May 21, 2013

McCaskill, Blunt, speak out on Benghazi attacks (AUDIO)

Senators McCaskill and Blunt agree on one thing when it comes to the attack on Benghazi on September 11th of last year… the hearing involves a lot of politics and finger pointing.

McCaskill says House Republicans have been tight lipped in talking about what’s expected as hearings into the attacks on the embassy compounds in Benghazi begin, leaking details to the press but keeping details from their Democrat counterparts on the oversight committee.

Senator Blunt says the Obama administration tried to cover up the fact that it was an orchestrated attack. Republicans on the committee are focusing on U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, who insisted the attack was the result of a spontaneous demonstration over an anti-Islam film that suddenly turned violent, killing four Americans.

U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens was among four Americans killed during the attack on the diplomatic compound on September 11, 2012 in Benghazi, Libya. Stevens spoke to his deputy, Gregory Hicks, moments before he was killed. Hicks testified at today’s hearing, saying the anti-Muslim YouTube video was a “non-event” in Libya.

McCaskill says Republicans are quick to criticize actions taken before and after the attack, but still refuse to bolster funding to put more securities in place to prevent future incidents. She says House Republicans instead have proposed cutting funds to the State Department, when more resources are needed, especially in areas like Africa and the Middle East.

Democrats accuse Republicans of using the tragic killings for political gain, but Republicans accuse Democrats of not talking about the incident until right after the November election.

In addition to hearing testimony by Hicks, committee members also questioned Eric Nordstrom, a former regional security officer in Libya, and Mark Thompson, the State Department’s acting deputy assistant secretary for counterterrorism.

 

AUDIO: Jessica Machetta reports (1:14)

Margaret Thatcher remembered for 1996 Fulton speech (AUDIO)

Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has died.  She was 87.    

Thatcher helped celebrate in 1996 the fiftieth anniversary of Winston Churchill’s ‘Iron Curtain”: speech in Fulton, warning of new dangers emerging in the years after the end of the Cold War.  She said the Cold War had ended “amid high hopes of a New World Order.”  But instead, she said, those hopes had been “grievously disappointed.”  She noted “Bosnia, Somalia, and the rise of Islamic militancy all point to instability and conflict rather than co-operation and harmony.” 

Thatcher felt the international bodies that she had hoped would respond in the 1980sand early 90s–the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the United Nations, and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade “have given us neither prosperity or security.” 

She forecast a a new administration in Moscow would be “less friendly to the United States” and create new problems. In fact, she noted, the collapse of the Soviet Union had “aggravated the single most awesome threat of modern times: the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.” 

She warned of the West lapsing into “an alarming complacency” since the removal of the risk of nuclear annihilation.  “We have rundown our defenses and relaxed our guard,” she said.  She said it was mistake to place increased trust in international institutions to safeguard the future of the West.     

She concluded, in a vein similar to  Churchill’s concluding remarks in 1946,  with confidence that “the West–above all perhaps, the English-speaking peoples of the West” held the “best hope of global peace and prosperity.”  

AUDIO: Thatcher speech 44:07

 

 

Dem’s votes needed to pass transportation sales tax bill (AUDIO)

A divided state Senate has sent a major transportation funding program to the House.  Senator Mike Kehoe’s eight-billion dollar sales tax proposal would not have passed without support from minority Democrats.  Ten of the Senate’s 24 Republicans voted ‘no,” after Republican Senator John Lamping criticized  the one-cent sales tax as taking the state “down the wrong road” of “bigger government and eight billion dollars in higher taxes.”  .

But Kehoe got support from the leader of the Senate, Tom Dempsey of St. Charles, who says, “Providing a sound, safe, dependable transportation system is a function of government…We have to address this problem. “ 

Kehoe says the sales tax would be collected for ten years before voters are asked to extend it. 

AUDIO: Debate 13:12

Blunt urges passage of FISA extension (AUDIO)

The United States senate votes today on extending the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Senator Blunt says Congress should not let the act lapse–as it did five years ago when,. he says, the national security agency could not perform its mission in monitoring known terrorists overseas for several months. “It would be dangerously wrong if we let it happen again,” he says.

The act lets the intelligence community keep collecting information about non-citizens and non-legal permanent residents outside the United States. It requires the government to get a specific court order before it can monitor the communications of any United States citizens or permanent legal resident.

AUDIO: Blunt speaks in Senate

 

Blunt releases statement on Connecticut school shooting

Senator Roy Blunt has released the following statement in a press release in response to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut:

“I am shocked by this incredible tragedy, and I hope all Americans will join me in praying for the victims and their families after this horrific and senseless act of violence.”