Condi Rice Pours Cold Water On ‘Benghazi-Gate’

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice broke with the majority of her party last night on Fox News, as she tried to hit the brakes on the right wing's politicization of the recent attack in Libya.

Host Greta Van Susteren asked Rice directly and repeatedly about a set of emails uncovered by Reuters. In what has been dubbed "Benghazi-Gate," the conservative media has jumped on the emails as definitive proof that the Obama administration has been lying about what it knew and when in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attack on a diplomatic mission in Benghazi. Rice's response was likely not what Van Susteren expected:

RICE: But when things are unfolding very, very quickly, it's

not always easy to know what is really going on

on the ground. And to my mind, the really important questions here are about how information was collected. Did the various agencies really coordinate and share intelligence in the way that we had hoped, with the reforms that were made after 9/11?

So there's a big picture to be examined here. But we don't have all of the pieces, and I think it's easy to try and jump to conclusions about what might have happened here.

It's probably better to let the relevant bodies do their work.

Throughout the interview, Rice highlighted the difficulty that comes in a "fog of war" situation, with multiple stories coming in which need to be processed and verified. Her statements strongly align with the evolution of the Obama administration's understanding of what happened in Benghazi. Rice also joined current Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in

dismissing the big picture importance

of the emails from the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli, as a small portion of the overall communication between the mission and the State Department.

With her reasoned response, Rice stands apart from other former Bush administration officials, including former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton and former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Both

Rumsfeld

and

Bolton

have repeatedly insisted that the Obama administration has performed a cover-up of the events in Benghazi.

http://thinkprogress...ld-water-libya/

[Penny Lane 8,159]

What a well thought out, reasonable statement.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

She likes her job at Stanford, and does want to rattle any cages. I wouldn't read anything into it, other than she in not interested in working for the next administration.

[Danno 1,228]

This "fog of war" excuse is reasonable for the first few hours...

Obama carried on a charade for two weeks, the video producer is still in jail.

Q: when the fog was so thick and things still uncertain, why was the video such a talking point............ if things just weren't clear?

[james&olya 1,121]

What a well thought out, reasonable statement.

And so un-republican of her!

[mawilson 2,133]

Whatever she says should be taken with a grain of salt - she was quite possibly the WORST National Security Advisor ever.

The woman never heard of Al Qaeda before 2000.

[james&olya 1,121]

Whatever she says should be taken with a grain of salt - she was quite possibly the WORST National Security Advisor ever.

The woman never heard of Al Qaeda before 2000.

And the text of the speech on national security she was set to deliver on 9-11-01 contained no mention of OBL. This in spite of the daily presidential briefing in early August that year specifically saying that OBL was determined to strike inside the US, possibly using airliners as weapons! She was perfect for her boss, Cheney. She had a veneer of intelligence but no ability to stand up to the likes of old #######!

[Obama 2012 1,714]

And the text of the speech on national security she was set to deliver on 9-11-01 contained no mention of OBL. This in spite of the daily presidential briefing in early August that year specifically saying that OBL was determined to strike inside the US, possibly using airliners as weapons! She was perfect for her boss, Cheney. She had a veneer of intelligence but no ability to stand up to the likes of old #######!

Cute. Someone who still thinks OBL was responsible for 9/11.

[Penny Lane 8,159]

Here we go.

[mawilson 2,133]

Cute. Someone who still thinks OBL was responsible for 9/11.

Who was?

[Obama 2012 1,714]

Who was?

not the CIA's ghost man Bin Laden, that's for sure... Though people like to toss his name around.

If we want technical aspects of blaming someone for the attacks, I believe Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is to blame.

[Dakine10 5,452]

not the CIA's ghost man Bin Laden, that's for sure... Though people like to toss his name around.

If we want technical aspects of blaming someone for the attacks, I believe Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is to blame.

Oh thank God. I thought you were going to say M. Night Shyamalan.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

not the CIA's ghost man Bin Laden, that's for sure... Though people like to toss his name around.

If we want technical aspects of blaming someone for the attacks, I believe Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is to blame.

That's like saying a mob boss isn't responsible for putting a hit on someone if he doesn't involve himself in the planning or execution of it. Brilliant, Paul.

[Obama 2012 1,714]

That's like saying a mob boss isn't responsible for putting a hit on someone if he doesn't involve himself in the planning or execution of it. Brilliant, Paul.

So someone acts upon themselves and it's someone else's fault? What kind of screwed up world do you live in?

[one...two...tree 2,762]

So someone acts upon themselves and it's someone else's fault? What kind of screwed up world do you live in?

Is this more Libertarian gibberish? So organized crime doesn't actually exist? Good grief, Paul. Where do you get such fvcked up ideas?