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Fox News’ Megyn Kelly (via mediamattersforamerica)
What??? Fox news is becoming even more unhinged.
(via mediamattersforamerica)
When House Republicans called a hearing in the middle of their long recess, you knew it would be something big, and indeed it was: They accidentally blew the CIA’s cover.
The purpose of Wednesday’s hearing of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee was to examine security lapses that led to the killing in Benghazi last month of the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three others. But in doing so, the lawmakers reminded us why “congressional intelligence” is an oxymoron.
Through their outbursts, cryptic language and boneheaded questioning of State Department officials, the committee members left little doubt that one of the two compounds at which the Americans were killed, described by the administration as a “consulate” and a nearby “annex,” was a CIA base. They did this, helpfully, in a televised public hearing.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) was the first to unmask the spooks. “Point of order! Point of order!” he called out as a State Department security official, seated in front of an aerial photo of the U.S. facilities in Benghazi, described the chaotic night of the attack. “We’re getting into classified issues that deal with sources and methods that would be totally inappropriate in an open forum such as this.”
A State Department official assured him that the material was “entirely unclassified” and that the photo was from a commercial satellite. “I totally object to the use of that photo,” Chaffetz continued. He went on to say that “I was told specifically while I was in Libya I could not and should not ever talk about what you’re showing here today.”
Now that Chaffetz had alerted potential bad guys that something valuable was in the photo, the chairman, Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), attempted to lock the barn door through which the horse had just bolted. “I would direct that that chart be taken down,” he said, although it already had been on C-SPAN. “In this hearing room, we’re not going to point out details of what may still in fact be a facility of the United States government or more facilities.”
I am going to be furious if this is swept under the rug and ignored by the media. These guys screwed up bad, but it always seems like when something like this happens and the perpetrators are republicans the majority of the media and the public forgets about it in a few days and it gets dropped in favor of the next news cycle.
Or as one user on reddit put it,
“In short: Republicans once again fuck everything up. Democrats once again expected to be the adults and ignore it for the good of the nation.”
This really, REALLY needs to go viral.
An anti-Islam film that sparked violent protests in many countries had ”nothing to do with” a deadly attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi earlier this month, Libya’s president told NBC News.
In an exclusive interview with NBC News’ Ann Curry, President Mohamed Magarief discounted claims that the attack was in response to a movie produced in California and available on YouTube. He noted that the assault happened on Sept. 11 and that the video had been available for months before that.
“Reaction should have been, if it was genuine, should have been six months earlier. So it was postponed until the 11th of September,” he said. “They chose this date, 11th of September to carry a certain message.”
Magarief said there were no protesters at the site before the attack, which he noted came in two assaults, first with rocket-propelled grenades on the consulate, then with mortars at a safe house.
Magarief told Curry that based on the accuracy of the assault, he believes the attackers must have had training and experience using the weapons.
“It’s a pre-planned act of terrorism,” he said, adding that the anti-Islam film had “nothing to do with this attack.”
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Fox News Host Eric Bolling (via mediamattersforamerica)
Damn Fox, stay classy.
(via mediamattersforamerica)
- Talking points from the Obama’s America movie were parroted by the Romney campaign, which claimed Obama “sympathiz[es] with those who waged the attacks.”
- Fox News lied, saying that Mitt Romney’s statement last night, which criticized Obama over the Middle East, was released before anyone knew Americans had been killed in those attacks.
- The right-wing revived the conservative narrative that Obama “apologiz[ed] for being American”
In short, the right-wing media is using this as an excuse to baselessly criticize Obama’s national security policies, while protecting Mitt Romney’s politicization of the events in Libya and Egypt. All this while completely ignoring the President’s record with Bin Laden.Meanwhile, Pat Robertson is using the attacks as another reason to smear Muslims.
In other words, they are being assholes and lying though their teeth.
I just hope the American people don’t buy it. I know there are a lot of folks out there who want all of the talking points above to be true, and those people are a lost cause.
I just hope everyone else realizes the dirty bullshit these conservatives are trying to pull here.
(via sarahlee310)
The violence took a domestic political turn, in part thanks to a statement released early Tuesday by the staff of the Cairo embassy, which condemned the film and the “continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims – as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions.”
The Romney campaign’s statement seemed to be an attempt to capitalize on the appearance that the Obama administration — which has overseen the Arab Spring, and the rise of Islamist governments in both Egypt and Libya — was capitulating to the sensitivities of an unruly Muslim crowd, rather than backing the right of an American citizen to release a disrespectful film.
But the statement criticized by the Romney campaign came early in the day, before the attacks on the two embassies, and was put out not by the White House, but by the Cairo embassy itself.
The White House later disavowed the statement as not approved by Washington, according to a senior administration official speaking to Politico.
Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt also commented on the statement from the Romney campaign. “We are shocked that, at a time when the United States of America is confronting the tragic death of one of our diplomatic officers in Libya, Governor Romney would choose to launch a political attack,” LaBolt said in a statement.
In a statement released late Tuesday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemned the attack on the mission in Benghazi “in the strongest” terms, and added that while the U.S. “deplores” the denigration of religion depicted in the film, it would not countenance such violent responses.
“Some have sought to justify this vicious behavior as a response to inflammatory material posted on the Internet,” Clinton said. “The United States deplores any intentional effort to denigrate the religious beliefs of others. Our commitment to religious tolerance goes back to the very beginning of our nation. But let me be clear: There is never any justification for violent acts of this kind.”
The Libyan government also released a statement condemning the attack on the American Consulate, calling it a “cowardly act.” And the Muslim Brotherhood, the ruling Islamist party in Egypt, said on its Twitter page that that it “regret the attacks on [the U.S. Embassy] by angry protesters, and we urge citizens to express their opinion peacefully.”
One has to wonder if Terry Jones will feel the smallest amount of regret over what his hate has wrought.
Probably not. That motherfucker wants the flames fanned. Hell, wasn’t Mr. Jones burning Qu’rans not too long ago?
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