Attendees of the Democratic Party’s National Convention, plus the millions of viewers who watched its proceedings via television, didn’t hear from Patricia Smith. She certainly wasn’t invited to tell of her meeting with Hillary Clinton at the Andrews Air Force base ceremony when the bodies of her son Sean and three others arrived home from Benghazi. They had perished during an Islamic attack on the U.S. compound that took the lives of four Americans: Sean Smith, U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens, and former Navy Seals Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods.
Secretary of State Clinton, President Obama and other government officials were present at the brief ceremony on September 14, 2012. Mrs. Clinton assured Mrs. Smith that her son and three others died because of the reaction to a crudely created anti-Muslim video made by an American and shown on YouTube. Her message to the grieving mother made no mention of any other reason for the killings. But Mrs. Smith found out later that Hillary Clinton had lied, that she knew the privately made video had nothing to do with her son’s death.
The four Benghazi victims perished on September 11, 2012. Within hours of the attack, it is now known that Hillary Clinton emailed to her daughter Chelsea that the incident was the work of terrorists. The House Select Committee on Benghazi found out later that then-Secretary of State Clinton told the Egypt’s prime minister on September 13: “We know that the attacks in Libya had nothing to do with the film. It was a planned attack — not a protest.” But, on September 14th, Hillary Clinton told the grieving mother a bald-faced lie about why her son had died.
{modulepos inner_text_ad}
During the recent Republican National Convention, Mrs. Smith supplied graphic details about her encounter with Hillary Clinton. “She looked me squarely in the eye and lied to me,” said Patti Smith. “She told me a video was responsible.” Then the mother of the deceased State Department specialist stated, “To this day, I don’t even know why a computer guy like Sean was sent to Benghazi.” There had to be a reason for the ambassador and his computer technician to be in Benghazi, but Mrs. Smith’s repeated inquiries to the State Department never got her any answer. We offer a possible explanation.
In September 2012, various anti-Assad factions were gathering weapons needed to attack and possibly unseat the government in Syria. Some of these factions seem to have learned that the American ambassador in Libya was working out details about how to get weapons sent from nearby Turkey to a U.S.-favored anti-Assad group in Syria. Other militants seeking to oust Assad learned of the plan and sought to prevent its completion by attacking Ambassador Stevens. Computer specialist Smith was with Stevens to provide technical assistance to assure that messages to and from the favored faction were successfully transmitted.
Admittedly, that’s only a guess as to why the deadly incident occurred. And while we engage in speculation about the reason for the tragic deaths of four Americans, the now-verified story is that Hillary Clinton — who wants to be president of the United States — blatantly lied to Mrs. Smith. It is unfortunately true that Mrs. Clinton has also lied on numerous other occasions about other matters. Patricia Smith doesn’t think Americans should elect a liar to be president. Which is certainly one reason why she wasn’t invited to speak at the Democrat’s convention.
Congratulations to the Republicans for giving her time to tell her revealing story to the GOP’s convention and to the nation.
John F. McManus is president emeritus of The John Birch Society. This column appeared originally at the insideJBS blog and is reprinted here with permission.
