Posted on 04/29/2014 10:31:55 AM PDT by sheikdetailfeather
Newly released emails on the Benghazi terror attack suggest a senior White House aide played a central role in preparing former U.N. ambassador Susan Rice for her controversial Sunday show appearances -- where she wrongly blamed protests over an Internet video.
More than 100 pages of documents were released to the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. Among them was a Sept. 14, 2012, email from Ben Rhodes, an assistant to the president and deputy national security adviser for strategic communications.
The Rhodes email, with the subject line: "RE: PREP Call with Susan: Saturday at 4:00 pm ET," was sent to a dozen members of the administration's inner circle, including key members of the White House communications team such as Press Secretary Jay Carney.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Benjamin J. Rhodes (born 1977) is the current deputy national security adviser for strategic communication for U.S. President Barack Obama.
Rhodes is married to Ann Norris, chief foreign policy adviser to Senator Barbara Boxer. His brother, David, is president of CBS News.
Wow.
Where were you, Hillary? Afraid that if you appeared on the Sunday news progs, you’d be associated with Benghazi-Gate??? HILLARY IS A COWARD who also set Ambassador Stevens up to be KIDNAPPED.. She couldn’t even get THAT right. Whoops.
Judicial Watch announced today that on April 18, 2014, it obtained 41 new Benghazi-related State Department documents. They include a newly declassified email showing then-White House Deputy Strategic Communications Adviser Ben Rhodes and other Obama administration public relations officials attempting to orchestrate a campaign to “reinforce” President Obama and to portray the Benghazi consulate terrorist attack as being “rooted in an Internet video, and not a failure of policy.” Other documents show that State Department officials initially described the incident as an “attack” a possible kidnap attempt.
When the video story was shown to be false, I speculated that Ben Rhodes, Obama’s speechwriter turned into Deputy National Security Adviser, likely played a key role in trying to convey a lie. He had a history of creating false narratives, as covered in “Ben Rhodes: Obama’s Fixer Behind the Benghazi Cover-up”.
The Judicial Watch report confirms that well-founded suspicion:
The Rhodes email was sent on sent on Friday, September 14, 2012, at 8:09 p.m. with the subject line: “RE: PREP CALL with Susan, Saturday at 4:00 pm ET.” The documents show that the “prep” was for Amb. Rice’s Sunday news show appearances to discuss the Benghazi attack.
The document lists as a “Goal”: “To underscore that these protests are rooted in and Internet video, and not a broader failure or policy.”
Rhodes returns to the “Internet video” scenario later in the email, the first point in a section labeled “Top-lines”:
[W]e’ve made our views on this video crystal clear. The United States government had nothing to do with it. We reject its message and its contents. We find it disgusting and reprehensible. But there is absolutely no justification at all for responding to this movie with violence. And we are working to make sure that people around the globe hear that message.
Among the top administration PR personnel who received the Rhodes memo were White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, Deputy Press Secretary Joshua Earnest, then-White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer, then-White House Deputy Communications Director Jennifer Palmieri, then-National Security Council Director of Communications Erin Pelton, Special Assistant to the Press Secretary Howli Ledbetter, and then-White House Senior Advisor and political strategist Davie Plouffe.
The Rhodes communications strategy email also instructs recipients to portray Obama as “steady and statesmanlike” throughout the crisis. Another of the “Goals” of the PR offensive, Rhodes says, is “[T]o reinforce the President and Administration’s strength and steadiness in dealing with difficult challenges.” He later includes as a PR “Top-line” talking point:
I think that people have come to trust that President Obama provides leadership that is steady and statesmanlike. There are always going to be challenges that emerge around the world, and time and again, he has shown that we can meet them.
BINGO...
Ben Rhodes
@rhodes44
Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications & Speechwriting. Tweets may be archived. More at http://wh.gov/privacy
Washington, DC · wh.gov
Top Obama official’s brother is president of CBS News, may drop reporter over Benghazi coverage
05/11/2013
The brother of a top Obama administration official is also the president of CBS News, and the network may be days away from dropping one of its top investigative reporters for covering the administration’s scandals too aggressively.
CBS News executives have reportedly expressed frustration with their own reporter, Sharyl Attkisson, who has steadily covered the Obama administration’s handling of the Benghazi terrorist attack in Libya since late last year.
“Network sources” told Politico Wednesday that CBS executives feel Attkisson’s Benghazi coverage is bordering on advocacy, and Attkisson “can’t get some of her stories on the air.”
Attkisson, who is in talks to leave the network before her contract expires, has been attempting to figure out who changed the Benghazi talking points for more than five months.
“We still don’t know who changed talking points but have had at least 4 diff explanations so far,” Attkisson tweeted on November 27, 2012.
From wiki
Xxxx
Benjamin J. Rhodes (born 1977) is the current deputy national security adviser for strategic communication for U.S. President Barack Obama. His formal title is “Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications and Speechwriting.”[
This revelation is likely the reason for Clinton’s scandal lawyer being put on the payroll.
Rhodes agreeing with Russian President Medvedev:
But Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes agreed with Mr. Medvedev that sanctions should not “bring widespread suffering” to the Iranian people or be designed to bring down the Tehran regime.
Who is Ben Rhodes and what qualifies him to be the Deputy National Security Adviser?
He was Barack Obama’s speechwriter (albeit, on foreign policy topics) during the campaign. He also played a role in the Cairo speech that presented a highly fictionalized history of both Islam (praised it for accomplishments that were not Islam’s) and Israel (a legacy of the Holocaust guilt).
Maybe he has a certain talent for fiction. After all, it was only a few years ago that “he was an aspiring fiction writer working on a novel called “The Oasis of Love” about a megachurch in Houston, a dog track and a failed romance.
Rhodes has enjoyed a rapid rise — because why?
Granted he is quite the wordsmith. That must qualify him for one of the top jobs involving our national security. It must have been a symbiotic relationship — a talented speechwriter with a talented speech reader.
Does Rhodes have any educational experience or military experience or, for that matter, international experience? No... on all three counts.
His bio, such as it is:
Rhodes had just earned a master’s degree in fiction writing from New York University when he was offered a job as a writer for Hamilton in 2002. A Manhattan native, Rhodes went on to write the Iraq Study Group Report and help draft policy recommendations for the 9/11 Commission, which Hamilton co-chaired.
Rhodes keeps in regular contact with Hamilton, who said Obama has thanked him “for making Ben available.”
Rhodes said Hamilton still reviews Obama’s major foreign policy addresses.
“We run most of the big foreign policy speeches by him,” he said. “Just kind of like, ‘What do you think of this?’”
So far Obama’s Iraq speech has been the most meaningful for Rhodes. Aides credit him with the part where Obama spoke directly to the Iraqi people. Rhodes is also behind Obama’s telling the story of two Marines who died trying to stop a suicide bomber from entering an American military compound in Iraq.
During “the download” Obama had told Rhodes he wanted to end on the troops.
“I literally just spent a lot of time Googling,” Rhodes said.
From fiction writing (displayed so well in the Cairo speech and the Iraq Study Group) to Deputy National Security Adviser-and he is all of 32 years old. And he is the Deputy national Security Adviser with grave responsibilities for our security.
But rest assured, it is not like experience or accomplishments matter these days.
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2010/04/does_it_bother_anyone_that_thi.html
Better Wag The Dog in some European country to distract the low information voters.
Benghazi ping.
There are several versions of this story today.
Let Republicanprofessor know if you want on or off this ping list.
And no one ever will because the special prosecutor law expired and Holder will make sure that no one is ever charged.
And I hate overhand tie knots. They indicate a lazy-ass wearer who probly can’t tie a square. Notice how it makes his whole head look crooked? Maybe it is crooked? inside and/or out?
Thx for the link, wherein Rhoades is credited with a masters degree in fiction writing. No kidding!
Who does he report to?
Did Benjamin Rhodes even attend college? (No thanks to the Times, we learn from a brief Wikipedia entry that he did—Rice University in Houston, Texas). OK, here’s another: what did Rhodes do, prior to 2002, that made him sufficiently expert to help craft the 9/11 report? (No easy answers on that one.)
miraculously being hired by Democrat Lee Hamilton to explain 9/11 to the public
moving in 2002 from Queens to Washington, and quickly found himself “helping draft the 9/11 Commission report as well as the Iraq Study Group report.”
We learn the father is a conservative-leaning Episcopalian from Texas, the mother a liberal Jew from New York.
Presidents of ABC and CBS News Have Siblings Working at White House With Ties to Benghazi
“CBS News President David Rhodes and ABC News President Ben Sherwood, both of them have siblings that not only work at the White House, that not only work for President Obama, but they work at the NSC on foreign policy issues directly related to Benghazi.”
So stated political consultant and media commentator Richard Grenell on Saturday’s Fox News Watch (video follows with transcript and commentary):
RICHARD GRENELL: I think the media’s becoming the story, let’s face it. CBS News President David Rhodes and ABC News President Ben Sherwood, both of them have siblings that not only work at the White House, that not only work for President Obama, but they work at the NSC on foreign policy issues directly related to Benghazi. Let’s call a spade a spade.
Let’s also show you why CNN did not go very far in covering these hearings because the CNN deputy bureau chief, Virginia Moseley, is married to Hillary Clinton’s deputy, Tom Nides. It is time for the media to start asking questions why are they not covering this. It’s a family matter for some of them.
JON SCOTT, HOST: So they don’t want to bring embarrassment upon folks who, who they’re close to?
GRENELL: Who directly are related to this story. Absolutely. They’re covering for them. There’s no question about it.
For the record, Ben Sherwood’s sister, Dr. Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, is the Special Assistant to Barack Obama.
Virginia Moseley’s husband, Tom Nides, is the Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources.
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