May 18 2013

The Mountain That Was Benghazi

(4 pm. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

Cross Posted from The Stars Hollow Gazette

The Republicans have been screaming cover-up for months over the attack on the American diplomatic mission at Benghazi, in Libya on September 11, 2012 that took the lives of U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans. One of the accusations surrounded e-mails between the White House, the State Department and the CIA was that there was an intentional downplay of the motive for the September 11 attack.

Based on e-mails that were leaked, the Republicans claimed that the White House had changed the talking points to edit out “terrorism” in an effort to down play the attack just before the election. In an attempt to quell the GOP’s uproar, the White House released a 100 pages of e-mails to the public to disprove the cover-up allegations. Guess what, like true to from politicians trying to make a mountain out of a molehill, they fabricated the so-called quotes to create a scandal. The quotes that were cited by Republicans as accurate are far different than which is in the actual emails.

CBSNews‘ Major Garrett broke the story on its Evening News:

On Friday, Republicans leaked what they said was a quote from (deputy national security adviser Ben) Rhodes: “We must make sure that the talking points reflect all agency equities, including those of the State Department, and we don’t want to undermine the FBI investigation.”

But it turns out that in the actual email, Rhodes did not mention the State Department.

It read: “We need to resolve this in a way that respects all of the relevant equities, particularly the investigation.”

Republicans also provided what they said was a quote from an email written by State Department spokesman Victoria Nuland.

The Republican version quotes Nuland discussing, “The penultimate point is a paragraph talking about all the previous warnings provided by the Agency (CIA) about al-Qaeda’s presence and activities of al-Qaeda.”

The actual email from Nuland says: “The penultimate point could be abused by members to beat the State Department for not paying attention to Agency warnings.”

There is no indications that the White House “fixed” the talking  points. This is a purely manufactured conspiracy by the Republicans to discredit, not just the White House, but the State Department and Hillary Rodham Clinton for political advantage.

This isn’t Watergate this is Whitewater. There nothing there, never was but that won’t stop the right wing lying smear machine from wasting millions of tax payer dollars digging more holes:

Brendan Buck, a spokesman for Republican House speaker John Boehner, made it clear that it will not be giving up the fight. “This release is long overdue and there are relevant documents the administration has still refused to produce. We hope, however, that this limited release of documents is a sign of more co-operation to come,” Buck said.

Never mind that they lied. Keep digging your own grave, guys.

h/t John Aravosis at Americablog

2 comments

    • TMC on May 18, 2013 at 08:50
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  2. No, I’m not insensitive to the needless deaths of our diplomat and staff, whose very lives are probably, mostly, at risk most of the time, depending on locale.

    The CIA (had a location very close to the Embassy) definitely had involvement in the “talking points”

    With the release yesterday of the 100 pages of emails discussing the  ‘talking points’ that have become the focus of Rep. Darrell Issa’s campaign to expose a White House cover up of the Benghazi affair, there are a few things that have now become starkly clear-

       It was the CIA-not the State Department or the White House-that sought to remove language from the talking points directly discussing any potential involvement of any Al-Qaeda related terrorist groups in the Benghazi attack. . . . .

    – and –

    Is it possible that Ambassador Stevens rejected General Ham’s offer a military security force because the troops offered may not have been ones cleared for participation in a mission that we may know nothing about-a mission that the CIA has every intention of keeping secret from us along with the rest of the world?

    Keep in mind that there were two facilities involved in the September 11th Benghazi attack. Ambassador Stevens and Sean Smith lost their lives at the consulate while the two former Navy SEALS, Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods, were killed in the nearby CIA annex. Accordingly, we know that Benghazi was a center for CIA activities in the region. . . . see:  “Do The White House Emails And Other Breaking Revelations Point To Critical CIA Secrets In Benghazi?”

    Now, why don’t we get a little gutsy and talk about all the deaths in Embassies, during the Bush/Cheney Administration:

    Where was all that concern for our men and women serving in embassies and consulates across the globe when all the other attacks and killings occurred?

    Like in 2002 when the US Consulate in the Karachi, Pakistan, was attacked and 10 were killed?

    Or in 2004 when the US embassy in Uzbekistan was attacked and two were killed and another nine injured?

    How about in 2004, when the US Consulate in Saudi Arabia was stormed and 8 lost their lives?

    There is more: In 2006, armed men attacked the US Embassy in Syria and one was murdered.

    Then in 2007 a grenade was thrown at the US Embassy in Athens.

    In 2008, the US Embassy in Serbia was set on fire.

    In 2008, bombings in the US Embassy in Yemen killed 10.



    Notice the dates, all before the Obama administration. see: Many embassies attacked during the Bush years

    This is all BS.  Distractions, distractions, distractions, and efforts to throw Clinton and Obama in the toilet.  

    So, what’s new?  Nothing?  It’s the same old efforts to prevent any kind of progress:  progress on gun control, progress on the immigration issue; progress on the Social Security issue, progress on the Defense budget cuts, and on and on.  WE CANNOT GET ANYTHING DONE, PERIOD! All of these assholes, with the exception of the likes of Sanders, Grayson and but a few, should be thrown out of the government for wasting taxpayer dollars day after day after day. (And, too, it’s a perfect time to “slip” things through on us, while we’re all so distracted — same friggin’ story, over and over and over.)  

    All of this latest stuff is pure, unmitigated “caca!”

    Sick to death of the whole despicable lousy play, written by the worst of the worst!!!!

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