Emails Betray White House Spin Of Benghazi Cover Up

The “most transparent administration ever” has been caught, once again, in stonewalling and cover up over what really happened in Benghazi. Even now Jay Carney is attempting to convince the media that what they see is not actually what they see.

It’s one mis-direct after cover up after deflection after another where Benghazi is concerned. One has to wonder if the cover up will ever end or if the American public will ever know what really happened in Benghazi or who knew what when.

In the latest round of events, watchdog group Judicial Watch has published emails that were finally released to the Congressional investigators just two weeks ago, despite assertions that everything relevant to the Benghazi investigation had been turned over. It hadn’t. It took “an act of Congress” to get the information, in the form of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by the watchdog group Judicial Watch to get the State Department to actually turn over the emails concerning Benghazi.

It is pretty clear from the content why the White House has been dragging their feet on releasing the information. Back when the Benghazi attack happened, it was too close to the elections. At that time, the focus was to deflect as much attention away from the President as possible. Susan Rice was the patsy to deliver the dis-information to the media and the public that first Sunday morning after Benghazi 9/11. One email in particular is what some are calling “the smoking gun” for the Benghazi cover up.

Even the title of the correspondence is condemning: “PREP CALL with Susan.” At the time of the correspondence, dated September 14, 2012, Ben Rhodes was the White House Deputy Strategic Communications Adviser. The email was sent to top administration spokespeople and shows that there was conscious attempt to sidetrack attention, and henceforth the Benghazi investigation, away from any failings on the part of any government official, and onto something that they knew had nothing to do with the attacks. Susan Rice had enough plausible deniability that the cover up just might work. If not, she could take the fall. Susan was to be prepped with the following “goals” for Benghazi statements:

• “To convey that the United States is doing everything that we can to protect our people and facilities abroad;
• To underscore that these protests are rooted in an Internet video, and not a broader failure of policy;
• To show that we will be resolute in bringing people who harm Americans to justice, and standing steadfast through these protests;
• To reinforce the President and the Administration’s strength and steadiness in dealing with difficult challenges.”

Later investigations have shown that the Benghazi talking points were fraught with deception, with the intent of political gain. Over and over President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have done everything they can to cover up and delay the discovery of the truth about Benghazi. Perhaps they have hoped that the American people would be naive, blind, or trusting enough that if they dragged it out long enough, Benghazi would become old news. By the time the real Benghazi story at last fully reached the sunlight, what would have been career-destroying scandal at election time would fade into something that the low-information voters would have long since given up caring about.

Since the release of the emails, White House spin doctor, press secretary Jay Carney took on reporters in a press briefing Wednesday, telling them that the emails weren’t really about Benghazi (nothing to see here). He said, “The emails and the talking points were not about Benghazi. They were about the general situation in the Muslim world where you saw, as you might recall, it was explicitly not about Benghazi; it was about the overall situation in the region, the Muslim world, where we saw protests outside of embassy facilities across the region.” Even the Washington Post is skeptical of this narrative.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor isn’t buying it either. He released this statement:

“For nearly two years, Congress and the American people have sought answers to important questions surrounding the attack on our mission in Benghazi. For nearly two years the White House has sought to avoid answering those questions. Now we know why it required a court order to finally force the White House to respond to those inquiries. The email from Ben Rhodes demonstrates the Obama Administration from the beginning misled Congress, the media and most importantly, the American people.

“It is increasingly clear that this Administration orchestrated an effort to deflect attention away from their failed Libya policy and the resurgence of al Qaeda and other terrorists. The emails provide additional evidence that senior officials knew the attack on our mission in Benghazi was a complex attack and not a spontaneous reaction to a YouTube video. Some may say, what difference at this point does it make? Well, four brave Americans were killed in Benghazi and to date it appears that more has been done to protect internal emails than to bring the murderers of these Americans to justice.”

It is long past time for the families of Christopher Stevens,Tyrone Woods, Sean Smith, and Glen Doherty, to learn the truth about what really happened in Benghazi. It is time for the current administration to stop playing shell games and pass-the-buck. But that shows no signs of happening any time soon. And so the Benghazi cover up saga continues.

[images via bing]