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Washington Prowler
Softness at the NSC
Who edited the CIA’s talking points?
With a CBS News report earlier last week claiming that the neither the White House nor the Central Intelligence Agency was aware of edits made to briefing and talking points generated by the CIA on the September 11, 2012 terrorist attacks in Libya and Egypt, new questions about the document, which downplayed the role al Qaeda and other radical Islamic terrorist groupings might have played, have arisen.
One State Department source, however, insists that the Administration’s National Security Council, in fact, had a hand in editing the talking points, or a version of the talking points, that were shared more widely in the White House. “The talking points were perceived by some in the NSC to be too anti-Muslim, particularly since the NSC claimed that not enough was known about the events,” says the State Department source. “There are people on this NSC who are heavily invested in Muslim issues, and they actively sought to change the content and tone of those talking points, because they believed to define Benghazi as an act of terrorism would be counterproductive to their relationships with Muslim groups here in the U.S., and with groups like the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and elsewhere in the Middle East.”
The State Department source added that it was the NSC that had the greatest amount of input in the initial, prepared statement of President Obama on the Egyptian and Libyan events that pointedly avoided terming the events as terrorism.
Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes last weekend strenuously denied that any official in the White House made any substantive changes to the talking points, and told White House reporters that the only change made was to clarify that the facility in Benghazi was not officially a consulate.
The State Department source, however, who is troubled by the Obama Administration’s ongoing effort to downplay the threat of radical Islam here in the United States and abroad, says that — regardless of whether the White House actually took an editing pen to the CIA talking points — two senior national security aides continue to drive the Administration “soft on radical Islam” policies that contributed to the editing of the talking points: Samantha Power, Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights at the National Security Council, who is also married to well-known Obama adviser, Cass Sunstein, and Quintan Wiktorowicz, who is currently the Senior Director for Community Partnerships at the NSC.
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benny havens| 11.26.12 @ 7:15AM
We have no one to thank but the dependent class for reinstalling the most corrupt administration ever to occupy the White House. Thank you very much.
merlin| 11.26.12 @ 7:16AM
Have we forgotten that air support that could have been over Benghazi in an hour was not sent?
Albert Constantine Jr.| 11.26.12 @ 7:48AM
A much shorter article could be written listing all of the Obama administration members who argued to tell the truth about this (or any other) story.
spike59| 11.26.12 @ 4:51PM
......................
there you go
Joellen| 11.26.12 @ 8:08AM
Albert, keenly said. May I add, though, this administration is able to accomplish their deceit because we have a deceitful media who refuses to do a thorough investigation on this (and other) stories.
Hardcard| 11.26.12 @ 8:23AM
powers, sunstein, clapper, holder, clinton, rice, brennan, panetta, axelrod, Gee, I don't think they would do anything wrong. The moslem in charge has complete confidence in all of the above. I think Bush did the editing of those talking points as a campaign trick to make barry look bad.
c. j. acworth| 11.26.12 @ 8:27AM
"The talking points were percieved as being too anti-Muslim since not enough was known about events."
Good call. After all, it could've been a gang of Lutherans strung out on too much lutifisk. (Did I spell that correctly? Somebody from the Mid-West help me out.)
JP| 11.26.12 @ 8:57AM
The question that never gets asked, "What was our President doing during the evening of 9/12/2012?"
Von Mises Jr| 11.26.12 @ 9:22AM
I suspect you may mean the night of the attack on 9/11/2012? But we know what he did the next day in the Rose Garden. He slipped a reference into the speech about terrorism so he could claim he had said it was terrorism even though a few days later Susan Rice was announcing all over the press that it was a protest due to an internet video.
Our Muslim Brotherhood loving Dear Leader finally gave a Press Conference and UNEQUIVOLCALLY said that he sent Rice out with the talking points. Either this is one dumb SOB or he directed the lies.
Stormy| 11.26.12 @ 9:26AM
The question is really what were our people doing in Benghazi in the first place. Running guns to Syria?
Von Mises Jr| 11.26.12 @ 9:41AM
Broadwell YouTube videos at Breitbart of her giving college speeches said that she understood it to be a black site, overseas prison for terrorist. If this is correct, then the whole facade about Obama closing Gitmo and ending torture is proved complete nonsense.
We know he has killed three to four times as many Muslims with drones as Bush, and now it seems we had secret prisons overseas. Perhaps there was rendition also taking place.
But since our government and MSM lies to us, we can only assume the worst since if it was good; they would not have to lie.
SUBVET| 11.26.12 @ 11:21AM
Stormy........bingo !
Stormy| 11.26.12 @ 9:25AM
Samantha Power was one of the Tres Amigos, along with Hillary Clinton and Susan Rice, that drove the RTP program for the "liberation" of Libya. Interesting connection here on Benghazi.
Anthony| 11.26.12 @ 10:17AM
Well for sure the whores in the MSM don't give a g*d damn who did it, and will never get to the bottom if it because Obozo is cause of this disaster.
I love watching that POS Bob Woodward on Fox. He sits on the Fox panel calmly discussing the lies and distortions coming from Obozo and his hacks without a world of anger or condemnation.
No pounding the pavement for this leftist geriatric fool from the Wa Po on Benghazi-gate.
No sir, it's only Rs and conservatives we investigate. Four dead? So what? Now Watergate was a real scandal, so says Bob the fraud Woodward and the rag known as the WaPo.
Cobalt| 11.26.12 @ 10:49AM
What we have here is a bunch of evil idealogues, who are rank amateurs, who are in power.
It's all about power.
If conservatives owned, or at least controlled one of the major TV networks, then we might be able to make a difference. However, that will never happen. The Left now basically controls government, education, religion, the media, etc.
SUBVET| 11.26.12 @ 11:22AM
Cobalt.........It's been about CONTROL from day 1.
Boar Hunter| 11.26.12 @ 12:38PM
If I remember correctly, the Republicans are in charge of at least a couple of political offices...aren't they? Since they have not used any of those positions, what makes you think they would use TV effectively? Obama's failed second term is going to give these idiots who voted for him exactly what they deserved.
Remember, of our entire population, only 30 something percent voted. Maybe as the shocking revelations of an Obama second term play out people will finally wake up. Eh, probably not.
Butch| 11.26.12 @ 4:40PM
I think the conscious decision to let four Americans die is what is being covered up. Could such a decision be made at any level other than the very top?
Occam's Tool| 11.26.12 @ 6:33PM
Our President does not put America and Americans first. There you go.
Ronsch| 11.28.12 @ 2:41PM
Never, ever one to defend NerObama and his Keystone Kop administration, but there is a problem with any potential air (or for that matter military incursion into a foreign, sovereign nation) to wit:
Despite the US Consulate being considered US soil (which has always been dubious at best, except for the US honoring that examples: South Vietnam, Terhan, and now Benghazi), the authority for US forces to act still has to be authorized by the lawful government of the host country. What are the chances really, that Libya would have allowed one of our AC130 gunships to open fire on their supporters (basically) or additional US military forces to respond?
As I said, I think this whole response and cover up are criminal at least, but the information I shared does have to be considered. yes, I realize we have responded militarily in the past without immediate authorization (Grenada, Panama, et al) but the WH did not even appear to ask the Libyan government to be allowed to respond to the requests for aid. That my friends, is criminal.