Friday, January 03, 2014

The mountain erodes back into a molehill

For over a year, Republicans have been desperately trying to conflate the attack on the American diplomatic mission in Benghazi with a deliberate attempt by the Obama administration to cover-up the "fact" that al Qaeda was the perpetrator. There is a general consensus on both the Left and the Right that incompetence and ineptitude played a role in exacerbating the calamity that occurred on September 11, 2012, in Benghazi, Libya. But the White House denies that they sent Susan Rice out to the Sunday morning news shows with talking points stating that the Innocence of Muslims video incited the attackers knowing full well the attack was actually orchestrated by al Qaeda.

It turns out that the whole Benghazi affair isn't a major cover-up conspiracy reaching the highest levels of government after all. In fact, the Innocence of Muslims video was the spark that led to the attack on the mission and CIA annex that fateful 9/11. And guess what else -- the attack was led by a militia that was involved in the uprising against Colonel Qaddafi but had nothing to do with al Qaeda (or any other international terrorist organization).

Yet in the face of all this, Rep. Darrell Issa stands by his claims of al Qaeda affiliation in the Benghazi attacks. As I watched him refuse to denounce his erroneous claims, he looked to me like a little boy with jelly smeared all over his face refusing to admit that he ate the jelly doughnut. Here's an idea congressman: if you don't like defending false assertions, stop making claims based on absolutely no evidence.

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