"There is no doubt five days later what this attack was and for — look, I was on "Face the Nation" that Sunday. Right after her came the president of the Libyan National Assembly who said this was al-Qaeda. Everybody knew that. So she went out and told the American people something that was patently false and defied common sense.”
— Sen. John McCain on "Fox and Friends," Nov. 14, 2012
“When she presented the case absolutely this was a flash
mob. Look at the reruns because I happened to have been there that
morning.... The casual observer knew there was no demonstration. There
was no demonstration, so you couldn't have known that to start with.”
— McCain, on “CBS This Morning,” Nov. 14
So let's look at the statement that McCain explicitly referred to as the basis and starting point of the deception.
So let's look at the statement that McCain explicitly referred to as the basis and starting point of the deception.
"[O]n CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sept. 16. [Ambassador Rice]
spoke just after the president of the Libyan National Assembly said
there is “no doubt that this was preplanned, predetermined.”
BOB SCHIEFFER: And joining us now, Susan Rice, the U.N. ambassador — our U.N. ambassador. Madam Ambassador, he [the Libyan president of the National Assembly] says that this is something that has been in the planning stages for months. I understand you had been saying that you think it was spontaneous? Are we not on the same page here?
SUSAN RICE: Well, Bob, let me tell you what we understand to be the assessment at present. First of all, very importantly, as you discussed with the president, there is an investigation that the United States government will launch, led by the FBI that has begun.
SCHIEFFER: But they are not there yet.
RICE : They are not on the ground yet but they have already begun looking at all sorts of evidence of various sorts already available to them and to us. And they will get on the ground and continue the investigation.
So we'll want to see the results of that investigation to draw any definitive conclusions. But based on the best information we have to date, what our assessment is as of the present is in fact what — it began spontaneously in Benghazi as a reaction to what had transpired some hours earlier in Cairo, where, of course, as you know, there was a violent protest outside of our embassy sparked by this hateful video.
But soon after that spontaneous protest began outside of our consulate in Benghazi, we believe that it looks like extremist elements, individuals, joined in that effort with heavy weapons of the sort that are, unfortunately, readily now available in Libya post-revolution. And that it spun from there into something much, much more violent.
SCHIEFFER: But you do not agree with him that this was something that had been plotted out several months ago?
RICE: We do not — we do not have information at present that leads us to conclude that this was premeditated or preplanned.
SCHIEFFER : Do you agree or disagree with him that al-Qaeda had some part in this?
RICE: Well, we'll have to find out that out. I mean, I think it's clear that there were extremist elements that joined in and escalated the violence. Whether they were al-Qaeda affiliates, whether they were Libyan-based extremists or al-Qaeda itself I think is one of the things we'll have to determine."
(2) McCain has also stated that Rice had used talking points from the White House and not the CIA as the basis of her public comments clearly suggesting political manipulation from the White House. [see "On the Record" site below] However, he is again wrong.
"In a closed-door session with the House Intelligence committee, Mike Morell [Ceputy CIA Director] said Rice was provided with an unclassified version of events at the U.S. mission in Benghazi ... The assessment concluded that a spontaneous protest over an anti-Muslim video had evolved into an attack on the American consulate, a description that Rice presented in television interviews the Sunday morning after the attack." "Five days after the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya, U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice described what precipitated the deadly incident based on initial intelligence that later proved incorrect, the deputy CIA director told Congress on Thursday."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/15/susan-rice-libya_n_2141392.html
These were the CIA talking points prepared on Sept. 15:
“The currently available information suggests that the demonstrations in Benghazi were spontaneously inspired by the protests at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo and evolved into a direct assault against the U.S. Consulate and subsequently its annex. There are indications that extremists participated in the violent demonstrations. This assessment may change as additional information is collected and analyzed and as currently available information continues to be evaluated.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/benghazi-attack-becomes-political-ammunition/2012/10/19/e1ad82ae-1a2d-11e2-bd10-5ff056538b7c_story.html
(3) In his interview "On the Record on Fox" on November 14th McCain dismissed earlier Republican matters that he felt comparable in some way saying "Watergate was about a break in. Iran-Contra was about a shipment of arms." This statement doesn't merit discussion. But, then McCain went on to specify the exact times of the "deceptive," "false" and, certainly, "evil" fabric of lies by the administration. Only the last dated September 25th merits any comment.
"Could I just remind you real quick -- September 21, in the Rose Garden, he said it was, Quote, "acts of terror". That same night, he said to Steve Kroft on "60 Minutes," its too early to know exactly how this came about. On September 20th, we're still doing an investigation. September 24th, on "The View," we're still doing an investigation. And then before the United Nations on September 25th, "a crude and disgusting video sparked outrage throughout the Muslim world."
http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/on-the-record/2012/11/15/mccain-obama-were-not-picking-anybody-we-want-answers-and-buck-stops-your-desk-mr-preside
Going back to the text of the President's speech at the UN, if you care, you will find that the president addressed the Benghazi attack at the beginning of the speech. Later, after raising other matters, the president spoke of the Arab Spring and the difficulty of transitioning to democracy. And he said then the comment extracted by McCain:
"In every country, there are those who find different religious beliefs threatening; in every culture, those who love freedom for themselves must ask how much they are willing to tolerate freedom for others. That is what we saw play out the last two weeks, as a crude and disgusting video sparked outrage throughout the Muslim world." http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/09/25/did-obama-stand-up-for-a-free-society-at-the-un0.html
In the two weeks immediately preceding the president's speech protests over the film broke out in nearly 20 countries. The context of the comment, while chronologically and indirectly including the Benghazi attack, is substantially directed at the broader issue of "tolerate freedom for others."
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/15/world/middleeast/anti-american-protests-over-film-enter-4th-day.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
