiza](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f475e1/32.png) [@Acewiza](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acewiza)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2013, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benghazi-attack-for-dummies/673466/278 "2013-11-21T14:31:16Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > Can anyone explain why it is so fucking important what Rice said on the Sunday talk shows? Because it points to the start of the cover-up of State Department mismanagement under Hillary Clinton. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2013, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benghazi-attack-for-dummies/673466/279 "2013-11-21T14:37:52Z")
> [@Acewiza](#): > > Because it points to the start of the cover-up of State Department mismanagement under Hillary Clinton. No it doesn’t. It’s a bit of trivia, an utterly unconnected dot. ---
**Author:** ![Acewiza](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f475e1/32.png) [@Acewiza](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acewiza)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2013, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benghazi-attack-for-dummies/673466/280 "2013-11-21T14:46:50Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > No it doesn’t. It’s a bit of trivia, an utterly unconnected dot. Riiiight. House Intelligence Subcommittees are well known to spend alot of time investigating trivial, unconnected dots. You might wish to consider sourcing your trivial opinions elsewhere, Bob. Just a suggestion. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benghazi-attack-for-dummies/673466.md?page=13) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/benghazi-attack-for-dummies/673466.md?page=15)