THE ARB REPORT OR A-LL R-UBBISH AND B-UNK

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on held a hearing Thursday September, 19 with members of the Accountability Review Board that testified about their report on Benghazi. The ARB report that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was allowed to read first before Congress and who was never questioned by these so-called investigators shows itself to be a warmed over government excuse report rather than a hard fact finding search for the truth. 

This (ARB) in-house government review report as to the events in Benghazi, Libya was not a serious, probing, comprehensive or real search for accountability. Instead it was an inquiry of the State Department done without witnesses being under oath, without a transcription of questions and answers, and in some cases without any notes taken and recorded by the fact finders. 

It is one thing for the members of the government review to claim that their objective was solely to find what bureaucratic mistakes and poor security planning existed so as to make improvement recommendations, yet it is quite another to claim no one in senior office is responsible for incompetency. One has to ask why they would call themselves an accountability review board. When did the word accountability become synonymous with faultless? 

The ARB report and the testimony from the Board members came across to all Americans watching the hearings as the genesis of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton infamous line “What difference does it make?” They were not seeking the truth, not seeking to critically evaluate State Department officials for not having adequate security in Benghazi nor did the board want to chastise the Department of Defense that failed to mount a rescue response.

The Democrats on the committee were full of rage but it was at their Republican members for being critical of the lack of investigation done by the board rather than the debacle of Benghazi. These Democrats went so far as to accuse some Republican members as being disrespectful. Yet I was always taught along with many Americans that questioning authority is our duty as citizens.

The real disrespectful action on that committee was when the mother of Sean Smith and the father of Tyrone Woods were placed at the witness table the Democrats left the hearing. I think that clearly defines an act of disgraceful disrespect and disregard by Democrats for the families of the fallen heroes.  

The sum total of what was learned at this hearing was that no one, not one, senior official in the State Department was at fault for a lack of security and that there was not enough time to mount a rescue. To believe those two postulations about Benghazi would require you to not just be a low information voter but also among the most gullible and naïve persons on the planet. 

Whitewash is not a strong enough term to describe the cover-up and disdainful treatment of the truth by this rubber stamping board that produced a narrative report backing the lies told by this administration to the American people about the events of Benghazi.

In the compelling testimony of Patricia Smith and Charles Woods that spoke of their search for answers as to why their sons died, alone and abandoned by this administration we Americans identify in two ways. One we feel their pain that their sons gave their life for our country and officials of that country lied (protest caused by a video) about the cause of their deaths. Two, we agree with their distrust of an administration that continues to promote the lie that there was no stand down order and no resources that could have been mobilized to rescue their sons.

If the Administration and the Democrats supporting this administration in Congress thinks that the ARB (All Rubbish and Bunk) report will finally stop the families, veterans and the majority of Americans from seeking both truth and accountability for the reckless, cowardice and political treachery of Benghazi, they are living a delusional reality.

Americans will continue to seek the truth about Benghazi, and we will not abandon, stand down, or accept the new normal, that when America is under attack, our Commander in Chief of our military, goes MIA (missing in accountability).