Benghazi Blame Nears Hillary Clinton. Bill Clinton and Lawyers Creating a Contingency Plan.

Author Ed Klein: As Benghazi blame nears Hillary, Clintons grow furious

With tensions between President Obama and the Clintons at a new high, former President Bill Clinton is moving fast to develop a contingency plan for how his wife, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, should react if Obama attempts to tie the Benghazi fiasco around her neck, according to author Ed Klein.

In an exclusive interview with The Daily Caller, Klein said sources close to the Clintons tell him that Bill Clinton has assembled an informal legal team to discuss how the Secretary of State should deal with the issue of being blamed for not preventing the Benghazi terrorist attack last month.

White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters during a press conference Friday that responsibility for the consulate in Libya fell on the State Department, not the White House.

If blame for the security failures falls to Hillary Clinton, Klein said, it’s possible that she would even consider resigning over the issue.

“Bill is working on a number of strategies about what Hillary ought to do. He’s even gone so far as to play with various doomsday scenarios including up to the idea that Hillary would consider resigning over the issue if the Obama team tries to use her as a scapegoat,” Klein told TheDC in an interview.

Klein — the best-selling author of the Amateur, a book on President Obama — elaborated on his reporting in an op-ed for The Daily Caller.

As of Friday afternoon, the White House, the State Department and the former president’s office did not return requests from The Daily Caller for comment on Klein’s reporting.

But as for the chance that Hillary Clinton would resign, Klein said in the interview: “At this moment, it appears unlikely that she’s going to do that. I mean that would be an extreme step for her to take.”

“Not only would it be hard to predict how it would play out as far as Hillary is concerned in the future, but it would certainly damage Obama’s chances for re-election if she resigned,” he said.

Klein said relations between the Clintons and President Obama have reached a new low, most recently with Obama ignoring Bill Clinton’s offer to help him and Vice President Joe Biden prepare for the debates with the Republican ticket.

“He had very clear ideas on how they should do that,” Klein told TheDC. “He never once got a response. And it absolutely sent him into orbit. He was furious that he would be treated this way, especially after what he did, in his view, at the Democratic convention in giving that nomination speech for Obama.”

Added Klein: “His fury turned to deep concern when the Benghazi business unfolded because he was deeply troubled by the appearance that the White House was going to throw Hillary under the bus, which in fact it appears it is doing.”

Klein said Bill Clinton’s informal legal team is made up of people he’s used in the past in legal situations. He asked them by phone to tell him how Hillary Clinton should handle this situation and what to do if she is subpoenaed to testify to the House Oversight Committee and provide them with memos regarding Benghazi.

The author said the situation is obviously complicated by Obama’s re-election, but also the possibility that Hillary would run in 2016.

“If she is left with this stain on her reputation, it could seriously damage her chances for election,” Klein told TheDC. “And this is what is really bothering Bill more than anything.”

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/10/12/author-ed-klein-as-benghazi-blame-nears-hillary-clintons-grow-furious/#ixzz29F4cLHzi

Obama’s got drama now

It sure looks like Vice President Joe Biden put the blame on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, his potential 2016 rival, for the security failings Benghazi. “We weren’t told they wanted more security,” Biden declared. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney backed Biden up, saying it’s a State Department (i.e. Hillary)  issue.

Will Hillary now retaliate and protect herself by leaking word that the White House did too know? Will her husband continue to tour the country trying to pull Obama’s bacon out of the fire (as he did at the convention) even as Obama points a finger at his wife? Will they all cut some sort of deal in which Hillary agrees to take the fall and Bill soldiers on … in exchange for, what? Have they already cut a deal?  Is the White House going to try to hang its hat on the idea that Obama and Biden didn’t know, but maybe their staffs knew? Will that really fly? Aren’t they responsible for their staffs? Will the staffs fight back? …

It’s getting James Clavellish out there!

P.S.: Isn’t this the sort of juicy story Politico is supposed to be born cover? Yet they are asleep at the switch. Very Chalian of them! [cheap shot-ed I know!  bonus in next check-ed] ….

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/10/12/obamas-got-drama-now/#ixzz29F2sUC92

British say weapons left at US consulate in Benghazi are missing

The U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, burns following a militant attack on Sept. 11, 2012.

VOICE OF AMERICA VIDEO STILL

CAIRO — When British diplomats abandoned their offices in Benghazi over the summer after the British ambassador’s motorcade was attacked with rocket-propelled grenades, their security detail left its weapons and vehicles in the custody of the U.S. consulate in that eastern Libyan city.

Now that cache of weapons is missing amid signs that the Islamist militants suspected in the Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S. consulate and a nearby annex remain active, despite Libyan government demands that they disband.

The June 11 attack on British Ambassador Sir Dominic Asquith as he drove through Benghazi is among a list of 230 security incidents, 48 in Benghazi alone, that U.S. officials compiled to show how dangerous Libya had become. Two of Asquith’s security guards were wounded in the attack. In contrast to the Americans, who remained in Benghazi, the British determined that the city was too dangerous and closed their offices.

Before withdrawing, however, British officials reached an agreement with the U.S. consulate to leave their weapons and vehicles at the poorly guarded U.S. compound.

“We are working with the U.S. to establish what, if anything, has happened to this equipment,” British news agencies quoted an unnamed Foreign Office spokesman as saying.

The issue of the missing weapons and vehicles came to light during testimony Wednesday at a congressional hearing in Washington, where Lt. Col. Andrew Wood of the Utah National Guard, who headed a 16-member U.S. military security force in Libya, revealed that the British would return periodically to Benghazi and reclaim the weapons, then give them back to the Americans when they left the city again.

Wood added that he had expected an attack to come sooner or later. “I almost expected the attack to come,” he said. “We were the last flag flying. It was a matter of time. The security in Benghazi was a struggle and remained a struggle throughout my time there.”

On Friday, U.S. officials said they still were working to determine what precisely had taken place during the assault on the consulate building. U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens and State Department computer specialist Sean Smith died of smoke inhalation after the building was set on fire.

Two other Americans, former Navy SEALs Glen Doherty and Tyrone Wood, died at an embassy annex a few blocks away when it came under attack from mortar and rifle fire. The annex was believed to house the local offices of the CIA.

read more at http://www.stripes.com/news/africa/british-say-weapons-left-at-us-consulate-in-benghazi-are-missing-1.192914