Lanny Davis: No stand-down order at Benghazi

In an interview with Sharyl Attkisson on her news show, "Full Measure," former White House Counsel Lanny Davis stated there was no stand-down order for military help during the Benghazi tragedy of Sept. 11, 2012.

"There was no stand-down order, there was no immediate ability to rescue those four individuals given the distance and the logistics," Davis told Attkisson, though he made it clear he's not an official Clinton representative.

Hillary Clinton will face the House Select committee on Benghazi this Thursday, when she will answer questions about the attack on the U.S. compounds that killed four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens.

Over the past three years, a body of evidence has emerged showing that eight weeks before President Obama's re-election, the administration, including Hillary, worked to steer the public narrative away from the terrorist nature of the attacks, security shortfalls and the lack of a military rescue.

On the night of Sept. 11, 2012, while the Benghazi attacks were underway, top officials at Clinton's State Department already knew the al-Qaida-linked Islamic extremist group Ansar Al Sharia had taken credit. Within minutes, that alert went to the White House, FBI and Pentagon.

But four hours later, Clinton's public statement evoked the idea the attackers were instead spontaneous protesters responding to an inflammatory anti-Muslim YouTube video. Last year, Clinton was vague on whether she and President Obama discussed blaming the video, instead of terrorists, that night.

The Benghazi committee has obtained 50,000 pages of new documents and unearthed a controversial setup where Clinton conducted government business on a private email server, now in the possession of the FBI.

Democratic critics maintain the Benghazi committee is little more than a Republican witch hunt against Clinton. The committee's chief critic is lead Democrat Elijah Cummings, who has accused Republican chairman Trey Gowdy of having a political agenda. Cummings said, "This Benghazi Select committee has become the committee to investigate Hillary Clinton, period."

Clinton herself has said, "...this committee is basically an arm of the Republican national committee. It is a partisan vehicle."

A number of cover-ups have come to light since the 2012 attack. One the committee's primary questions is why the public wasn't told about the Islamic extremist nature of the assault. Attkisson reports a Clinton official privately told Libya the attackers were affiliated with Islamic extremists, but the phrase was not used in public. Instead the term "heavily armed militants" was used, and officials continued the YouTube video narrative.

In a talk show interview, Ambassador Susan Rice said, "We do not have information at present that leads us to conclude that this was premeditated or preplanned."

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The committee is also investigating why the attacks went on for more than seven hours, but the U.S. military didn't come to the rescue.

Greg Hicks, the State Department's lead diplomat in Tripoli that night, said he repeatedly asked for military help, but was denied. The administration insisted no assets were stopped; but no military help was available.

But the leader of a U.S. quick response anti-terrorism team said his unit was stopped after they prepared to deploy; a small U.S. special forces team in Tripoli was stopped from boarding a flight to Benghazi to help while the attacks were underway; and three U.S. security officers stationed nearby said their CIA boss delayed them from responding quickly to help.

In closed-door sessions with Congress, top military officials conceded military assets were available, but it was decided they wouldn't be used. The military ruled out sending an aircraft to "buzz" the terrorists in a show of force to scatter them. A special forces team with access to a AC-130 gun ship took 18 to 20 hours to be moved, far too late to help. And the military says the State Department never asked for rescue assistance.

The administration insists it did everything possible, and that nothing more would have saved the lives of the four Americans murdered that night.

During the first Democratic presidential debate, Clinton was asked about Benghazi and about using a private email server during her time at the State Department, making it inaccessible to normal disclosure.

She replied, "I have been as transparent as I know to be, turning over 55,000 pages of my emails, asking that they be made public." She then made her statement about the Benghazi committee being a partisan vehicle.

In the interview with Lanny Davis, Attkisson stated, "Democrats of fond of saying this is a Republic witch hunt. However that would have to include the New York Times, the FBI, Obama-appointed inspectors general – doesn't that poke holes in the idea that this is just a Republican controversy?"

Davis replied, "Well, I make a distinction between the investigation by all these congressional committees, and the Accountability Review Board that Ambassador Pickering and Admiral Mullen undertook, and Hillary Clinton said she accepted their finding of systemic failure in the State Department. That's pretty harsh. She would agree that … there was very serious systemic failures. The distinction between that versus the Gowdy farce, which is all you can call it … is a big distinction that we should be making. The Gowdy committee versus everything else."

Attkisson asked, "The Gowdy committee says it has turned up 50,000 pages of new documents and interviewed dozens of witnesses nobody else has. They have brought to life the existence of Hillary Clinton's private server, which was previously unknown, and a lot of other information. They haven't even released a report yet. How can you say that's all just a Republican farce?"

"The committee is supposed to be about investigating the tragic deaths of four Americans involved in the Benghazi episode and horrible tragedy," replied Davis. "So yes, what you just said about Congressman Gowdy is what they claim. But you notice Benghazi, after ten hours of questioning Sydney Blumenthal, was mentioned twice."

"Doesn't it make sense that the committee's focus would at least in part be on Hillary Clinton," countered Attkisson, "especially if they discovered she had emails they never saw, especially since she was secretary of state when all this occurred. Why wouldn't she be at an epicenter?"

Davis: "No, she should be, on the issue of Benghazi. And if they think they can do a better job than the House Intelligence committee, the House Armed Services committee – controlled by Republicans – then we've got to see what they're going to do differently."

Attkisson noted, "Administration officials have acknowledge to me and others that mistakes were made, but they say there was no malice behind it. And yet nobody really high up, as part of making these decisions that I can see, has been held accountable. In fact if anything, a lot of them have been promoted. Why is that?"

"Well I think that's a fair point," replied Davis. "I don't know why. There should have been accountability, and at mid-level management a lot of good reporting, including yours, has identified failures of communication. But we know from the House Armed Services and Intelligence committee, despite all of the accusations by the Republications, there was no stand-down order, there was no immediate ability to rescue those four individuals given the distance and the logistics."