Back on July 10th, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher introduced our report into the Congressional record during a Foreign Affairs Joint Subcommittee hearing. He then proceeded to ask three expert witnesses to respond to four separate items addressed in our report:
- Is there a connection between Benghazi and Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood?
- Is Ansar Al-Sharia Egypt implicated in the attacks?
- Exhibits A and B in our report (cell phone video and Libyan Intelligence document that implicate Mohammed Mursi).
- The possibility that the Blind Sheikh’s release was a possible motive in the attack.
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher
At a town hall in Costa Mesa CA, Rohrabacher was asked to talk about what’s going on with the Benghazi investigation. After saying that he thought the scandal “could well bring down President Obama”. He also said that there is a lot going on and that, “I gotta tell you something that I can’t tell you.” At several points, the congressman appeared to be thinking about divulging some of the information but pulled back. He did indicate that there were two tracks to the investigation and gave people something to chew on relative to one of those tracks.
First, Rohrabacher seemed to imply that the reason Obama did not order a rescue attempt may have had something to do with an attempt to rescue hostages in Iran back in 1979 that failed. That attempt helped to prevent Carter from being re-elected and that a failed rescue attempt in Benghazi could have had the same effect on Obama’s re-election.
The interesting part about the 1979 reference is that it was about rescuing hostages. During the July 10th hearing, Rohrabacher’s reference to the Blind Sheikh had to do with a prisoner exchange (perhaps for Stevens). While he didn’t go there at the hearing, we know that’s where he was getting at because it was in our report.
After making reference to Obama potentially learning from Carter and deciding not to order a rescue attempt, Rohrabcher equivocated for several seconds about revealing more but stopped and said, “…there’s a whole other half that I can’t talk to you about.”
h/t ALIPAC
Here is the excerpt from the July 10th exchange during which Rohrabacher referred to our report. Can any of what he wanted to tell his town hall audience be found in this video?
We can’t tell you.