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New Benghazi Findings Set to Reignite Debate

<p>Congressional Republicans on Tuesday accused Hillary Clinton&&num;8217&semi;s State Department of failing to protect the four Americans&comma; including Ambassador Christopher Stevens&comma; killed in a 2012 attack in Libya&comma; in a report that contained new and troubling revelations that will certainly&nbsp&semi;revive the debate on the U&period;S&period; presidential campaign trail&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In an 800-page report&comma; investigators&nbsp&semi;said Clinton&comma; who served as secretary of state from 2009 to 2013 and is now the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee&comma; &nbsp&semi;displayed&nbsp&semi;a &&num;8220&semi;shameful&&num;8221&semi; lack of response to congressional investigators looking into the attacks on a U&period;S&period; diplomatic compound in Benghazi&comma; Libya&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The report&comma; which was the&nbsp&semi;culmination of a two-year investigation by a special congressional committee led by Republican Representative Trey Gowdy&comma; comes at the heels of&nbsp&semi;the&nbsp&semi;recent email discoveries that&nbsp&semi;are leading many to believe Clinton will be indicted for mishandling classified information&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said Clinton&&num;8217&semi;s actions as secretary of state were &&num;8220&semi;disqualifying&period;&&num;8221&semi; &&num;8220&semi;Hillary Clinton was in charge&comma; knew the risks&comma; and did nothing&&num;8221&semi; to protect personnel on the ground in Libya&comma; he said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Here are the most shocking findings&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>1&rpar; Despite President Obama and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta&rsquo&semi;s clear orders to deploy military assets&comma; nothing was sent to Benghazi&comma; and nothing was en route to Libya at the time the last two Americans were killed almost 8 hours after the attacks began&period; &lbrack;pg&period; 141&rsqb;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>2&rpar; With Ambassador Stevens missing&comma; the White House convened a roughly two-hour meeting at 7&colon;30 PM&comma; which resulted in action items focused on a YouTube video&comma; and others containing the phrases &&num;8220&semi;&lbrack;i&rsqb;f any deployment is made&comma;&rdquo&semi; and &ldquo&semi;Libya must agree to any deployment&comma;&&num;8221&semi; and &&num;8220&semi;&lbrack;w&rsqb;ill not deploy until order comes to go to either Tripoli or Benghazi&period;&&num;8221&semi; &lbrack;pg&period; 115&rsqb;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>3&rpar; The CIA&&num;8217&semi;s September 13&comma; 2012&comma; intelligence assessment was rife with errors&period; On the first page&comma; there is a single mention of &&num;8220&semi;the early stages of the protest&&num;8221&semi; buried in one of the bullet points&period; The article cited to support the mention of a protest in this instance was actually from September 4&period; In other words&comma; the analysts used an article from a full week before the attacks to support the premise that a protest had occurred just prior to the attack on September 11&period; &lbrack;pg&period; 47&rsqb;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>4&rpar; A headline on the following page of the CIA&rsquo&semi;s September 13 intelligence assessment stated &ldquo&semi;Extremists Capitalized on Benghazi Protests&comma;&rdquo&semi; but nothing in the actual text box supports that title&period; As it turns out&comma; the title of the text box was supposed to be &ldquo&semi;Extremists Capitalized on Cairo Protests&period;&rdquo&semi; That small but vital difference&mdash&semi;from Cairo to Benghazi&mdash&semi;had major implications in how people in the administration were able to message the attacks&period; &lbrack;pg&period; 52&rsqb;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>5&rpar; Former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta bluntly told the committee &ldquo&semi;an intelligence failure&rdquo&semi; occurred with respect to Benghazi&period; Former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell also acknowledged multiple times an intelligence failure did in fact occur prior to the Benghazi attacks&period; &lbrack;pg&period; 129&rsqb;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Although the Clinton campaign has called the investigation a &&num;8220&semi;waste of time&comma;&&num;8221&semi; Presidential candidate Donald Trump released the following quote on his Twitter&colon; &nbsp&semi;&&num;8220&semi;Benghazi is just another Hillary Clinton failure&comma; it just never seems to work the way it&&num;8217&semi;s supposed to with Clinton&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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