Benghazi: Fail

Stephen Hayes, of The Weekly Standard, writes

At the [Vice President] debate, moderator Martha Raddatz noted “there were no protesters” that day in Libya, and asked Biden why the administration’s talk of protests “went on for weeks.”

Democratic Vice Presidential Candidate Joe Biden had the answer:

Because that’s exactly what we were told by the intelligence community.  The intelligence community told us that.  As they learned more facts about exactly what happened, they changed their assessment.

Fully five days after the terrorist attack on our Benghazi consulate, on 16 Sep, State’s UN Ambassador Susan Rice (stop me if you’ve heard this part before) said on five different national television shows that a YouTube movie short was responsible.

Yet, as Hayes notes,

Intelligence products published on September 12, sources tell us, included detailed evidence that al Qaeda-linked jihadists were involved in the Benghazi attacks

and

Senior State Department officials were in contact with security agents on the ground in Benghazi, in real time, as the attacks unfolded.

and

On September 12, the New York Times[!] reported: “American and European officials said that while many details about the attack remained unclear, the assailants seemed organized, well trained and heavily armed, and they appeared to have at least some level of advance planning.”

and

Congressman Adam Smith (D, WA) of the House Armed Services Committee, said: “This was not just a mob that got out of hand.  Mobs don’t come in and attack, guns blazing.  I think that there is a growing consensus it was preplanned.

and then on 18 Sep, on the Late Show with David Letterman

[Democratic Presidential Candidate President Barack] Obama: You had a video that was released by somebody who lives here, a sort of shadowy character who is extremely offensive video directed at Muhammad and Islam.

David Letterman: Making fun of the Prophet Muhammad.

Obama: Making fun of the Prophet Muhammad.  And, so, this caused great offense.  In much of the Muslim world.  But, what also happened was extremists and terrorists used this as an excuse to attack a variety of our embassies, including the consulate in Libya.

Wait, what?

And Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack Obama insists through his Deputy Campaign Manager, Stephanie Cutter, that the Republicans are politicizing the murder of our Ambassador to Libya.

Hmm….

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