Emails on Libya exchanged between Hillary Clinton and her confidante, Sidney Blumenthal, which reveal he may have had financial interests in Benghazi, prove the State Department under Clinton was "completely incompetent," retired U.S. Army ranger Kris "Tanto" Paronto says.
"They're utilizing unconfirmed or unvetted intelligence information," Paronto said Thursday on "The Steve Malzberg Show" on
Newmax TV.
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"That's why that night [of the Benghazi attack] went so haywire when we lost people … You're basically putting a civilian that has no experience in that country and relying on the information they're trying to provide you and [it had] disastrous consequences. It was terrible."
On Monday, the House Benghazi Committee released emails sent between Clinton and Sidney Blumenthal on Libya that the committee chair, Rep. Trey Gowdy, said proves Clinton, as secretary of state, was getting "unvetted intelligence" from "sources with financial interests in Libya."
The committee is probing the terror attack that resulted in the deaths of four Americans at the U.S. Embassy in Benghazi in 2012, and its aftermath.
Paronto — a former U.S. security contractor and co-author of
"13 Hours: The Inside Account of What Really Happened in Benghazi," with Mitchell Zuckoff and others and published by Twelve — agrees.
"Everything's out there that shows that the State Department was completely incompetent and that there was a lot of underhanded dealings going on," he said.
"What really bothered me was … the email Blumenthal … sent to Mrs. Clinton [that said], once [Moammar] Gadhafi falls, make sure you get in front of the camera and utilize all that press," Paronto said.
"It wasn't just a liberation of a country. It wasn't … to catch terrorists. It was to put a notch on your belt and say, 'Hey, look what I did for this great country and now I'm going to run for president.' That bothered me."
Paronto said he has confidence the House committee will get to the bottom of Clinton's culpability in the Benghazi tragedy.
"I still have faith in Trey Gowdy. I know he's going slow, but he has to. He's walking a slippery slope here. The State Department will be held accountable for things that happened. If Hillary will? I don't know. I really don't know and it's hard for me to say," Paronto said.
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