This seems to be much the consensus amongst the Obama administration, which has repeatedly blamed a “lack of intelligence” for coming out and blaming the video time and time again, including when Obama gave his speech at the United Nation, despite knowing within hours that the attack was most likely a pre-planned terrorist attack by an al Qaeda offshoot
(Washington Post) The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations has denied she tried to mislead Congress when she initially called the Sept. 11 attack on the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya a spontaneous protest.
Susan Rice, in a letter released Friday, wrote three Republican senators that her comments on television news shows after the attack were based on the best information available at the time from intelligence officials.
Rice wrote Sens. John McCain of Arizona, Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin that she “consistently qualified, in some instances twice, the information I provided as preliminary.†U.S. officials modified their initial public assessment and said the attack was an act of terrorism, with some attackers linked to groups affiliated with, or sympathetic to, al-Qaida.
Johnson replied that he knows what standing in cow patties feels like, growing up in Wisconsin with all those bovines, Ayotte went looking for a sporting goods store to purchase some hip waders, and McCain told Rice to get off his lawn.
The senators said in a joint statement that they did not accept Rice’s explanation.
“The Obama administration failed to sufficiently protect our consulate and diplomats in Benghazi in the face of obvious and growing threats in eastern Libya in the months leading up to the September 11, 2012, terrorist attack,†they said. “To make matters worse, the administration mishandled its response to the attack and appears to have selected intelligence that mischaracterized the attack and misled the American people. “
“Either the Obama administration is misleading Congress and the American people, or it is blaming the entire failure on the intelligence community,†the senators said. They added the administration’s conduct after the attack “indicates a breathtaking level of incompetence.â€
The first question, which has been asked many a time without an answer, is why the Obama admin. would send the US Ambassador to the UN out on to the political show circuit in the first place, and with those talking points. The second question is what the administration thinks they will accomplish by throwing the intelligence community under the bus
Weeks before the presidential election, President Barack Obama’s administration faces mounting opposition from within the ranks of U.S. intelligence agencies over what career officers say is a “cover up†of intelligence information about terrorism in North Africa.
Intelligence held back from senior officials and the public includes numerous classified reports revealing clear Iranian support for jihadists throughout the tumultuous North Africa and Middle East region, as well as notably widespread al Qaeda penetration into Egypt and Libya in the months before the deadly Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi…
Officials with access to intelligence reports, based on both technical spying and human agents, said specific reporting revealed an alarming surge in clandestine al Qaeda activity months before the attack in Benghazi…
“The Obama Administration is afraid to admit al Qaeda is running rampant throughout the region because it would expose the truth instead of what President Obama so pompously spouted during the Democratic Convention†said the official.
We’ve read the reports about all the attacks made on the consulate, how Ambassador Stevens feared he was being targeted, and how Westerners in Benghazi were being targeted by Islamic extremists. As Ed Morrissey points out
Two reports prepared for Congress and released in August — before the attack in Benghazi — warned explicitly that the power vacuum in Libya combined with easy access to heavy weapons stolen from Qaddafi’s stockpiles made the country a natural draw for jihadists. One of those reports claimed that Al Qaeda’s senior leadership in Pakistan had dispatched top operatives to Libya with orders to start setting up a new network there under a different name.
Yet, the Obama admin. refused to increase security at the Benghazi consulate, then decided to blame the Mohammed video which no one had seen with Susan Rice as the tip of the talking points spear.
Read: Ambassador Susan Rice Decides To Blame Intelligence Community For Foolishly Blaming Mohammed Video »
