Republicans
say e-mails released Tuesday on the attack in Benghazi, Libya, include
"the smoking gun" that shows a White House official urged that the
assault on the U.S. consulate be blamed on a protest that never
happened.
The e-mails, obtained by conservative watchdog group
Judicial Watch through a Freedom of Information Act request, include one
in which White House official Ben Rhodes lists "goals" for then-U.N.
ambassador Susan Rice to meet in explaining the attack and protests
occurring across the Middle East that week to the American public.
Ambassador
Chris Stevens and three other Americans died in the assault, which the
White House subsequently acknowledged was an al-Qaeda-linked terror
attack.
The e-mail, sent to various officials including White
House spokesman Jay Carney, said one goal was "to underscore that these
protests are rooted in an Internet video, and not a broader failure of
policy."
Another goal was "to reinforce the president and administration's strength and steadiness in dealing with difficult challenges."
Rhodes is assistant to the president and deputy national security adviser for strategic communication and speechwriting.
During
appearances on five Sunday news programs, Rice did blame the attack on
Sept. 11, 2012, on a protest against an anti-Islam video produced by an
American. So did Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, and
President Obama would not say whether it was a terrorist attack until
several days later.
The CIA station chief in Libya reported from
the beginning that the attack was an al-Qaeda-linked operation and that
there was no protest. Though there was some dispute over the manner of
the attack, former CIA deputy director Mike Morell testified earlier
this month that he had no idea where the story about a video protest
came from when he saw Rice make the claim on television.
Republicans
say the protest story emanated from a White House bent on protecting
the president from charges that he was wrong to claim during his
campaign in 2012 that al-Qaeda was on its heels.
Sen. Lindsey
Graham, R-S.C., called the e-mails "a smoking gun" that points to White
House efforts "to shape the story" of what happened in Benghazi.
Rather
than have Rice provide "the best information that was available" in her
TV appearances, the administration's goal was "to put a political
stance on a disaster six weeks before an election," Graham said.
The
White House said it relied on the best intelligence available at the
time, and when better intelligence arrived, the story was clarified.
Bernadette
Meehan, spokeswoman for the White House National Security Council, said
Rhodes' e-mail contains general talking points on unrest spreading
throughout the Middle East and North Africa at the time.
"There
were protests taking place across the region in reaction to an offensive
Internet video, so that's what these points addressed," Meehan said in
an e-mail.
Protests in Cairo; Sanaa, Yemen; Khartoum, Sudan; and
Tunis, Tunisia, and early reports of similar protests in Benghazi
"contributed to questions of how the attack began," she said.
The
e-mails also show that then-deputy national security adviser Denis
McDonough, on Rhodes' behalf, assigned Clinton aide Jake Sullivan to
work with Morell to finalize the initial talking points on Benghazi. At
that time, the talking points did not include the story about the
protest.
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