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Board endorses Sept. 11 tribute to Benghazi victims

By Bill Moss, Published: September 4, 2013

Henderson County commissioners blessed a request to use the Historic Courthouse next week for an event to commemorate the four Americans who died in the terrorist attack on the American embassy in Benghazi, Libya — an observance that one commissioner said might "answer Secretary Clinton's request of what it really matters."


Dick Shaughnessy of Rutherfordton told the Board of Commissioners that the Sons of Liberty Riders have scheduled an observance of the Benghazi deaths in Columbia, S.C., and plan to arrive in Hendersonville at noon on Sept. 11, the one-year anniversary of the Benghazi attacks and 12th anniversary of the terrorist attack on the U.S.
"I think all of us agree with everything you've said," chairman Charlie Messer told Shaughnessy.
Commissioner Grady Hawkins has been working with the group to arrange the use of the Courthouse Square for the event and arrange for a P.A. system. Ken "Skip" Findlay, the former adult education minister at First Baptist Church, has agreed to sing the national anthem.
"I'll have a few comments," Hawkins said. "The thrust of the program is to memorialize the tragic events that happened at Benghazi and maybe we'll be able to answer Secretary Clinton's request of what it really matters."
Hawkins referred to remarks Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made during a Senate hearing on the State Department's preparedness for an attack on Sept. 11, its reaction to it and the Obama administration's explanation for it. Clinton, frustrated by questioning from Republican senators on the panel, finally blurted out, "What difference at this point does it make?"

Republican critics have said for months that the Obama administration and the State Department was inadequately prepared for the attack, botched the response to it,  invented a fictional story to explain why it happened and then covered up how the false story came about.

On Hawkins' request, the board unanimously endorsed the Benghazi tribute.