Subject: MUST READ From Media Matters: Reported Central Contentions Of New Benghazi Book Already Debunked
From: Burns Strider <[email-masked]>
To: CTRFriendsFamily <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 2 Sep 2014 17:18:37 -0400
List-Id: <CTRFriendsFamily.americanbridge.org>

Reported Central Contentions Of New Benghazi Book Already DebunkedBlog
<http://mediamatters.org/blog>››› 54 minutes ago ››› MATT GERTZ

A new book that seeks to damage Hillary Clinton over the 2012 attacks in
Benghazi reportedly relies on long-debunked conservative myths.

On September 9, WND Books will publish
<http://superstore.wnd.com/The-REAL-Benghazi-Story-What-the-White-House-and-Hillary-Dont-Want-You-to-Know-Autographed>
Aaron
Klein's *The REAL Benghazi Story: What the White House and Hillary Don't
Want You to Know*. The book's release is the latest salvo from a
conservative cottage industry that aims to make money and political hay out
of both Benghazi
<http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/05/07/right-wing-media-cash-in-on-benghazi-obsession/199199>
 and Clinton smears
<http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/07/23/the-summer-of-nonsense-2014-features-glut-of-sh/200177>
.

Klein, a senior reporter for the birther site WND, is not a credible author
-- one of his recent books
<http://mediamatters.org/blog/2010/05/05/ten-reasons-why-aaron-kleins-the-manchurian-pre/164260>
portrayed
President Obama as a "Manchurian Candidate" whose autobiography was
ghostwritten by Bill Ayers.

*The Washington Examiner*'s Paul Bedard, who reviewed
<http://washingtonexaminer.com/benghazi-blitz-about-to-crash-into-hillary-clinton-3-books-fox-documentary/article/2552507>
an
advance copy of Klein's Benghazi book, reported that Klein argues "Clinton
was unwilling to provide additional security to the diplomatic outpost and
even played a role in sending Stevens to his 'doomed mission.'"

Klein's contention that Clinton "was unwilling to provide additional
security to the diplomatic outpost" seems to reference the long-debunked
conservative claim that the then-Secretary of State personally signed off
<http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/04/24/reports-undermine-foxs-new-clinton-smear-over-b/193750>
on
cables rejecting requests for additional security. When congressional
Republicans first made that claim in April 2013, diplomatic reporters noted
that every cable sent to the State Department from overseas facilities is
addressed to the secretary, and every cable sent from the State Department
is signed by the secretary, even though the secretary rarely reviews them.

In her 2014 memoir, Clinton wrote that she had never seen the cables in
question, stating
<http://www.politico.com/story/2014/05/hillary-clintons-benghazi-chapter-107240_Page2.html>,
"That's not how it works. It shouldn't. And it didn't."

Klein's claim that Clinton "played a role in sending Stevens" to his death
in Benghazi has also been debunked
<http://mediamatters.org/research/2014/06/10/fox-news-swaps-fact-with-fiction-on-amb-stevens/199665>.
The State Department's Accountability Review Board reported that Stevens
"made the decision to travel to Benghazi independently of Washington, per
standard practice," with the trip's timing "driven in part by commitments
in Tripoli." Gregory Hicks, who was Stevens' deputy, also testified before
Congress that the ambassador "chose to go" to Benghazi.