The Forgotten False Benghazi Narrative

As the truth about what happened at the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya continues to slowly trickle out, and more damning details continue to emerge, it seemed as though a trip down memory lane was needed for many who may have not been paying as close attention to the stories that are now surrounding the fateful hours that left four Americans dead. This trip down memory lane is needed, it seems, in order to illustrate that really, from the beginning, this has been nothing short of a deliberate disinformation campaign by some of the most senior, and powerful, people in the White House and Obama Administration. In short, at the beginning of all of this, the President, the Secretary of State, the Director of the CIA AND our senior ambassador to the United Nations, continuously tried to sell the American people on a false narrative that these attacks were sparked by a little seen YouTube clip.

Now, why this isn’t disturbing to more Americans, or the media, is something to be talked about at length elsewhere. But really, when you boil this whole situation down, you have FOUR of the most SENIOR and POWERFUL members of the American government blatantly lying to the American people and the world at large. We’ll review each, starting with the President.

President Barack Obama essentially got in front of the world on September 24, and blamed the Benghazi attacks on Bakoula Nassily Bakoula’s video, “The Innocence of Muslims”. A video clip of the President’s address, along with a quick quote, are included below:

In that speech, the President cites Bakoula’s video six different times, and as the video above shows, states that the “future does not belong to those who slander the Prophet Mohammed.”

So, to reiterate, the President of the United States addressed the United Nations, and told an outright lie to the members of that body. The reasons for this remain unclear.

Next, we’ll look at U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice, who also crafted the false narrative of the video being the cause of the attack in Benghazi. In a YouTube clip with an upload date of September 26, Rice also lies. Again, a short video clip with a quote are provided below:

In this clip, Rice says that Benghazi was the result of “the airing on the internet of, the very hateful, very offensive video, that has offended many people around the world” and that “there’s no question, as we’ve seen in the past… there have been such things… that have sparked outrage and anger, and this has been the approximate cause of what we’ve seen”. So, again, two weeks AFTER the attacks, both the President and Ambassador Rice were pushing the false narrative of the video as the cause, even as details were beginning to emerge that this was a coordinated attack that the United States had received intel about before it happened.

Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton, participated in the crafting of this false narrative on September 14, when the bodies of Ambassador Chris Stevens, ex-Navy SEALs Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty, and Stevens’ aide Sean Smith were returned to the United States. Again, here is a video clip with the relevant quote below:

“We’ve seen rage and violence directed at American embassies over an awful internet video that we had nothing to do with,” Clinton said in her remarks at that ceremony.

Finally, we have CIA Director David Petraeus apparently pushing the false video narrative to members of Congress in a closed-door meeting around the same time of September 14. This excellent blog post does an impressive job of building the timeline of the administration’s lies in the days following the attacks. From that post, which quoted this ABC News report:

The attack that killed four Americans in the Libyan consulate began as a spontaneous protest against the film “The Innocence of Muslims,” but Islamic militants who may have links to Al Qaeda used the opportunity to launch an attack, CIA Director David Petreaus told the House Intelligence Committee today according to one lawmaker who attended a closed-door briefing.

Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, the top Democrat on the House Intel committee, said Petraeus laid out “a chronological order exactly what we felt happened, how it happened, and where we’re going in the future.”

“In the Benghazi area, in the beginning we feel that it was spontaneous – the protest- because it went on for two or three hours, which is very relevant because if it was something that was planned, then they could have come and attacked right away,” Ruppersberger, D-Md., said following the hour-long briefing by Petraeus. “At this point it looks as if there was a spontaneous situation that occurred and that as a result of that, the extreme groups that were probably connected to al Qaeda took advantage of that situation and then the attack started.

(emphasis added by Diana West)

So there you have it. FOUR of the most senior administration officials, including the President himself, seemed to have a concerted messaging campaign ready and loaded as a response for the Benghazi attack. At every step, they blamed a rarely seen YouTube video as the cause of what we now know to be a pre-planned and coordinated terrorist attack on our Consulate in Benghazi. Why this doesn’t interest the media is beyond me, other than to blame their liberal bias and their apparent adulation of President Obama.

Regardless, we must also find answers to these questions: WHY did these senior officials lie time and again as to the cause of the attacks? WHY was Bakoula’s video singled out? WAS this response pre-planned, and to be used as a cover/scapegoat for ANY of the attacks that happened on American assets throughout the world on 9/11/12? I could keep going, but I think we’re good for now.

In closing, I’d like to share a fun Condescending Wonka meme I created as a result of all the lies and misdirection that have so far marked the Benghazi tragedy. For those of you who are familiar with this story and are trying to relate the importance of it to others who may not know what’s going on, just show them this :