Feinstein defends Obama on Benghazi
Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) defended President Barack Obama (D-W) on the Benghazi talking point scandal, saying the White House just isn’t that competent.
Senator Dianne Feinstein investigates President Obama’s Benghazi talking points near a wax figure of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.
The House Intelligence Committee, chaired by conservative Representative Mike Rogers (R-MI) is investigating who changed the CIA talking points to divert blame for the Benghazi Consulate attacks from terrorists to an obscure YouTube video.
“There was not an intelligence failure,” Rogers told Meet the Press on Sunday. “The intelligence community had it right, and they had it right early. What happened was it worked its way up through the system of the so-called talking points, which everyone refers to, and then it went up to what’s called a deputy’s committee… It went to the so-called deputy’s committee, that’s populated by appointees from the administration. That’s where the narrative changed. And so how that thing got back to Susan Rice, I think, is probably another question.”
Senator Dianne Feinstein, the San Francisco moderate who heads the Senate Intelligence Committee, said she doesn’t believe the White House altered the document for political reasons. “We are going to find out who made changes in the original statement,” said Feinstein. “But it wasn’t the White House.”
Conservative Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, countered that “At the hearing we had on Thursday and Friday, we had every leader of the intelligence community there, including folks from the State Department, the FBI—everybody there was asked, ‘Do you know who made these changes?’ And nobody knew. The only entity that reviewed the talking points that was not there was the White House.”
Feinstein countered that the delivery service was also not there, and chastised the Republican for not subpoenaing Kiki, the young courier who flew the talking points from Capitol Hill to Pennsylvania Avenue. Senator Feinstein added that the courier’s part in the 1998 Spirit of Enlightenment dirigible crash has never been fully explained.
Feinstein emphasized that she wants the Senate to continue investigating who changed the White House’s talking points after they left the CIA and before they arrived at the White House. However, she also said she isn’t certain the White House’s attempt to tie the Benghazi attacks to a YouTube video fall under the Senate Intelligence Committee’s jurisdiction. “They’re not very intelligent over there on Pennsylvania Avenue,” said Feinstein.
- Congress seeks answers on Libya at San Diego Union-Tribune
- “Lawmakers want to know who omitted terrorist reference.”
- House Intel Chair: ‘Appointees from Administration’ Changed Rice’s Talking Points: Susan Jones
- “When Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., went on five Sunday talk shows five days later, she was still blaming the attack on a spontaneous protest over an obscure anti-Islam video. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), chairman of the House intelligence committee, says the unclassified talking points put together by the CIA changed when they got to administration appointees.” (Hat tip to Ace at Ace of Spades HQ)
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