Relatives gather to mourn Bosnian man murdered in St. Louis hammer attack

 

As relatives of Zemir Begic prepare for his funeral Saturday, neither they nor police detectives appear to have any idea what caused a pack of teens to beat him to death with hammers on a St. Louis street.
Begic, who emigrated from war-torn Bosnia almost two decades ago in search of a better life, was bludgeoned to death Sunday, allegedly by a group of hammer-wielding teenagers, one of whom has been charged as an adult. 
Begic was driving with his fiancee, Arijana Mujkanovic, and a male passenger at about 1:15 a.m. Sunday in St. Louis when five teenagers began pounding his vehicle with a hammer, according to police. When Begic confronted them, he was struck in the mouth, face, head and body with hammers and died at a nearby hospital.
Robert Joseph Mitchell, 17, has been charged with first-degree murder, while two other suspects, ages 15 and 16, remain in police custody. A fourth suspect is still at large.
On Saturday, relatives will bury him in Waterloo, Iowa, where Begic, the oldest of four siblings, used to live with his father and stepmother.
"When he walked into the room, somehow everything shined," Begic's cousin, Alma Begic, told FoxNews.com from her home in Waterloo. "He loved music and soccer."
"I don’t think there's a person who can say anything bad about him," she said. "He was so loved." 
According to a criminal complaint released Tuesday, Begic and his fiancee were walking to their car when they heard a group, including at least one of the defendants, yelling. As Begic drove away, one of the teenagers, "jumped on the back of his car and began hitting it," the complaint said. Unsure of what was happening, Begic stepped out of his vehicle and was approached by the individuals, one of whom "taunted" him and "challenged him to a fight," according to the document. Begic was then allegedly assaulted by four men and struck with a hammer and fell to the ground. Three others continue to beat him before the group fled on foot, police said.
No motive has been identified in the Begic murder, according to investigators. But members of the close-knit Bosnian community are questioning whether Begic's death and other crimes committed within the past year in the neighborhood are racially charged -- and they're calling on a larger police presence on St. Louis's south side. Begic was white, while Mitchell and one of the two juveniles are black, and the other is Hispanic.
Seldin Dzananovic, a 24-year-old Bosnian, claims he was attacked by a group of teenagers with hammers in the same neighborhood about an hour before Begic's murder. Dzananovic said he sustained only minor cuts and bruises.
A resident of the Bevo neighborhood who spoke to FoxNews.com on condition of anonymity due to safety reasons claims he and his family experienced a similar attack and said there is a disturbing pattern of violence against white Bosnian residents in the area.
"Investigators do not believe the attack on Mr. Begic had any connection to him being of Bosnian descent," St. Louis Police spokeswoman Schron Jackson said in a statement to FoxNews.com. In subsequent emails, Jackson made clear: "Investigators don't believe the incident is in any way related to Ferguson" and "The incident is not being investigated as a hate crime."
The St. Louis Police Department is now working in conjunction with the city prosecutor to determine a motive. Authorities told FoxNews.com there is no evidence at this time suggesting the murder was racially motivated.
In an interview with the Daily Mail, Begic's fiancee, Arijana Mujkanovic, suggested the attack was targeted and involved her mother's former boyfriend. Mujkanovic, however, told FoxNews.com that she had "no solid evidence" to support what she described as a "hunch."
"I didn't say I was 100 percent certain that it was a setup," Mujkanovic said of her comments to the Daily Mail.
Mujkanovic told FoxNews.com that Zemir and her mother's ex-boyfriend had a physical altercation almost three months ago when Zemir stepped in to defend his fiancee's mother.
"He [the former boyfriend] stopped his car and got out and he was going to attack my mother and Zemir defended her, Mujkanovic claims. 
"He was going around saying how Zemir was going to be gone and how I was going to be left without him," she said of the ex-boyfriend. She claims her family reported the threats to police and they "really didn’t do anything."
Mujkanovic, however, acknowledged she had no proof the murder was targeted and said she "had no idea" whether the teens knew her mother's ex-boyfriend, who is Bosnian. 
"All we want is justice for Zemir," said his younger brother, Rasim, a 20-year-old pre-med student at the University of South Dakota.
Rasim said he is not ruling out the possibility the murder was racially motivated, saying he wants police "to investigate everything." 
Begic was a teenager when he and his family fled Bosnia in the aftermath of a bloody civil war in 1996. In America, he found work, friends and love before meeting a cruel fate.
"He was my role model," Rasim said. "He would have given you the clothes off his back."
Alma Begic, who declined to speculate on a motive, described her cousin as race-blind. She said Begic loved his sister's children who are African-American on their father's side.
"He was so accepting in a culture where there's a lot of pressure to marry within your own ethnicity and religion," she said of Begic. "He never judged anybody."

US, South African hostages 'murdered' during failed rescue attempt in Yemen

American hostage Luke Somers died during a joint rescue mission by the U.S. and Yemen Saturday morning.
Somers was still alive, but badly injured when U.S. Special Forces reached him in the rescue mission, a Yemeni national security official told Fox News. The official also said it was Al Qaeda militants who shot Somers
Somers would die later as he was being transported away for medical treatment.
Ten militants were killed between the rescue attempt and the drone strike prior to the mission, the Yemeni official confirmed.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said in a statement that Somers and a non-U.S. hostage were "murdered by the AQAP during the course of the operation."
South African hostage Pierre Korkie was the other hostage killed in the operation, the Gift of the Givers, a South African aid group confirmed.
President Obama released a statement early Saturday morning condemning the "barbaric murder" of Somers by the Al Qaeda terrorists.
The United States will spare no effort to use all of its military, intelligence, and diplomatic capabilities to bring Americans home safely, wherever they are located," Obama said. "And terrorists who seek to harm our citizens will feel the long arm of American justice."
Obama also said he authorized the mission because the U.S. had information that Somers' life was in imminent danger.
A Yemen top security official said Somers was set to die Saturday at the hands of Al Qaeda militants.
Obama, Hagel and Secretary of State John Kerry all expressed their condolences to Somers' family.
The sister of Luke Somers first learned of her brother's death from FBI agents. Lucy Somers told the Associated Press her family asks for peace.
Yemen's local Al Qaeda branch, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, posted a video Thursday that showed Somers, threatening to kill him in three days if the United States didn't meet the group's demands, which weren't specified.
The news of the failed rescue comes after a U.S. drone strike in Yemen that numerous alleged Al Qaeda militants early Saturday, a security official said. The drone struck at dawn in Yemen's southern Shabwa province, hitting a suspected militant hideout, the official said.
At least six suspected militants were killed in an airstrike in the same province last month. Later Saturday, tribal leaders said they saw helicopters flying over an area called Wadi Abdan in Shabwa province.
In a video Saturday, Lucy Somers and her father pleaded for the group to let Luke Somers live.
In a statement Thursday, Pentagon press secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby acknowledged for the first time that a mysterious U.S. raid last month had sought to rescue Somers but that he turned out not to be at the site.
The U.S. considers Yemen's Al Qaeda branch to be the world's most dangerous arm of the group as it has been linked to several failed attacks on the U.S. homeland.
Somers was kidnapped in 2013 leaving a supermarket in Yemen. He was working as a freelance photographer for the Yemen Times at the time.

Landrieu battles stiff headwinds ahead of weekend's Senate runoff

NEW ORLEANS –  If Mary Landrieu loses the runoff election for the U.S. Senate in Louisiana this weekend, it won’t be for lack of trying.
The three-term Democratic senator has been barnstorming the state this week, driving some 1,200 miles in a rented SUV, stopping in little towns and bigger cities, making one last appeal to voters to give her a fourth trip to Washington.
“This election Saturday is going to be close,” she told an audience of mostly black voters in Grambling. “But we have had victory before and we are claiming victory again.”
Indeed, Landrieu has had some tough races. In her first Senate campaign, in 1996, she won the runoff by one-third of 1 percent. But this year, she faces headwinds quite different than the ones the rookie candidate did 18 years ago.
First is the changing political direction of Louisiana. Since 1996, the state has been steadily tilting right. White voters have been abandoning the Democratic Party here in ways that may make it impossible for a Democrat to be elected to federal office in all but the most heavily minority congressional districts.
Second is President Obama. He is deeply unpopular here – in particular – because of the oil and gas drilling moratorium he declared in the wake of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster.
While Landrieu plays down the president’s effect on her campaign, it’s like she is towing a trailer with its brakes fully locked behind that rented SUV.
But when asked who would be to blame should she lose on Saturday to Republican Rep. Bill Cassidy, Landrieu is quick to say responsibility rests on her shoulders.
“I would imagine that people just didn’t think that I didn’t work hard enough or deliver more for the state and they decided to elect someone that they thought would be better,” Landrieu told Fox News.
In an effort to turn her fortunes around, Landrieu has thrown a couple of namesake long bombs deep downfield. The first was right after the November election, when she used all of her influence to ram a vote on the Keystone XL pipeline through the Senate. But her own team swatted the Hail Mary down, coming up a single vote shy of the 60 needed to pass.
Late last week, Landrieu tried another throw into the end zone, spinning up a controversy about Cassidy’s part-time job teaching at Louisiana State University’s medical school. Landrieu claims Cassidy was paid for work he didn’t do – including billing LSU during days he was in Washington, D.C. She went so far this week as to suggest Cassidy had committed “payroll fraud” and would face subpoenas over the matter. She also charged that Cassidy violated ethics rules by earning a salary outside his duties as a member of Congress. The Louisiana Democratic Party even found a willing medical practitioner to put their name on an official complaint with the Office of Congressional Ethics. Another Democratic group in Washington filed a second complaint.
While Landrieu does have a smattering of LSU time sheets, as well as emails discussing Cassidy’s reduction from full-time professor to part-time, what she lacks is any smoking gun to back up her allegations. 
When asked about that absence of hard evidence, she deflected. “Well, my opponent’s the one who has to prove that he worked, and there’s no evidence at all that he worked to pick up $50,000 a year,” Landrieu told Fox News. 
It’s unclear which voting bloc Landrieu believes the charges will resonate with. But she has stridently pushed it for the past week.
“I wish I had known about this a month or two ago, because I really would have worn him out over it,” she told Fox News.
Cassidy’s only public comments on the charges came during last Monday’s sole runoff debate. “Absolutely false” is how he described them. His supervisor at LSU backs him up on that assertion. The congressman also sought and received permission from the House Ethics Committee to continue teaching at LSU.
But Cassidy has ducked any further inquiries from the press about it. After Monday’s debate, he scooted out a side door while Landrieu fielded questions from the media. On Wednesday, Cassidy abandoned the campaign trail and showed up in Washington to participate in several House votes. When approached by Fox News in the halls of Congress, Cassidy refused to talk about the LSU controversy, saying to do so would only serve to perpetuate the story and benefit Landrieu.
Even if Cassidy did play fast and loose with time sheets and ethics rules, it likely comes too late to make any difference. Many voters made up their minds long ago.
Landrieu’s best – perhaps only -- hope for victory is a huge black voter turnout. But indications from early voting are that she may not get it. Democratic early votes for the runoff were down 18 percent from the Nov. 4 election -- 18,000 fewer blacks voted early. At the same time, Republican votes were up 4 percent. The potential net change for Cassidy is 26,000 votes. That’s more than Landrieu’s entire margin of victory on Nov. 4.
At campaign stops, Landrieu tries to mobilize black voters, deriding Cassidy as “disrespectful” to the president, suggesting that if Cassidy is elected, Republicans will try to impeach Obama.
Voters nod in acknowledgement and engage in a lively call-and-response with the senator when she makes such charges. Whether that enthusiasm will translate to the polls on runoff day, though, is an open question.
This election is significant in that it may extend the Republican majority in the Senate to nine seats.
But it is also important from the perspective of political history. Should Landrieu lose, the last vestiges of the old Democratic South will be swept away. She is the last remaining Democratic statewide officeholder across the entire region. Should Cassidy defeat her, Republicans will hold every Senate seat, governorship and legislature from Texas to the Carolinas.
Polls suggest that will be the likely outcome of Saturday’s election. In the RealClearPolitics average, Cassidy is up a whopping 18 points.
Landrieu is desperately fighting for a last-minute big score, but at the moment, Cassidy has the ball and is merely trying to run out the clock.

Whistleblower alleges agency cover-up over $300M ‘boondoggle’ to protect Obama nominee

Senior officials at the Social Security Administration (SSA) tried to hide a damning report on a $300 million computer system that lawmakers have called a “boondoggle” in order to protect President Obama’s nominee to lead the agency, a whistleblower claimed in an interview with FoxNews.com.  
Whistleblower Michael Keegan told FoxNews.com that McKinsey & Company, a consulting firm, issued a draft report in December 2013 saying the agency had spent $288 million over six years for a new computer system processing disability claims that has yet to launch.
But Keegan said he was present at a meeting of senior officials in May of this year where they decided to sit on the report as long as Carolyn Colvin’s nomination for commissioner was pending.
“They hid the report,” he told FoxNews.com.
Keegan said it was discussed at that May meeting that Colvin, the acting commissioner, had been briefed on the findings.
He added: “There is absolutely no way that [Colvin] could be in the dark” on the effort to hide it.
Keegan spoke with FoxNews.com after Republican senators threatened earlier this week to block Colvin’s nomination until a probe of the computer project is done. Keegan, who worked as associate commissioner for facilities and left the agency earlier this year, explained that he brought his concerns to Congress over the summer.  
The McKinsey report itself, a final version of which was released in June, said the project, which remains in the testing phase and predated Colvin’s time at the helm, was beset by delays -- and agency leaders had decided to “reset.”
The study found that while the plan is “conceptually sound,” execution “has fallen short.” For the past five years, the report said, the release date “consistently” was projected 24-32 months out.
The report, together with Keegan’s allegations and the concerns of lawmakers, point to trouble ahead for Colvin’s nomination. Obama nominated Colvin, who has served as acting head since early 2013, in June of this year to be commissioner.
Several top-ranking lawmakers have been beating the drum about the $300 million computer system since the summer, including about the possibility of a cover-up.
House oversight committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and other lawmakers wrote in July that whistleblowers had told them “senior agency staff placed a very close hold” on the report to make sure details were kept “secret” until after Colvin’s confirmation. They called these claims “deeply disturbing.”
Further, they wrote that the agency effectively “wasted” $300 million on the “IT boondoggle.”
Around the same time, Rep. Sam Johnson, R-Texas, who leads the House Social Security subcommittee, wrote to Colvin questioning whether the agency had “something to hide.” He called the “wasted” taxpayer dollars a “disgrace.”
Lawmakers’ concerns culminated earlier this week when all Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee wrote to Colvin complaining about the “disturbing” allegations over “mismanagement and waste.”
They cited an “interim” report by the agency’s inspector general “that raised, but did not resolve” issues with officials’ conduct, and an ongoing “criminal investigation.”
They wrote: “Moreover, we have received information from whistleblowers that the ongoing investigation has centered around the activities of certain members of your immediate office, including several high-level agency officials. We cannot in good faith allow a nomination for any position that requires the advice and consent of the Senate to proceed to a vote as long as the specter of a potential criminal investigation surrounds the nominee and/or those in their inner circle.”
The lawmakers urged Colvin to address her role regarding this inquiry before they can vote on the nomination before the full Senate.
A Social Security spokeswoman told the Associated Press, in response to the senators’ letter, that Colvin “is not personally the subject of any criminal investigation."
Spokeswoman LaVenia LaVelle said agency officials previously briefed lawmakers on this matter and "the acting commissioner will respond timely and fully to the members' requests, and continue to cooperate with Congress and any related investigation."
Colvin also told the AP that she's "always met the highest ethical standards." 
Asked Friday about Keegan’s specific claims, LaVelle told FoxNews.com the agency “cannot comment on an open investigation.”
She referred FoxNews.com to the inspector general’s office, which also could not comment and said the case is now being handled by its counterpart in the Small Business Administration. An aide in that office would not discuss the probe, but confirmed they were reviewing an "allegation of wrongdoing involving SSA personnel." 
The finance committee advanced Colvin’s nomination earlier this year, but it still hasn’t passed the full Senate. The problems could mean her nomination is pushed off to the new Congress next year, when Republicans have full control.
Morris Fischer, an attorney representing Keegan, called the computer project a “debacle.”
Keegan left the agency over the summer, after he says he was retaliated against for earlier complaints.
He said he first brought his concerns to Congress after watching Colvin claim during a House subcommittee hearing in February that the agency’s IT projects were on track and under budget.
“I knew that that was totally false,” Keegan said.

Denver student protesters cheered when car struck officer, union official says

Real Classy IDIOTS!

Denver high School students in Colorado reacted in disrespectful ways when four bicycle officers were struck by an automobile at the end of Wednesday’s protests, the Denver Police Protective Association said.
Officer John Adsit underwent six hours of surgery Thursday for his injuries sustained in the accident. He is in critical, but stable condition.
The Denver Post reports students chanted, “Hit him again,” after the officer was struck.
The students were mainly marching in support of people protesting the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown, who was killed by officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Mo. Wilson was not indicted on any charges by a Ferguson grand jury last week.
Students were heard chanting and cheering after the officers were hit. Teachers looked on and did not intervene while the students chanted, Fox31 Denver reports.
“The Denver Police Protective Association has learned that immediately after the horrible accident yesterday injuring four Denver Police Officers, several parties in the protesting group cheered and chanted “hit him again.” These actions are not only reprehensible but quite possibly the most disturbing thing this Association has ever heard,” a statement released by the police officers’ union Thursday night said.
“This group of high school students not only broke DPS rules by leaving school without authorization, but broke laws of the City and County of Denver and State of Colorado regarding traffic regulations and the right to assemble with a permit. The DPPA recognizes citizens’ rights to assemble lawfully. This, however, was not a lawful assembly, which ultimately cost four Denver Police Officers a trip to the hospital. One of which is in critical condition,” the statement continued.
“We have no knowledge of the alleged comments,” the Denver Public Schools said in a statement. “We would deplore any such comments and will look into the allegation, and would welcome any evidence that would assist us in an investigation. All afternoon yesterday and all day today, students at East expressed their deep concern for Officer Adsit and his family and their appreciation for the police assistance in ensuring student safety during the march.”
In a statement of its own, the Denver Police said it could not confirm the claims made by the union that students cheered when the officers were struck.
Denver Public Schools said they have no plan to stop the protests after the second day of massive student walk outs from high schools in the area.
Students told Fox31 Denver certain teachers tried to discourage students from walking out.

No evidence linking lane closures to Christie, report says

No evidence was found by New Jersey lawmakers that show New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was involved in a plot to close lanes near the George Washington Bridge last year.
Investigators found no conclusive evidence of whether or not Christie was aware of the closures. However, the investigation did find that two former aides of Christie acted with little regard for public safety when they closed lanes near the bridge, a 136-page interim report reveals.
A report commissioned by Christie previously cleared him of any wrongdoing and a lawyer for the governor said in a statement Thursday that the report corroborates that investigation.
"The Committee has finally acknowledged what we reported nine months ago — namely, that there is not a shred of evidence Governor Christie knew anything about the GWB lane realignment beforehand or that any current member of his staff was involved in that decision," Christie attorney Randy Mastro said in a statement.
The report will be supplemented if needed because several critical witnesses did not testify and some important questions remain unanswered.
Christie aides Bridget Anne Kelly and David Wildstein acted with “perceived impunity” by closing the lanes, the report says. It also said the Christie administration did not act quick enough to resolve the closures.
Documents released earlier this year showed that Wildstein, then an official at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and Kelly, then an aide to Christie, orchestrated the shutdown, apparently as retribution toward Fort Lee's Democratic mayor. In one email, Kelly told Wildstein, "Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee."
Wildstein later contended that Christie knew about the lane closures as they happened. Christie, a possible 2016 Republican presidential contender, denies that he had any role in or knowledge of a plot to shut down the lanes.
An investigation by the U.S. Attorney's Office is continuing. No one has been charged.
The legislative panel is scheduled to meet on Monday to formally release the report to the public.

'Game we can’t win': Coal states brace for growing number of plant closures over EPA rules

WASHINGTON –  The energy industry and coal-producing states are projecting a wave of power plant closures in the final two years of the Obama administration as Environmental Protection Agency regulations take hold. 
The goal of the agency's campaign is to cut down on carbon pollution. However, industry groups and agencies say the EPA’s demands are simply too difficult to meet and will lead to powering down many facilities -- eliminating hundreds of jobs and hurting cash-strapped state economies.
“It’s a game we can’t win,” Alan Minier, chairman of the Wyoming Public Service Commission, told FoxNews.com.
The number of projected closures has steadily risen. Though estimates vary, according to the Institute for Energy Research a total of 37 states including Wyoming are seeing closures. The group lists nearly 170 plants that have closed or are closing, or are being converted to other purposes. 
IER cites a handful of existing EPA regulations, as well as a major proposal to cut emissions from existing power plants. That calls for cutting emissions nationally by 30 percent of 2005 levels by 2030. The plan assumes emissions can be curbed through remedial action in four general areas: improved efficiency of coal plants, enhanced energy conservation measures, increased natural gas and renewable power generation.
But industry groups say in many cases, it's too heavy a lift. And they say not only jobs, but the nation's power supply will suffer. 
The Institute for Energy Research, in its latest report, predicts more than 72 gigawatts of "electrical generating capacity" are going offline. “To put 72 GW in perspective, that is enough electrical generation capacity to reliably power 44.7 million homes – or every home in every state west of the Mississippi River, excluding Texas,” IER report says. 
The EPA has received hundreds of thousands of comments on the proposal as it pushes to finalize the rules. 
The agency calls it a "commonsense plan" that will tackle the health and economic risks of climate change, including avoiding thousands of premature deaths. 
But as the agency claims to be giving states flexibility, those trying to meet the new eco-friendly rules say they are up against unrealistic standards. 
In Wyoming, for example, four coal-fired power plants are set to be prematurely shuttered because they fall short of the requirements imposed by the Obama administration to curb carbon emissions. 
Minier, who wrote a Nov. 21 letter to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, believes the federal proposal overestimates utilities’ ability to improve the efficiency of their coal-fired power plants, overstates the potential growth of renewable power and makes incorrect calculations concerning Wyoming’s natural gas generation.
“I’m trying not to sound alarmist, but it seems to me the scale at which this would affect us, because we are exporters of  electricity and coal, I think it will impact our economy in a materially adverse way,” Minier said in a recent interview with the Casper Star-Tribune.
In August, the Government Accountability Office estimated the number of coal-fired power plants that will close by 2025. The GAO, a watchdog agency, had initially estimated that 2 percent to 12 percent of U.S. coal capacity would retire, but the August estimates have it even higher at 13 percent. 
“This level of retirements is significantly more retirements than have occurred in the past,” the GAO said. 
Other estimates say the proposed carbon rules could close “hundreds” of plants.
States have until June 30, 2016 to come up with a plan to meet and implement the changes.
The problem, at least in states like Wyoming, is the EPA requirements may be too ambitious. Wyoming isn’t going to fall short in one area, Minier told FoxNews.com -- the state will fail all four. 
The GAO’s report reinforced concerns many Republicans have that the EPA’s rules are closing down plants. House Science Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, this week urged McCarthy to scrap the "outrageous" power plant proposal. 
The EPA argues that efficiency improvements will pay for themselves in terms of fuel costs and other health and environmental benefits. 
While Wyoming has a tough climb to meet the standards, its neighbors are no better off. 
Colorado and South Dakota need to cut carbon emissions by 35 percent, Utah by 27 percent, and Montana by 21 percent -- while Idaho faces a 33 percent reduction.
But the Obama administration still has plenty of defenders in its regulatory push. 
Dean Baker, a D.C.-based economist and the co-founder of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, says shutting down coal plants could be good for not only the environment but also the economy.
Baker told Think Progress that clean alternatives to coal – not just natural gas but wind and solar – are competitive, so switches should come with minimal economic hassle. He also believes that renewables can work in tandem with natural gas to make the transition smoother. Indeed, some of the plants on IER's closure list are converting to natural gas.

GOP lawmakers highly critical of Petraeus’ Benghazi explanation, testimony shows

Newly declassified testimony shows at least five Republican lawmakers on the House Intelligence Committee, including its chairman, suggested former CIA Director David Petraeus provided bad information, or even misled them, after the 2012 Benghazi attack when he blamed an obscure Internet video and downplayed the significance of mortar attacks that night.
The testimony comes from a Nov. 15, 2012, closed, classified session where the committee heard testimony from the nation's most senior intelligence officer, James Clapper; then head of the National Counterterrorism Center, Matt Olsen; Under Secretary of State Patrick Kennedy; and then-acting CIA Director Michael Morell, who stepped in after Petraeus resigned, citing an extramarital affair.
The testimony shows lawmakers recalling how Petraeus stressed protests over an anti-Islam video as the impetus -- an explanation that would later unravel -- while brushing off concerns that mortar attacks indicated a planned terror attack.
During that testimony, Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, who takes the gavel of the House Armed Services Committee in January, said: "Mr. Morell, my strongest memory (w)as Director Petraeus on the Friday after this event coming in and telling us this was all a spontaneous demonstration caused by a video."
In the same session, Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., went further, saying Petraeus was "definitive" in his assessment the video was to blame, and unlike the intelligence community witnesses present, the general did not talk about "shifts in the line of analysis."
King said, "the 90 percent conclusion that General Petraeus reached was that this was caused by the video, and it was a spontaneous demonstration." King continued,"the one thing he was ruling out was terrorist involvement. I remember when the chairman [Mike Rogers] specifically mentioned to him about the mortar rounds, three mortar rounds landing at the Annex, could that be an indication of terrorist involvement. [Petraeus] said no.He said anybody in Libya could do that."
The House committee report -- while having been criticized by other GOP lawmakers as incomplete -- nevertheless provides new detail and images of the precision mortar strike at the CIA base known as the annex.Three on-target rounds, fired over 69 seconds, killed former Navy SEALs Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty who were defending the annex from its roof.
Kris Paronto, one of the CIA contractors who witnessed the attacks, said: "It's highly, if not 99.99 percent unlikely, that somebody just threw up a mortar tube and drop some mortars in and hit, hit, hit the compound. It's, it's not possible."
John Tiegen, who was also part of the CIA security team, and wrote, "13 Hours: the Inside Account of What Really Happened in Benghazi," with his fellow contractors, said it is beyond belief a four-star general would make such a basic mistake.
"I'd like to see him grab a mortar tube and launch it and get it within a 2,000 square-foot building in five shots," Tiegen added
The House Intelligence Committee report states the mortar team likely used a spotter to calibrate the shots, more evidence of pre-meditation and planning. The mortar strike was the third wave of the attack which began at 9:40 p.m. at the State Department consulate.
And while Morell, along with other unnamed CIA officers in the transcript, defended Petraeus, saying his talking points from the agency included the identification of the Al Qaeda-linked terror group Ansar al-Sharia, Rogers said the general went off-script.
"I want to be clear that our notes do not reflect that he said that.What you were talking about for the record was his talking points," Rogers said. Rogers was the first lawmaker on Capitol HIll to call publicly call Benghazi a coordinated, military commando-style assault, in an interview with Fox News on Sept. 12, 2012.
Democrats on the committee, including the ranking member Dutch Ruppersberger, were less critical of Petraeus. “My recollection was that Petraeus, when I walked way, he basically said that he felt that his opinion at that time it was kind of an attack based on what happened with respect to the video. But he did give caveats…that (it) could change, and it evolved,” Ruppersberger said.
Unlike the November 2012 testimony -- when lawmakers did not know that Morell made key edits to the talking points -- by May 2013, during a second round of classified testimony, email traffic showed Morell had been at the heart of the process, cutting some 50 percent of the text.
Significantly, during the May testimony, Morell distanced the agency from the video explanation. Morell said "the CIA never [said] that what happened in Benghazi was a result of the film."
If the lawmakers’ recollection is accurate, that means Petraeus' brief on Sept. 14, 2012, was instead in line with the White House, and then-Secretary Hillary Clinton's State Department. It was a State Department press release at 10:07 pm ET, before the attack was even over, that first made the link to the obscure anti-Islam video. The newly declassified testimony says $70,000 was spent on advertising in Pakistan, denouncing the anti-Muslim film.
During this testimony, GOP Rep. Jeff Miller questioned Petraeus' original testimony, stating the former CIA Director "even went so far as to say that it had been put into Arabic language and then was put on this TV station, this cleric's TV station. I mean, [Petraeus] drove that in pretty hard when he was in here. "
Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., added "it was said in here a little bit earlier that the CIA never said Benghazi was part of a Cairo protest and of the video. And we were given just the opposite message by the Director of the CIA on the [September] 14th [2012.]"
Rogers noted there was no transcript for the brief, only staff notes, but after the Petraeus incident in September 2012, the practice was changed to always run a transcript on the briefings.The September 14th 2012 brief was a coffee meeting with members.
Fox News was first to report in April that an FBI investigation into the general had been left open, after classified information was reportedly mishandled. This week, after additional reporting by Bloomberg News, Republican Sen. John McCain questioned the decision in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, suggesting politics may be at play.
"The fact that you and others within your Department have weighed-in publicly on the case raises questions about whether this investigation is being handled in a fundamentally fair and appropriate manner,” he wrote.
The FBI investigation into Petraeus began as early as late spring 2012, which means he was under investigation when the Benghazi attack unfolded. Facing the implication that knowledge of the investigation might have influenced Petraeus’ or Morell's actions during the Benghazi aftermath, Morell testified he did not know what was going on with the general until the day before he resigned.
Petraeus has not spoken formally to the media about the scandal and was in the news when a new biography of Hillary Clinton was released in February, called "HRC."It quoted the former CIA director regarding her handling of Benghazi.
"She'd make a tremendous president," Petraeus told the authors of "HRC." "Like a lot of great leaders, her most impressive qualities were most visible during tough times. ... In the wake of the Benghazi attacks, for example, she was extraordinarily resolute, determined and controlled."
Jack Keane, a retired four-star Army general and Fox News analyst was a mentor to Petraeus. “David believed he was providing the best available information to the committee from the CIA analysts, which included identifying the terrorist organization, Ansar al-Sharia, and that it was terrorism. The motivation was harder to identify, and initial CIA reporting about the video turned out to be wrong within a matter of days,” he said.
Asked about the open FBI investigation, Keane said McCain’s letter to Holder summed up his feeling best.