I was perusing the twittersphere just now, and under the #benghazi tag I saw a disheartening amount of digital excrement flying around concerning "benghazi-gate". I won't be specific, because those tweeters don't deserve the exposure, but it was coming hot and heavy and it stunk to high heaven. Apparently some sort of damning revelation was supposed to be unveiled tonight.
I immediately donned my environment suit and set about checking Right-wing blogosphere outlets for droppings of the same hue. I was not disappointed. Fox news was the next place to look, so I went.
And on their front page, amidst all sorts partisan drivel both veiled and blatant, I saw this:
Changing intelligence on Libya attack turns focus back to anti-Islam film, source says
Oh, really?
The intelligence community on Friday once again modified its assessment of what caused the deadly terror attack last month on the consulate in Benghazi, Libya – returning in part to claims that the violence was in reaction to a protest at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo over an anti-Islam film.
Yep, really.
The latest assessment appears to fall somewhere between the flawed account U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice gave on Sept. 16 claiming the attack was “spontaneous” and a subsequent revision on Sept. 28 by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper claiming it was a coordinated terror attack.
"Somewhere between" huh? How "balanced". Here's what the anonymous official actually said
"No one is ruling out the idea that some of the attackers may have aspired to attack the U.S. in Benghazi. However, right now, there isn’t any intelligence that the attackers pre-planned their assault days or weeks in advance. The bulk of available information supports the early assessment that the attackers launched their assault opportunistically after they learned about the violence at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo. Of course, other factors may also have motivated participation in the attack."
There you have it. This hubbub about the administration's supposed failure is over a quibble. Over the shortfalls in the English language for fuck's sake. Terrorism? not terrorism? Whatever, moving on. And after they went to all that trouble.
Republicans, Mitt: NO IRAN CRISIS FOR YOU
"Benghazi-gate is worse than Watergate"? Utter. Nonsense.
We know who was acting Presidential during that crisis, and it certainly wasn't Mitt Romney.
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