Conason writes: "On Friday the Republican politicians who had so angrily demanded the testimony of David Petraeus about Benghazi got what they wanted - and what they deserved."
David Petraeus testifies before the Senate. (photo: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)
Petraeus Testifies, McCain Shuts Up
17 November 12
n Friday the Republican politicians who had so angrily demanded the testimony of David Petraeus about Benghazi got what they wanted - and what they deserved - when the former CIA director set forth the facts proving that their conspiracy theories and witch-hunts are dead wrong.
Appearing behind closed doors on Capitol Hill, Gen. Petraeus, recently resigned from the spy agency over his illicit affair with biographer Paula Broadwell, answered questions from legislators concerning the tragic Sept. 11 assault that left Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other diplomatic personnel dead.
When the session concluded, Petraeus was spirited away. And Senator John McCain (R-AZ), whose criticism of the Obama administration over Benghazi has verged on hysterical, emerged from the hearing room with very little to say to the reporters waiting outside.
"General Petraeus' briefing was comprehensive. I think it was important; it added to our ability to make judgments about what was clearly a failure of intelligence, and described his actions and that of his agency and their interactions with other agencies," said McCain, adding, "I appreciate his service and his candor" before abruptly fleeing as reporters tried to question him.
McCain's curt statement was in sharp contrast to his voluble remarks on Thursday, when he denounced UN Ambassador Susan Rice for what he and Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) described as her misleading description of the attack on Sunday television shows a few days after it occurred. (It later emerged, embarrassingly, that his posturing before the cameras on Benghazi had prevented him from attending a scheduled hearing on that subject. He didn't want to to discuss that either.)
Essentially, McCain and Graham, joined by Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), accused Rice on Thursday of lying and covering up the fact that the Benghazi consulate had been attacked by terrorists affiliated with al Qaeda. They vowed to prevent her confirmation as Secretary of State, should the president nominate her to replace Hillary Rodham Clinton.
But with McCain departing so abruptly after the Petraeus hearing, it was left to others, including House Intelligence Committee chair Peter King (R-NY), Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), and Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND) to reveal what their Arizona colleague didn't care to discuss. In his testimony, Petraeus blew apart the half-baked theories offered by McCain and Graham - and left them looking foolish.
On earlier occasions, King had echoed the same complaints made by McCain and Graham, but after Friday's hearing he reluctantly admitted the truth: Petraeus had confirmed that the CIA had approved the talking points used by Rice, tentatively blaming the incident on a notorious anti-Muslim video sparking demonstrations in Cairo and elsewhere at the time. Although Petraeus said he had believed that terrorists were responsible, that suggestion was removed from the talking points in order to protect the ongoing FBI investigation into Benghazi, which Rice also mentioned.
As King explained in response to reporters' questions, Petraeus not only confirmed that any allusion to al Qaeda had been removed from the talking points given to Rice, but that his agency had consented to that decision:
Q: Did he say why it was taken out of the talking points that [the attack] was al Qaeda affiliated?
KING: He didn't know.
Q: He didn't know? What do you mean he didn't know?
KING: They were not involved - it was done, the process was completed and they said, "OK, go with those talking points." Again, it's interagency - I got the impression that 7, 8, 9 different agencies.
Q: Did he give you the impression that he was upset it was taken out?
KING: No.
Q: You said the CIA said "OK" to the revised report –
KING: No, well, they said in that, after it goes through the process, they OK'd it to go. Yeah, they said "Okay for it to go."
In short, Rice was using declassified talking points, developed and approved by the intelligence community, when she discussed the Benghazi attack. So McCain's nasty personal denunciation of her , along with most of his claims about how the White House handled Benghazi, has been blown out of the water like so much naval scrap. The Arizona senator, his colleagues, and their loud enablers on Fox News and elsewhere in the wingnut media will never apologize to Rice. But that is what they owe her.
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Comments
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Exactly ! The Tea Party madness took over the Republican party now everything is a witch hunt with them !
Republican's never admit they are wrong and they never apologize even when proven wrong !
Actually they are a pretty disgusting lot if you ask me.Why anyone would think anything they say is credible is beyond me.
leadership - def. "The activity of leading a group of people or an organization, or the ability to do this.
In its essence, leadership in an organizational role involves (1) establishing a clear vision, (2) sharing that vision with others so that they will follow willingly, (3) providing the information, knowledge, and methods to realize that vision, and (4) coordinating and balancing the conflicting interests of all members or stakeholders. A leader comes to the forefront in case of crisis, and is able to think and act in creative ways in difficult situations. Unlike management, leadership flows from the core of a personality and cannot be taught, although it may be learned and may be enhanced through coaching or mentoring."
Actually, there is. The Koch Brothers took over the Tea Party very shortly after their founding and have provided most of their funding.
I sure hope you're right. Not having any facts to go on doesn't seem to have stopped them yet, when one accusation is rebutted, they've come up with another.
THIS says exactly what happens when you shoot from the mouth without any aim! And are they ever without any aim.
The snake is headless, but is it finally dead?
Hi Barb: This display by McCain, Graham, and Fox News has been disgraceful. They feel that the only way they can "win" is to find some tidbit of information that will allow them to bring impeachment charges against President Obama. They only dishonor the offices that they've sworn to uphold when they were elected.
By the way, this Tea Party House may be around for a long time. The 2010 census allowed redistricting by the dominant party in each state - the very reason the Repugnant Party maintained control of the House. Studies show that if districts had remained the same as they were in 2008, the Dems would have won the House.
But that's water over the dam or under the bridge, however you look at it. The point is that McCain, Graham and Fox Noise have sullied the reputation of Susan Rice, and owe her an apology - which we know will not be forthcoming. How can McCain accuse anyone of being nonqualified for the job, after selecting Sarah Palin as his running mate to be one heartbeat away from the presidency.
I certainly hope the president nominates Susan Rice to be Sec'y of State!!!
HERE IS THE LINK TO LIBERALS UNITE:
http://samuel-warde.com/
They both need to fade away. They are political failures.
news.antiwar.com/.../israel-gaza-flooded-with-missiles-from-li...Israel: Gaza Flooded With Missiles From Libya. Anti-Aircraft Missiles Probably Came From Looted Stockpiles. by Jason Ditz, October 17, 2012"
Wonder ow much Petraeus "affair" has to do with Israel attack on Gaza. It will create more hate against US Army - and little "hearts and minds" strategy.
please read the references/URL Kal!
Gee, ONE PERSON managed to try and think outside the box and gets 34 thumbs down responses for it. Nearly everyone else lines up like sheep accepting the party line. Now isn't that exactly what they want you to think?
Sad. Somethink is rotten about this whole "affair." It may or may not have to do with Gaza. Maybe Petraeus did something that pulled him up short. The CIA is NOT the boy scouts club, and people who go against its "rules" can get killed--even the so called insiders. "I appreciate his service and his candor"...his "candor" may also be motivated by self preservation.
There are REAL conspiracies. People who see them where there's no evidence give the rest of us a bad name for things like: wanting an investigation about 9-11, or setting the record straight about Kennedy's assasination.
05 November 2012 | News | Jason Ditz
Libyan Government Bankrolling Syrian Rebels | More than half of SNC’s funding came from Libya
etc.
news.antiwar.co m/tag/libya/
http://samuel-warde.com/
Yes, there are real conspiracies - for example, the Serbian Secret Service in the assassination of the Archduke Ferdinand that precipitated WW1 or the assassination of Lincoln, among others.
However, with regard to the Kennedy assassination decades of claims by conspiracy theorists have brought nothing more than: Oswald and Oswald alone. I daresay the same will be the case in a few decades with 9/11: Arab Moslem terrorists, most of whom came from Saudi Arabia.
Sorry, it's not A_Har's nonsense that's giving you a bad name.
term make a big war lie as Innocent Victim says and cover up.
Add to this when nearly sprung by Ambassador Smith report to CIA Petraeus:- I
do agree in fact I see his failure to stop the US Ambassador Libya
assassination may even be complicity for GOP cover-up of my suspicion of
Lebanon Godhafi as the missing link General Clapper suspected Viz., In
2003, Clapper, then head of the National Geospatial-Inte lligence Agency,
attempted to explain the absence of WMDs in Iraq by asserting that the
weapons materials were "unquestionably " shipped out of Iraq to Syria and
other countries just before the American invasion, a "personal assessment"
which Clapper's own agency head at the time, David Burpee, "could not
provide further evidence to support. I always believed too much coincidence
in the timing of Gaddafi giving up WMD's claiming them his program, and
Sadam claiming he had no WD's and now I smell a rat, perhaps Ambassadore 2012 found evidence Clapper & Bush
couldn't, or hid to cause the War that Koffee Annan says Bush/Blair lies
deserve trial in ICCJ Haigue, USA says no and so GOP Petraeus guys hid is
by arranging Ambassador & staff & key evidence disappear and now Petraeus
again covering with Resignation after more lies he now repeats to
Parliaments even after the delay. Watch his new reward Job IARPA was under him DARPA $3.2bn budget is magnetic?
I think my state can compete with all the others in the embarrassment contest. We have McCain, Brewer, Sheriff Joe Arpaio, "papers please" legislation, etc., etc.,etc. Isn't it just too much that the guy who unleashed Sarah Palin on the world criticizes the intelligence of Susan Rice,a Rhodes Scholar?
I wonder what John's approval rating would be nationally, or even recognition rating? He's busy erasing whatever good there may have been in his legacy. No fool like an old fool.
Actually, Barry Goldwater, whose best friend was McCain's father refused to back him because, in Gol;dwater's words, "He has NO principles."
And a number of his fellow prisoners said he was a collaborator with his captors.
I'm still waiting to hear who the agent was that went to Cantor before the election, and why this hasn't come out. (Mentioned in the Jane Mayer article on this site.)
And why haven't McCain and Graham mentioned this yet? It smells of political intent to me. And very ripely, might I add.
"In his testimony, Petraeus blew apart the half-baked theories offered by McCain and Graham - and left them looking foolish."
Music to my ears indeed, but to be honest, the Good General really didn't have that far to travel in an effort to leave them "looking foolish" !
And YOU know this for certain because ... RUMORS?
Admiral William Fallon called Petraeus an "ass-licking little chicken-shit" to his face. Fallon will have more to tell is Patraeus shows his face in public again. We will hear just whose ass he has been licking.
Bearing in mind he's a Republican and was a prospective presidential candidate, that (if true) doesn't surprise me. I remember a call girl being interviewed before the Republican convention in NY being asked whether she'd rather have the Republicans or Democrats in town. She said the Democrats because they just have sex and go while Republicans want all kinds of weird, sick stuff.
Since both Democrats, the media and especially Republicans are ok with this unlawful activity in the mistaken guise of national security, this will never see the light of day.
Oh, well...
Why is it that no one cares but FOX?
This has been such a FOX fueled non-issue, that I can barely muster interest to read whole articles and devote more than only a few minutes.
Reading this headline made me smile though.
I notice most of these comments are about the Bluster Boys- Mccain and Graham.
Ms Ayotte is "my" senator (I'm in NH) and should not be lightly dismissed. She is ambitious and knows how to play politics. She has also shown herself to be firmly devoted to the standard modcon line of giving money to the military and the wealthy. Ignore her at your peril. I plan to work for whomever is running against her when she is next up for re-election.
He's the one who picked Sara Palin to be a heartbeat away from the Presidency. The American people are much smarter than McCain. And American Kindergarten students are smarter than Palin.
I have little or no respect for McCain, but in his defense, he didn't pick her. She was forced upon him by the far right nuts who wanted an ultraconservati ve moron on the ticket because on occasion McCain actually tells the truth. Not often enough, but sometimes, and truth is to Republicans what garlic is to vampires.
Durbin is countering well bringing up Regan and Bush. Love how Schiwffer just apoligized for not giving him much time. Yeah right Durbin nailed it but McCain given more time to spin his lies.
"Benghazi a CIA base for secret operations" I think this goes a lot deeper & back to as ex-UN S/Gen., says should Bush/Blair see an ICCJ War Crime trial? Watergate/Irang ate/Libigate. Ambassador in Consulate 10pm. Guards ok, 10 CIA & 3 menleave boss in rubble, asphyxiate 4 hrs villagers get him to Dr., 90 min. dies. CNN reporter finds Ambassadors diary, but CIA and guards don't have a smoke breather mask even in the safe-rooms, can't find the Boss or the secret papers. They mostly trapped by a handful of AK47's the night before agreed to let the boss suffer.
Did Gaddafi get paid big Saddam $$$ to cover his arse by handing over the WMD's GWB materialised in a dream. Then with Blair justified a $5bn war and millions of deaths. Did someone now reveal the evidence that Koffee Annan said would turn up and GOP 2016 President wannaby at CIA agree to fix matters of an Ambassador & papers, that his boys should deliver home. So after arranging a sub-contract terrorist event, and keeping his 10 braves at AK47 pinned down just 1200 meters from the action, an event is manufactured. Later to cover his tail, by accepting resignation on a red herring distraction, that was another risk anyhow with the "Hells fury of women scorned" of something. He was in charge of IARPA as well and that has $100mn spy budget from DARPA's $3.2bn budget a good job awaits and a prettier boss there anyhow, single at that.
Instead of weeping over Petraeus's resignation, I say good riddance!
I did notice that Hamilton county went from blue to red late. That was one of the counties that had the Romney owned voting machines.
Controlling our airwaves, they pimp out talking heads, hire egregious politicians to promote the malfeasance within & in their network of billionaires, make sure this stressed out nation is inundated by the shiny objects of new iGadgets- thereby taking attention away from the obsolescence of democracy.
I opt out of the diversion of hysteria & boycott all shopping the weekend after Thanksgiving; my "Black Friday," is doing the dishes & my gifts are rarely, if ever, mass produced.
Today, the only "power" we have as the People, is as consumers & only a massive boycott of all things manufactured outside the Divided States of America is what can empower change in society. Just like a neighborhood potluck- the people who play together, stay together.
Craft Faires, flea markets, yard sales & consignment shops keep it here & keep it local. Recycle & reusing won't increase big box store sales, which makes stock holders richer who, instead of investing it in their employees, invest globally w/political machinations for personal gain. Eisenhower warned us of the Great Military Industrial Complex in his farewell speech. It's not just about militia goods, but about all the money connected that feeds the monster; he was talking about soldiers driven by the green of greed, not the green of uniform.
Think about it.
The character of these leaders, John Boehner, Lindsey Graham, John McCain, need public exposure. Democratic leaders are not far behind them in their disloyalty to most of our citizenry. They are just a bit cleverer about it. Our political system brings these types of people into prominence. It needs changing badly.
I'm sure many of the red state voters believe they are, and in their heads they are, but it's only because they are stupendously ignorant. Anyone else notice that a huge majority of red states are also the states with the worst education?
My sister, a republican on right wing mailing lists was quite upset about what was first reported but I never really understood why.
We never got answers, just a softball commission. Time for a full set of criminal investigations and resulting prosecutions.
Used beforehand to attempt to smear Obama Admin as foreign policy "incompetents." All by design as they knew full well "getting to the bottom" of a CIA operation would be merely impossible.Also knew it would be impossble to uncover "the truth" about any CIA operation.
Senate insiders knew Benghazi was all about CIA and was highly classified.Is it really a large stretch of the imagination to surmise that Petraus's personal affair was uncovered after the election to bring back the Benghazi "scandal"? With the hope that the General would be so dishonored that he would fail to testify. That he, perhaps, would committ suicide or distance himself completely from Washington? And who the hell is Jill Kelley and why on earth did she report so called "nasty" e-mails to an FBI agent?-(who happens to be a known right winger.) I smell an amateurish attempt of conspiracy-eith er leading to Obama not be re-elected, or character assassination after the re-election. They failed on both accounts.
Here, Benghazi is a politicans' chess game for appointments.
I read a story that suggested Ambassador Stevens was providing secret strategic information to our opponents in Libya.
I saw al Qaeda blamed for the attack, and other articles swearing al Qaeda is only a term, not a real organization and barely an idea.
Petraeus stated there was no breach of security with the girlfriends, and classified data was found on their computer drives. Who are these people? Friday's meeting was secret.
The articles remind me of smoothing wet cement mix with a float. Something dramatic happened, and we can't see.
I get a lump in my throat over CIA director watch changes, and feelings of dread.
Whatever core issue(s) exist, here's a real one: we tiny, little people are too small and feeble minded to know the simple facts about who attacked Benghazi and why, what happened, and Petraeus' real story. It shouldn't be impossible to know the truth, but, as always, it's too much to ask.
In 50 years, we'll have heard a thousand equally valid accounts, and still won't know the whole, real story. I was deeply moved by this story in the back drop of the presidential election.
EXCERPT:
“This year, a cabal of generals evidently believed it could secure the White House for Mitt Romney by staging the Benghazi incident and using it as the signal for a cold coup under cover of elections — probably including computer-genera ted election fraud — to bring down Obama. They guessed wrong.
Politicians sometimes purge generals. When the French Secret Army Organization (OAS) staged a putsch in Algiers in April 1961 to prevent the independence of Algeria, President de Gaulle had to round up and jail a number of generals and other officers. The Obama administration and its establishment controllers appear to be ousting a number of intelligence and military officials who took part in illegal operations to replace Obama with Romney. These sackings are being presented to the public under the guise of soap opera sexual infractions or expense account padding, in the hope of hiding some real mechanisms of power from the popular gaze. The outgoing US military cabal favors the extension of colonial wars, like those in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as an attack on Iran. Good riddance.”
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/11/19/273240/coup-and-countercoup-in-washington/
Yes he is a war hero, but if you look at the rest of his life he has not always done the 'right' thing. Look how he dumped his first wife in order to wed a wealthy woman who bankrolled his entry into politics.
a court order and leaking the investigation in a partisan way?
There is a new video that I saw that deals with this issue as a
parody. Its funny but scary. The video suggest we all hide our internet
traces using a VPN, but how did we get into this postion as a country? Since the
Patriot Act have we given up so many freedoms that our only recourse is to hide
under a technology rock? That this in fact happened to our CIA Director is stunning.
Shouldnt the FBI be vilified in this? But somehow they are not and it has become a
personal tragedy rather than a governance tragedy. The media has barely covered
the FBI side of the scandal.
Check out the the Petraeus Broadwell Parody
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rMjnY-0q7M
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