The Other McCain

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The Big Benghazi Lie: State Department Deleted Key Facts From Talking Points

Posted on | May 10, 2013 | 20 Comments

Jonathan Karl of ABC News reports that an entire paragraph of the CIA’s original assessment of the September attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi was deleted after political objections were raised by a State Department official. The deleted paragraph — which referenced prior CIA warnings about terrorist attacks in Libya — was one of numerous revisions made in the talking points:

White House emails reviewed by ABC News suggest the edits were made with extensive input from the State Department.  The edits included requests from the State Department that references to the Al Qaeda-affiliated group Ansar al-Sharia be deleted as well references to CIA warnings about terrorist threats in Benghazi in the months preceding the attack.
That would appear to directly contradict what White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said about the talking points in November.
“Those talking points originated from the intelligence community. They reflect the IC’s best assessments of what they thought had happened,” Carney told reporters at the White House press briefing on November 28, 2012.  “The White House and the State Department have made clear that the single adjustment that was made to those talking points by either of those two institutions were changing the word ‘consulate’ to ‘diplomatic facility’ because ‘consulate’ was inaccurate.”
Summaries of White House and State Department emails — some of which were first published by Stephen Hayes of the Weekly Standard — show that the State Department had extensive input into the editing of the talking points.

ABC has published an eight-page document showing the 12 versions of the administration’s Benghazi talking points.

 


Category: Libya

Comments

20 Responses to “The Big Benghazi Lie: State Department Deleted Key Facts From Talking Points”

  1. DZJumpmaster
    May 10th, 2013 @ 8:44 am

    @smitty_one_each Deceit and Death goes together http://t.co/YdjkBkhNVk SF Sergeant Major speaks out on Benghazi. RT if you agree

  2. Sirius U. Guise
    May 10th, 2013 @ 8:48 am

    Mr. Karl is treading dangerously close to advocacy.

  3. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    May 10th, 2013 @ 9:59 am

    Yeah, speaking the truth is advocacy when someone does not like the truth!

  4. #Benghazi – Talking Points Scrubbed 12 Times – Where Was Obama – Dems Getting Worried – ARB Excluded Clinton And Obama | The Lonely Conservative
    May 10th, 2013 @ 11:13 am

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  5. t-dahlgren
    May 10th, 2013 @ 11:40 am

    Can we officially describe Libya as a ‘quagmire’ now?

  6. richard mcenroe
    May 10th, 2013 @ 12:04 pm

    Hey, remember when Senator Hillary Clinton stood up at that podium and demanded, “We need to know what George Bush knew and when he knew it?” Good times… good times… What’s sauce for the goose oughta be lotion for the cankles, er something….

  7. Charles
    May 10th, 2013 @ 12:28 pm

    So the talking points were spontaneously inspired and evolved. That phrasing, which appears though all the many drafts, shows the most incredible naivete.

    How could there be anything spontaneous about the choice of 9/11 as the date for the attack?

    Nonetheless, the equally naive Mitt Romney muffed the Benghazi issue in the second debate by getting boxed into the word terrorism and completely missing the point.

  8. t-dahlgren
    May 10th, 2013 @ 1:01 pm

    “Lotion for the cankles”

    Only if Jame Gumb is involved

  9. TC_LeatherPenguin
    May 10th, 2013 @ 1:07 pm

    This isn’t some right wing shill, like Steven Hayes was portrayed when he broke this last week. This is from a member of the Unicorn King’s Praetorian Guard….
    Shit just got real.

  10. K-Bob
    May 10th, 2013 @ 1:21 pm

    Removing paragraphs from a CIA assessment: the bureaucratic equivalent to Joo Janta 200 Super-Chromatic Peril-Sensitive sunglasses.

    The Joo Janta 200 Super-Chromatic Peril Sensitive Sunglasses have been especially designed to help people develop a relaxed attitude to danger. They work, by turning completely dark at the first sign of danger, thus preventing you from seeing anything that might alarm you.

  11. Adjoran
    May 10th, 2013 @ 1:23 pm

    State was concerned that the original talking points might lead people to believe they had failed to respond to requests for added security, just because they had failed to respond to requests for added security, and that they ignored cries for help, just because they ignored cries for help.

    It is also clear now that Carney was lying to the press corpse in every single statement he made about those talking points. I guess now we get to see if the “mighty watchdog” which acts like a lapdog has in fact been neutered. If they continue their soft and docile treatment of Carney and Obama, we’ll know they left something on the cutting room floor.

  12. Steve White
    May 10th, 2013 @ 1:41 pm

    So when is the MSM going to cut off Victoria Nuland and refuse to listen to her? After all, she lied to them…

  13. About the so-called “Whistleblower” | Thinking Americanist
    May 10th, 2013 @ 2:44 pm

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  14. JeffS
    May 10th, 2013 @ 2:57 pm

    Not until Ted Kennedy calls it a quagmire.

  15. richard mcenroe
    May 10th, 2013 @ 3:41 pm

    There’s lying and there’s lying… http://tinyurl.com/c63e7to

  16. Bob Belvedere
    May 10th, 2013 @ 7:10 pm

    I hope you’re right. The story, after all, was dropped on a Friday, along with the IRS abuse [squirrel?] story.

  17. Bob Belvedere
    May 10th, 2013 @ 7:11 pm

    Well done.

  18. Best Analysis Of Info In Jonathan Karl’s Report | The Camp Of The Saints
    May 10th, 2013 @ 7:28 pm

    […] He left the following remarks in the Comments section of Stacy McCain’s post entitled The Big Benghazi Lie: State Department Deleted Key Facts From Talking Points: […]

  19. K-Bob
    May 11th, 2013 @ 4:40 am

    Must get abuse and squirrel – B. Badinov

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