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Subscribe to RSSCongressman Peter King, who serves as Chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, tells TODAY's Matt Lauer that the FBI had an "absolute obligation to tell the president" as soon as General Petraeus' name came up in the agency's investigation.
The chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee says she will seek testimony from former CIA Director David Petraeus, who resigned Friday as CIA director after acknowledging an extramarital affair, about the September attack on the consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that left four Americans dead.
“I have no doubt now that we will need to talk with David Petraeus and we will likely do that in closed session. But it will be done one way or another,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., told NBC News’ Andrea Mitchell on Monday.
Feinstein also she also may subpoena reports on a trip Petraeus took to Libya in the last year.
“I believe that Director Petraeus made a trip to the region shortly before this (Petraeus affair) became public,” Feinstein said on "Andrea Mitchell Reports." “We have asked to see the trip report. One person tells me he’s read it, and then we try to get it and they tell me it hasn’t been done. That’s unacceptable.”
“It may have some very relevant information to what happened in Benghazi,” Feinstein said.
A week and a half ago, Petraeus went to Tripoli and conducted a personal inquiry into the Benghazi attack, NBC News has confirmed.
Petraeus has not commented on his trip to Benghazi last month.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., tells NBC's Andrea Mitchell that "a decision was made somewhere not to brief" the Senate Intelligence Committee about on the Petraeus affair and compares the scandal to "peeling an onion," saying "every day another peel comes off," revealing "a new dimension"
Petraeus revelation began as cyber-harassment probe
Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, information management officer Sean Smith and security personnel Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty were killed in the Benghazi attack on Sept. 11-12.
Petraeus, a decorated four-star general who received widespread praise for the surge strategy that helped stabilize the insurgency in Iraq, resigned as CIA director on Friday, citing an extramarital affair.
Numerous federal government officials have told NBC News that the married general had a relationship with his biographer, Paula Broadwell, 40, who authored “All In,” a book about Petraeus’ education.
Feinstein said she received no advance notice of Petraeus’ resignation or the affair.
The affair came to light after an FBI investigation into harassing emails sent to a family friend of Petraeus, Jill Kelley, sources have told NBC News. The investigation traced the emails to Broadwell, who revealed the affair. Petraeus also admitted the affair.
The FBI determined that no criminal charges would be filed as a result of the investigation.
Lawmakers question timing of Petraeus resignation
But now, Feinstein has linked the Petraeus affair with another controversy within the Obama administration – the attack on the Benghazi diplomatic mission in Libya.
The Senate Intelligence committee planned to start closed-door hearings on the Benghazi attack on Thursday with further proceedings expected to follow. Petraeus had been expected to testify at the hearings before he resigned as CIA director.
Republican lawmakers and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney have criticized the administration’s evolving explanation of what triggered the Benghazi attack. Officials early on said it was a spontaneous reaction during a protest about an anti-Islamic film. Later, it was termed a planned terrorist attack.
Questions have also been raised about whether the consulate had adequate security and whether the State Department responded appropriately to requests for more protection.
Feinstein also questioned Broadwell's role as Petraeus' biographer.
“It’s a rather confused situation because at one point she was an Army reservist doing intelligence-related work, at the same time she was doing a journalist’s work, a biography on David Petraeus,” Feinstein said. “It seems to me these two things don’t go together, it seems to me someone who becomes active military should not be writing a book.”
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What happened to the no man left behind act? This administration left those brave Americans for the slaughter. How does an alleged affair constitute the delay of this issue? I don't care if Patreus was getting a blow from Ms. Obama, somebody needs to unseal this story.
To..Eric ""''
Well you might want to ask ..no never mind he's dead
Gerald Ford: Mayaguez Incident
Ford ... faced a foreign policy crisis with the Mayaguez Incident. In May 1975, shortly after the Khmer Rouge took power in Cambodia, Cambodians seized an American merchant ship, the Mayaguez, in international waters.
Ford dispatched Marines to rescue the crew, but the marines landed on the wrong island and met unexpectedly stiff resistance just as, unknown to the US, the Mayaguez sailors were being released.
In all phases of the operation, fifty service men were wounded and forty-one killed, including three men believed to have been left behind alive and subsequently executed and twenty-three Air Force personnel killed earlier while enroute to the staging area at Utapao, Thailand.
It is believed that approximately sixty Khmer Rouge soldiers were killed out of a land and sea force of about 300.
.You gotta love it the right wingers you don't come here looking for a discussion or debate ..you come here looking for a fight flaming..baiting and hurling insults at liberals on a right wing labeled so called liberal blog and then turn around and squawk like castrated roosters and plucked hens when you get back a little of what you dish out...you get back what you give out here or haven't you noticed....
This happens on both sides of the political aisle. It's not confinded to the righties or haven't you noticed.
To..Liars"""
I rest my case
Thank you
That is the way it always is with the tea billys... and more than likely will always be.... never any consideration for waiting for a full investigation... always hating Obama as much as possible... no matter what the truth my be... isn't that racism?
To..left"""
What have they got left ..they've been proven wrong about everything else over and over
It's almost embarrassing
But oh wait that's right they don't have emotion
The Obama administration officials repeatedly rejected “requests for increased security despite escalating violence … (and) systematically decreased existing security to dangerous and ineffective levels.”
Lt. Col. Andy Wood The former head of a Special Forces “Site Security Team” in Libya says that in spite of multiple pleas from himself and other U.S. security officials on the ground for “more, not less” security personnel, the State Department removed as many as 34 people from the country in the six months before the terrorist attack in Benghazi that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three others.
Wood said when he found out that his own 16-member team and a six-member State Department elite force were being pulled in August – about a month before the assault in Benghazi – he felt, “like we were being asked to play the piano with two fingers. There was concern amongst the entire embassy staff.”
U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens wanted a Security Support Team, made up of 16 special operations soldiers, to stay with him in Libya after their deployment was scheduled to end in August, said the commander of that security team . The embassy staff’s “first choice was for us to stay,” Lt. Col. Andrew Wood, 55, said in an interview. “That would have been the choice of the embassy people in .”
To..Jane """
Who was head of the CIA ...who were the security officials
Biden said the request never happened during one of the debates with Paul Ryan.
Two days before the election, CBS posted additional portions of a Sept. 12 "60 Minutes" interview where President Obama seems to contradict himself on the Benghazi attack.
In the interview, according to the latest portions, Obama would not say whether he thought the attack was terrorism. Yet he would later emphasize at a presidential debate that in the Rose Garden the same day, he had declared the attack an act of terror.
2 different versions in one day?
A message posted on Facebook by Navy SEALS claiming that President Obama denied them backup as forces overran Benghazi was taken down twice by the social networking site.
The move has stoked accusations that Facebook was censoring the SEALs’ message to ‘quietly squelch opposition’ to President Obama’s alleged failures.
The message contained in a meme suggesting that Obama relied on the SEALS when he wanted to get Osama bin Laden, but then turned round and denied them back up when they called for it in Benghazi.
Sources present during the deadly six-hour assault have said that a desperate last request for military assistance once the CIA themselves came under attack was denied, even though elite counter-terrorism units were only two hours away.
Retired SEAL Captain Larry Bailey said: ‘It looks like Obama’s liberal followers in Facebook HQ are terrified of how damaging the Benghazi scandal is for the President.
'We understand that Facebook can run their site however they’d like, but when they’re trying to quietly squelch opposition to what is a clear leadership failure that resulted in the tragic deaths of some of our nation’s heroes, they deserve the to be called out on it.’
Colonel Dick Brauer Jr, retired from the US Air Force, added: ‘Americans across the country deserve the truth about what happened in Libya, and they certainly deserve to know when people who hold the keys to a lot of their online communications are trying to keep that from them.’
Right wings are a bunch of paranoiac losers. Always have to come up with some kind of conspiracy theory...
Much like the truthers, right?
Hey... liar... did you say birthers....or anti-christ... how about muslim... kenyan.....................
If it wasn't for the press, this whole ordeal would have been a family matter, now WHO runs this country?
You can always count on cowardly trouble for a toxic tea billy dig... never really saying much, though.
you hid for a week you toxic baby.
Trouble thank you for your service.
Yeah that right wing tea billy republican Diane Feinstein is just trying to cause problems for King Obama. Everyone knows that Benghazi was cause over road rage out in front of the Consulate.
That made as much sence as a football bat.
LiarsInPolitics=duh
My point is , when the Demorats are starting to ask questions, Big Ears has problems.
Another word the definition of which Leftward is completely ignorant. "Illiterate". It just gets better and better with this person with a sub normal I.Q.
He/she/it doesn't have much in the gray matter department.
You are right. Shouldn't feed the troll.
Wow... birds of a not so bright feather.... flocking together... and still stupid and toxic.
Clarity.
1. Why resign at all ? No crime was committed.
2. Why the delay in the announcement ? Thunderbolt out of the blue ? Hard to believe.
3. Who spoke to Mr. Clapper regarding the convenient email " discovery. " ? Did Mr. Clapper truly ask for the resignation on his own ?
We lost some very exceptional people in Benghazi. I too would like to know why it wasn't prevented.
Sorry Amunaka, I lost you at Ford.
To Eric """
Ya and ...?
and...? Still lost
To Eric """
Oh sorry guess you didn't read the post I was responding to...
Ah yes, now that Obama has been reeleceted Democrats can care about Benghazi and the press can do its job and finally report on it!
Who gives two phucks 240 Mariens were killed in Beirut under Ronnie Regan WHERE THE WAS THE OUTRAGE THEN! YOU PEOPLE MAKE ME SICK!
Dagan - there was outrage then, just as there is outrage now.
Actually, not so much from the right.
Dagan
If we make you sick, please, please tell us what it would take to make it terminal? We would get right on it. Promise.
I told you it is the blue pill after the prostate cancer- but no one believes. Anyway- I lived in SF when dear Diane was the mayor- forget it she didn't do anything for the city - but the liberal CA people think she is VENUS- or whatever. I personally am glad I am our of this state and Boxer & Pelosi are the same losers.
I am crying because my birth state is horrid and evil but that doesn't bother anyone even Jerry who was 5 years ahead of me in Catholic school in SF.
Suffice to say Diane really should not be in the position she is in- but senoiroity in congress gives idiots priveleges. she is not to be trusted and should not be demandiing anything about this stuff.
We have lost respect with our military and lost military discipline and ethics- enough said.
California are they part of the U.S.A. or Mexico?
Sad and pathetic the right wingers doing their little happy dance over the Benghazi tragedy
the last gasps of the delusional
What have they got left ..they've been proven wrong about everything else ...and of course will be proven wrong again ...they've been batting 0 over and over
it's gotta hurt
Amun - sorry. Conservatives are still right regarding the 'exceptionalism' of the United States. And we are not wrong by expecting answers regarding the murders of Chris Steven, Sean Smith, Ty Woods and Glen Doherty.
To..Pang""
No they aren't ...
What are you on the right gonna do when you realize Obama did get to the bottom if what went wrong in Libya and is holding those responsible to account
the buck stops with Patraues
I'm more concerned about the details of the situation rather than your need to change this into left vs right. Doesn't matter which side did it, it's been done son.
and they lost the election.... so much whining and sour grapin'!
The truth will come out, when someone starts getting nervous and blows the whistle.
To..eric """"
I'm sorry .. who is it that made this a left vs right thing ...
Well, from what I remember is that earlier in the discussion the administration was being criticized and would have happened regardless of lefty or righty. but then your happy dance came out about election results and biterness blah blah. Now this is not even about the individuals that are now dead, it's about voters?? ???
To..Eric """
No ..I'm not the one doing the happy dance ...and I do feel you are the one lost
Hey, press ... yoo-hoo.
Remember us? The American people? We have a fiscal crisis to deal with.
Get out of people's bedrooms ... okay? Pretty please.
Dagan, I don't think we had the internet back then. Well, not the public anyways. As far as outrage, I don't see any occupiers taking to the streets.
Benghazi was only a taste of how this inept administration can handle things...
Thank goodness for the left-stream media's sheltering of our newly re-elected community organizer.
When all else fails... the toxic's blame the media... always a default for right wing dummies.
Okay, consider me officially confused. This wasn't a story before the election? So what an ambassador and a couple of former Navy Seals and a ranking intelligence guy die. No big deal. The mainstream media and MSNBC didn't cover any of this before the election. (Well okay, the NYT did determine that the White House lied about the attack being caused by the stupid, idiotic video but, apparently, that satisfied all of their curiosity.) Then, Feinstein had nothing to say in the month before the election. Petraeus wasn't in the news, either for an affair or the trip to Libya.
Suddenly, this is news. Color me some rainbows! Now, we just have to have an investigation and print lots of articles. Yes, this post is entirely sarcastic. hhhhhhaaaaarrrrummpppphhhhh
he doesnt need to, he already won.
This will be yesterday's news shortly. No one cares. if it isn't gay marriage, socialized medicine, abortion rights, or legalizing pot, no one cares.
How a couple of hormones can mess up your entire career.
They don't call them raging hormones for nothing.
And to think that the chick involved went for that comb over! Hey ladies. Is he a "hottie"?
Not even close... ick!
His poor wife and her 2 children, they're the ones who suffer.
Hel libs , it was only sex..Maybe Congress can put him under oath, and he can lie..(sound familiar?)
To..bill''''
The repubs lowered the bar going after Clinton over a hummer ..and it's come back to bite them ever since
a hummer"lying under oath"Amunaka, I forgot , for libs perjury isn't a big deal
I did not have sex. Bill Clinton
Also to perjure oneself is against the law.
TO ..all of the above
no hummer no perjury...
The bar was lowered by Bill Clinton getting the blow job in the oval office by an intern, his subordinate half his age and then pointing his finger at the American people on national TV and bald face lying about itidiot! That pretty much sets the bar at the bottom!
To chesty """
Is that why cheney / bush never testified under oath to the 9/11 commission but did hold hands when they did go before them
To.Proud """"
A lot of things are against the law
you really want to go there
To..Brad """
Well it's nice to know you don't engage in those things
To..Brad """
Sorry that just gave me a flash of another president
Standing before the nation and lying about WMD
Amunaka YOU CAN"T HANDLE THE TRUTH!!! Love that line.
4 Men dead, Obama went to bed
Maybe Collin Powell should of had better intelligence. Before he came out and showed photos.
His wife actually asked the New York Times if she could take out that same MoveOn.org ad headline from a few years ago:
"Petraeus or Betray-us?"
Cheap minds and idiots this country's such a mess sometimes I think I'd like to watch it burn
Generals resign when they disgrace their country with their personaql behavior, presidents just get re-elected. Lower standard to be President of the United States than to be a US General,,,
At least 1/2 of the country is not dumb enough to believe that Patreus resigned over an affair. Just like we don't believe that the attack on the embassy was over some stupid video. He is another scapegoat, just like Clinton. And to think Pres Clinton threw Hillary under the bus by coming out in support of Obummer. Shame on Bill. If I was Hillary I would hit him over the head with a cast iron skillet.
He is head of the CIA!!! It is about things that could have been leaked because of the affair... get a frickin' clue!!!
I believe it, when a man is caught cheating, that is pretty much the end of his world, general, head of the CIA or not. You can't take the human element out of it.l
leftward bound
Look who is telling someone to get a clue......
And your welfare check will have a 25% increase for being such a dedicated follower.
He WAS head of the CIA. Get that straight. Stupidity is not a way to get as you say "a frickin' clue".
Strange bedfellows don't always leak information, however, leaks from the WH always come at the most oportune moment.
wow, time has the runs... what a snappy come back... Ooooooooo....
Clinton is just as sleazy as Obama, that is why Clinton went on the
campaign trailcocaine train with Obama. Another thought is that Obama had something big on Billy, and thus an Obama had an offer Billy couldn't refuse.210 lbs of dumb