Conservatives Revive Political Exploitation of Benghazi Tragedy

Ahead of the midterm elections, Congressional conservatives have resumed their witch hunt over the Benghazi attacks in a politically motivated attempt to manufacture the perception of scandal where none exists. At the center of conservatives’ political exploitation of the Benghazi tragedy is a newly released Administration talking points email that mentioned the protests occurring throughout the region in response to an inflammatory Internet video. Conservatives have attempted to spin the email as being part of an imagined cover-up because it was not released earlier. However, the email makes no mention of Benghazi and, on the contrary, alludes to protests in other countries in the region. Furthermore, then-UN Ambassador Susan Rice’s comments to media – for which the email was to help her prepare – were entirely consistent with CIA’s talking points released separately. In prosecuting their witch hunt, conservatives have resorted to full-throated political theater. House Republicans have subpoenaed Secretary of State John Kerry before any invitation was first made (and despite previous testimony by Secretary Kerry on Benghazi) and formed an investigation committee despite the completion of multiple investigations both inside and outside of government drawing from extensive congressional hearings with the full cooperation of the Administration.

 Newly released email did not mention Benghazi. Deputy national security advisor Ben Rhodes’ email to prepare then-UN Ambassador Susan Rice for media appearances, which said “these protests are rooted in an Internet video,” did not refer to Benghazi, but did explicitly refer to “cooperation” with leaders in Egypt and Yemen, where other protests had occurred in response to an inflammatory video posted on YouTube. David Corn explains, “And the new email from Rhodes is pretty standard stuff, indicating a White House desire to justify its policy on the Arab Spring in the face of troubling events. Rhodes was encouraging Rice to present the case that the anti-video protests that had occurred in various places in the Muslim world were sort of a one-off event, not an indication that the overall Obama approach toward the region was misguided. Note that Rhodes referred to ‘protests,’ plural, when making this point. That week there had been violent anti-video uprisings in Egypt, Yemen, and Sudan, not just Libya. So all the fuss about the Rhodes email—which quickly passed through membrane between Fox News and the rest of the media, receiving airtime on CNN, ABC News, and elsewhere—is smoke, not fire.” [David Corn, 5/2/14]

 Susan Rice’s comments during media appearances at the time were consistent with CIA talking points. Speaking on ABC, CBS and NBC, then-UN Ambassador Susan Rice repeated various iterations of the following: “Based on the best information we have to date, what our assessment is as of the present is in fact what began spontaneously in Benghazi as a reaction to what had transpired some hours earlier in Cairo where, of course, as you know, there was a violent protest outside of our embassy sparked by this hateful video.” This is consistent with the CIA talking points – made public last year – which read, “The currently available information suggest that the demonstrations in Benghazi were spontaneously inspired by the protests at the US Embassy in Cairo and evolved into a direct assault against the US Consulate and subsequently its annex. This assessment may chance as additional information is collected and analyzed and currently available information continues to be evaluated.”

Even if, for the sake of argument, one imagines that the recently released email that says “these protests are rooted in an Internet video” may have been referring to Benghazi – though that does not appear to be the case – that, too, would have been consistent with the CIA talking points. The CIA’s reference to the “unrest in Cairo” that at the time it thought had contributed to the attack in Benghazi was, in fact, a response to an inflammatory video posted online. As Egyptian media outlet Ahram Online reported at the time, “Roughly 2000 Salafist activists answered a call on Tuesday by Wesam Abdel-Wareth, a Salafist leader and president of Egypt’s Hekma television channel, to protest ‘Muhammad’s Trial’ – a US-made film which, critics say, insults Islam’s Prophet Mohammed – at 5pm in front of the US embassy in Cairo.” [Susan Rice via Slate, 4/30/14. CIA Talking Points via Time, 5/15/14. Ahram Online, 9/11/12]

It’s bad political theater to issue a subpoena before an invitation to testify – much less any refusal to testify. Following  the issue of a subpoena to Secretary Kerry by House Republicans, Marie Harf, Deputy Spokesperson at the Department of State, explained, “it’s highly unusual for a subpoena to be issued before there’s even an official invitation for testimony…And we are surprised that in the first instance, they resorted to a subpoena given we’ve been cooperating all along with the committee and did not reach out before they did so…What there’s not precedent for is issuing a subpoena by a committee before giving an opportunity to testify…Congress was aware of the fact that we would be producing documents on a rolling basis, as rolling production, so we could get them documents as quickly as possible. If you just wait till they’re all done at the end, then they don’t have the documents in the interim…We’ve produced tens of thousands of documents. We’ve done nine hearings, 46 briefings… How many more taxpayer dollars are we going to spend trying to prove a political point that in 18 months they haven’t been able to prove?​” [Marie Harf, 5/2/14]

Speaker John Boehner’s select House committee to investigate Benghazi despite multiple investigations by Congress and other bodies. Speaker Boehner’s decision to create a special committee to investigate the Benghazi attacks comes after investigations have been conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, the House Committee on the Judiciary, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, the House Committee on Armed Services, the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and the State Department’s Accountability Review Board.