TWISTING BENGHAZI SLOWLY, SLOWLY IN THE WIND
Two of the prime terrorist suspects in the Benghazi attack have been captured (one is dead), dozens more have been arrested in Libya, and the suspect group is dispersed and hunted, with its Benghazi headquarters dismantled -- but one wouldn't know this listening to Republicans inside the Benghazi media bubble, whether partisans or reporters.
"This issue of Benghazi is really bubbling up," Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., said on Fox News Oct. 28, echoing a talking point repeated on other networks and elsewhere by Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Reince Priebus, Carly Fiorina, Rudy Giuliani and Newt Gingrich, among others. During the next 24 hours, rightwing blogs were alive with the new meme of a "Benghazi Blackout."
The essentials of the Benghazi attack on September 11 have been known and unchanging since the day after, as timelines by the Wall Street Journal and Associated Press attest: about 20 jihadists in a local militia, taking advantage of growing anger over an internet video, launched an organized attack on the consulate that killed two Americans and several Libyans in the course of about two hours (9:30-11:30 pm). A quick reaction force from the CIA annex 2km came to the consulate and took the American survivors back to the annex. While they and Libyan forces were preparing to evacuate the diplomatic personnel, there was a brief mortar attack (about 4 am) on the annex, killing two American SEALS.
All this was clear, in broad outline, from the original reporting. Three State Department emails leaked October 24 told the same story.
McCain's Talking Point: "Massive Cover-Up"
On CBS, Sen. McCain responded to a question about Hurricane Sandy by pivoting quickly into an answer about Benghazi: "This tragedy turned into a debacle and massive cover-up or massive incompetence in Libya is having an effect on the voter because of their view of the commander in chief. And it is now the worst cover-up or incompetence that I have ever observed in my life."
Asked to explain what he meant, Sen. McCain, while deploying his "cover-up or incompetence" construction twice more, failed to explain what he thought was possibly being covered up.
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