The 15 Questions About Benghazi Barack Obama Does Not Want To Answer

A picture shows the damage inside the burnt US consulate building in Benghazi on September
GIANLUIGI GUERCIA/AFP/GettyImages

Republicans are out with the full report on the Benghazi attack on an American consulate that killed four Americans, but part of the report detailed fifteen questions for President Barack Obama that were not answered.

Benghazi Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy sent a list of questions to Obama’s counsel, but his request was ultimately rejected by the White House, according to Politico.

When asked by reporters why the president did not wish to cooperate, White House deputy spokesperson derided the investigation as a “conspiracy” and cited a photo of the president in the Oval Office the night of the attacks released by the White House on Flickr.

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“I know Republicans don’t want to believe that photo. Maybe they think it was Photoshopped. Maybe they think it was fake. But it’s 100 percent authentic,” Schultz said during the White House press briefing on Monday. “And it’s a question we answered years ago.”

Here are the 15 questions that Obama refused to answer (two of them are classified):

1. The White House issued a readout of your meeting with senior administration officials on September 10, 2012, indicating “specific measures” had been taken to “prevent 9/11 related attacks.” What were these specific measures, and how did these specific measures differ from specific measures taken on prior anniversaries of September 11?

2. When did you first learn a U.S. facility in Benghazi, Libya, had been attacked? What were you told, and by whom? Were you informed Sean Smith had been killed during the initial attack?

3. What orders or direction, if any, did you give to Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta upon learning of the initial attack? Did you or anyone at your direction ever modify, withdraw, alter, or amplify the initial orders or direction you gave to Secretary Panetta?

4. What were you told about Department of Defense assets in the region that could respond specifically to Benghazi? Did you ask for or receive a list of military or paramilitary assets in the region that could respond to Benghazi during the pendency of the attacks?

5. Were you subsequently kept informed about the initial attack, subsequent attacks, and/or efforts to either send military assistance or evacuate U.S. personnel? By whom?

6. When did you learn Ambassador Christopher Stevens was missing, and who informed you? Were you kept informed on efforts to locate Ambassador Stevens, and if so, by whom? When did you learn Ambassador Stevens was dead, and who informed you?

7. [Classified]

8. Were you aware that prior to any military asset moving to respond to the attacks the State Department expressed concerns to the White House about the number of military assets going
into Libya?

9. When did you learn of a mortar attack that killed Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty? Who informed you?

10. Were you aware of any efforts by White House and Department of Defense officials during the evening of September 11, 2012, and into the early morning hours of September 12, 2012, to reach out to YouTube and Terry Jones regarding an anti-Muslim video? What specifically connected the attacks in Benghazi to this anti-Muslim [sic] video, and why weren’t these efforts made after the protests in Cairo, Egypt?

11. When did you learn individuals associated with terrorist organizations participated in the attack on the U.S. facilities in Benghazi, Libya?

12. Did you receive the President’s Daily Brief (PDB) on September 12, 2012 and September 13, 2012? If so, who provided you with the PDB?

13. Have you ever viewed surveillance footage from the cameras (or other sources) located at the U.S. facilities in Benghazi depicting the attacks? Will you declassify this footage so the American
people can see for themselves what transpired?

14. Did you authorize a covert action or covert operation to provide lethal assistance to Libyan rebels?

15. [Classified]

In a June 7 letter to the White House counsel, Chairman Gowdy revealed that he even offered to show the White House the questions in advance.

“At our meeting in Charlotte, N.C. in January of 2016, I further offered to show you the questions in advance and provide the underlying testimony that gave rise to the question,” Gowdy said in the letter. “In other words, each of these questions has an evidentiary basis rooted in either documents or other testimony, and I was willing to show you the questions and the foundation for the question.”

But the White House has refused to cooperate.

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