Benghazi Hearings Have Begun

Below, a couple of streaming links. I think this is YouTube's first live-streamed committee hearing

It's also on CSPAN, and live-streamed at this link.

Added: Below, "The Hillary Shuffle," aka "What Difference Does It Make?," created by @mamaswati, via @ameliahammy.

Opening Statements: Issa called for Cummings to join him in getting to the truth. Cummings claimed he welcomed and supported the whistelblowers, and had written a letter to SecState Kerry asking that they be free of reprisal. That letter was sent yesterday. People have been trying to get these people protection for months.

After noting how much he loved whistlebowers, he basically said they were full of shit because Obama's people said they were.

One bit of possible news: He claims the "signature" on the order to draw down security was not Hillary Clinton's signature at all, but some kind of mechanically-added recitation of her name.

We'll see how that claim stands up.

Thompson: Per @laurawkwalker, "WH told me the FEST was taken off the table. I asked why. WH said "not the right time for them to go in".

FEST is an acronym for "Foreign Emergency Support Team." It's a group tasked with rapid response to terrorism against US interests abroad.

Cummings to Hicks: "Death is Part of Life." Waxing philosophical about the inevitability of death -- "What difference does it possibly make?," redux -- he tells Hicks he "feels his pain."

For his part, Hicks had testified that the hospital to which Stevens was brought was under Ansar al-Islam's control.

posted by Ace at 11:39 AM

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