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Africa North
Rice: It's the intelligence community's fault
2012-10-07
Yet another round in the Washington Blame Game:
U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice told Republican senators that her televised statements last month on the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi were based entirely on information she was given by the intelligence community.

"In my Sept. 16 Sunday show appearances, I was asked to provide the administration's latest understanding of what happened in Benghazi," Rice wrote in a Thursday letter. "In answering, I relied solely and squarely on the information the intelligence community provided to me and other senior U.S. officials, including through the daily intelligence briefings that present the latest reporting and analysis to policy makers. This information represented the intelligence community's best, current assessment as of the date of my television appearances, and I went out of my way to ensure it was consistent with the information that was being given to Congress."
And you had just fallen off the turnip truck on the 15th and so didn't even begin to question what you'd been told by the intelligence community -- nor what Axelrod told you...
Rice was responding to a Sept. 26 letter from the GOP senators in which they accused Rice of jumping the gun and disseminating false information about the attack. The letter quotes Rice's comments selectively, leaving out the context where she cautioned that the information was based on initial assessments. Rice emphasized in her response that she had caveated her remarks in her TV appearances. She also pointed to a Sept. 28 statement from Shawn Turner, spokesman for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, admitting that the intelligence community had changed its view of the attack. She also pointed to a Sept. 28 statement from Shawn Turner, spokesman for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, admitting that the intelligence community had changed its view of the attack.
Posted by:Pappy

#19  B, story is that good guys stationed elsewhere in Benghazi moved to the sound of gunfire and executed an extraction of captured/surrounded personel in the most dire of circumstances. This tragedy could have been much, much worse. Truth will out, eventually.
Posted by: Classical_Liberal   2012-10-07 23:05  

#18  Getting more interesting:

Special Forces Security Leader Drops Bombshell Against Obama State Department

http://theulstermanreport.com/2012/10/07/special-forces-security-leader-drops-bombshell-against-obama-state-department/
Posted by: Uncle Phester   2012-10-07 20:01  

#17  Amen CL. Those two fellas probably had a WTF moment, then seized the guard force weapons and began returning fire. I'd still like to see a detailed time line. A time line that starts with the first indication that something was amiss, hours or days before the take-down. I've got a wicked hunch someone in Washington was watching blow-by-blow while events unfolded leading to the er huh "spontaneous" event. Once the kak went too far, the entire mission was written off and the cover stories were circulated. Things just don't phueching happen at US Missions, those facilities are monitored.
Posted by: Besoeker   2012-10-07 17:38  

#16  Crickets, indeed Besoeker.

Two volunteers died heroically unfucking bad decisions made elsewhere. That story needs to come out.
Posted by: Classical_Liberal   2012-10-07 15:01  

#15  Next time the terrorists should be allowed to use a teleprompter.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles   2012-10-07 13:11  

#14  A list of people who have been fired from the US intelligence community, who they worked for, who fired them, and why they got fired might be interesting. Hansen, Ames and Pollard do not count as list items.
Posted by: M. Murcek   2012-10-07 12:54  

#13  Besoeker, the high paid being the key. This is nothing more than a key patronage job for someone who will take the bullet for the Prez.
Posted by: AlanC   2012-10-07 12:43  

#12  Correct Pappy. The DNI essentially has no power. Without hiring and firing authority and control of the budget within the intelligence community (IC), you don't have a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out! We were ALL watching for this when the position was initially established. When the authority and funding lines were not given to the DNI, it became a high paid, notional position.
Posted by: Besoeker   2012-10-07 12:13  

#11  she needs to be mocked and ridiculed as the lying partisan tool she is
Posted by: Frank G   2012-10-07 12:04  

#10  You didn't see this one coming ?

Let's look at the record:

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.... called for Gen. James Clapper to resign or be fired as Director of National Intelligence, citing his comments before the Senate Armed Services Committee... Clapper had stated his belief that the Qaddafi regime, in the long term would "prevail" in Libya, and also assessed China and Russia to be primary threats to the United States...earlier missteps cited were Clapper's ignorance of a major anti-terror raid in London and his recent assertion that the Muslim Brotherhood is essentially a "secular" organization.

That was 2011. This is now:

The changing accounts prompted the spokesman for the nation’s top intelligence official, James R. Clapper Jr., to issue a statement on [September 28th] acknowledging that American intelligence agencies “revised our initial assessment to reflect new information indicating that it was a deliberate and organized terrorist attack carried out by extremists.”

The unusual statement was not solicited by the White House, according to Shawn Turner, the spokesman for Mr. Clapper, the director of national intelligence, but it seemed calculated to relieve some of the pressure on the White House for the contradictory accounts given in the two and a half weeks since the attack.


To be fair, the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) is basically a herder of cats; the office relies on its 'subordinate' agencies to provide it with information. The DNI has no legal authority to hire or fire, very little ability to shift funds between agencies, and even less influence over operations. So that means any power the DNI has relies on a 'personal relationship' with the White House.
Posted by: Pappy   2012-10-07 12:03  

#9  Crickets, can you hear them ?

A brave and very frustrated SF officer who was reassigned before the attack speaks out. Attack survivors and walking wounded... nothing heard from any. How many were there ? No one knows, no one reporting. No one from Landstuhl Hospital in Germany reporting. All the Langley, VA. Klingons got out safely.... nothing heard from them. Number of Klingons who were there ? Their duties and reporting ? Klington Go-to-hell, E&E plan (escape and evasion), etc.

All very hush, hush.
Posted by: Besoeker   2012-10-07 11:48  

#8  Note to General Clapper:

You didn't see this one coming ?

Posted by: Besoeker   2012-10-07 11:38  

#7  Bunch of spoiled narcissistic kids running Washington. None of your screw ups are your fault--always someone else is to blame. Bush is to blame. The intelligence agencies are to blame. The altitude was to blame for the One's drubbing in the debates. Americans are to blame. Romney is to blame a man's wife dying. These people should be disgusting to everyone. Why the polls are close is beyond me. This got old long ago. Obama has never manned up to anything. Those in his administration are the same.
Posted by: JohnQC   2012-10-07 10:41  

#6  Are you dishonest or just incompetent?

Not and 'either-or' situation.
Posted by: Glenmore   2012-10-07 10:41  

#5  Rice emphasized in her response that she had caveated her remarks in her TV appearances.

Yeah Susie eveyone knows your fluent in diplo-speak. But you see it's now been confirmed that the chum you were trowlling out wasn't the Intel community's best current assessment. So we're left with the same question we have for your boss. Are you dishonest or just incompetent?
Posted by: DepotGuy   2012-10-07 10:29  

#4  A circular firing squad with no GOP members. A sight to see.

Oh, wait...
Posted by: M. Murcek   2012-10-07 09:57  

#3  ...like the sorry decline of classical liberalism into more socialist failure [it's counter revolutionary saboteurs wrecking the four year plan!].
Posted by: Procopius2k   2012-10-07 09:50  

#2  Truman - "The Buck Stops here!"
Obama - "It's his fault!"

There is a campaign commercial in there somewhere.
Posted by: rjschwarz   2012-10-07 09:30  

#1  "And another one bites the dust!"

Is there anything at all that these scum-weasles would take responsibility for? (/rhet)
Posted by: AlanC   2012-10-07 09:20  

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