The Deep End Gets Deeper

In closed door testimony on Friday, former CIA Director David Petraeus testified that references to al Qaeda and its affiliated groups within the region were removed from the unclassified talking points -- the same ones given to Susan Rice who would later go on 5 Sunday shows to claim that "the video did it."  The White House had earlier claimed they were just basing everything they were saying publicly about the terrorist attack "bump in the road" on what the intelligence community gave them.  Changes were made to the talking points somewhere down the line; we just don't know who made them.

We now also know that President Obama himself was told within 72 hours of the terrorist attack in Benghazi that it in fact was linked to al Qaeda, if he already did not know even sooner than that.

This exercise should help clarify the obfuscation by the White House even further:  The same The Washington Guardian story I just linked to states that the paper reported within 48 hours of the attack that al Qaeda was suspected; President Obama's speech to the UN, given on September 25th, included the following lines:

That is what we saw play out in the last two weeks, as a crude and disgusting video sparked outrage throughout the Muslim world. Now, I have made it clear that the United States government had nothing to do with this video, and I believe its message must be rejected by all who respect our common humanity.

And:

We not only respect the freedom of religion, we have laws that protect individuals from being harmed because of how they look or what they believe. We understand why people take offense to this video because millions of our citizens are among them.

And more:

I know there are some who ask why we don’t just ban such a video. And the answer is enshrined in our laws: Our Constitution protects the right to practice free speech.

And even more:

And on this we must agree: There is no speech that justifies mindless violence. There are no words that excuse the killing of innocents. There’s no video that justifies an attack on an embassy.

And lastly:

We do not expect other nations to agree with us on every issue, nor do we assume that the violence of the past weeks or the hateful speech by some individuals represent the views of the overwhelming majority of Muslims, any more than the views of the people who produced this video represents those of Americans.

And this was the same guy who said during the second presidential debate that he knew it was a terrorist attack all along.

Also from the same guy was this line from his first press conference after being re-elected, his first press conference in eight months:

“And we’re after an election now. I think it is important for us to find out exactly what happened in Benghazi, and I’m happy to cooperate in any ways that Congress wants.” (emphasis mine.)

Of course it is important, of course it is.