Suit Over Firing Exposes Strife Within Benghazi Panel

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  • Norm dePlume
    Err foil
    • Tuesday, October 22, 2013
    • 14904

    #1

    Suit Over Firing Exposes Strife Within Benghazi Panel

    First McCarthy lets the truth slip, and now a former Republican investigator corroborates.

    Suit Over Firing Exposes Strife Within Benghazi Panel

    WASHINGTON — The Republican leaders of a House committee who have been in a bitter partisan battle with Democrats are enmeshed in a new fight with one of the committee’s former staff members.

    A former investigator for the Republicans on the House Select Committee on Benghazi plans to file a complaint in federal court next month alleging that he was fired unlawfully in part because his superiors opposed his efforts to conduct a comprehensive investigation into the 2012 attack on the American diplomatic mission in the Libyan city. Instead, they focused primarily on the role of the State Department and former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, he said.

    The former investigator, Bradley F. Podliska, a major in the Air Force Reserve who is on active duty in Germany, also claims that the committee’s majority staff retaliated against him for taking leave for several weeks to go on active duty. If true, the retaliation would violate the federal Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994, which Major Podliska plans to invoke in his complaint, according to a draft that was made available to The New York Times.

    ...

    Despite the change in focus, Major Podliska continued to work on his examination of the response in Washington to the attack, only to meet escalating resistance from his superiors, according to his complaint. In his view, they felt he was not focusing enough on Mrs. Clinton’s alleged mistakes, a criticism he considered odd given that his findings were far from favorable to her.
    Enjoy.
  • phillygirl
    Not superior, just kind
    • Wednesday, October 2, 2013
    • 19840

    #2
    The committee firmly disputed Major Podliska’s allegations, saying Saturday that he had been “terminated for cause.”

    In a statement, the committee cited Major Podliska’s “repeated efforts, of his own volition, to develop and direct committee resources to a PowerPoint ‘hit piece’ on members of the Obama administration, including Secretary Clinton, that bore no relationship whatsoever to the committee’s current investigative tone, focus or investigative plan.”
    “Thus, directly contrary to his brand-new assertion, the employee actually was terminated, in part, because he himself manifested improper partiality and animus in his investigative work,” the statement said. “The committee vigorously denies all of his allegations. Moreover, once legally permitted to do, the committee stands ready to prove his termination was legal, justified and warranted — on multiple levels.”
    I'm not so certain the investigators' claims are really "corroboration". The suit and its response are certainly interesting.

    McCarthy was right to step down...his statement about the Benghazi hearings in and of itself shows extremely poor judgment as a "leader". Beyond that I know nothing about the man.
    Not where I breathe, but where I love, I live...
    Robert Southwell, S.J.

    Comment

    • Norm dePlume
      Err foil
      • Tuesday, October 22, 2013
      • 14904

      #3
      Originally posted by phillygirl View Post
      I'm not so certain the investigators' claims are really "corroboration". The suit and its response are certainly interesting.

      McCarthy was right to step down...his statement about the Benghazi hearings in and of itself shows extremely poor judgment as a "leader". Beyond that I know nothing about the man.
      McCarthy cited the committee as an effective political tool against Hillary. Podliska accuses the committee of concentrating their attention on Hillary scuttlebutt to the exclusion of wider investigation. Both portray the committee as a Hillary hatchet job. That is corroboration.
      Enjoy.

      Comment

      • phillygirl
        Not superior, just kind
        • Wednesday, October 2, 2013
        • 19840

        #4
        Originally posted by Norm dePlume View Post
        McCarthy cited the committee as an effective political tool against Hillary. Podliska accuses the committee of concentrating their attention on Hillary scuttlebutt to the exclusion of wider investigation. Both portray the committee as a Hillary hatchet job. That is corroboration.
        It seems that Podlista's claims are being disputed...including the fact that it appears Podlista himself may have been the one focusing too much on a hit piece on Hillary and not enough on getting to the bottom of things.
        Not where I breathe, but where I love, I live...
        Robert Southwell, S.J.

        Comment

        • Norm dePlume
          Err foil
          • Tuesday, October 22, 2013
          • 14904

          #5
          Originally posted by phillygirl View Post
          It seems that Podlista's claims are being disputed...including the fact that it appears Podlista himself may have been the one focusing too much on a hit piece on Hillary and not enough on getting to the bottom of things.
          The fact that other people deny Podliska's allegations does not change the fact that Podliska's allegations corroborate McCarthy's slip. Corroborating evidence does not have to be unquestioned to be corroborating.

          There is a reason why I used the term corroboration rather than claiming conclusive proof.
          Last edited by Norm dePlume; Sunday, October 11, 2015, 3:42 PM.
          Enjoy.

          Comment

          • scott
            Go-to Guru
            • Tuesday, October 1, 2013
            • 15808

            #6
            Politicians have political motives? Who knew?

            None of this negates the actual facts of Clinton's mishandling of classified information, which is funny because a few years ago the lefty spin machine and their fluffers (like Bok) were just absolutely sure there was nothing improper at all and this was all a political witch hunt. Now that the impropriety is undeniable the lefty spin machine and fluffers (like you) are trying to say that the crime doesn't matter because the evidence was uncovered in a political witch hunt.

            Nobody died in Watergate but I guess facts don't matter.
            "Faith is nothing but a firm assent of the mind : which, if it be regulated, as is our duty, cannot be afforded to anything but upon good reason, and so cannot be opposite to it."
            -John Locke

            "It's all been melded together into one giant, authoritarian, leftist scream."
            -Newman

            "Grievance groups are playing King of the Hill."
            -Newman

            Comment

            • Norm dePlume
              Err foil
              • Tuesday, October 22, 2013
              • 14904

              #7
              If you can prove illegality, file charges. At least you admit it's a witch hunt.
              Enjoy.

              Comment

              • scott
                Go-to Guru
                • Tuesday, October 1, 2013
                • 15808

                #8
                Originally posted by Norm dePlume View Post
                If you can prove illegality, file charges. At least you admit it's a witch hunt.
                And they found the witch. Guess who she is?
                "Faith is nothing but a firm assent of the mind : which, if it be regulated, as is our duty, cannot be afforded to anything but upon good reason, and so cannot be opposite to it."
                -John Locke

                "It's all been melded together into one giant, authoritarian, leftist scream."
                -Newman

                "Grievance groups are playing King of the Hill."
                -Newman

                Comment

                • Billy Jingo
                  I shave with Occam's Razor
                  • Wednesday, October 2, 2013
                  • 18663

                  #9
                  Originally posted by scott View Post
                  And they found the witch. Guess who she is?
                  Dude. Witches don't exist.
                  “One day, when it's safe, when there's no personal downside to calling a thing what it is, when it's too late to hold anyone accountable, everyone will have always been against this.”

                  ~ Omar El Akkad
                  ​

                  Comment

                  • Adam
                    The way to a woman's heart is through her taste buds.
                    • Tuesday, October 1, 2013
                    • 16885

                    #10
                    I'm all up for building a bridge out of her.
                    It's been ten years since that lonely day I left you
                    In the morning rain, smoking gun in hand
                    Ten lonely years but how my heart, it still remembers
                    Pray for me, momma, I'm a gypsy now

                    Comment

                    • Billy Jingo
                      I shave with Occam's Razor
                      • Wednesday, October 2, 2013
                      • 18663

                      #11
                      Originally posted by Adam View Post
                      I'm all up for building a bridge out of her.
                      How about a large wooden badger?
                      “One day, when it's safe, when there's no personal downside to calling a thing what it is, when it's too late to hold anyone accountable, everyone will have always been against this.”

                      ~ Omar El Akkad
                      ​

                      Comment

                      • gary m
                        Reprobate
                        • Wednesday, October 2, 2013
                        • 8019

                        #12
                        Originally posted by Billy Jingo View Post
                        Dude. Witches don't exist.
                        PG may not agree with you on that one.

                        Have you ever seen anyone seriously disagree with her that has ever posted afterwards?
                        We are so fucked.

                        Comment

                        • Billy Jingo
                          I shave with Occam's Razor
                          • Wednesday, October 2, 2013
                          • 18663

                          #13
                          Originally posted by gary m View Post
                          PG may not agree with you on that one.

                          Have you ever seen anyone seriously disagree with her that has ever posted afterwards?
                          Elphaba doesn't count.
                          “One day, when it's safe, when there's no personal downside to calling a thing what it is, when it's too late to hold anyone accountable, everyone will have always been against this.”

                          ~ Omar El Akkad
                          ​

                          Comment

                          • scott
                            Go-to Guru
                            • Tuesday, October 1, 2013
                            • 15808

                            #14
                            Originally posted by Billy Jingo View Post
                            Dude. Witches don't exist.
                            Dude. It was metaphorical, just like your "witch hunt" comment - or do you think the House Republicans were looking for an actual witch?

                            Regardless of political motivations, the House investigations are looking for impropriety and criminal acts. They found some.

                            You idiots did the same thing.

                            "Faith is nothing but a firm assent of the mind : which, if it be regulated, as is our duty, cannot be afforded to anything but upon good reason, and so cannot be opposite to it."
                            -John Locke

                            "It's all been melded together into one giant, authoritarian, leftist scream."
                            -Newman

                            "Grievance groups are playing King of the Hill."
                            -Newman

                            Comment

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