Just a reminder: Congress not done investigating Benghazi

[Valin]

CBS News claims that Office of the DNI removed references to al Qaeda and terrorism

Paul Mirengoff

11/20/12

 

Citing “an intelligence source,” CBS News reports that the “Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI)” cut references to “al Qaeda” and “terrorism” from the unclassified talking points given to Ambassador Susan Rice on the Benghazi consulate attack, and did so with the agreement of the CIA and FBI. Neither the State Department nor the White House made these changes, according to CBS.

 

(Snip)

 

he CBS News report contains this tidbit:

 

“The intelligence community assessed from the very beginning that what happened in Benghazi was a terrorist attack.” DNI spokesman Shawn Turner tells CBS News. That information was shared at a classified level — which Rice, as a member of President Obama’s cabinet, would have been privy to.

 

Thus, Rice knew or should have known that the CIA thought this was an act of terrorism. If, as CBS’s source maintains, substituting the word “extremist” for “terrorist” was not a denial that terrorists was involved, but just an attempt to cover the full range of people involved, then Rice had every reason to know that the attack was terrorism.

 

(Snip)

[nickydog]

"Where's Jim Clapper?"

 

"He's under the bus."

[Valin]

Special Report Panel on the Evolving Benghazi Story

Bill Kristol, with Mara Liasson, Juan Williams, and Charles Krauthammer, last night on Fox News:

 

 

Given the escalating level of violence over the previous months, and given how important 9-11-01 is to the terrorist, the question still remains, why wasn't an increased level of security.

[Valin]

Getting to the bottom of Benghazi

Dennis Byrne

11/20/12

 

(Snip)

 

It's not Watergate. It's a political witch hunt, designed to embarrass and discredit the newly re-elected Obama. It's a lot of Republican claptrap, another one of those conspiracy theories created out of thin air.

 

Whoops. That's exactly what Republicans were saying when the FBI and newspaper investigators were closing in on President Richard "I am not a crook" Nixon for covering up the Watergate break-in by his operatives. Republican defenders of Nixon described it as merely a third-rate burglary and said investigating it would be a waste of time because nothing illegal or untoward happened. When Democrats begin sounding like Republicans, we know that the Earth's magnetic poles have shifted.

 

But I digress. Any one of these points is reason enough to shut down any investigation of why the consulate was poorly defended, why Stevens' pleas for a stronger defense were ignored, whether someone issued orders for the quick-response military unit to stand down, whether the command and control structure so essential to national security broke down, if terrorists were prisoners being held in the CIA annex and what was the CIA's role there, and whether the Obama administration was trying to avoid responsibility.

[nickydog]

And might I add the possibility that Libyan weapons were being smuggled to Syrian rebels?

[Valin]

And might I add the possibility that Libyan weapons were being smuggled to Syrian rebels?

 

That is the rumor. The US, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and (of course) the Libyan government. Remember Christopher Stevens had a meeting with the Turkish ambassador that day. Why did they go to Benghazi to meet?