No Smoking Gun: 100 Emails Are The Best Defense for Benghazi and the President

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The Benghazi boil continues to infect the news cycle 24/7. Curmudgeon carbuncle Chris Matthews just won’t let it go. For the second straight MSNBC broadcast, Matthews has worked himself into a frenzy over the initial Obama administration public reaction to the loss of 4 lives in Benghazi, Libya, September 11 and 12 of last year. As it turned out the reaction was a measured, intelligent and informative response to a tragic and deadly terrorist attack.

Now there’s the release of the first 100 emails on the subject. Coming from the White House and various affected agencies, the first talking point emails indicated that the attacks on the U.S. Mission and a CIA facility in Benghazi were inspired by a protest at the U.S Embassy in Cairo (not untrue). Then the explanations were co-joined with the revelation that a cross-section of Libyan society was involved noting that assessments could change with additional information and analysis. After some debate, it was decided that indeed, extremists had participated in the attack.

For some reason, the Republicans are bitching about the whole process. These are the very same bloodsuckers who couldn’t wait for the U.S. to kill our soldiers and hundreds of thousands of Middle East men, women and children in Iraq when they knew damn well the WMD cover story was a Matterhorn-sized mound of pure BS.

I’m searching Congress to see how many former journalists or reporters are in residence in the House and Senate. If there are any, they worked for the Skunk Hollow Gazette.

Reporters and journalists know that nothing is more chaotic than an accidental or man-made calamity; terrorist or otherwise. Remember the guy fleeing the Boston Marathon explosion when his pants had been blown off? The TV announcers kept inferring that he might be one of the bombers. How about the Centennial Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta back in ’96? It was Richard Jewell for sure. He sure looked the part and forget that he saved numerous lives, he did it! Except he didn’t do it. Olympic Park was one of Eric Rudolph stopovers along the way to bombing all things gay and abortion.

And for numbskulls like Matthews out there, it’s not just about the event itself. As I already indicated in my previous submission on the subject, the entire area of Benghazi was a tinderbox. A little holding back to keep the peace, however tenuous, is part of the job of running a country. What did you want from Obama? “Yeah, it was those terrorist bastards!” If the blowhard Tea Party crowd had their way, we’d be making preparations for a world war. Again, repeating myself., the Benghazi compound was a gathering spot to meet with Middle East allies and figure out how to get Bashar al-Assad out of power. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens knew as well as anybody that he was flirting with death every time he ventured into Benghazi from his assigned duty-station of Tripoli.

A lot has been made of security, but, according to CBS News, estimates of the number of attackers have run as high as 150. There would have never been enough security to overcome those odds in and around the tiny, spy outpost. While an offending video produced in California ridiculing Muhammad drew few protestors, it was credited by local sources as being a major contributor to the attacks. It had been showing locally on YouTube throughout the summer. Sam Bacile who was responsible for the film is supposedly in hiding.

As for the emails, my friend and colleague Sarah Jones discovered that one in particular had been tampered with to match Republican character assassination and ABC swallowed the final results whole. Sadly, the network reporter said he had reviewed the contents when, in fact, he hadn’t. Early emails followed the lines I indicated earlier in this story, plus the fact that Ansar al-Sharia did not order the attacks according to a spokesman for the admittedly terrorist organization. It was thought some members did later join participate in the mayhem. The attacks were deemed more lethal because of the ready availability of weapons and the U.S. is working with the Libyan authorities and “intelligence partners” to bring the guilty parties to justice.

Those email contents seem to be what anybody with good sense would initially send out for public (or Congressional) consumption. There appears in a later email some hesitation about some of the points due to compromising possible criminal investigations, given the fact that Islamic extremists with ties to al-Qaeda were involved. There are subsequent emails talking of further edits. One edit actually added a September 10 warning that demonstrations would take place in front of the Cairo Embassy and that Jihadists were threatening to break into the Embassy.

Later added was that Ansar al-Sharia’s Facebook page aimed to spread sharia in Libya and emphasizes the need for jihad to counter what it views as false interpretations of Islam, according to an open source study. There’s also a mention of attacks on other foreign interests in Benghazi. That was subsequently taken out, then put back in apparently by the White House. There is then a request to send the talking points to the State Department.

As it turns out the State Department did have concerns, resulting in several changes. The major deletion was the role of Ansar al-Sharia because the State Department was afraid that certain legislators would take off after the organization when their exact participation would not be known pending an investigation and the group would be used to “beat” the State Department (read Hillary). Ansar al-Sharia was left out of the talking points altogether. In spite of the changes, the state department still had concerns.

A further series of edits was carried out. An inter-agency squabble breaks out; one concern is that the changes are overdone; another is that they’re just fine. The final release was reduced to: the demonstrations in Benghazi being spontaneously inspired by the protests at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo which evolved into the Benghazi diplomatic post assault. There are indications that extremists participated in the violent demonstrations. David ‘Casanova’ Patraeus, then CIA Director disagreed with the deletion of al-Qaida and extremists participation and the warnings of the Cairo attacks.

Also included was; this assessment may change as additional information is collected and as currently available information continues to be analyzed.

Finally, the investigation is ongoing and the U.S. government is working with Libyan authorities to bring to justice those responsible for the deaths of U.S. citizens.

The last correction was made when some agency finally suggested that Consulate be deleted and replaced with U.S. diplomatic post. Others recommended U.S. Mission. Diplomatic post apparently won out.

So there are those horrible, misleading emails and the process by which the final product was made available to Congress and the media.

For right-wing Republicans to use the tragedy of Benghazi as a political vehicle to discredit the president, his administration and Hillary Clinton is an affront to the memories of our brave diplomats and marines.

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Dennis S

Raised rural & small town, then lived in N.Y., Chicago & LA. Widely traveled. Returned from world wandering to pursue media life of anchorman/reporter and major, medium and small market talk radio. Highly active in politics. Once worked as orderly & security in Mens Lock Ward for the Criminally Insane at a state institution. Much more rational population than current Teapublicans. Great concern for country run by and for the extreme wealthy. The inhumane current running through this country has no precedent in modern history.

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