CONGRESSIONAL INVESTIGATIONS 'National Tragedies'
Pearl Harbor - The Roberts Commission - 285 days
8 battleships damaged, 4 sunk. 188 aircraft destroyed, 2,403 dead, 1,178 wounded.
9/11 Commission - 478 days
World Trade Center destroyed. Pentagon damaged. 3 airliners destroyed. 2,977 dead.
Warren Commission - 300 days
Presidential assaination.
Benghazi Committee - 510 days (continuing)
1 Ambassador and 3 State Dept employees killed in Libya.
CONGRESSIONAL INVESTIGATIONS 'National Scandals'
Senate Watergate Committee - 406 days
Summary: Five men arrested for breaking and entering into the DNC headquarters at the Watergate complex where phones are found to be wiretapped. The hotel rooms the burgalers were staying in were booked by a CIA front company. A $25,000 cashier's check earmarked for the Nixon re-election campaign is found in the bank account of one of the burglars.
A federal prosecutor (Archibald Cox) requests access to tape recordings between Nixon and his aids about the affair. Nixon asks his Attorney General to fire Cox - he refuses and resigns. Nixon asks the Deputy Attorney General, who also refuses and quits.
Nixon refuses to release the tapes and fights the case to the Supreme Court.
The tapes are released, and reveal that Nixon had discussed the burgalary, and the cover-up. That the CIA had attempted to stop the FBI investigation, and that the White House had continued to pay "hush money" to the burgulars after they were arrested.
Results:
President Richard M. Nixon, under threat of impeachment, resigns. President Gerald Ford issued a full and unconditional pardon, immunizing Nixon from prosecution for any crimes he had "committed or may have committed or taken part in" as president.
John N. Mitchell, Former Attorney General of the United States convicted of perjury. Served 19 months of a one- to four-year sentence.
Richard Kleindienst, Attorney General, convicted of "refusing to answer questions" given one month in jail.
Jeb Magruder, Deputy Director of Committee to Re-elect the President, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy, and was sentenced to 10 months to four years in prison, served 7 months.
Frederick C. LaRue, Advisor to John Mitchell, convicted of obstruction of justice.
H. R. Haldeman, Chief of Staff for Nixon, convicted of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and perjury. Served 18 months in prison.
John Ehrlichman, Counsel to Nixon, convicted of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and perjury. Served 18 months in prison.
John Dean, counsel to Nixon, convicted of obstruction of justice, later reduced to felony offenses and sentenced to time already served, which totaled 4 months.
Charles W. Colson, special counsel to Nixon, convicted of obstruction of justice. Served 7 months in Federal Maxwell Prison.
G. Gordon Liddy, Special Investigations Group, convicted of burglary, original sentence of up to 20 years in prison. Served 4½ years in federal prison.
E. Howard Hunt, Security consultant, convicted of burglary, original sentence of up to 35 years in prison. Served 33 months in prison.
*Watergate resulted in the indictment of a total of 69 people, 48 being found guilty and incarcerated.
Iran Contra 561 days
Summary:
Senior Reagan administration officials secretly facilitated the sale of arms to Iran, which was the subject of an arms embargo. The money was used to fund the Contras in Nicaragua. Under the Boland Amendment, funding of the Contras by the government had been prohibited by Congress.
Results:
Caspar Weinberger, Secretary of Defense, was indicted on two counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice on June 16, 1992. Pardoned George H. W. Bush.
William Casey, Head of the CIA. Thought to have conceived the plan, was stricken ill hours before he would testify and died.
Robert C. McFarlane, National Security Adviser, convicted of withholding evidence. Pardoned by President George H. W. Bush.
Elliott Abrams, Assistant Secretary of State, convicted of withholding evidence. Pardoned by President George H. W. Bush.
Alan D. Fiers, Chief of the CIA's Central American Task Force, convicted of withholding evidence. Pardoned by President George H. W. Bush.
Clair George, Chief of Covert Ops-CIA, convicted on two charges of perjury. Pardoned by President George H. W. Bush.
Duane Clarridge. An ex-CIA senior official, he was indicted in November 1991 on seven counts of perjury and false statements relating to a November 1985 shipment to Iran. Pardoned before trial by President George H. W. Bush.
Richard V. Secord. Ex-major general in the Air Force who organized the Iran arms sales and Contra aid. He pleaded guilty in November 1989 to making false statements to Congress and was sentenced to two years of probation.
Oliver North indicted on 16 counts, was found guilty by a jury of three felony counts. The convictions were vacated on appeal on the grounds that North's Fifth Amendment rights may have been violated by the indirect use of his testimony to Congress which had been given under a grant of immunity.
National Security Advisor John Poindexter convicted on several felony counts of conspiracy, lying to Congress, obstruction of justice, and altering and destroying documents pertinent to the investigation. His convictions were also overturned on appeal on similar grounds.
The Benghazi Committee - 510 days (continuing)
Summary: In post-revolution Libya, an American consulate is attacked by heavily armed jihadis and militias. The compound is set on fire and Amb. Stevens and Sean Smith die of smoke inhalation in a safe room. A rescue operation from the nearby CIA Annex rescues the remaining staff. 8 hours later the CIA Annex comes under mortar attack and 2 more Americans are killed.
Results:
Eric J. Boswell, the assistant secretary of state for diplomatic security, resigned.
Charlene R. Lamb, the deputy assistant secretary responsible for embassy security, resigned.
Raymond Maxwell, a deputy assistant secretary who had responsibility for North Africa, resigned.
There have already been 7 official investigations.
ALL concluded that neither Clinton, nor Obama were personally responsible, criminally negligible, or committed any wrongdoing.
Which is what stands out about Benghazi. Watergate and Iran/Contra began with investigations into violations of the law, and moved into cover-ups of those violations.
Benghazi has taken the opposite approach.
It began with 7 investigations that cleared Clinton of any violation of the law, and has spent the last year and a half trying to find a violation.