Friday, November 16, 2012

Petraeus to testify behind closed doors on Benghazi Friday

The hearing to be held by the House Intelligence Committee is closed to the public and the media. Petraeus is expected to answer questions about the CIA's knowledge and handling of the assault on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi that left U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans dead. Two of those Americans were with the CIA. - CBS News

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calf., chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Wednesday that Petraeus was "willing and interested" to talk to the committee, CBS News reported earlier Wednesday.

"It's just on Benghazi. Our hearings are on Benghazi and the intelligence that preceded Benghazi and the intelligence that determined security," she told reporters.

Meanwhile, the House Intelligence Committee will hear from him at 7:30 a.m. on Friday, an hour that is extremely uncommon for a congressional meeting.

CNN: Petraeus will Amend His Testimony on Benghazi – He Knew it Was a Terror Attack Almost Immediately (Video) - CNN

A source who spoke to Gen. Petraeus told CNN’s Barbara Starr the former CIA Director wants to clear up some misconceptions. He wants to tell Congress that he knew almost immediately that Ansar al Sharia, the al Qaeda sympathizing group was responsible for the preplanned attack on the Consulate in Benghazi that killed four Americans. The question of their motivation is where the confusion lies according to the this report. Initially, there were up to 20 intelligence reports that blamed the YouTube video as the motivation. Those reports were disproven in time, but supposedly not before Petraeus had testified before Congress on the 14th, three days after the attack.

He also reportedly had his own talking points separate from Susan Rice’s talking points which came from someone else in the administration, an account that seems to be at odds with a CBS report, Thursday that revealed “CIA talking points” for Susan Rice that characterized the Benghazi attack as “spontaneously inspired” by protests. (Uh huh.)



CNN: PETRAEUS TO TESTIFY HE KNEW LIBYA WAS TERRORISM 'ALMOST IMMEDIATELY' - John Nolte/Breitbart

There’s no question that at first a “fog of war” excuse made perfect sense. But what’s also not in question is that as the days and weeks passed, the White House moved further and further away from what the President said on “60 Minutes” — which means that as those 20 or so reports were being “disproved,” the Administration was moving further and further away from the truth.

How did that happen?

The other issue, and this is something I’ve been pushing for weeks now, is that both White House spokesman Jay Carney and U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice told the media repeatedly that there was absolutely no evidence that Libya was premeditated.

Now we know there was.

It’s one thing to say you believe the attack was over a video, it’s an entirely different tightrope to walk when you’re saying in no uncertain terms that there’s “no evidence” of a terror attack.