Call Colin Powell As Benghazi Witness For His Views On Benghazi And Former Sec States' Emails, Urges Former House Gov Ops Committee Spokesman Robert Weiner, To Assure Bipartisanship

WASHINGTON, July 28, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Robert Weiner, former spokesman for the House Government Operations Committee and later a White House spokesman, is urging the House Select Benghazi Committee to call former Secretary of State Colin Powell, not just Hillary Clinton, to testify to assure bipartisanship. Weiner said, "Powell would have invaluable knowledge of the State Department and White House decision process in crisis situations like the Benghazi attack, as well as on emails.  Powell like Clinton erased private emails, in his case likely relating to angst over the Iraq War buildup."

Weiner added, "Private emails were not against the law until just last year, after Clinton's term, and all recent Secretaries of states had private emails they deleted. Secretaries of State have had private contacts of all sorts forever starting with those under George Washington right through FDR and World War II and since. That's what diplomacy is. Where are the hearings and FOIA requests for the other recent Secretaries of State's deleted emails, like Colin Powell's?  He was embarrassed over what turned out to be the false intelligence he used in what he said was his worst mistake: his UN presentation where he said the buildings he showed were sites for nuclear missiles but turned out to be for harmless aluminum vacuum tubes. " 

Weiner continued, "Benghazi is no more Clinton's fault than Lebanon's hundreds dead were Reagan's, or 9-11's Twin Towers and Pentagon 3000 dead were Bush's. Other congressional committees on military and appropriations have found there is no substance to attacking Clinton's decision-making on Benghazi – she and the military did all they could. And by the way, Republicans in Congress a year AFTER Benghazi provided the full embassy security funding authorization Hillary had asked for six months BEFORE Benghazi, and Congress blocked it. I remember the press release from the Republican House Chair touting the 'full embassy security funding'-- finally -- a year late," Weiner concluded.

"But at the least, don't just have Hillary testify, balance it with Powell."  

"The media and the Benghazi Committee both need to 'take a breath' on the email issue. The New York Times had to backtrack on its latest attack, the potential illegality of emails that might have better been classified, when the paper's own public editor pointed to inconsistencies and major flaws in the story. The emails were not classified then or now. The IG's and DOJ know full well that classification is overused and discretionary on the part of the classifier. I had a White House classified clearance and saw the process," Weiner said.

Contact: Bob Weiner/Autumn Kelly 301-283-0821, cell 202-306-1200, [email protected]

SOURCE Robert Weiner Associates