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Benghazi: Explained

2015-10-23 · explainer · Hank, Kevin McCarthy (quoted) · 9:25 · watch on YouTube

Topic: US politics & society (also: World affairs, Internet & YouTube) · mode: News analysis · tags: timely hook, heavy topic

Hank explains the 2012 Benghazi attack and argues that, after eight investigations finding significant but not criminal mistakes, the inquiry has become a partisan, taxpayer-funded campaign against Hillary Clinton, while the attack's real consequences fell on Libya.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Greeting; the September 11, 2012 attack on the US consulate in Benghazi and why the word stirs partisan anger; the plan to explain it

  • ★★★ Hank says that on September 11th, 2012, a group of militants attacked the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya. — 00:00:01
  • ★★ Hank says that in America the word Benghazi either riles people up or makes them flee those about to get riled up, and learning about it inevitably exposes you to partisan anger. (playful) — 00:00:07
  • ★★ Hank sets out to explain why Benghazi provokes such anger, what actually happened and what it means, hopefully removing it a little from angry partisan grandstanding. (hedged) — 00:00:31

00:00:42 — Benghazi the city; the protest, revolution and civil war that toppled Gaddafi; power vacuums; the Obama administration too optimistic or negligent

  • ★★ Hank says Benghazi, known to Americans as a site of tragedy or conspiracy, is actually a city in Libya of about 600,000 people, roughly the size of Denver, Colorado. — 00:00:42
  • ★★ Hank says a pro-democracy protest broke out in Benghazi in 2009, spread across Libya and eventually resulted in the first Libyan Civil War. — 00:00:56
    • a number in question (slip of the tongue): "2009" — check against the recording
  • ★★★ Hank says revolutions promise rapid change for good, as hoped after Gaddafi was killed, but their usual immediate outcome is a power vacuum and armed groups fighting to control the country. — 00:01:04
  • ★★ Hank says that, depending on who you ask, the Obama administration was either too optimistic about Libya's path to stability or criminally negligent in pretending all was well for political reasons. — 00:01:26 · Barack Obama
  • ★ Hank says both US sides in the Benghazi story likewise want to control their country's future, through cable news and congressional committees rather than guns. (playful) — 00:01:44 · United States Congress

00:01:58 — What happened: the consulate breached, Stevens and Smith die in a safe room, Doherty and Woods killed at the CIA compound; Libyans who tried to save Stevens; misinformation

  • ★★ Hank says there is little controversy over what happened: armed militants easily breached the consulate, and security tried to move personnel to a nearby, more defensible CIA compound. — 00:01:58
  • ★★★ Hank says Ambassador Chris Stevens and diplomat Sean Smith were in a safe room and both died of smoke inhalation after the compound was set on fire. — 00:02:12
  • ★★★ Hank says the rest of the staff went to the CIA compound, which was later attacked; two security officers, former Navy SEALs Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods, were killed by mortar fire. — 00:02:20
  • ★★ Hank says Stevens was thought possibly alive, but local Libyans had tried to rescue him and taken him to a nearby hospital, where doctors could not resuscitate him. — 00:02:29
  • ★★ Hank says some people captioned photos of Libyans helping Stevens as showing him attacked or tortured, an example of the constant, deep misinformation around Benghazi. — 00:02:42

00:02:55 — Two partisan readings; the State Department's admitted mistakes; downplaying vs criminal negligence; debunked accusations; seven more investigations turning into a campaign against Clinton

  • ★★★ Hank calls it an awful terrorist attack and a tragedy, and says what people think about it depends largely on how they feel about President Obama and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. — 00:02:55 · Barack Obama
  • ★★ Hank says people distrusting the Democratic leadership tend to believe it made grave mistakes, was criminally negligent and covered it up, while those trusting Clinton and Obama accept the State Department's account. — 00:03:08 · Barack Obama
  • ★★ Hank says the State Department's version admits grave mistakes in not preparing the consulate and not being more responsive, but goes no deeper and no further up the chain. — 00:03:22
  • ★★ Hank grants that Clinton and Obama maybe did have an interest in downplaying the attack, since nobody wants a terrorist attack on their record. (hedged) — 00:03:36 · Barack Obama
  • ★★★ Hank says that right after the attack the CIA indicated, and the administration repeated, that it grew out of protests over an anti-Islam film, when it was a planned, organized terrorist attack. — 00:03:44 · Barack Obama
  • ★★ Hank says that, close to the 2012 election, Obama didn't want to talk about letting a terrorist attack happen and waited weeks before using the word 'terrorist'. — 00:03:58 · United States presidential election, Barack Obama
    • check: weeks — doubtful
  • ★★★ Hank says downplaying a crisis after it has happened is, at least to him, very far from criminal negligence. (hedged) — 00:04:08 · Barack Obama
  • ★★★ Hank says other accusations, such as then-Secretary Clinton calling off troops that could have helped, have been proved over and over again to be made up. — 00:04:13
  • ★★★ Hank says the State Department did make mistakes and should have done more to protect the consulate, but these were acknowledged, including in its own internal report. — 00:04:21
  • ★★ Hank says there have since been seven more investigations that found nothing new. — 00:04:31 · United States Congress
  • ★★★ Hank says the inquiry clearly went beyond partisan distrust and truth-seeking and became an active, taxpayer-funded campaign against the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. — 00:04:35 · United States Congress

00:05:00 — Kevin McCarthy's TV admission about Clinton's numbers and his lost speakership; entrenched minds; eight investigations, mistakes but not crimes; Benghazi as a polarizing fundraising talking point

  • ★★ Hank says left-wing pundits long called the inquiry partisan while right-wing pundits said they were getting to the bottom of it, until, disturbingly, a staunch proponent of the investigations spoke on national TV. — 00:04:49

  • ★★★ Kevin McCarthy (quoted): In a clip, Kevin McCarthy says everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, but after the Benghazi special committee, he asks, what are her numbers today? — 00:05:07

    “Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right? But we put together a Benghazi special committee. What are her numbers today?”

  • ★★★ Hank says that, partisan as everyone knew it was, proudly saying on national TV that you run taxpayer-funded investigations to advance your party is bad and wrong. — 00:05:16

  • ★★ Hank says the man who was probably going to become Speaker of the House no longer will, because that was dumb. (playful) — 00:05:36
  • ★★ Hank says the controversy is so entrenched that many minds will never change: some will always believe Obama and Clinton were criminally negligent, others that it was only a Republican attack opportunity. — 00:05:46 · Republican Party, Barack Obama
  • ★★★ Hank says there have been eight congressional investigations of Benghazi, six more than after September 11th, 2001. — 00:06:16 · United States Congress

  • ★★★ Hank says it seems unlikely anything more will be found and more likely the attack involved unfortunate circumstances and significant but not criminal mistakes. (hedged) — 00:06:16

    “a series of unfortunate circumstances and significant, but not criminal, mistakes.”

  • ★★★ Hank says that for most people in politics Benghazi is now just a talking point, a way to raise money from increasingly polarized constituencies and to polarize them further. — 00:06:32

00:06:43 — The bigger consequences for Libya: the economy crushed, the Second Libyan Civil War, Benghazi in ruins; sign-off

  • ★★★ Hank says the attack was a much bigger deal for Libya: aid organizations, investors and businesses left Benghazi, crushing its economy, and other militias took up arms. — 00:06:43
  • ★★★ Hank says increased fighting led to the Second Libyan Civil War, which began in 2014, and Benghazi now has large areas in ruins. — 00:07:00
  • ★★★ Hank says Americans talk about Benghazi as if it were a tragic 12-hour period in 2012, when it is part of a much larger and longer series of tragedies. — 00:07:12

00:07:25 — 2 a.m. coda: making explainers past the time limit is hard; outrage gets views, so few do neutral context; is it his own bias; ask for recommendations of non-partisan writers

  • ★ Hank says it is two in the morning and he has just finished editing the video, so he will talk a little more. — 00:07:25
  • ★★ Hank says they have made videos like this since the beginning of Vlogbrothers; he likes being able to go past the time limit, but they are hard and stressful to make. — 00:07:31 · Vlogbrothers, Four-minute rule
  • ★★★ Hank says few people make context-giving explainers because without outrage and attacks on the other side you don't get many views; he would hire or promote anyone doing it. (hedged) — 00:07:48
  • ★★ Hank asks whether it's just his own bias that makes him see others as biased, and thinks not, since good analysis needs detachment from the political system that doesn't attract interest. (hedged) — 00:08:12
  • ★★★ Hank asks viewers to tell him in the comments about people writing on complicated issues with context and without a partisan agenda, to help his research. — 00:08:32
  • ★★ Hank says it's not fun to read two angry positions and work out which parts of the anger are real and which are just anger, which is most of it. — 00:08:53

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: 2012 Benghazi attack · Barack Obama · Benghazi · Hillary Clinton

Also: People: Glen Doherty · J. Christopher Stevens · Kevin McCarthy · Muammar Gaddafi · Sean Smith · Tyrone Woods

Works: Innocence of Muslims

Organizations: Central Intelligence Agency · Democratic Party · Republican Party · United States Congress · United States Department of State · United States House of Representatives · United States House Select Committee on Benghazi · United States Navy SEALs

Rituals: Four-minute rule

Concepts: Cable news · misinformation · moral outrage · political polarization · power vacuum · revolution · terrorism

Places: Denver · Libya

Events: First Libyan Civil War · Second Libyan Civil War · September 11 attacks · United States presidential election

Also centred on Hillary Clinton: Nerdfighting in 2008, Pakistan, and Hillary Clinton · Obama Says Subscribe · VEEPSTAKES! · Clinton vs. Sanders: POLICY IS EXCITING! · Understanding Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton's Tax Plans · Understanding Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton's Health Care Reform Proposals

Later videos replying to this one

Part of an exchange of 3 videos, 2015-10-23 – 2015-10-30.