So, consider this story. It tells us the following about the talking points that were delivered to Ambassador Susan Rice–the very same ones that she delivered to the public:
- General Petraeus reported in congressional testimony that someone removed references to “terrorism” and “al Qaeda. He also said that it wasn’t the CIA.
- The Obama administration won’t tell us who made the changes.
- Later on, the CIA said that “a senior level in the interagency process” is where and when the changes were made, and that the changes were made in order to protect intelligence sources and methods.
- Later on, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence reported that actually, the changes were made because the connections to terrorism were too “tenuous” to make public.
- Still later, acting Director of Central Intelligence Michael Morell said that it was the FBI who made the changes, and that the changes were made to ensure that an ongoing criminal investigation would not be compromised.
- After that, someone from the CIA spoke up and said that Morell was wrong. It was actually the CIA that made the changes. No reason for the changes was given.
- Oh, and there is this as well:
Speaking on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on behalf of the White House five days after the attacks, U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice did not directly say an al Qaeda affiliate was suspected or point to terrorism. She said the “assessment at present” was that the attacks began “spontaneously” in response to an inflammatory anti-Islam video posted on YouTube. She added that “extremist elements” then joined the effort.
Tuesday, for the first time, Rice stated outright that there was never any protest or demonstration. Republicans who have read the same intelligence that Rice accessed say it’s laced with references to al Qaeda and terrorism, and they’re mystified as how she could have come away with a primary narrative about a spontaneous protest and a video.
And to top it all off, according to Obamaphiles, we aren’t supposed to care about any of this, and the nation should just move along because there is absolutely, positively nothing to see here.
Does that sound plausible to you? Because I sure ain’t buying it.