Benghazi attack - Terrorists or unruly crowd?

[whell]

Originally Posted by Boreas

As the facts are assembled, it's looking like it began as a more or less spontaneous demonstration, inspired by the one in Egypt. Then (probably) the Ansar al-Shariah used the demonstration as a cover for a guerrilla attack on the consulate. The guerrilla attack was also inspired by the video.*

So, what we have is an effort on the part of the Administration to keep the country informed on the situation, within the confines of national security considerations, when and as information became available.

The fact of the matter is NOBODY in the Administration EVER said anything which was incorrect. They just gave us the information piecemeal. The Right, especially Romney, chose to politicize the issue. If the Administration had waited until they had all the facts assembled before issuing a public statement the Right would have politicized that too by condemning them for their silence.

The Right plays the game SO dirty that it's a profound mystery to me that anyone supports you.

John

* Someone, I think it was MPHolland, recently pointed out that I said virtually the same thing at the time of the event, except, given the date and given that the Administration had just taken out yet another al Qaeda #2 who was Libyan, I wrongly assumed that it was an al Qaeda "anniversary party". It was a pretty lucky guess.

Another one of your factually challenged posts.

First, the response from everyone from the Administration to Intelligence to the SOS had been all over the map from the get go. The last official statement from James Clapper called the attack "a deliberate and organized terrorist attack carried out by extremists."

Second, the statement from "American Intelligence Officials" simply suggests that there is a lack of intelligence on whether the attack was pre-planned or whether it was spontaneous. After more than 30 days, I find that lack of information the most disturbing news of all.

Third, its worth noting that the military and the FBI couldn't get their act together to get the FBI investigative team into Benghazi until October 4th. With the "crime scene" unsecured 3 weeks and no opportunity to timely interview witnesses, one wonders what useful intelligence the investigation might yield anyway.

Finally, while those same intelligence officials revised their statements suggesting a lack of evidence about a coordinated attack, they also saw fit to caution that this "new" position could change as more information became available. This would be in line with the "all over the map" communications we've had on this to date.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/22/us...-scrutiny.html