Tuesday, May 7, 2013
John Bolton: Benghazi Could Topple Administration
The mushrooming Benghazi scandal could potentially lead to the unraveling of the administration of President Barack Obama, says John Bolton, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
"This could be a hinge point for the Obama administration. It's that serious for them,'' Bolton told "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV.
Bolton made his remarks as Congress prepares on Wednesday to interview at least three witnesses about the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. Embassy in Benghazi, Libya.
One witness, Greg Hicks — the embassy's No. 2 official — has said everybody knew the bloodbath, which ended in the deaths of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans, was a terrorist attack.
This despite the White House initially claiming it was an impromptu protest against a blasphemous YouTube video.
Hicks has also said the administration lied in claiming to be in close contact with diplomatic officials in Libya during the attack.
"The three witnesses who have been identified are not bystanders," said Bolton, now a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
"These are not people who are going to report on hearsay of what somebody in Tripoli told somebody that they heard from.
"These are people who were directly involved in different capacities before, during, and after the attack. And what we’ve seen leaked already from interviews the committee staff has done is devastating."
Bolton said then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton "escaped any accountability or responsibility during her hearings on Benghazi right before she stepped down."
But with new witnesses stepping forward, hinting at a cover-up, the fingers could once again point at her and others, he said.
"You've already seen some Democratic members of Congress are beginning to run from this, as they say in the South, like scalded dogs because they can see this unraveling," Bolton said.
He said it is important for Capitol Hill to get the bottom of who knew what at what point in the Benghazi attack and assign accountability.
"When you can kill an American ambassador and three of his brave colleagues and, for eight months, escape with complete impunity, that sends a huge message," he said.
"So this is very important to get to the bottom of this. It's not ancient history, as the White House and Secretary Clinton tried to say.
"We've got people at risk right now in the Middle East. We need to know what happened so we can prevent it from happening again."
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