When it became clear last fall that the CIA’s now discredited Benghazi talking points were flawed, the White House said repeatedly the documents were put together almost entirely by the intelligence community, but White House documents reviewed by Congress suggest a different story.
ABC News has obtained 12 different versions of the talking points that show they were extensively edited as they evolved from the drafts first written entirely by the CIA to the final version distributed to Congress and to U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice before she appeared on five talk shows the Sunday after that attack. Exclusive: Benghazi Talking Points Underwent 12 Revisions, Scrubbed of Terror Reference White House emails reviewed by ABC News suggest the edits were made with extensive input from the State Department. The edits included requests from the State Department that references to the Al Qaeda-affiliated group Ansar al-Sharia be deleted as well references to CIA warnings about terrorist threats in Benghazi in the months preceding the attack.
That would appear to directly contradict what White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said about the talking points in November.
“Those talking points originated from the intelligence community. They reflect the IC’s best assessments of what they thought had happened,” Carney told reporters at the White House press briefing on November 28, 2012. “The White House and the State Department have made clear that the single adjustment that was made to those talking points by either of those two institutions were changing the word ‘consulate’ to ‘diplomatic facility’ because ‘consulate’ was inaccurate.”
Summaries of White House and State Department emails — some of which were first published by Stephen Hayes of the Weekly Standard — show that the State Department had extensive input into the editing of the talking points.
State Department spokesman Victoria Nuland raised specific objections to this paragraph drafted by the CIA in its earlier versions of the talking points:
“The Agency has produced numerous pieces on the threat of extremists linked to al-Qa’ida in Benghazi and eastern Libya. These noted that, since April, there have been at least five other attacks against foreign interests in Benghazi by unidentified assailants, including the June attack against the British Ambassador’s convoy. We cannot rule out the individuals has previously surveilled the U.S. facilities, also contributing to the efficacy of the attacks.”
In an email to officials at the White House and the intelligence agencies, State Department spokesman Victoria Nuland took issue with including that information because it “could be abused by members [of Congress] to beat up the State Department for not paying attention to warnings, so why would we want to feed that either? Concerned …” The paragraph was entirely deleted.
Like the final version used by Ambassador Rice on the Sunday shows, the CIA’s first drafts said the attack appeared to have been “spontaneously inspired by the protests at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo” but the CIA version went on to say, “That being said, we do know that Islamic extremists with ties to al-Qa’ida participated in the attack.” The draft went on to specifically name the al Qaeda-affiliated group named Ansar al-Sharia. Once again, Nuland objected to naming the terrorist groups because “we don’t want to prejudice the investigation.” http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/po.....f-terror-references/
MSNBC host Joe Scarborough on Friday argued that the public would be much more critical of the Obama administration's handling of the deadly September attack in Benghazi, Libya if the "far right" hadn't "overplayed their hand."
The conservative pundit contended that the issue deserves to be treated with seriousness, and suggested that it "has the DNA of a [Hillary] Clinton scandal more than it does an Obama scandal."
But the problem, Scarborough asserted, is that too many conservatives "were screaming beforre they knew what they were screaming about."
“The first ambassador killed since 1979. It is serious,” he continued. “You talk about overplaying your hand. If a lot of people on the far right hadn’t overplayed their hand on Benghazi and were screaming before they knew what they were screaming about, I think we would all be much harder on the administration right now.”
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
Just about everybody with an IQ over 80 knows that the world is a 'rigged game'!!!!!
Jackie Kennedy is on the list of 'conspiracy nuts' too!!
there were tapes that were recorded within months of JFK's assassination. They were sealed in a vault at the kennedy library in boston....and released in 2011. In the tapes....ms.jackie said that she believed VP Lyndon Johnson and other 'influential individuals' orchestrated the dallas shooting that killed her husband.
Wow! Jackie Kennedy didn’t believe the official government story that her husband was killed by a 'lone gunman'. She believed there was a conspiracy of 'influential individuals' who colluded in killing her husband. WOW.....and she WAS THERE.....UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL!!!
But hell the LAME STREAM MEDIA aka ARM OF THE GOVERNMENT must be believed by the sheople!!!
Like i said................the world is a 'rigged game'!!!!.....and this is just one small example!!!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Box, trying to take a pundits opinion and pass it as news worthy. Who cares what Joe Scarborough thinks? They scrubbed the report to intentionally deceive the American people to help win an election. This is obvious to most except for the rabid left winger.
this is what happens when the INSANE are running rigging the ASYLUM!!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
Hurricane Katrina - Democrats politicize for weeks and attack George Bush's leadership and response.
Benghazi attack, 4 murdered - A non-issue, Republicans are on a witch hunt and politicizing it to damage Hillary Clinton.
Some even suggested that Bush had something to do with sending the hurricane TO New Orleans. On one hand they claimed Bush was too stupid to be president but YET somehow had the knowledge and/or capacity to steer vast weather systems to specific locations.
Since hurricanes were brought up, anybody care to explain why the Obama administration only seems to be rushing to clean up the wealthy Democratic enclaves damaged by the storm yet others areas with fewer Democrats and mostly poor or middle class folks have been left out in the cold? And what about those Irene-Lee victims in Rotterdam Junction and the Schoharie Valley that have basically been told to "piss off" by the Feds?
George Amedore & Christian Klueg for NYS Senate 2016 Pete Vroman for State Assembly 2016[/size][/color]
"For this is what America is all about. It is the uncrossed desert and the unclimbed ridge. It is the star that is not reached and the harvest that is sleeping in the unplowed ground." Lyndon Baines Johnson
US Capitol, Rep. Michele Bachmann said that this nation has experienced God's judgment twice on September 11. At the WTC and Benghazi.
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
How embarrassing for any individual that let themselves be defined by a political party. Defending a political party like defending their family name(box) is an embarrassment.
Bachmann is a Bimbo: bimbo: 1. a foolish, stupid, or inept person. 2. an attractive but stupid young woman, especially one with loose morals.
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
The WH should have come out and announced that an embassy in Libya was attacked by terrorists and 4 were killed and it would have been over. It's never the act but always the cover up.
Certain extreme left wing nuts can't seem to draw the simple but logical distinction between Benghazi and other terrorist attacks. They don't seem to comprehend or just refuse to admit that the outrage over Benghazi is because president and a secretary of state a) did NOTHING to assist Americans who were under attack for 8 hours, b) not only did NOTHING but either gave the order or allowed the order to do NOTHING to be assist them to be sent and c) have continuously and flagrantly LIED (and suppressed others from going public) to Congress and the American people.
Benghazi is Obama's and Clinton's Watergate. Both them and all their accomplices need to be brought to justice. And those Democrats in Congress who continue to cover for and defend Obama and Clinton need to be defeated at the polls and run out of public office for good.
George Amedore & Christian Klueg for NYS Senate 2016 Pete Vroman for State Assembly 2016[/size][/color]
"For this is what America is all about. It is the uncrossed desert and the unclimbed ridge. It is the star that is not reached and the harvest that is sleeping in the unplowed ground." Lyndon Baines Johnson
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
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