Newly-released documents reveal direct White House involvement in steering the public narrative about the September 11, 2012 terrorist attacks in Benghazi, Libya, toward that of a spontaneous protest that never happened.
One of the operative documents, which the government had withheld from
Congress and reporters for a year and a half, is an internal September 14,
2012 email to White House press officials from Ben Rhodes, President Obama’s
Assistant and Deputy National Security Advisor. (Disclosure:Ben Rhodes
is the brother of David Rhodes, the President of CBS News, where I
was employed until March.)
In the email, Ben Rhodes lists as a “goal” the White House desire “To
underscore that these protests are rooted in an Internet video, and not a
broader failure or policy.”
The email is entitled, “RE: PREP CALL with Susan, Saturday at 4:00 pm ET”
and refers to White House involvement in preparing then-U.S.Ambassador
to the U.N. Susan Rice for her upcoming appearance on Sunday television
network political talk shows.
The Rhodes email states that another “goal” is “To reinforce the President and Administration’s strength and steadiness in dealing with difficult challenges.”
A court compelled the release of the documents, which were heavily-redacted, to the conservative watchdog group JudicialWatch, which has sued the government over its failed Freedom of Information responses. I have also requested Benghazi-related documents under Freedom of Information law, but the government has only produced a few pages to date.
New Benghazi Docs April 29, 2014