White House Directed Incorrect Benghazi Narrative

White House Directed Incorrect Benghazi Narrative
Newly-released emails: "Video" to blame, "not a broader failure or policy."
By Sharyl Attkisson April 29, 2014


​Newly-released documents reveal direct White House involvement in steering the public narrative about the September 11, 2012 terrorist attacks in Benghazi, Libya, toward that of a spontaneous protest that never happened.

One of the operative documents, which the government had withheld from Congress and reporters for a year and a half, is an internal September 14, ​2012 email to White House press officials from Ben Rhodes, President Obama’s ​Assistant and Deputy National Security Advisor. (Disclosure:Ben Rhodes ​is the brother of David Rhodes, the President of CBS News, where I was employed until March.)
​
In the email, Ben Rhodes lists as a “goal” the White House desire “To ​underscore that these protests are rooted in an Internet video, and not a broader failure or policy.”

The email is entitled, “RE: PREP CALL with Susan, Saturday at 4:00 pm ET” and refers to White House involvement in preparing then-U.S.Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice for her upcoming appearance on Sunday television ​ network political talk shows.

The Rhodes email states that another “goal” is “To reinforce the President and Administration’s strength and steadiness in dealing with difficult challenges.”

A court compelled the release of the documents, which were heavily-redacted, to the conservative watchdog group JudicialWatch, which has sued the government over its failed Freedom of Information responses. I have also requested Benghazi-related documents under Freedom of Information law, but the government has only produced a few pages to date.

Today, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) called the Rhodes email the “smoking gun” showing the “political manipulation by the White House” after the attacks.

​“The political shop at the White House took over early on,” Graham told me. “They understood it was a terrorist attack, that they had a political problem, and were going to handle it politically. They weren’t going to entertain anything other than what they wanted the public to hear.”


Read more at: http://www.sharylattkisson.com/new-benghazi-docs-april-29--2014.html

 

If the MSM don't dig into it, won't matter.

 

"Nothing to see here. Move along."

 

No time for "phony scandals" like leaving Americans hanging out to die and the White House directing a cover-up just before the presidential election.... especially when there are real scandals like Donald Sterling's thought crimes.

 

Yep, it's MUCH more important for the msm to wear down a story of a rich guy who was illegal recorded in his own home. Benghazi? Wtf is that?

 

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....back to our top story of the day, the Chris Christie bridge scandal, day 197.....

 

wow... reporting being done... since ben rhodes is your news leaders brother.
actually a pretty well done story.


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http://www.cbsnews.com/news/emails-illustrate-how-white-house-shaped-benghazi-talking-points/

Newly-released emails from within the White House shed more light on the way the administration shaped its response to the 2012 attack in Benghazi, Libya that left four Americans dead.

Obtained by the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch through a Freedom of Information Act request, an email from then-White House Deputy Strategic Communications Adviser Ben Rhodes (the brother of CBS News president David Rhodes) listed several goals for then-United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice as she prepared to go on political talk shows just a few days after the Sept. 11, 2012 attack.

Rhodes wrote that one "goal" for Rice was "To underscore that these protests are rooted in and Internet video, and not a broader failure or policy." Another stated "goal" was to "reinforce the President and Administration's strength."

Congressional Republicans say the new email shows a deliberate attempt by the White House to put politics ahead of the facts in the weeks before President Obama's re-election.

Senators ask again: What about Benghazi?
"It demonstrates for the first time that the direction on the talking points came directly out of the White House," Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, told CBS This Morning.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told Newsmax that the emails amounted to a "smoking gun."

"It shows political operatives in the White House working to create a political narrative at odds with the facts," he said.

Internal emails the White House released last year showed how the CIA -- not the White House -- also modified the Benghazi talking points before Rice appeared on five political talk shows on Sept. 16, 2012. The final version of the talking points said the attack may have been "spontaneously inspired by the protests at the U.S. embassy in Cairo." One page of the documents released showed handwritten changes ordered by Mike Morell, former deputy director of the CIA and a current CBS News contributor. In his congressional testimony earlier this month, Morell said an intelligence analyst said on Sept. 13, 2012 that the attack evolved spontaneously from a protest.

A national security council spokesman told CBS News that the latest email from Rhodes simply "contains general topline talking points."

"There were protests taking place across the region in reaction to an offensive internet video, so that's what these points addressed," the spokesperson said.

Congress, meanwhile, is still actively investigating the matter.

On Thursday. the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will hold a hearing called, "Benghazi, Instability, and a New Government: Successes and Failures of U.S. Intervention in Libya." Earlier this week, a trio of Republican senators called on the House and Senate Foreign Affairs Committees to hold more hearings.

 

Grilled Carney with a side of Lies.

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He was doing well distracting and lying... and he knew it... you could see it in his demeanor.

However the second to last question hurt and the last question at 7 mins 10 seconds got the lying SOB... imo.
Its time to get his weasel ass on the congressional record. Supoena him, put him under oath.