Basement Operation

In the aftermath of Watergate, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein were lionized for their dogged investigative reporting that ultimately lead to the truth about the Watergate coverup and the resignation of a sitting presdident. These two Washington Post reporters undoubtedly were the inspiration for many media people who are now in positions of responsibility (e.g., executive editors) in MSM news organization. Unfortunately, with very few exceptions the current crop of news media "journalists" have learned nothing from Woodward and Bernstein. They have become trained hamsters for this administration, burying important stories, downplaying significant facts, and looking the other way whenever they can, if the news is bad for this president. It is, to be frank, amazing that the media spent hours of coverage of the NFL scandals and not one second covering the breaking news about Barack Obama's many Watergate-level scandals.

One of the reporters who is doing a fine job is Sharyl Attkisson. She refuses to let go of either the Benghazi or IRS scandals and her reporting continues to uncover important facts. This week she reports:

As the House Select Committee on Benghazi prepares for its first hearing this week, a former State Department diplomat is coming forward with a startling allegation: Hillary Clinton confidants were part of an operation to “separate” damaging documents before they were turned over to the Accountability Review Board investigating security lapses surrounding the Sept. 11, 2012, terrorist attacks on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya.

According to former Deputy Assistant Secretary Raymond Maxwell, the after-hours session took place over a weekend in a basement operations-type center at State Department headquarters in Washington, D.C. This is the first time Maxwell has publicly come forward with the story.

Maxwell is a 20-year state department veteran who was scapegoated for the Benghazi event.

Atkisson continues:

When he arrived, Maxwell says he observed boxes and stacks of documents. He says a State Department office director, whom Maxwell described as close to Clinton’s top advisers, was there. Though the office director technically worked for him, Maxwell says he wasn’t consulted about her weekend assignment.

“She told me, ‘Ray, we are to go through these stacks and pull out anything that might put anybody in the [Near Eastern Affairs] front office or the seventh floor in a bad light,’” says Maxwell. He says “seventh floor” was State Department shorthand for then-Secretary of State Clinton and her principal advisers.

“I asked her, ‘But isn’t that unethical?’ She responded, ‘Ray, those are our orders.’ ”

Did Hillary Clinton aides withhold damaging Benghazi documents?

A few minutes after he arrived, Maxwell says, in walked two high-ranking State Department officials.

In an interview Monday morning on Fox News, Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, named the two Hillary Clinton confidants who allegedly were present: One was Cheryl Mills, Clinton’s chief of staff and a former White House counsel who defended President Bill Clinton during his impeachment trial. The other, Chaffetz said, was Deputy Chief of Staff Jake Sullivan, who previously worked on Hillary Clinton’s and then Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns.

Destruction of critical evidence necessary for a thorough investigation by an independent commission? Active participation by top aids of the Secretary of State? Political motives? Suppression of the truth? Criminal activity?

But if you ask Democratic supporters of Barack Obama they'd tell you that Benghazi is but one of many "phony scandals." and besides, "what different does it make?"

UPDATE:
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And let's not forget about a scandal that is even bigger than Benghazi. Jay Stultz comments:

I have to wonder why there are so many investigations being done by the news media, TV reporters, women’s rights groups, the FBI, politicians, talk show hosts, independent investigators and other groups into the timeline of when the Baltimore Ravens organization, the NFL and Commission Roger Goodell and other parties had seen the newly released tapes of the Ray Rice domestic violence incident.

It’s being covered around-the-clock by the media.

Meanwhile, a serious matter within the U.S. government concerning the IRS and Lois Lerner has been practically ignored.

Rice is out of football.

Lerner chose to exercise her Fifth Amendment rights and declined to answer questions at a congressional hearing regarding the manner in which she treated perceived members of the tea party and other patriotic groups. Following the hearing, she took a vacation to Canada.

Violence against women is a serious matter. The weaponization of US governmental agencies against the nation's citizens is at least as serious. Interesting that Obama's trained hamsters have chosen to obsess the former and totally ignore that latter. Interesting, indeed.