The National Security Action Conference hosted by Breitbart News across the street from CPAC featured a panel on the Benghazi scandal Thursday. There was a consistent message at the panel: We haven’t heard the complete truth about what happened in Benghazi and it’s time for Speaker Boehner to authorize a bipartisan commission to investigate.
Featured speakers at the pane included Lt. Gen. (Ret.) William G. “Jerry” Boykin (now Executive Vice President at the Family Research Council), Chris Farrell of Judicial Watch and Charles Woods, father Tyrone Woods. Lt. The event was hosted by Frank Gaffney.
Gen. Boykin opened the panel by recalling his own service. “I was the commander of Delta Force,” he said, “when we fought the battle called Black Hawk down.” He pointed out that he focus of that fight was an attempt to recover two fallen soldiers whose bodies could not be left behind even if that meant taking additional casualties. “A basic ethos of America has been violated” in Benghazi Boykin said, adding “You don’t leave Americans behind.”
Because he believes the decisions made after the attack began are fundamentally in conflict with this “basic ethos,” Boykin promised he would continue to press the issue. He believes the next step is for Speaker Boehner to “call together a bipartisan commission that will get to the truth.”
Chris Farrell of Judicial Watch followed Gen. Boykin at the podium. He highlighted his organization’s role in releasing documents including the first photos of the scene of the attack. He went on to criticize former CIA acting Director Michael Morrell saying there was evidence Morrell “deliberately” made “misleading statements” to Congress.
Farrell believes there is a specific reason Speaker Boehner has so far refused to appoint a bipartisan commission to investigate the attack. He suggested Boehner had knowledge of weapons transfers out of Libya which he does not want revealed. Like Lt. Gen Boykin, Farrell promised his organization was “going to pursue this until we finally get answers.”
Last to the podium was Charles Woods father of Tyrone Woods, the Navy Seal who was working with the CIA in Benghazi. “There were four American heroes killed in Benghazi” Woods said before pausing, clearly overcome by a wave of emotion, “One of those heroes was my son.” Woods also directed his comments toward Speaker Boehner who he said “is the only person that is standing in the way of that select committee being formed.” Woods then made the appeal personal saying “As a family member, I would strongly encourage Speaker Boehner” to call for the committee.
Woods was also critical of General Carter Ham, recounting how Gen. Ham’s story seemed to change between the time he spoke to Rep. Chaffetz in Libya and more recently when he testified behind closed doors to members of Congress. Woods closed the story by saying “I believe it was Mark Twain who said ‘If you’re going to be a good liar you have to have a good memory.'”
There was a brief Q&A during which Gen. Boykin stated that the people who he believes attacked our compound in Benghazi are “the people we gave weapons to when we went to war” in Libya. Chris Farrell followed up by saying he believes the CIA was not only gathering up dangerous surface-to-air missiles but also sending them to rebels in Syria. Some of the Syrian rebels have been classified as extremists. One town in northern Syria was recently taken over by a group who instituted a “dhimmi” tax on Christians. (For more background on the shipment of arms into and out of Libya see this previous piece.) Farrell believes the administration’s behavior after the attack make sense if one considers the headline which could be written based on our actual mission in Benghazi, “Obama Administration Arms Al Qaeda.”