By Rand Paul
Obama acts as though we no longer have a Constitution
Independent voices from the TWT Communities
Democrats rallied behind President Barack Obama in the long-running, bitter dispute over the administration's handling of the Benghazi attack, arguing that the White House's latest email disclosure undermines Republican claims of a cover-up.
The tragedy of Benghazi, where a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans were killed, seemed a cut-and-dried story in the days after a mob attacked the State Department's mission in eastern Libya. Today, the public knows that those early administration pronouncements were false.
Suddenly, it seems we have broken through the most effective executive branch cover-up and complicit media blackout in memory.
President Obama is presiding over an administration that has engaged in the systematic abuse of power. This is the real meaning of the Benghazi tragedy.
Senior White House and State Department officials played a much larger role than they acknowledged in drafting erroneous administration "talking points" about the Sept. 11 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, according to congressional investigators preparing for a dramatic hearing Wednesday in the House.
The Obama administration appeared eager on Thursday to downplay the North Korean military's latest threat that it has the final authority to carry out "cutting-edge, smaller, lighter and diversified" nuclear strikes on the United States.
A day after President Obama and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced they will donate 5 percent of their paychecks to the Treasury, Secretary of State John Kerry is following suit, vowing to donate 5 percent of his $183,500 salary.
Secretary of State John F. Kerry will focus heavily on the threat posed by a nuclear armed North Korea during his upcoming diplomatic visit to Asia, particularly in meetings with Chinese leaders, the State Department said Monday.
ANALYSIS: The Pentagon said Monday that it was moving a guided-missile destroyer and a sea-based radar platform near North Korea's coastline to respond to any aggressive acts by the communist state, even as the White House said no changes have been detected in the regime's military posture despite its warlike threats.
The Obama administration said Monday that an Iranian dissident group must immediately accept an offer of asylum from Albania for some its members being housed at a camp in Iraq.
The State Department's top spokeswoman said Wednesday that she and others at Foggy Bottom are "crossing our fingers" in the hope that Congress will come through with requested funds for security improvements to U.S. diplomatic posts around the world.
The State Department joined European Union leaders this week in cautioning Hungarian lawmakers to tread carefully on controversial amendments to their nation's constitution.
As Secretary of State John F. Kerry met in Berlin with his Russian counterpart, American and European officials said Tuesday that the Obama administration is close to deciding whether to provide direct assistance to rebel forces in Syria.
One of the more delicate moments of Secretary of State John F. Kerry's diplomatic tour of Europe and the Middle East this week is likely to occur when he sits down Tuesday with longtime Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
"There was obviously a physical perimeter barrier, a wall," she added. "And then there was a robust American security presence inside the compound. This is absolutely consistent with what we have done at a number of missions similar to Benghazi around the world."
Benghazi: The anatomy of a scandal; how the story of a U.S. tragedy unfolded — and then fell apart →
She wrote she was concerned they could prejudice the investigation and be "abused by members to beat the State Department for not paying attention to agency warnings so why do we want to feed that either?
