Benghazi affair; Apology to Irving mayor
Benghazi affair
New documentation of Hillary Clinton’s emails and conversations verify that the attack in Benghazi was by terrorists and not caused by a protest over a YouTube video.
That evening, Clinton issued a statement blaming the YouTube video.
Just 45 minutes later, she emailed her daughter: “Two of our officers were killed in Benghazi by an al Qaeda-like group.”
A documented conversation with Libyan President Mohammed Yousef el-Magariaf has her saying: “… as there is a gunbattle ongoing, which I understand Ansar as Sharia [sic] is claiming responsibility for.”
Documentation of the following afternoon shows Clinton telling Egyptian Prime Minister Hesham Kandil: “We know that the attack in Libya had nothing to do with the film. It was a planned attack — not a protest.”
Yet for weeks the Obama administration kept telling the “video caused the attack” lie.
Tim Scott, Fort Worth
There were two terrorist attacks on Sept. 11. The first was Sept. 11, 2001, which killed nearly 3,000 Americans and destroyed the World Trade Center towers in New York.
The second was on Sept. 11, 2012, in Benghazi, Libya, where four Americans were killed.
The outgoing Clinton administration warned the incoming Bush administration to keep after Osama bin Laden because of credible intelligence that he was planning an attack on U.S. soil, probably with commercial airliners. Eight months later the horrible disaster happened.
Later, congressional Democrats called for a full-scale investigation of 9-11, but President Obama deemed that it would be counterproductive.
Along comes Benghazi, and Republicans saw a chance to derail Hillary Clinton’s chances to succeed Obama.
Fortunately, the Republicans grossly overplayed their hand.
They capped the investigation with the 11-hour hearing spectacle we saw on TV.
I’ve never seen a witness, not even a mob witness, so abused.
This may well lead to President Hillary.
Carl V. Flores, Grandview
Apology to mayor
I wrote an opinion column published in the Star-Telegram on Oct. 8, a portion of which criticized Irving Mayor Beth Van Duyne for her comments about Sharia law and Muslim terrorism.
I related her comments to the arrest of 14-year-old Ahmed Mohamed when he took his homemade digital clock to class at MacArthur High School. Unfortunately, when condensing the column for publication, I failed to mention that Van Duyne had made those comments about Sharia law earlier in the year, not at the time of Ahmed’s detention.
To her credit Van Duyne actually posted her support of Ahmed on her Facebook page. I sincerely apologize to the mayor for my error.
M. Basheer Ahmed, M.D., chairman emeritus, Muslim Community Center for Human Services, Richland Hills
This story was originally published November 3, 2015 at 5:26 PM with the headline "Benghazi affair; Apology to Irving mayor."