Even as the White House strove last week to move beyond questions about the Benghazi attacks of Tuesday, September 11, 2012, fresh evidence emerged that senior Obama administration officials knowingly misled the country about what had happened in the days following the assaults. The Weekly Standard has obtained a timeline briefed by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence detailing the heavy substantive revisions made to the CIA’s talking points, just six weeks before the 2012 presidential election, and additional information about why the changes were made and by whom.
As intelligence officials pieced together the puzzle of events unfolding in Libya, they concluded even before the assaults had ended that al Qaeda-linked terrorists were involved. Senior administration officials, however, sought to obscure the emerging picture and downplay the significance of attacks that killed a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans. The frantic process that produced the changes to the talking points took place over a 24-hour period just one day before Susan Rice, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, made her now-famous appearances on the Sunday television talk shows. The discussions involved senior officials from the State Department, the National Security Council, the CIA, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the White House.
The exchange of emails is laid out in a 43-page report from the chairmen of five committees in the House of Representatives. Although the investigation was conducted by Republicans, leading some reporters and commentators to dismiss it, the report quotes directly from emails between top administration and intelligence officials, and it includes footnotes indicating the times the messages were sent. In some cases, the report did not provide the names of the senders, but The Weekly Standard has confirmed the identities of the authors of two critical emails—one indicating the main reason for the changes and the other announcing that the talking points would receive their final substantive rewrite at a meeting of top administration officials on Saturday, September 15.... read the whole article at the link. ◼ Discussion at Lucianne
◼ Bombshell CNN Investigation: 3 Al Qaeda Operatives Took Part In Attack On Benghazi Consulate - Mediaite
◼ Discussion at Lucianne
◼ Does the Obama Government Really Want to Catch Anyone Involved in the Benghazi Attack? - PJM
◼ Discussion at Lucianne
◼ Exclusive: US Hired al-Qaida-Linked Group to Defend Benghazi Mission - John Rosenthal/Newsmax
◼ Ace quizzes Victoria Nuland, State Dept. on altered Benghazi talking points - Twitchy
We’ve heard more than a few people say that investigators should just “let it go” — the terrorist attack that killed four Americans “happened a long time ago” and, besides, the election is over and Obama won. What difference, at this point, does it make?
Excellent reporting & analysis by @stephenfhayes on how infamous Benghazi "talking points" were created. weeklystandard.com/articles/bengh…
— Brit Hume (@brithume) May 3, 2013
If Hillary wants to know "What difference does it make?," she should ask her flackNuland, who made the changes to placate "superiors"
— DepressiveBlogger69 (@AceofSpadesHQ) May 3, 2013
If it made no difference, why did Hillary have her spokeswoman work so hard to obscure the truth of #Benghazi?
— DepressiveBlogger69 (@AceofSpadesHQ) May 3, 2013
More, at Twitchy. If you're on Twitter, share/retweet Ace's full set of questions.
