Boehner’s Benghazi Inaction May Be Over “Guilty Knowledge,” Damage to Political Position

Is John Boehner dodging a legitimate, thorough and coordinated investigation of the Benghazi terrorist attack because it will damage his political position as House Speaker? Or, is he passive and inactive because he got briefed on the intelligence and special operations in Libya as a member of the “Super 8?” In that case he likely possesses “guilty knowledge.”

Judicial Watch has kicked off 2014 by joining forces with family members of the Benghazi terrorist attack, U.S. military leaders and other prominent conservatives to call Boehner on the sad and pathetic job he’s doing investigating the tragedy. In a scathing letter delivered this week, the signers blast the Republican leader and demand he install a select committee to investigate the atrocity.

On September 11, 2012 Islamic jihadists raided the U.S. Special Mission in Benghazi, Libya. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, the first diplomat to be killed overseas in decades, and three other Americans were murdered in the violent incident. The Obama administration has worked hard to keep details of the attack—and the negligence that led to it—from the American public, but JW has gone to court and filed a number of public records requests to expose the truth. JW has also published two in-depth special reports on Benghazi, the last one on the first anniversary of the terrorist attack. Read the special reports here and here.

It was JW that obtained the first photos depicting the devastating aftermath of the terrorist attacks on the U.S. diplomatic and CIA facilities in Benghazi as well as details of the inexperienced foreign company hired to protect the American compound. The State Department paid the virtually unknown British firm $794,264 for nearly 50,000 guard hours, according to the federal contract obtained in the course of JW’s ongoing Benghazi probe.

JW still has a number of pending lawsuits and public-records requests involving Benghazi and continues pressuring the administration to tell the American people what really happened. This week, JW delivered a letter to House Speaker Boehner demanding he take action to extract the truth about Benghazi from the Obama administration. The mother and uncle of Foreign Officer Sean Smith, who was killed in the attack, and the father of murdered security officer Tyrone Woods also signed the letter. So did Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton, retired Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin, Freedom Center President David Horowitz and former Florida Congressman Allen West.

“To date, five (5) different committees of the House have conducted separate hearings, uncovering information in a piecemeal fashion lacking professional investigators,” the letter says. “The five committees’ efforts are disjointed and uncoordinated. The Obama administration has benefited from that dysfunctional process to hide the truth. Hardly any Obama administration witnesses have testified – publicly or privately. You have resisted repeated calls for the creation of a select investigative committee with subpoena authority. It appears that you are satisfied to allow that state of investigative incoherence and ambiguity to continue.  The last public hearing by any of the five committees was held in September – four (4) months ago.  The families of the dead who fought valiantly to protect the mission and their families, the survivors, and the American people deserve better from you and your Members of Congress. They deserve the absolute truth from their government. Your failure to get the truth and hold public officials accountable increases the possibility of other repeat attacks and additional failures to defend Americans abroad.”

It goes on to remind Boehner that his oversight of the Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation has been without any meaningful effect or result. “Not a single terrorist in this well-planned and executed military attack by radical Islamists has been apprehended.  Ahmed Abu Khattala, a ringleader of the attack, granted long interviews to reporters in Benghazi cafes, while the Obama administration—and you—have done nothing.  Nearly 16 months after the terrorist attack, the American public has no accountability and no plan of action from House leadership.”