MOSCOW, May 7 (RIA Novosti), Daria Chernyshova – Republicans are hoping to prove the US administration’s wrongdoing in the 2012 Benghazi attacks on the American diplomatic mission in Libya, Bill Schneider, a Distinguished Senior Fellow and Resident Scholar at the Third Way thinktank told RIA Novosti.
“I think Republicans are hoping to get something like that and they are hoping to get something that shows wrongdoing, if not a crime,” Schneider said, drawing parallels between the situation around the Benghazi probe and the Watergate scandal of President Richard Nixon.
Noticeable differences between emails obtained by the group Judicial Watch and those presented to the congressional committee investigating the Benghazi attack have raised concerns that US authorities are withholding important information, Fox News has reported. Moreover, the Democrats have called to boycott the probe, a move which only increased tensions.
Schneider said it is hard to know what to expect and it is unlikely that something proving that President Obama knew about any cover up would be released.
“The administration attempted to control politically the information that went out. And what they are trying to do it appears, is to limit the political damage,” Schneider told RIA Novosti.
“What we are likely to see is a lot of politics and bureaucratic bungling which had tragic consequences for the Americans who lost their lives,” he said, adding that Americans would like to know who is responsible for the attack and the slow response of the diplomatic service.
The documents released by Judicial Watch include the names of the participants, while emails presented to the committee do not contain them. There also differences in classification. The documents were initially marked as “unclassified” by the US Department of State, but later provided to Judicial Watch as “secret.” Congress, however, received the same emails as “confidential,” to be declassified only in 2037.
Fox News quoted a spokesman for the oversight committee as saying that “by withholding information, this administration has only itself to blame for the continued questions about the before, during, and after of the Benghazi attacks.”
“Congressional Democrats regard the investigation as totally motivated by politics, they say that in several investigations, including an independent investigation any wrong-doing was never found,” Schneider noted. “And this is just a political show according to the Democrats to stir up the base of the Republican party,” he said.
In an email reply to RIA Novosti’s request to comment on the Benghazi emails released to Congress that Judicial Watch published last week, the organization declined to comment saying they “don’t have anyone available in the foreseeable future to help with this request.”
On September 11, 2012, an armed group of Libyan jihadists attacked an American diplomatic mission in Benghazi, killing an ambassador and another employee. The next day, two more US embassy workers were murdered by the militants in a second attack on the CIA building in Benghazi.
The attacks were believed to have been launched as a protest against the video “Innocence of Muslims.” The US Congress and presidential administration launched an investigation. Several people were charged for involvement in the attacks, but nobody was sentenced. In May last year, the White House announced a special committee would be created to look into the materials on the Benghazi tragedy.
