The witnesses are being forced into a witness-protection program.

I don’t think they’re the ones being protected, though.

[Update a while later]

Will David Ubben blow the roof off the “phony” scandal?

Ubben was stuck on that rooftop for 20 hours before help finally arrived. He can tell us and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton “what difference does it make”that help was not sent — at least two American lives. Ubben sustained injuries at Benghazi so severe he’s still being treated at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Rep. Darrel Issa’s House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has tried to interview Ubben as part of its Benghazi scandal investigation, but the State Department has not allowed the meeting, according to Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah.

“While initially they said they would be helpful, pretty quickly they turned that off,” Chaffetz reported. “And I had a meeting scheduled to go visit this … young man and then I was denied.” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki denies Chaffetz’s claim, saying State has been fully cooperative.

Yeah, right.

[Update a while later]

“The CIA has been subjecting operatives to monthly polygraph tests in an attempt to suppress details of a US arms smuggling operation in Benghazi that was ongoing when its ambassador was killed by a mob in the city last year.”

Of course they have. Can’t let the truth get out. Might turn a “phony” scandal into a real one.

[Update a couple minutes later]

Gee, maybe this is worth investigating after all.

To be clear, it isn’t at all certain that the CIA was secretly funneling Libyan weapons to Syria, long before Congress “lifted its hurdles” on arming Syrian rebels. But if CNN’s report is correct, the CIA is at minimum trying to hide something huge from Congress, something that CIA agents might otherwise want to reveal — itself a reason for Congress to press hard for information. And if speculation about moving weapons is grounded in anything substantive, that would be an additional reason to investigate what the CIA is doing in Libya. Dozens of CIA agents were apparently on the ground in Benghazi, Libya last September.

And yes, it would be nice to know why, and what they were doing.

Congress is interviewing dozens of Benghazi witnesses.

The overreach of the Muslim Brotherhood:

It is difficult to welcome a military overthrow of democratic results. It is, however, more difficult to regret a prophylactic coup against the exploitation of democratic success to adopt measures inimical to the development of a democratic culture.

I’d note that in passing ObamaCare, the Democrats didn’t follow Jefferson’s advice, either. It was a similar tyrannical overreach which John Roberts, to what should be his eternal shame, didn’t slap down.

Thoughts on why Islamists hate us. Unfortunately, Bush was right — they hate out freedom. And it’s appalling that the administration won’t put them on the terrorist list. Even the UK has done so.

Are they compatible?

The question is whether or not Islam as a religion is separable from the totalitarian ideology. Christianity had its reformation. Islam awaits its own.

It’s sure a good thing we got rid of him.

[[Update a while later]

Who lost the Middle East? The wrecking crew in the White House.

[Another update a few minutes later]

Who are the good guys in the Middle East?

Prospects for liberal democracy there have never been bright, except for the one exception of Israel, which was formed by transplants from elsewhere.

Also, related: “Dismiss the Egyptian people, and elect a new one.”