Former CIA Official: WH's Story on Benghazi Talking Points Isn't Credible

Guy Benson | May 14, 2015 10:56 AM

Katie wrote up former CIA Acting Director Mike Morell's Fox News interview earlier in the week, but I wanted to highlight this exchange on Benghazi talking points:

"That is crossing the line between national security and politics...I don't believe [the White House's explanation]...Lying is a strong word. I didn't believe what they were saying."

At first, the White House tried to pin the "spontaneous protest" fairy tale on CIA intelligence, which Morell has previously debunked ("the video was not part of the CIA analysis"). Reams of evidence demonstrate that the US government knew that Benghazi was a coordinated terrorist attack from the outset, yet top administration officials publicly clung to the untrue YouTube/demonstration fable for days. Years later -- long after the Left had declared Benghazi a closed issue, and after the White House claimed it had turned over "all" Benghazi-related documents -- a separate memo confirmed previous allegations and reporting: The administration had spun the nature and cause of the attack for political reasons. Seemingly caught red handed in a lie, the White House insisted that the memo in question wasn't about Benghazi at all. Morell, like most independent observers, saw this line as laughable. It's worth reiterating that the administration's dishonesty and political distortions after the fact may be the least important element of the Benghazi scandal. The bigger issues are Obama and Clinton's

fantastically disastrous Libya policy overall (the country has descended into a chaotic failed state after the administration's shoddy military intervention), and the appalling lack of adequate security at our compound (Hillary's State Department denied multiple requests for stepped-up measures in the jihadist hotbed, where attempts had already been made against the makeshift consulate). Since the raid that claimed the lives of four Americans, including a sitting ambassador, we're aware of exactly one of the dozens of terrorists facing any form of justice; he is being treated like a common criminal by our government.

I'll leave you with two reminders: Congress' special committee on Benghazi issued a report accusing the Obama administration of impeding its investigation. Hillary Clinton will undergo one round of questioning by the panel, whose work also uncovered her secret email scheme -- which further undermines the administration's claim to have surrendered "all" documents related to the attack.