The real questions concern the behavior and motivation of General Petraeus in the aftermath of the murder of the United States ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens, on September 11, 2012.
When did General Petraeus know the sequence of events that preceded the murder of United States Ambassador Stevens, indicating the likely motivation for the murder?
The Petraeus CIA provided inaccurate information about events on the ground to the Obama Administration, particularly to President Obama and United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice. Did they know it was inaccurate?
If the Petraeus CIA mislead or withheld information from the White House or allowed that to happen, was it in the service of the Romney campaign or those clamoring for an attack on Iran?
At the end of an article by David Randal in The Independent, November 11, this provocative information appeared:
"The
CIA has come under intense scrutiny for providing the White House and
other administration officials with information that led them to say the
Benghazi attack was a result of a film protest. It has become clear that the CIA was aware the attack was distinct from the film protests across the Muslim world. " The Independent, November 11
Early on, United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice stated that news of the anti-Muslim movie, Innocence of Muslims, inspired an angry mob to turn violent and attack the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya:
"Our
current best assessment, based on the information that we have at
present, is that, in fact, what this began as, it was a spontaneous --
not a premeditated -- response to what had transpired in Cairo [a protest
against the anti-Muslim film]." ABC News, September 15
Rice was corrected shortly after this statement.
The CBS News report on September 12 that the attack on the consulate was premeditated turned out more accurate than the information provided to the White House by the CIA. The attack and murder of Ambassador Stevens, CBS reported, was premeditated, initiated by "al-Qaeda affiliated" terrorists.
Fox News added 2 plus 2 and came up with 22. Fox's talking heads claimed that Rice's statement was part of an Obama Administration cover-up. The Administration was trying to mask its failure to stop an al Qaeda attack on U.S diplomats, we were told. Fox fan fiction News never bothered to ask these questions: Why would the Administration put out bad information as a narrative of events when there was already a different narrative, one that was well publicized in the national media? Did the Administration conspire to look incompetent? Perhaps others had a plan to achieve that goal but, clearly, it was not the plan of the Obama Administration.
All of this was at the start of the 2012 presidential campaign.
When did General Petraeus know the sequence of events that preceded the murder of United States Ambassador Stevens, indicating the likely motivation for the murder?
According to the Daily Beast, September 19, three U.S. intelligence officials reported that "within 24 hours of the 9-11 anniversary attack on the United States consulate in Benghazi, U.S. intelligence agencies had strong indications al Qaeda-affiliated operatives were behind the attack, and had even pinpointed the location of one of those attackers."
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