White House denies memo was about Benghazi attack
Source: AP-EXCITE
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House on Wednesday denied that a staff member's email three days after the deadly attack on the U.S. mission at Benghazi, Libya, was actually about the attack. Critics have branded the electronic missive as evidence that the Obama administration sought to deceive the public about the true circumstances surrounding the deaths of four Americans during the final months of the 2012 presidential campaign.
"It was explicitly not about Benghazi," press secretary Jay Carney told journalists during his daily briefing at the White House. "It was about the overall situation in the region, the Muslim world, where you saw protests outside of embassy facilities across the region, including in Cairo, Sana'a, Khartoum and Tunis."
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., has called the email a "smoking gun" that "shows political operatives in the White House working to create a political narrative at odds with the facts."
The U.S. ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, and three other Americans died in the attack on Sept. 11, 2012. Republicans contend that President Barack Obama, eager to claim in an election year that al-Qaida and terrorists in general were on the run, misled Americans by linking the Benghazi attack to protests over an anti-Islamic video when he knew otherwise.
FULL story at link.
Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20140501/us-benghazi-attack-449c2cbb2c.html
FILE - In this Sept. 3, 2013 file photo Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. talks to a reporter following a speech in Goose Creek, S.C. The White House on Wednesday April 30, 2014 denied that a staff member{2019}s email three days after the deadly attack on the U.S. mission at Benghazi, Libya, was actually about the attack Graham, has called the email a {201c}smoking gun{201d} that {201c}shows political operatives in the White House working to create a political narrative at odds with the facts.{201d} (AP Photo/Bruce Smith, File)
= new reply since forum marked as read
"Diligently pursuing the truth"....... someone lives in fantasy land..
The GOP has claimed to have found smoking guns every other week. The latest "smoking gun" does not change anything. http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2014/04/30/smoking_gun_shock_benghazi_e_mail_reveals_that_obama_white_house_agreed.html
The #Benghazi story is really tailor-made for the Vox version of journalism, the one with cards and updates explaining what new piece of information explains or debunks what previously understood piece of information. In this case, in order to consider the Rhodes email a "smoking gun," you need to forget the previously known timeline of emails sent on Sept. 14. Luckily, Time's Zeke Miller has left his timeline hanging around on the Internets, so I can add the Rhodes disclosure in bold text.11:15 a.m.: The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence,* having asked for talking points, gets a draft from the CIA’s Office of Terrorism Analysis. It starts with this line, the one that would undo Susan Rice during her run through the Sunday shows: "We believe based on currently available information that the attacks in Benghazi were spontaneously inspired by the protests at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo and evolved into a direct assault against the U.S. consulate and subsequently its annex."
12:23 p.m.: The CIA's office of general counsel adds a line about the "inspired by the protests" theory being inconclusive.
3:04 p.m.: The talking points are sent to relevant White House aides, including Ben Rhodes.
4:42 p.m.: The CIA circulates new talking points but removes a mention of al Qaida.
6:21 p.m.: The White House (Tommy Vietor, not Ben Rhodes) ads a line about the administration warning, on September 10, of social media reports calling for demonstrations.
7:39 p.m.: State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland objects to some of the language because "the penultimate point could be abused by members to beat the State Department for not paying attention to Agency warnings."
8:09 p.m.: Ben Rhodes sends the "smoking gun" email, nine hours after the first draft of talking points from the CIA said that the attacks grew out of a demonstration.
Read that USA Today lede again. It reports that "a White House official urged that the assault on the U.S. consulate be blamed on a protest that never happened." And he did—hours after the CIA and State Department were urging that the assault on the U.S. consulate be blamed on a protest. Can we chastise Rhodes, in retrospect, for not being more skeptical of what was known? Ten years after George "slam dunk" Tenet's advice for a prior administration, yes, I think we can. But it's just lazy journalism or lazy politicking to blame Rhodes for a talking point that was fed from the CIA. The White House's shifty-sounding excuse, that the "demonstration" story line came not from its spin factory but from the CIA, remains surprisingly accurate. (And I mean really lazy. It does not take very much time to compare the new Rhodes email to the previously known timeline of emails.)
The smoking gun is an e-mail that the White was agreeing with the CIA and State Department. I am shocked that anyone think that this e-mail changes anything. It would have been surprising if the White House disagreed with the CIA and the State Department.
