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The Ludicrous Right Wing ‘Benghazi-Gate’ Fake Scandal Gets Even More Ludicrous (Barf-o-licious)
Little Green Footballs ^ | Nov 17, 2012 | Charles Johnson (Moonbat)

Posted on 11/17/2012 1:17:37 PM PST by Qbert

Yes, the right wing is still trying to turn the Benghazi attack into a cut-rate Watergate scandal, despite David Petraeus’s testimony backing up everything the administration said. Jennifer Rubin, the right wing hack masquerading as a Washington Post blogger, leads the charge with yet another determinedly stupid article: BREAKING: The President Knew the Truth About Benghazi - Right Turn.

For some reason, the right wing echo chamber is obsessively fixated on whether the President “knew it was a terrorist attack,” and they’re going to keep hammering away at this empty nothing-burger until it’s flatter than Mitt Romney’s approval ratings.

Solomon cautions that there were bits of evidence pointing to a spontaneous attack but, as Eli Lake of the Daily Beast and others have reported, he writes: “Among the early evidence cited in the briefings to the president and other senior officials were intercepts showing some of the participants were known members or supporters of Ansar al-Sharia — the al-Qaida-sympathizing militia in Libya — and the AQIM, which is a direct affiliate of al-Qaida in northern Africa, the officials said.”

How could the president and his senior staff then have allowed (or rather, sent) Rice to go out to tell an entirely different tale to the American people on Sept. 16 on five TV shows?

This report indicates that the president certainly knew that Benghazi wasn’t a rogue movie review gone bad. He had information that plainly spelled out what was later confirmed by additional intelligence. If this information was too confidential to share with the public, at the very least the president and others should not have mislead voters.

It’s absolutely bizarre that people like Rubin continue pushing this false dichotomy. In actual fact, there is no contradiction here. This was a terrorist attack that was motivated by the anti-Islam video. And we know this because the New York Times reported it from Benghazi on October 15.

To Libyans who witnessed the assault and know the attackers, there is little doubt what occurred: a well-known group of local Islamist militants struck the United States Mission without any warning or protest, and they did it in retaliation for the video. That is what the fighters said at the time, speaking emotionally of their anger at the video without mentioning Al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden or the terrorist strikes of 11 years earlier. And it is an explanation that tracks with their history as members of a local militant group determined to protect Libya from Western influence. …

To those on the ground, the circumstances of the attack are hardly a mystery. Most of the attackers made no effort to hide their faces or identities, and during the assault some acknowledged to a Libyan journalist working for The New York Times that they belonged to the group. And their attack drew a crowd, some of whom cheered them on, some of whom just gawked, and some of whom later looted the compound.

The fighters said at the time that they were moved to act because of the video, which had first gained attention across the region after a protest in Egypt that day. The assailants approvingly recalled a 2006 assault by local Islamists that had destroyed an Italian diplomatic mission in Benghazi over a perceived insult to the prophet. In June the group staged a similar attack against the Tunisian Consulate over a different film, according to the Congressional testimony of the American security chief at the time, Eric A. Nordstrom.

At a news conference the day after the ambassador and three other Americans were killed, a spokesman for Ansar al-Shariah praised the attack as the proper response to such an insult to Islam. ‘We are saluting our people for this zeal in protecting their religion, to grant victory to the prophet,’ the spokesman said. ‘The response has to be firm.’

The right wing is trying to fool America into jumping aboard their crazy train, pushing a false line of attack that they know is false — that the anti-Islam video was not the reason for the attack, and that President Obama, for some reason (maybe he just hates America?), deliberately lied about this in order to cover for his jihadi friends.

It’s yet another attempt to demonize President Obama and make him out to be a dangerous secret subversive radical, who sympathizes with people who kill American citizens.

Really! That’s the conspiracy theory they’re trying to push here. It’s just beyond ludicrous, and it gets stupider and more deranged every single day.

UPDATE at 11/17/12 11:48:36 am Since Jennifer Rubin asked:

How could the president and his senior staff then have allowed (or rather, sent) Rice to go out to tell an entirely different tale to the American people on Sept. 16 on five TV shows?

I don’t expect it to make any difference to the false narrative they’re pushing, but here’s the answer. It’s really not that difficult to figure out — in fact, Petraeus actually told the hearing yesterday why the assessment was toned down: Petraeus Says U.S. Tried to Avoid Tipping Off Terrorists.

WASHINGTON — David H. Petraeus, the former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, told lawmakers on Friday that classified intelligence reports revealed that the deadly assault on the American diplomatic mission in Libya was a terrorist attack, but that the administration refrained from saying it suspected that the perpetrators of the attack were Al Qaeda affiliates and sympathizers to avoid tipping off the groups.

Mr. Petraeus, who resigned last week after admitting to an extramarital affair, said the names of groups suspected in the attack — including Al Qaeda’s franchise in North Africa and a local Libyan group, Ansar al-Shariah — were removed from the public explanation of the attack immediately after the assault to avoiding alerting the militants that American intelligence and law enforcement agencies were tracking them, lawmakers said.



TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Editorial; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: benghazi; benghazicoverup; lies; lunaticrant; obama
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To: Carry_Okie

I think you and a number of other people here, perhaps the majority see this differently than I do. And so, I face the fact that I might be wrong with these thoughts, but here we go anyway.

The move to support the rebels in Libya was misguided IMO. None the less, it was the decision of our government to do so. McCain was in. I believe Palin was favorable to our support for the rebels. I didn’t think it was wise to help destabilize the region.

I viewed Ghadaffi as vile, but more or less content to live out the rest of his years in relative peace with the West. What would replace him would be a crap shoot, something we had no way of knowing.

We supported the Rebels. I wouldn’t be surprised if we armed them. If that was our policy, then wouldn’t it make sense to arm the Syrian rebels too? It may have been an unannounced policy, but it wouldn’t be out of line with our intent to help what some people must have perceived as “freedom fighters’.

I didn’t want us involved in these efforts from the get-go. Once we did, this natural progression seems reasoned from the opposing point of view.

McCain, I believe Palin, and Obama seemed to agree with helping the rebels. Members of Congress must have too. There didn’t seem to be serious push-back to our helping them.

In this environment, I just don’t see the possibility of gun running to Syria to be all that surprising, or scandalous.

Do I agree with it? I don’t think we should have taken a position on these “freedom” movements to begin with. The whole think including gun running seems a mistake to me, but scandalous? I’m not convinced of that.

I’m just remain convinced our being involved at all was a mistake.


21 posted on 11/17/2012 2:36:10 PM PST by DoughtyOne (Hurricane Sandy..., a week later and 48 million Americans still didn't have power.)
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To: Qbert
David Petraeus’s testimony backing up everything the administration said.

I thought Petraeus said (it was behind closed doors, I guess only the people in the room know)that we were trying not to let on that we knew that it was Al Quada , somehow to fake them out, to what end? Like there was going to be an immediate counter-strike? Where was it by October 15 ( five weeks after the fact) when the NYT had finally put together the umpteenth cover story that Green Footballs quotes? Can't take the stain out of Obama running off to Las Vegas as though nothing had happened; his reference to "bumps in the road;" (one is reminded of Braddock's final resting place courtesy of George Washington on the retreat from the disastrous battle of the Monongahela, 1755); nor overlook the fact that the Fort Hood shooting has been called "workplace violence" over the obviously pre-meditated terror attack it was. It has been Obama's trademark throughout his Presidency to refuse to call "the war against us, " "Moslem extremist terror." If you missed that , Green Footballs, then no wonder you have no idea what happened here either, so just shut up.

22 posted on 11/17/2012 2:37:15 PM PST by gusopol3
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To: Aria

Maybe he contracted syphilis. I hear it can really screw up your mind. Moral of the story, be careful who you lay down with.


23 posted on 11/17/2012 2:45:20 PM PST by FreeAtlanta (bahits.com)
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To: Qbert

So, Obama & cohorts played down the after-action report by CIA that this was an organized AQ associate attack on our Mission at Benghazi. The cover story was a demonstration incited by a video. Ooooookay.

How did anyone from Obama to Susan Rice to Hillary plan to play down this central, unchanged, decisive fact, known by Obama on down within 24 hours of the attack:

Two Americans were KIA by mortar fire at 0400.

Why isn’t the media, McCain, and everyone hammering that fact home at every opportunity?


24 posted on 11/17/2012 2:49:18 PM PST by gandalftb
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To: Qbert

Obammy promised to “get the guys responsible” for it.

How’s that manhunt going? Do we even have their names yet?

Obama got Osama and Hillary bragged about the war crime murder of Gaddafi.

LGF has gone RATsh!t crazy.


25 posted on 11/17/2012 2:51:11 PM PST by a fool in paradise (America 2013 - STUCK ON STUPID)
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To: FreeAtlanta

Charles, can I just call you DICK for short. Whether THE FOREIGNER knew it was a TERRORIST ATTACK or NOT is about what a HEADLINE READER socialist fraud like you knows about the screw-up. I would expect nothing less from THE MORONS on the LEFT who believe obama’s fraudulent birth certificate is REAL.


26 posted on 11/17/2012 2:53:28 PM PST by spawn44 (moo)
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To: Qbert
"Fake Scandal Gets Even More Ludicrous"

Can you imagine the shrill cry of the MSM and The Left if the president was a Republican, and the following breaking headline sprang-up:

US Administration falsely imprisons US resident filmmaker on US soil to provide cover for a botched clandestine operation on foreign soil, having four preventable fatalities.
27 posted on 11/17/2012 2:53:47 PM PST by indthkr
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To: Tublecane

We disagree. I think Iran/Contra was an overrated joke
with Democrat politicians trying to run US foreign
policy.


28 posted on 11/17/2012 2:54:07 PM PST by Sivad (Nor Cal Red Turf)
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To: Qbert
The right wing is trying to fool America into jumping aboard their crazy train, pushing a false line of attack that they know is false — that the anti-Islam video was not the reason for the attack

Stuck on stupid and still whoring out the White House meme that this was caused by an unseen Youtube clip.

29 posted on 11/17/2012 2:55:42 PM PST by a fool in paradise (America 2013 - STUCK ON STUPID)
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To: Qbert

Little green pooballs.


30 posted on 11/17/2012 2:58:45 PM PST by Fresh Wind (Cut the cable today!)
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To: gusopol3

"David Petraeus’s testimony backing up everything the administration said."

"I thought Petraeus said (it was behind closed doors, I guess only the people in the room know)that we were trying not to let on that we knew that it was Al Quada , somehow to fake them out, to what end? Like there was going to be an immediate counter-strike?..."

And this spin runs completely contrary to the claim Obama and his minions were making after the second debate: That POTUS was saying all along that it was a terrorist attack ("Say it louder Candy!") from day one.

If the leftists are trying to argue that everything is hunky dory because Petraeus, or whoever, wanted to "tone down" the terrorist rhetoric, why would you have the president make a big Rose Garden speech the day after and claim that it was an "act of terror"? That would only amplify things- not tone them down (if we are to believe the president). Do Al-Qaeda members not watch TV, or have access to the Internet?... Hussein Obama can't have it both ways.

31 posted on 11/17/2012 3:04:36 PM PST by Qbert ("The best defense against usurpatory government is an assertive citizenry" - William F. Buckley, Jr.)
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To: gusopol3

Fox News is reporting this afternoon that the WH is now saying that no one in the WH changed the CIA intel report. So we’ve added a ‘spontaneously changing intel memo’ to the ‘spontaneous protest turned riot’ to the long line of WH lies.


32 posted on 11/17/2012 3:05:18 PM PST by TigersEye (Who is John Galt?)
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To: All
One of the excuses that pubbie congresscritters are buying into is that the riots in Cairo were because of the video. Don't let that BS stand either. They weren't.

Brian Lilley: The MSM is lying about the muslim riots video 12:01


33 posted on 11/17/2012 3:08:57 PM PST by TigersEye (Who is John Galt?)
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To: Qbert
but that the administration refrained from saying it suspected that the perpetrators of the attack were Al Qaeda affiliates and sympathizers to avoid tipping off the groups

I'm pretty sure the attackers already know who the attackers are, so tipping them off shouldn't have been an issue.

34 posted on 11/17/2012 3:12:23 PM PST by Cementjungle
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To: DoughtyOne

You are right about the logic of aiding Libya leading to an arming of Syria. Some are, but I don’t think most people think intervening in Syria is a scandal in itself. It may be wrong, but covertly arming rebels around the globe is boilerplate US foreign policy.

The thing, and I assume the reason the earlier poster brought it up, is that if the White House is lying about the attack to cover up gunrunning to Syria then we won’t figure it out unless we dig in that ground. If that is in fact what’s happening, first of all the whole business makes sense for once, and just maybe people will see how it us like Watergate. Because it is, I just don’t know why yet.

Remember, in Watergate the “coverup was worse than the crime.” This had to be drummed into our ears because the burglary itself was meaningless on a national scale. We don’t know for sure to this day what was the point, and Nixon versus McGovern was like the little league world champs against the Yankees, anyway.


35 posted on 11/17/2012 3:19:41 PM PST by Tublecane
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To: gandalftb

"So, Obama & cohorts played down the after-action report by CIA that this was an organized AQ associate attack on our Mission at Benghazi. The cover story was a demonstration incited by a video. Ooooookay. How did anyone from Obama to Susan Rice to Hillary plan to play down this central, unchanged, decisive fact, known by Obama on down within 24 hours of the attack: Two Americans were KIA by mortar fire at 0400. Why isn’t the media, McCain, and everyone hammering that fact home at every opportunity?"

This is what the left and the MSM always do. There were more MSM stories in one day about McCain missing the meeting the other day, than about Obama's direct knowledge of the Benghazi events, combined, in the months since they occurred. They want to distract people from the real horror of what Obama let happen that night...

36 posted on 11/17/2012 3:21:17 PM PST by Qbert ("The best defense against usurpatory government is an assertive citizenry" - William F. Buckley, Jr.)
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To: TigersEye
Who's gonna believe that cad Petraeus anyway? wink...wink. If he hadn't figured it out before, and apparently he hadn't, he ought to tell the whole truth now.
37 posted on 11/17/2012 3:25:43 PM PST by gusopol3
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To: Qbert

Little Green Footballs???? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! That Islamopandering turncoat f*ckwad has no real following.


38 posted on 11/17/2012 3:26:01 PM PST by Viennacon
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To: Sivad

“with Democrat politicians trying to run US foreign policy”

That was half of it, and the half I’m fine with. You can’t bring down a presidency through an overly ambitious law—the Boland amendment—which came at the end of seemingly endless back and forth over whether or not to fund Nicaraguan rebels. I am not at all convinced they violated the law. Congress can control how the White House spends Congressionally appropriated money, not necessarily private donations or CIA profits.

The half that bothered me was negotiating with Hezbollah for the release of hostages. Unlike funding or not funding the contras it was longstanding US policy not to negotiate with terrorists, and I believe in it.


39 posted on 11/17/2012 3:30:21 PM PST by Tublecane
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To: gusopol3
There are other CIA personnel, including the interim director, that can be questioned. Will they support the new WH line that 'someone along the line changed the report?'

CIA's language on Benghazi was barely edited, White House says

40 posted on 11/17/2012 3:30:41 PM PST by TigersEye (Who is John Galt?)
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