{"id":9211,"date":"2012-10-21T09:28:15","date_gmt":"2012-10-21T16:28:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=9211"},"modified":"2012-10-21T09:28:15","modified_gmt":"2012-10-21T16:28:15","slug":"libya-a-problem-for-willard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2012\/10\/21\/libya-a-problem-for-willard\/","title":{"rendered":"Libya a Problem for Willard"},"content":{"rendered":"

Poor Willard!  Every time he etches his sketch to change reality to suit his wishes, there are pesky little things that keep crawling out of the woodwork to ruin his day.  Now what are those things called?  Oh, that\u2019s right!  They are facts!  As more of these come available on the Benghazi attack, it appears that Obama was right all along.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\"21romney-libya\"<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

Mitt Romney has recently made the administration\u2019s response to the attacks in Libya a centerpiece of his campaign. Romney and his campaign allege that the Obama administration \u201ccovered-up\u201d the facts about the attacks for their political benefit. Romney\u2019s core message is that: 1. The attacks were linked to al Qaeda, and 2. The attacks had nothing to do with an anti-Muslim video on YouTube. Here\u2019s an excerpt from Romney\u2019s major foreign policy address on October 8 [Willard delinked]:<\/font><\/p>\n

The attack on our Consulate in Benghazi on September 11th, 2012 was likely the work of forces affiliated with those that attacked our homeland on September 11th, 2001.<\/strong><\/span> This latest assault cannot be blamed on a reprehensible video insulting Islam<\/strong><\/span>, despite the Administration\u2019s attempts to convince us of that for so long. <\/font><\/p>\n

A new report this morning from the LA Times<\/a><\/font> casts serious doubt on Romney\u2019s claims:<\/font><\/p>\n

The assault on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi last month appears to have been an opportunistic attack rather than a long-planned operation, and intelligence agencies have found no evidence that it was ordered by Al Qaeda<\/strong><\/span>, according to U.S. officials and witnesses interviewed in Libya.<\/font><\/p>\n

\u2026[I]n in Benghazi, witnesses said members of the group that raided the U.S. mission specifically mentioned the video<\/strong><\/span>, which denigrated the prophet Muhammad.<\/font><\/p>\n

The LA Times bolsters earlier reports by the New York Times<\/a><\/font> and Reuters<\/a><\/font>. (The involvement of al Qaeda is a complex issue<\/a><\/font> and the attack, if not ordered by al Qaeda, may have involved individuals sympathetic to or loosely affiliated with the group.)<\/font><\/p>\n

A peice [sic] in the Washington Post by David Ignatius reveals that the adminstration\u2019s initial statements citing the role of the video were based on talking points provided by the CIA<\/a><\/font>\u2026 [emphasis original<\/em><\/span>]<\/font><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <Think Progress<\/a>><\/p>\n

Photo credit: EzKool<\/a><\/font><\/p>\n

Interestingly enough, early in the crisis, I suggested just this scenario as did Rachel Maddow, although I posed it as speculation, not fact.  Now that the facts are starting to come out, the Republican speculation, that they presented as fact, is being proven wrong.  I have little doubt that the Republican party will count on voter ignorance and Republican misinformation to double down on their bogus accusations, with the assistance of the Republican Ministry of Propaganda, Faux Noise<\/em>.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Poor Willard!  Every time he etches his sketch to change reality to suit his wishes, there are pesky little things that keep crawling out of the woodwork to ruin his day.  Now what are those things called?  Oh, that\u2019s right!  They are facts!  As more of these come available on the Benghazi attack, it appears […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9211\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}